Reflective Functioning in a High-Risk, Prospective, Longitudinal Sample: Early Antecedents and Associations with Adult Attachment Representations

Abstract

The construct of reflective functioning (RF)—the ability and propensity of an individual to understand interactions between mental states and behaviors in the self and others—emerged as an attempt to answer some of the gaps in the contemporary attachment theory framework. Despite a growing body of research supporting the role of RF as a mediator between one’s own childhood attachment experiences and observed parenting behaviors with their child, many questions remain. First, it is unclear what contributes to the development of adult RF. Second, it is unclear whether RF provides unique information compared to other operationalizations of adult attachment mental representations, including security. This dissertation project aimed to examine these questions within a prospective, longitudinal study of adults born into poverty. Results did not support the hypothesis that infant attachment security and observed maternal sensitivity would predict RF at age 26. Unexpectedly, results also indicated that RF was more closely associated with concurrent preoccupied and unresolved attachment states of mind than markers of security. A number of interpretations of these results are considered, including potential experimental error and the issue of construct validity. Overall, this dissertation project contributes to the existing literature on RF and highlights the need to continue to empirically test theoretical hypotheses related to RF and attachment theory using diverse, prospective datasets.