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The Parent's Capacity to Treat the Child as a Psychological Agent: Constructs, Measures and Implications for Developmental Psychopathology
Open accessAbstract
Recent studies of the relationship between parenting and child development have included a focus on the parent's capacity to treat the child as a psychological agent. Several constructs have been developed to refer to this capacity, for example maternal mind‐mindedness, reflective functioning, and parental mentalizing. In this review article, we compare and contrast different constructs from diverse theoretical backgrounds that have been developed to operationalize parental mentalizing. We examine the empirical evidence to date in support of each of the constructs and review the relevant measures associated with each construct. Next, we discuss the possibility that these apparently diverse constructs may tap into the same underlying neurobiological socio‐cognitive system. We conclude by proposing a testable model for describing the links between parental mentalization, the development of mentalizing in children, and child psychopathology.
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Sorted by citations
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“Second, several independent research traditions have focused on mentalization with regard to one’s own infant as a relationship-specific form of mentalization (for a review, see Sharp & Fonagy, 2008a).”
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Sharp, C., & Fonagy, P.
- Affiliations
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Sharp, Carla
- Venue
- Social Development
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2008-07-15
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 737-754
- ISSN
- 0961-205X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9507
- OpenAlex
- W2141030151
- Cited by
- 480
- References
- 86
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 10.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- discovery.ucl.ac.uk
- Locations
- Social Development (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Keywords
- maternal mind-mindedness, reflective functioning, parenting, child development, child psychopathology, theory of mind
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