Shao Rong, Liu Sitong, Coplan Robert J, Chen Xi, Liu Junsheng
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East of China Normal University, Shanghai 200050, China.
Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.
Children (Basel). 2023 Jul 2;10(7):1161. doi: 10.3390/children10071161.
Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) refers to parents' ability to understand their children's behavior in light of underlying mental states such as thoughts, desires, and intentions. This study aimed to investigate whether maternal meta-emotion philosophies (i.e., emotion coaching, emotion dismissing) mediated the relation between maternal RF and child emotion regulation (ER). Additionally, children's genders and ages were examined as moderators of the associations between maternal RF and maternal meta-emotion philosophies. The sample comprises 667 Chinese mothers of children aged 4-6 years. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing their reflective functioning, emotion coaching and dismissing, and child emotion regulation. Results indicated both a direct link between maternal RF and child emotion regulation, as well as indirect pathways mediated by emotion coaching and dismissing. A child's gender and age also moderated the relations between maternal RF and meta-emotion philosophies. Specifically, the negative association between maternal pre-mentalizing modes and emotion coaching was stronger for mothers of girls than boys; whereas the negative association between maternal certainty of mental states and emotion dismissing, as well as the positive association between maternal interest and curiosity and emotion coaching were both stronger for mothers of younger children than older children. The findings suggest that emotion coaching and dismissing mediate the relation between maternal PRF and the emotion regulation of children.
父母反思功能（PRF）指的是父母根据诸如想法、欲望和意图等潜在心理状态来理解孩子行为的能力。本研究旨在调查母亲的元情绪理念（即情绪指导、情绪忽视）是否介导了母亲的反思功能与孩子情绪调节（ER）之间的关系。此外，还考察了孩子的性别和年龄作为母亲反思功能与母亲元情绪理念之间关联的调节因素。样本包括667名4至6岁孩子的中国母亲。母亲们完成了评估其反思功能、情绪指导和忽视以及孩子情绪调节的问卷。结果表明，母亲的反思功能与孩子的情绪调节之间既存在直接联系，也存在由情绪指导和忽视介导的间接路径。孩子的性别和年龄也调节了母亲的反思功能与元情绪理念之间的关系。具体而言，女孩母亲的母亲心理化前模式与情绪指导之间的负相关比男孩母亲更强；而母亲心理状态确定性与情绪忽视之间的负相关，以及母亲兴趣和好奇心与情绪指导之间的正相关，对于年幼儿童的母亲来说都比年长儿童的母亲更强。研究结果表明，情绪指导和忽视介导了母亲的父母反思功能与孩子情绪调节之间的关系。
