Aims: The review examines the evidence that parents’ mentalizing predicts infant attachment security. Method: Studies were included if they examined primary care-givers’ mentalizing, defined as the capacity to understand mental states underlying behaviour, and infants’ attachment status. Results: Nine studies met criteria for review. Mentalizing was conceptualised and measured in different ways, including: reflective function (n = 1), maternal reflective function (n = 2), mind-mindedness (n = 5) and insightfulness (n = 1). Conclusion: The studies suggest that care-givers’ attachment contributes to infants’ attachment security. The evidence is limited however by the small number of studies, small sample sizes and methodological and conceptual differences between studies. Moreover mentalizing alone appears unlikely to account fully for the intergenerational transmission of attachment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:587826 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Wyatt-Brooks, K. N. |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1409850/ |
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