Introduction: Parental reflective function is the ability of a parent to attribute mental states to their child and to themselves. In the English-speaking world, The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ; Luyten, Mayes, Nijssens and Fonagy, 2017) is widely used for the measurement of this construct, the adolescent version of which can be used by parents of children aged 12-18. The aim of our research was to adapt the adolescent version of The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire to Hungarian language and to analyze its factor structure.
Methods: In our cross-sectional, non-clinical study, 240 mothers completed the demographic form, the adolescent version of The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ-A), and the Reflective Function Questionnaire (RFQ; Fonagy et al, 2016; Unoka et al, in press).
Results: Confirmatory factor analysis did not confirm the original three-factor structure. The principal component analysis resulted in a two-factor structure. Factors corresponded to the original questionnaire's certainty in mental states (Alpha=.81) and interest and curiosity subscales (Alpha=.70). When analyzing the relationship between parental reflective function and reflective function, the subscales of the parental reflective function questionnaire were examined with two types of median coding in addition to polar coding (higher values reflect more favorable reflective function). During the first median coding, the frequency of scores in the middle of the scales reflected optimal mentalization, while the frequency of extreme values on the scales corresponded to less favorable forms of reflective functioning - a category that included different kinds of mentalization deficits. With the second median coding, in addition to the optimal mentalization capacity subscale, hypermentalization and hypomentalization subscales were also created based on the frequency of the values achieved on (respectedly) the lower and the upper parts of the scales. The second median transcoding proved to be the most suitable for capturing the relationship between RFQ and PRFQ-A.
Conclusion: The questionnaire proved to be a reliable measure on the Hungarian sample. Based on the results of the current study, we recommend using of the additional subscales of hypomentalization, optimal mentalization capacity, and hypermentalization.