The intergenerational transmission of reflective functioning in adoptive families: A prospective study from pre-adoption to early adolescence

Abstract

Parental reflective functioning is crucial for the development of children's reflective functioning, with cross-sectional evidence supporting this idea. However, there is a lack of long-term, prospective studies in this area and no previous studies have examined parental reflective functioning and child reflective functioning in the context of adoption. Using a structural equation modeling approach, this study addressed this knowledge gap by examining the associations between 96 Belgian adoptive mothers’ and fathers’ reflective functioning during the transition to adoptive parenthood, their levels of parental reflective functioning during their adopted child's early childhood, and the children's reflective functioning in early adolescence (M_age = 12 years, SD = .58, range = 11–13; 17 boys, 11 girls). Findings showed that parents’ pre-adoptive reflective functioning was positively associated with parental reflective functioning in early childhood. Parental reflective functioning in early childhood, but not pre-adoptive reflective functioning, predicted child reflective functioning in early adolescence. Maternal reflective functioning mediated the association between pre-adoptive reflective functioning and child reflective functioning. Although the small sample size precludes drawing strong conclusions from this study, this study provides new evidence for the intergenerational transmission of reflective functioning even in the context of adoption. Implications for future research are discussed.