The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment

Abstract

Epidemiologists and psychoanalysts have been equally concerned about the intergenera-tional concordance of disturbed patterns of attachment. Mary Main's introduction of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) has provided the field with an empirical tool for examining the concordance of parental and infant attachment patterns. In the context of a prospective study of the influence of parental patterns of attachment assessed before the birth of the first child upon the child's pattern of attachment to that parent at 1 year and at 18 months, the Anna Freud Centre—University College London Parent-Child Project reported a significant level of concordance between parental security and the infant's security with that parent. In the context of this study, a new measure, aiming to assess the parent's capacity for understanding mental states, was developed and is reported on in this paper. The rating of Reflective-Self Function, based upon AAI transcripts, correlated significantly with infant security classification based on Strange Situation assessments. The philosophical background and clinical importance of the measure are discussed.

Cite this

Peter Fonagy, Miriam Steele, Howard Steele, George S. Moran, Anna Higgitt (1991). The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0355(199123)12:3<201::aid-imhj2280120307>3.0.co;2-7

@article{peter1991the,
  title  = {The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment},
  author = {Fonagy, Peter and Steele, Miriam and Steele, Howard and Moran, George S. and Higgitt, Anna},
  year   = {1991},
  journal = {Infant Mental Health Journal},
  doi    = {10.1002/1097-0355(199123)12:3<201::aid-imhj2280120307>3.0.co;2-7}
}

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