The Psychometric Properties of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Turkish Mothers

Abstract

Parental reflective functioning refers to parents' ability to think about, infer, and interpret the mental states of themselves as a parent and their children. In this study, we examined the psychometric properties of the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire in a sample of Turkish mothers. We investigated the factor structure, reliability, measurement invariance, and validity of the questionnaire for psychometric evaluation. We collected data from 900 Turkish mothers (M-age = 37.06 years, SD = 11.22) whose children were between the ages of 3 and 11 years (M-age = 6.04 years, SD = 2.09). Parents filled out a battery of self-report questionnaires about their childhood trauma history, attachment style, emotion regulation difficulties, parental stress, parental self-efficacy, and psychological distress via Qualtrics. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a three-factor structure: prementalizing mode, certainty about mental states, and interest and curiosity in mental states. Measurement invariance demonstrated scalar invariance across low and high SES groups. Correlation analyses revealed differential associations among the PRFQ subscales and all maternal variables. These findings demonstrated that the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire is a good measure to assess the key aspects of parental reflective functioning in Turkiye. Highlights Parental reflective functioning has a central role in child development, mental health, and childrearing behaviors. The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire has good psychometric properties across different cultures. Though widely used, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire have not been investigated thoroughly in Turkiye. The questionnaire has good psychometric properties among mothers of children in early and middle childhood in Turkiye. The scale captures individual differences in parental mentalization capacity.