Poster #156 - The Role of Parent Reflective Functioning in Executive Functioning among Preschoolers Living in Low-Income Homes

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background: Abundant literature shows the importance of young children’s executive functioning (EF) skills to their current and future social and academic success (Blair & Razza, 2007; Carlson & Wang, 2007; McClelland, et al., 2007). Variations in the development of children’s EF skills have been linked to parent caregiving behaviors and interactions (Carlson, 2003). As well, variations in parents’ own intrapersonal experiences, such as their reflective functioning and EF skills, have been reported to influence children’s outcomes (Bernier et al., 2010; Lundy & Fyfe, 2015; Rutherford et al., 2018). One intrapersonal experience, parental reflective functioning (PRF), which is the capacity of parents to understand their own and their children’s mental states, may be importantly related to parent and child EF (Slade, 2005). However, research examining these relationships among parents with preschoolers living in low-income enviornments is limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine if PRF associated with parent EF among parents of preschoolers from low-income homes, and if PRF and parent EF associated with their children’s EF. The data are currently being collected, and the reported results show preliminary findings. Anticipated sample size is N = 60.

Methods: Thus far, twenty mother-child pairs enrolled in a high-quality Head Start program participated in this study. Children ranged in age from 2- to 5-years-old (M= 3.87). The participants were diverse in several key demographic characteristics (see Table 1). Parents’ reflective functioning was measured in the summer of 2018 using the Parent Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) (Luyten et al., 2017), a self-report questionnaire which measures three mentalization factors: 1) pre-mentalizing modes, 2) curiosity and interest in children’s mental state, and 3) certainty about children’s mental state. Parent and child EF were assessed in the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 using the Minnesota Executive Functioning Scale™ (MEFS™) (Carlson & Zelazo, 2014), which is an adaptive, virtual card-sorting task delivered on a tablet.

Results: Preliminary findings showed interesting trends (see Table 2).

1. Although parents, on average, had high reflective functioning across the three factors (lower pre-mentalization mode, neutral certainty about child’s mental states, and higher curiosity and interest to imagine their child’s mental states), their average EF scores were low. It was expected that higher PRF would associate with higher parent EF.
2. Higher parent EF was negatively associated with parent pre-mentalizing. The other two PRF factors did not show any associations.
3. For children, higher parent certainty about their children’s mental state was associated with lower EF scores (in Fall 2017, but not in Spring 2018).
4. Higher concurrent parent curiosity and interest in their mental states was positively associated with children’s EF scores.
5. There was not a significant association between parents’ EF and children’s EF (at either time point).

Conclusion: Promising findings support the relationship between some aspects of PRF and parent EF. While PRF capacity tends to be assessed as a unitary construct, we found different PRF factors are differently associated with EF for both parents and children. More explanation will be provided as the investigation continues.

Authors

• Mashael Altwijri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Princess Nourah University
  Presenting Author

• Holly Hatton-Bowers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jan Esteraich, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helen Raikes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yao Yao, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author