Parenting interventions and reflective functioning
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The role of parental reflective functioning in behavioural parenting interventions.
IRAS ID
197054
Contact name
Joshua Harwood
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Holloway, University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Parenting has been shown to be a key factor in a child’s development and parenting interventions exist to aid struggling parents in managing their child’s behaviour. The most popular of these interventions are based on social learning theory, which posits that behaviours are learnt in a social context, and through timely praise and punishment, one can encourage desirable behaviours in a child and extinguish negative behaviours. Despite social learning theory dominating parenting interventions, a large body of literature demonstrates that it is the relationship between child and caregiver that is the most important factor; the caregivers ability to understand their child’s internal world, to determine what they need and what they are trying to communicate and to respond in an appropriate and sensitive way. This is known as reflective functioning. This project aims to tie these two theories of parenting together by investigating whether an intervention that is behavioural in nature and derived from social learning theory can increase a parent’s reflective functioning. The project will also investigate whether having higher reflective functioning capabilities before starting a parenting intervention impacts the benefits one derives from the intervention and also whether any child behaviour change that is observed can be explained by any parental reflective functioning change observed in their caregiver.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0834
Date of REC Opinion
3 May 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion