Maternal and children’s psychological well-being during the pandemic: Is maternal reflective functioning a protective factor?

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

Background
Previous studies report psychopathological problems in adults (Petrocchi et al., 2020; Taylor et al., 2020) and children (Duan et al., 2020; Loades et al., 2020) during the COVID-19 pandemic, underling the need to look for individual protective factors that might mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 emergence situation on mental health (Lionetti et al., 2020). Reflective functioning (RF) is the ability to understand and interpret one's own and others' behaviors as manifestation of inner states (Allen & Fonagy, 2006). RF impairments have been shown to be associated with psychological atypical functioning (e.g., Bateman & Fonagy, 2004; Luyten, Fonagy, Lemma, & Target, 2012). Given this, our study examines if maternal RF is a protective factor within the association between COVID-exposure and: i) maternal levels of depression/stress/anxiety; ii) children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.

Method
A questionnaire was filled on-line by Italian mothers between April and May 2020.

Participants
305 mothers (Mage = 41,97; SD = 5.26; range 23-55) with children aged 6-14 years (Mage = 10,30; SD = 2,39; 154 boys) and no pre-existing medical conditions.

Measures
To index maternal psychological well-being we used the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (Bottesi et al., 2015). RF was measured via the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire-8 items version (RFQ-8; Fonagy et al., 2016), and two indices were created: the hypermentalization index, which reflects the tendency to develop inaccurate models of own and others' minds, and the hypomentalization index, which reflects an inability to consider complex models of one's own and/or others’ mind. Exposure to COVID-19 was assessed with 5 items asking if the subjects, their partner/relatives/friends were positive to the virus infection and/or manifested correlated symptoms and/or died because of COVID-19. Internalizing/externalizing problems of children were evaluated through the Child Behavior CheckList (CBCL; Achenbach and Rescorla 2001).

Results
Regression analyses revealed that maternal levels of stress and anxiety were influenced by COVID-exposure (controlling for children’s age), βs ≥ .17, ps ≤ .004. The effect of COVID-exposure on maternal stress was moderated by hypermentalization levels, F = 4.45, p = .04 (See Figure1). Children’s levels of anxiety, attention, and aggression were all explained at Step 1 by COVID-exposure, βs ≥ .13, ps ≤ .021. The adding of maternal psychological well-being at Step 2, significantly increased the variance explained, ΔRs2 ≥ .07. Notably, when we entered at Step 3 the maternal RF indices, these factors independently predict an amount in variance explained, ΔRs2 ≥ .014.
Moderation analyses showed that the impact of COVID-exposure on children’s aggression problems varied depending on the level of their mother’s RF, F = 4.71, p = .031. Specifically, COVID-exposure had a stronger impact for children whose mothers have high levels, rather than low, levels of hypermentalization (See Figure 2).

Discussion
Our results confirm the effects of COVID-19 emergency on psychological well-being and underline the role of maternal functioning for children’s mental health during a crisis. The moderating role played by RF in determining the effects of COVID-exposure on mental health should be taken into consideration from an applicative perspective.

Authors

• Federica Bianco, University of Bergamo
  Presenting Author

• Annalisa Levante, Università del Salento
  Non-Presenting Author

• Serena Petrocchi, Università della Svizzera Italiana
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ilaria Castelli, University of Bergamo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Flavia Lecciso, Università del Salento
  Non-Presenting Author