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The role of child and parental mentalizing for the development of conduct problems over time

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Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the role of parental and child mentalizing in the development of conduct problems over time in a community sample of 7- to 11-year-olds (N = 659). To measure child mentalizing, children were asked to complete a social vignettes task at baseline as a measure of distorted mentalizing. Parents (primarily mothers) were asked to complete the same task, guessing their child’s responses in the social scenarios as a measure of maternal mentalizing. Conduct problems were evaluated using repeated measures from multi-informant (self-, teacher-, and parent-report) questionnaires completed at baseline and 1-year follow-up. As expected, children who had an overly positive mentalizing style were more likely to be reported by teachers as having conduct problems at 1-year follow-up. These findings held when controlling for baseline conduct problems, IQ, SES, and sex. Findings for maternal mentalizing were significant for follow-up parent-report conduct problem symptoms at the bivariate level of analyses, but not at the multivariate level when controlling for baseline conduct problems and age. These findings extend previous reports by providing predictive validity for distorted mentalizing in the development of conduct problems.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all the families and schools who participated. Carla Sharp was supported by an NHS Post-Doctoral Fellowship awarded to the University of Cambridge. Data collection for the Child Behavior Study took place within the MRC Centre for Brain, Behaviour and Neuropsychiatry Research, Cambridge University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77004, USA

    Carolyn Ha & Carla Sharp

  2. Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

    Ian Goodyer

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  1. Carolyn Ha
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Correspondence to Carla Sharp.

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Ha, C., Sharp, C. & Goodyer, I. The role of child and parental mentalizing for the development of conduct problems over time. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 20, 291–300 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-011-0174-4

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