Fathers' and Mothers' Early Mind-Mindedness Predicts Social Competence and Behavior Problems in Childhood

Overview

Journal J Abnorm Child Psychol

Publisher Springer

Date 2019 Apr 1

PMID 30929182

Citations 17

Authors

Cristina Colonnesi

Moniek A J Zeegers

Mirjana Majdandzic

Francisca J A van Steensel

Susan M Bogels

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Parental mind-mindedness, the parent's propensity to treat the child as an intentional agent, has repeatedly shown to promote children's development of social understanding and secure attachment. Less is known about whether the impact of maternal and paternal mind-mindedness extends to children's social and behavior problems. We investigated the combined effect of mothers' and fathers' (N = 104) mind-mindedness at 4, 12, and 30 months on children's social competence and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems at 4.5 years. Besides, we examined the stability, continuity, parental concordance, and inter-parental differences in the use of mind-related comments. Appropriate mind-mindedness (i.e., correct interpretations of the child's mental states) and nonattuned mind-mindedness (i.e., misinterpretations of the child's mental states) were observed during parent-child free-play interactions. Social competence, internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were assessed using both parents' reports. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that, at 12 months, infrequent use of appropriate mind-related comments of both parents predicted children's externalizing problems, while their frequent use of nonattuned comments predicted children's low social competence. Furthermore, mothers' frequent use of nonattuned comments at 12 and 30 months and fathers' nonattuned comments at 30 months predicted children's externalizing behavior. The findings suggest that both parents' low use of mind-related comments, and frequent misinterpretations of their child's mind, may act as risk factors for later social and behavior problems of their child.

Citing Articles

Mind-mindedness in mothers of infants with excessive crying/sleeping/eating disorders.

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Face-Looking as a Real-Time Process in Mind-Mindedness: Timely Coordination Between Mothers' Gaze on Infants' Faces and Mind-Related Comments.

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Household chaos, emotion regulation and social adjustment in preschool children.

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