Reflective Functioning

Brief Summary: This study aims to quantitatively examine the relationship between regulatory problems (sleep, feeding, and crying) in infants aged 6-36 months and levels of parental sensitivity and reflective functioning. The primary objective is to determine how parents' ability to perceive and interpret their child's cues affects these regulatory difficulties; the secondary objective is to explore how emotional responses to crying and other parent-child interaction factors mediate that relationship. In a cohort of approximately 249 infant-parent dyads, the Revised-Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ-R), feeding and crying assessment forms, the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, the My Emotions Questionnaire, and the Parental Stress Scale will be administered. Data will be analyzed via descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and multiple regression models. As the first large-scale quantitative study in Turkey to investigate this area, it will yield unique data to guide parenting programs and early-intervention policies.

Study background: Specialized Group Outpatient Clinic within specialist mental health services, tailoring two year group treatment programmes for severe Avoidant PD (AvPD) and Borderline PD (BPD) with Affect Consciousness (AC) targeting specific areas of emotional dysfunction. Aims: Our main hypothesis, adding AC to Mentalization- based treatment (MBT) to expand the breadth and depth of therapeutically productive work on affect, will aim to examine health indicators, processes and mechanisms of change in depth. The study will extracts preliminary data after 5 years and 10 years to investigate clinical change, variation and outcome during MBT for PD employing AC as add on to MBT. The study has a randomized controlled trail design, with MBT with or without AC as add-on. The RCT is grounded on original literature on Affect Theory, as a framework for understanding patient functioning, and MBT, framing the therapy.Implications: AC methodology as add on can lead to more tailored treatment programmes, service planning, allocation of resources, guidelines, ACI certification and method development for PDs.