Reflective Functioning and Dyadic Interactive Behavior

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Reflective Functioning (RF) is defined as the capacity to understand and interpret one’s own and other’s behavior as an expression of mental states (Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, & Target, 2002). There have been numerous papers linking RF to attachment and parent-child interaction. Here, we seek to extend our knowledge of RF and its link to attachment by investigating its role in maternal behaviors such as acknowledging and overall parent supportive presence in the context of interacting over 5-minutes in a non-stressful play situation.
Participants were recruited from families participating in treatment at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. The majority of these families were referred to treatment by the Administration of Child Services (ACS). Data was collected as a part of the randomized control trial (RCT) of the Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI). A total of 128 parent-child dyads completed baseline assessments. Of those dyads, a subset of 74 dyads, 41 participants from GABI, and 34 participants from Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) completed treatment, baseline, Time 2 follow up, and Time 3 follow up.
The current study examined 20 participants from Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI), who completed Adult Attachment Interviews (AAI: George et al, 1985) at intake. Mothers’ AAIs were analyzed using the RF scale (Fonagy, Steele, Steele, & Target, 1998) and parent-child dyadic interactive behavior was coded utilizing the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB: Feldman, 1998) manual. In the current analysis, the child’s age ranged from 2 months to 25 months. 86.7% of the sample identified English as their primary language and an additional 13.3% identified speaking both Spanish and English. Participants were recruited at Montefiore Medical Center and agreed to come to the New School for Social Research (NSSR) for assessments. Families agreed at the beginning of treatment to participate in the research study and provided consent at the beginning of each assessment.
We predicted mother’s RF scores (M=2.90, SD=.87) would be significantly correlated to mother’s acknowledging scores (M=2.23, SD=1.01), which they were r (20) = .57, p< .01. We also predicted that mothers acknowledging scores (M=2.23, SD=1.01) would be significantly inter-correlated with parent supportive presence (M=2.60, SD= .85), child alertness (M=3.08, SD=.94), and dyadic reciprocity (M=2.33, SD=.92), and they were r (20) = .77, p <.001, r (20) = .62, p <.01, and r (20) = .78, p <.001, respectively. We then examined the link between child’s alertness (M=3.08, SD= .94) and maternal RF (M=2.90, SD=.87), which were significant r (20) = .51, p<.05 and dyadic reciprocity (M=2.33, SD=.92) and maternal RF (M=2.90, SD=.87), which were also correlated r(20) = .45, p<.05.
Discussion focuses on the utility of the RF scale in predicting the quality of interactions between parent and child.

Authors

• Lindsey Myers, New School for Social Research
  Presenting Author

• Miriam Steele, New School for Social Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anne Murphy, Montefiore Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Howard Steele, New School for Social Research
  Non-Presenting Author