The moderator role of mother's mentalization capacity on the link between parenting stress and children's problem behaviors

Although parenting stress, which exists at varying levels among all parents, has negative effects across multiple domains, its most common consequence for children is the emergence of behavioral problems. Certain parental characteristics are thought to play a moderating role in the parent-child relationship. Among these characteristics, parental mentalization capacity has emerged as a growing focus of research, particularly concerning its role in the parent-child relationship. In light of previous studies, the main aim of the present study is to examine the moderating role of maternal mentalization capacity in the relationship between parenting stress and child behavioral problems. In addition, within the scope of the research, it is aimed to examine the relationship between self-report and performance-based measurement tools used in assessing maternal mentalization capacity. The sample consisted of 110 female participants aged between 26 and 46 years (M = 36.32, SD = 4.39), all of whom had children aged 1.5 to 6 years. Participants were asked to complete the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) to assess levels of parenting stress, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to evaluate child behavioral problems, and the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ), and the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire–Short Form (RFQ) to measure maternal mentalization capacity. Statistical analyses revealed that parenting stress significantly and positively predicted child behavioral problems. Moderation analyses showed that maternal mentalization capacity and hypomentalizing did not play a moderating role in the relationship v between parenting stress and child behavioral problems. In contrast, findings suggested that maternal hypermentalizing, as assessed by different measurement tools, played a moderating role in this relationship. These results suggest that the moderating effect of hypermentalizing may vary depending on the type of measurement tool used and the type of behavioral problem in children. No significant relationships were found between the subdimensions of the performance-based assessment tool used to evaluate maternal mentalization capacity (MASC) and those of the self-report measures (PRFQ and RFQ). The findings of the study suggest that intervention programs and preventive efforts aimed at enhancing maternal mentalization capacity may have a protective effect on children's mental health.