A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Association between parental alexithymic traits and self-reported postnatal reflective functioning in a birth cohort population Findings from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study
Authors: Ahrnberg Hanna, Pajulo Marjukka, Scheinin Noora M, Karlsson Linnea, Karlsson Hasse, Karukivi Max
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2020
Journal: Psychiatry Research
Journal name in source: Psychiatry research
Journal acronym: Psychiatry Res
Article number: 112869
Volume: 286
Number of pages: 8
ISSN: 0165-1781
eISSN: 1872-7123
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112869(external)
Web address : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178119313022?via%3Dihub(external)
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/46788374(external)
Parental reflective functioning (PRF) refers to a parent's effort to see his/her child as a separate individual person from early on, and to be curious of the child's own thoughts and feelings. Parenting abilities are affected by the parent's emotion regulation and emotional availability. Alexithymia as a personality construct with emotional deficits and poor imagination could potentially affect also PRF, but studies on parental alexithymia are still scarce. The aim of the present study was to examine the association between parental alexithymic traits and PRF, which to date has not been explored. As most of the parenting research concern only mothers, an additional aim was to study also fathers. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the 14-item Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ-Fi) were filled by 1882 mothers and 994 fathers at six months postpartum as part of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. A significant negative association between TAS-20 total score and PRFQ-Fi total score among both genders was found. The main alexithymia dimension responsible for this association was Externally Oriented Thinking. The results suggest that alexithymic traits indeed are related to parental reflective functioning, but more studies are needed to explore the direction of this relation.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
