Mind-mindedness in parents of looked-after children

Fishburn, Sarah and Meins, Elizabeth and Greenhow, Sarah and Jones, Christine and Hackett, Simon and Biehal, Nina and Baldwin, Helen and Cusworth, Linda and Wade, Jim (2017) Mind-mindedness in parents of looked-after children. Developmental Psychology, 53 (10). pp. 1954-1965. ISSN 0012-1649

[thumbnail of Fishburn_et_al._in_press_]
Preview
PDF (Fishburn_et_al._in_press_)
Fishburn_et_al._in_press_.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (932kB)

Abstract

The studies reported here aimed to test the proposal that mind-mindedness is a quality of personal relationships by assessing mind-mindedness in caregiver-child dyads in which the relationship has not spanned the child's life or in which the relationship has been judged dysfunctional. Studies 1 and 2 investigated differences in mind-mindedness between adoptive parents (ns = 89, 36) and biological parents from the general population (ns = 54, 114). Both studies found lower mind-mindedness in adoptive compared with biological parents. The results of Study 2 showed that this group difference was independent of parental mental health and could not fully be explained in terms of children's behavioral difficulties. Study 3 investigated differences in mind-mindedness in foster carers (n = 122), parents whose children had been the subject of a child protection plan (n = 172), and a community sample of biological parents (n = 128). The level of mind-mindedness in foster carers and parents who were involved with child protection services was identical and lower than that in the community sample; children's behavioral difficulties could not account for the difference between the 2 groups of biological parents. In all 3 studies, nonbiological carers' tendency to describe their children with reference to preadoption or placement experiences was negatively related to mind-mindedness. These findings are in line with mind-mindedness being a relational construct. © 2017 American Psychological Association.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Developmental Psychology
Additional Information:
©American Psychological Association, 2017. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: 10.1037/dev0000304
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3317
Subjects:
?? adoptionbehavioral difficultieschild protectionfosteringmind-mindednessdemographylife-span and life-course studiesdevelopmental and educational psychology ??
ID Code:
123548
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
20 Feb 2018 17:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
18 Dec 2023 01:51