Thesis to opt to the degree of doctor in psychotherapy / The prevalence of social-emotional problems in early childhood continues at a high
level (Centro de Microdatos-Universidad de Chile, 2014). This stage is a critical period in
which the immediate family is the most influential system in childhood development
(Bronfenbrenner, 1987). Conversely, the parental reflective function (RF) is considered a
protective factor in early parenting (Stacks et al., 2014), assuming a relevant role in socialemotional
development in early childhood (Ensink, Bégin, Normandin, & Fonagy, 2016;
Smaling, Huijbregts, van der Heijden, van Goozen, & Swaab, 2016a).
Objective: To describe and analyze the relationship between fathers’ and mothers’ RFs, the
quality of the mother-father-child triadic interaction, and children’s psychomotor
development and social-emotional difficulties.
Method: A non-experimental, transversal and correlational study was developed. Fifty
mother-father-child triads, each in a current relationship that included at least one child from
12–36 months of age, were evaluated. Sociodemographic background, triadic interaction (LTP,
Fivaz-Depeursingue & Corboz-Warnery, 1999), parental RF (PDI-S, Slade, Aber, Berger,
Bresgi, & Kaplan, 2012, assessed by RF Scales, Fonagy, Steele, Steele, & Target, 1998),
psychomotor development (ASQ-3, Squires & Bricker, 2009) and social-emotional difficulties
(ASQ SE, Squires, Bricker, & Twombly, 2002) were measured. Couple relationship
satisfaction (RAS, Hendrick, 1988) and depressive symptoms in the parents (BDI-I, Beck,
Ward, Mendelson, Mock & Erbaugh, 1961) were included as control variables.
Results: A significant effect of the triadic interaction on the child’s social-emotional
difficulties was found. The effect explained 20% of the variance. However, this effect was
not found in the psychomotor development. In addition, the mothers’ RF had a significant influence on the triadic interaction, explaining 21% of the variance. However, in contrast to
the hypothesis, the mothers’ and fathers’ RFs were not significant variables as direct or
indirect predictors to explain the child’s socio-emotional difficulties or psychomotor
development.
These findings show the importance of the RF on the quality of the mother-fatherchild
interaction, which in turn influences the child’s social-emotional development.
Additionally, the role of the father and the implications of these findings for research and
clinical purposes are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UCHILE/oai:repositorio.uchile.cl:2250/169239 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | León Papic, María José |
| Contributors | Olhaberry Huber, Marcia, Martínez Nahue, Vania, Santelices Álvarez, María Pía, Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Medicina, Escuela de Postgrado |
| Publisher | Universidad de Chile |
| Source Sets | Universidad de Chile |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Tesis |
| Rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Chile, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/cl/ |
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