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Reflective functioning: a review.
Abstract
Reflective functioning offers an empirically grounded framework for the assessment of mentalization. This article briefly outlines the theory of mentalization and the development of the Reflective Functioning (RF) scale (Fonagy, Target, Steele, & Steele, 1998). It then offers a review and discussion of empirical studies of parental RF regarding the role of RF in linking adult and child attachment and parental RF in the context of psychopathology. Furthermore, empirical studies on RF in relation to different psychiatric populations and to the role of RF in psychotherapy process and outcome are reviewed and discussed. Although research on RF is still relatively limited, evidence seems to support the relevance of RF as an empirical measure in the fields of attachment, psychopathology and psychotherapy research. However, the RF scale has certain limitations due to the extensiveness of the measure, which future research should take into account.
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“Surprisingly, despite the noteworthy findings from the previous studies, no other studies on parenting using the RFS were published until 2005, while RFS was extensively used in several published papers regarding other psychological fields such as psychopathology and psychotherapy (for a review, Katznelson, 2014).”
From Mentalizing makes parenting work: a review about parental reflective functioning and clinical interventions to improve it (2017) · cites this paper as Katznelson, 2014
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Metadata
- Authors
- Katznelson, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Katznelson, Hannah
- ORCID
- Katznelson, Hannah
- Venue
- Clinical Psychology Review
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-03
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 107-117
- ISSN
- 0272-7358 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2038172581
- Cited by
- 369
- References
- 82
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 4
- FWCI
- 2.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Clinical Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- reflective functioning, mentalization, parental reflective functioning, attachment, psychopathology, therapeutic process, psychotherapy outcome, child attachment, psychiatric populations
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child, Humans, Object Attachment, Parents, Psychological Theory, Theory of Mind
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