De Rol van Ouderlijk Reflectief Functioneren in Ouderlijke Stress, Autonomie-Relevant Opvoeden, en de Socio-Emotionele Ontwikkeling van Kinderen en Adolescenten

Parental reflective functioning is the capacity of parents to envision their child's mental states and their own mental states in relation to their child. Research shows that this capacity plays a crucial role in the socioemotional development of children and adolescents and may buffer against the negative effects of early adversity. Conversely, impairments in this capacity have been linked to higher stress, maladaptive parenting, and socioemotional child and adolescent difficulties. This dissertation examined the role of parental reflective functioning in parents' stress, parenting quality (with a focus on autonomy-relevant parenting), and ultimately the socioemotional development of children and adolescents, including transnational adoptees, a group that has been described to be at higher risk for socioemotional difficulties, due to enhanced rates of early adversity prior to adoption. In this context, we also considered a process of intergenerational transmission of parents' and adolescents' reflective functioning. The current dissertation consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 (General Introduction) reviews extant literature on parental reflective functioning and its impact on children's development, highlighting gaps and future research opportunities. Chapter 2 examines how parents' reflective capacities, assessed before adoption, moderate the relationship between pre-adoptive adversity and children's socioemotional outcomes four years later. Chapter 3 examines parenting stress in the first four years after adoption, focusing on how parents' self-criticism and children's negative emotionality dynamically contribute to parenting stress. Chapter 4 examines the role of parental reflective functioning in parents' daily stress and autonomy-relevant parenting in two independent samples of community adolescents. Chapter 5 examines day-to-day fluctuations in parental reflective functioning and the evocative roles of adolescents' socioemotional difficulties and parenting stress. Chapter 6 examines the relationship between autonomy-relevant parenting, adolescent reflective functioning, and socioemotional difficulties in adolescence. Chapter 7 presents a longitudinal study exploring how pre-adoptive and early childhood parental reflective functioning relates to the reflective functioning and socioemotional adjustment of transnationally adopted adolescents. Finally, Chapter 8 (General Discussion) integrates the study's main findings, theoretical and clinical implications, study limitations, and suggestions for future research.