Epistemic mistrust mediates the association between childhood maltreatment and impairments in mentalizing in a sample of university students
This exploratory study sheds light on the development of mentalizing impairments, though it is limited by its cross-sectional nature, reliance on self-reporting, and the uniformity of the sample with mainly female, primarily young adults from different universities. The preliminary findings suggest the role of attachment insecurity might have been overemphasized previously. Moreover, the link between childhood maltreatment and mentalizing deficits appears more intricate, as it was fully mediated by epistemic mistrust in this study. The findings support the notion of addressing epistemic mistrust in psychosocial interventions designed to improve mentalizing abilities that have been compromised.
Authors
- Holger Kirsch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7915-3432)
- Tobias Nolte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6834-7727)
- Stephan Gingelmaier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0025-9405)
- Sascha Müller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8663-4543)
- Peter Fonagy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0229-0091)
- Robert Langnickel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4265-0103)
- Melanie Henter
- Nicola-Hans Schwarzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4864-2283)
- Noëlle Behringer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6328-9863)
- Agnes Turner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8666-8524)
- Tillmann F. Kreuzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8941-2711)
- Pierre-Carl Link
- Paula Dees
Institutions
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society (DE)
- Anna Freud Centre (GB)
- University of Koblenz and Landau (DE)
- Ludwigsburg University of Education (DE)
- University of Teacher Education in Special Needs (CH)
- Heidelberg University of Education (DE)
- University of Teacher Education Lucerne (CH)
- University of Education Freiburg (DE)
- University of Klagenfurt (AT)
- University College London (GB)
- University of Rostock (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Child Abuse & Neglect
- Published
- 2025-04-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107436
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.23