The parental reflective functioning questionnaire: Development and preliminary validation

Patrick Luyten, Linda C Mayes, Liesbet Nijssens, Peter Fonagy, Patrick Luyten, Linda C Mayes, Liesbet Nijssens, Peter Fonagy

Abstract

This paper reports on three studies on the development and validation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ), a brief, multidimensional self-report measure that assesses parental reflective functioning or mentalizing, that is, the capacity to treat the infant as a psychological agent. Study 1 investigated the factor structure, reliability, and relationships of the PRFQ with demographic features, symptomatic distress, attachment dimensions, and emotional availability in a socially diverse sample of 299 mothers of a child aged 0-3. In Study 2, the factorial invariance of the PRFQ in mothers and fathers was investigated in a sample of 153 first-time parents, and relationships with demographic features, symptomatic distress, attachment dimensions, and parenting stress were investigated. Study 3 investigated the relationship between the PRFQ and infant attachment classification as assessed with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) in a sample of 136 community mothers and their infants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested three theoretically consistent factors assessing pre-mentalizing modes, certainty about the mental states of the infant, and interest and curiosity in the mental states of the infant. These factors were generally related in theoretically expected ways to parental attachment dimensions, emotional availability, parenting stress, and infant attachment status in the SSP. Yet, at the same time, more research on the PRFQ is needed to further establish its reliability and validity.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1. CFA in Study 1.
Fig 1. CFA in Study 1.
Residuals and correlations between residuals are omitted for clarity of presentation. Rectangles indicate measured variables and circles represent latent constructs. Standardized maximum likelihood parameters are used. Bold estimates are statistically significant.
Fig 2. Multigroup CFA with factor loadings…
Fig 2. Multigroup CFA with factor loadings for fathers (left) and mothers (right) in Study 2.
Residuals and correlations between residuals are omitted for clarity of presentation. Rectangles indicate measured variables and circles represent latent constructs. Standardized maximum likelihood parameters are used. Bold estimates are statistically significant.

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