The protective role of mentalizing: Reflective functioning as a mediator between child maltreatment, psychopathology and parental attitude in expecting parents

Childhood maltreatment impacts parenting and has intergenerational consequences. It is therefore crucial to identify clinically responsive resilience-promoting factors in pregnant women and expecting men with history of childhood maltreatment. Mentalization, or reflective functioning, appears as a p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child abuse & neglect 2019-09, Vol.95, p.104065-104065, Article 104065
Main Authors: Berthelot, Nicolas, Lemieux, Roxanne, Garon-Bissonnette, Julia, Lacharité, Carl, Muzik, Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antenatal
Antenatal attachment
Attachment
Child Abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Child maltreatment
Childhood
Childrearing practices
Children
Competence
Fathers
Mental depression
Mental health
Parent attitudes
Parents & parenting
Perceptions
Post traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Pregnancy
Psychological problems
Psychological trauma
Psychopathology
Reflective function
Resilience
Resilience (Psychology)
Self report
Structural equation modeling
Structural Equation Models
Symptoms
Trauma
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Summary:Childhood maltreatment impacts parenting and has intergenerational consequences. It is therefore crucial to identify clinically responsive resilience-promoting factors in pregnant women and expecting men with history of childhood maltreatment. Mentalization, or reflective functioning, appears as a promising concept to understand risk and resilience in the face of childhood maltreatment. This study evaluated the multivariate relationship between exposure to childhood maltreatment, reflective functioning, psychological symptoms and parental attitude in expecting parents. Two hundred and thirty-five pregnant women and 66 expecting fathers completed self-report assessment measures of childhood trauma, reflective functioning, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, parental sense of competence and antenatal attachment. Twenty-eight percent (n = 85) of the community sample reported personal histories of childhood maltreatment. Structural equation modeling indicated that reflective functioning (a) partially mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and psychological symptoms during pregnancy and (b) independently predicted participants’ perception of parental competence and psychological investment toward the unborn child. Overall, this study provides empirical evidence of the protective role of reflective functioning during the prenatal period in parents with histories of childhood maltreatment.
ISSN:0145-2134
1873-7757
DOI:10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104065