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

Fathers' and Mothers' Early Mind-Mindedness Predicts Social Competence and Behavior Problems in Childhood. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2019 Mar 30;: Authors: Colonnesi C, Zeegers MAJ, Majdandžić M, van Steensel FJA, Bögels SM 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...
Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research