Mentalizing Makes Parenting Work: A Review about Parental Reflective Functioning and Clinical Interventions to Improve It

Editorial reading guide · Trust

Which approaches to helping parents think about a child's mind have been assessed in research?

The authors compare measurement and intervention studies, which offer different strengths of evidence for family practice.

Who was studied?

Published studies measuring parental reflective functioning and clinical interventions

Age / stage: Varies across studies

Read with three questions

1. Which approaches to helping parents think about a child's mind have been assessed in research?
2. Which inclusion criteria and differences among the original studies matter for the authors’ conclusions?
3. Which features of the study population (published studies measuring parental reflective functioning and clinical interventions) would matter when applying the findings in another setting?

Keep the limits in view

Eligibility included work using a particular reflective-functioning scale and a language and publication cutoff. Studies using other approaches may yield a different picture of intervention effects.