Poster #192 - Parent Mentalization, Observed Parenting, and Child Perspective Taking in Families Experiencing Homelessnesss

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Children’s ability to take the perspective of others is a critical component of social and emotional competence (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998). Both affective perspective taking (i.e., emotion knowledge) and cognitive perspective taking (i.e., theory of mind) are related to child social outcomes (Trentacosta & Fine, 2010). However, socioeconomically-disadvantaged children are at risk for underdeveloped emotion knowledge and theory of mind skills (Cutting & Dunn, 1999; Bennett et al., 2005). As such, it is important to identify processes that contribute to well-developed perspective taking skills, especially in families experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage.

Using emotion socialization and intergenerational social information processing frameworks (e.g., Dykas and Cassidy, 2011), this project focused on parental mentalization (i.e., tendency to consider self- and other-mental states) as a predictor of child’s perspective taking within families experiencing homelessness, a population marked by increased levels of poverty-related stress and adversity (Masten et al., 1993). More specifically, this project aimed to assess whether aspects of parent mentalization were correlated with child emotion knowledge and theory of mind, and whether observed parenting mediated these hypothesized associations.

To study links between parent mentalization and child perspective taking within families experiencing homelessness, we administered a battery of tasks to families with children ages 4-6 residing in an urban homeless shelter (N=109; 87% biological mother, 64% African American). Parent mentalizing was captured via two measures: the Five Minute Speech Sample, coded for mind-mindedness (Meins & Fernyhough, 2015), and a hostile attribution bias task, in which parents used a 6-point scale to rate how likely their child would behave with negative intentions within 8 vignettes. Child emotion knowledge was measured using a structured puppet task (Denham, 1986) and theory of mind was measured using a battery of false belief tasks (Wellman & Liu, 2004). Parenting quality was measured using an observational coding scheme of family interaction tasks (DeGarmo, Patterson, & Forgatch, 2004).

Results revealed significant correlations between parent mentalization and aspects of observed parenting (absolute rs = 0.22-0.24) and between inept discipline and child emotion knowledge and theory of mind (r = -0.32-0.34). Correlations between measures of parent mentalization and child perspective taking were not significant. An exploratory latent profile analysis was conducted to assess potentially complex relationships between parent mentalization and observed parenting and their subsequent effects on child perspective taking. A three-profile parenting model best fit the data (BIC = 315.6, entropy = 0.94). Profile 1 was characterized by highest levels of negative mentalization and lowest parenting quality. Profile 2 was characterized by lower levels of negative mentalization and medium parenting quality. Finally, Profile 3 was characterized by lower levels of negative mentalization and highest parenting quality. An analysis of variance indicated that Profile 3 parents had children with higher levels of emotion knowledge (F=4.62, p=0.01) and theory of mind (F=3.56, p = 0.03) than children of Profile 1 parents. Overall, results suggest that parent mentalization is not as closely related with observed parenting quality nor child perspective taking in families experiencing homelessness as originally hypothesized.

Authors

• Rachel A Foster, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Amanda Kalstabakken, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angela J. Narayan, University of Denver
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Nerenberg, Administration for Children and Families
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann S. Masten, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  Non-Presenting Author