Parental considerations about their childs’ mental health: Validating the German adaptation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire

Wildner, Andreas S.; Küçükakyüz, Su Mevsim; Marx, Anton K. G.; Nolte, Tobias; Reck, Corinna; Fonagy, Peter; Luyten, Patrick; von Tettenborn, Alexandra; Müller, Mitho; Zietlow, Anna-Lena; Woll-Weber, Christian F. J. (2024): Parental considerations about their childs’ mental health: Validating the German adaptation of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. PLOS ONE, 19 (12): e0314074. ISSN 1932-6203

Abstract

Introduction
Parental Reflective Functioning describes the parents’ ability to view their child as motivated by mental states. The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) represents an 18-item and three-factor self-report measure. Our goal was to conduct the first German validation study.

Method
In a community sample of 378 mothers of children aged 10.2–78.6 months, we used Confirmatory Factor Analysis with a cross-validation approach to assess model fit. Reliability was measured using Cronbach’s α and McDonald’s ω . Concurrent validity was assessed using correlations with relevant constructs.

Results
The three-factor structure of the original validation could be confirmed. The German model only needed minor modifications: two items had to be removed, and one error covariance was added. The resulting 16-item questionnaire with the three subscales “Pre-mentalizing”, “Interest and Curiosity about Mental States”, and “Certainty about Mental States” was successfully cross-validated (CFI = .94, TLI = .93, SRMR = .07, RMSEA = .04 (CI [.01, .06])). These factors were related in theoretically expected ways to parental attachment dimensions, emotional availability, parenting stress, and infant attachment status.

Conclusion
While reliability could still be improved, the German 16-item version of the PRFQ represents a valid measure of parental reflective functioning.

• Doc-Type: Article (LMU)
• Organisational unit (Faculties): 12 Psychology and Education Science > Department Psychology
• DFG subject classification of scientific disciplines: Humanities and social sciences
• DFG: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - 491502892