Title
Associations between Maternal Reflective Functioning, Parenting Beliefs, Nurturing, and Preschoolers’ Emotion Understanding
Department/School
Psychology
Date
2020
Document Type
Article
Keywords
reflective functioning, parenting beliefs, parenting behavior, emotion understanding, family systems
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01792-4
Abstract
This study assessed the associations between maternal reflective functioning and progressive parenting beliefs and their association with nurturing parenting and preschool children’s emotion understanding. Mothers (N = 52) reported on their parenting beliefs and nurturing parenting. Mothers were interviewed using the Parent Development Interview-Revised to assess reflective functioning. Preschool-aged children (between 3 and 5 years old) completed a perspective-taking task assessing emotion understanding. Mothers with higher levels of reflective functioning had more progressive parenting beliefs and had children with more advanced emotion understanding. Mothers with more progressive parenting beliefs reported more nurturing parenting. These findings indicate that both parenting beliefs and reflective functioning are important predictors of both parenting behavior and young children’s emotion understanding and may be important targets for clinicians working to improve outcomes for families.
Volume
29
Issue
11
Published in
Journal of Child and Family Studies
Citation/Other Information
Jessee, A. (2020). Associations between maternal reflective functioning, parenting beliefs, nurturing, and preschoolers’ emotion understanding. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(11), 3020-3028. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01792-4