Emotion Regulation mediates the association between Hypermentalizing and Interpersonal Difficulties in Young People

Mentalization is a dynamic capacity of reflective functioning that helps us understand mental states in interpersonal settings (Bateman Fonagy, 2019). Although there is consistent evidence of the association between mentalization and mental health difficulties during adolescence (Bateman Fonagy, 2019; Borelli et al., 2017; Chevalier et al., 2021; Wiwe Vrouva, 2021), less is known about mentalization impact on interpersonal difficulties. Evi- dence also suggests that mentalization is associated with emotion regulation capacity (Fisher, 2011; Ghiasi et al., 2016; Locati et al., 2022; Vahidi et al., 2021). The present study explores the mediating role of emotion regulation in the association between mentalization, measured as reflective functioning, and interpersonal problems. For this purpose, we conducted anal- yses using structural equation modelling in a dataset (n = 299) from a cross-sectional study involving adolescents aged 12 to 15 (mean age 13.33, SD = 1.10). Of the participants, 151 were boys, 146 were girls, and 2 identified as non-binary. All were from Edinburgh, Scotland, and completed surveys between April and June 2019. Results from the study suggest that affective-driven emotion regulation strategies mediate the association between mentalization and interpersonal problems associated with socially avoidant behaviours. Our findings sug- gest that implementation of affective-driven emotional regulation strategies might contribute to unbalanced mentalization, such as hypermentalizing, which could heighten its impact on interpersonal difficulties during adolescence.