Interrelationships between mentalizing capacity, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and coparenting in parents of school aged children

Introduction Mentalization (the ability to hold in mind and interpret one’s own and others’ mental states in order to make sense of behaviour) has been consistently linked with the development of secure parent-infant attachment as well as with adult mental health. A smaller body of research has begun to examine how mentalizing capacity may be linked with coparenting (parents’ ability to work together for the wellbeing of their child), which is another factor consistently linked with better child outcomes, as well as lower levels of anxiety and depression and greater overall wellbeing in parents. Reflective functioning is an aspect of mentalization that involves the outward reflection of the mental states of the self and others. Methods The present study aimed to cross-sectionally investigate interrelationships between mentalizing capacity measured by general reflective functioning (RF) scores, parental mental health and coparenting quality among couples. Participants were 82 coupled parents of a child aged 3 years to 17 currently involved in schooling who completed an online Qualtrics questionnaire. Results Results indicate that poorer RF was related to reduced coparenting quality in mothers, while symptoms of depression and anxiety were related to worse coparenting quality in fathers. Parental depression and anxiety was also associated with reduced RF. Among fathers, we also found an indirect effect of RF on coparenting relationships via symptoms of depression and anxiety. Discussion These findings add to a new field of inquiry demonstrating the important role mentalization plays in both parental anxiety and depression and the coparenting relationship, factors all shown to be crucial for ongoing child development and wellbeing.