Parental reflective functioning refers to the ability of parents to understand their own and their children’s mental states and how these mental states influence behavior and relationships. Parental reflection function is an important psychological skill that can help parents establish secure attachment with their children, promote their children’s social and emotional development, and prevent and alleviate psychological problems.
According to past research, parental reflective function affects families in three aspects: First, parental reflective function is related to parents’ personal attachment, and secure attachment can promote the development of parental reflective function; Parental reflective function is also closely related to parents’ personal mental health. The two cause and effect each other. Second, parents’ reflective ability will affect how parents treat children, that is, the choice of parenting methods. Third, parents’ reflective function will also affect the development of children themselves. The higher the level of parents’ reflective function, the greater the possibility of children’s secure attachment.
If you would like to know the level of your parent reflection function, you can take this free online assessment. The Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) is a simple and effective scale that only requires you to spend a few minutes and choose your feelings about your child’s behavior based on your true thoughts. and the degree of agreement or disagreement with the statement in response. **This scale is designed to assess your understanding and response to your child’s mental state and behavior, as well as your perceptions and attitudes towards your own parenting style. **
The scale includes three dimensions: pre-mentalization, certainty, interest and curiosity, which respectively reflect your knowledge, belief and concern about your child’s mental state.
- Prementalizing means that you do not know enough about your child’s inner state or have a wrong understanding, such as blaming the child’s behavior on external factors or your own feelings, or thinking that the child’s inner state will not change.
- Certainty means that you are too certain or judgmental about your child’s inner state, such as thinking that you can always know what your child is thinking or doing, or that you think your child’s inner state is very clear.
- Interest and curiosity refers to your willingness to explore and understand your child’s inner state. For example, you like to think about the reasons behind your child’s behaviors and feelings, or try to look at various situations from your child’s perspective.
Please select the corresponding option based on how much you agree or disagree with each statement. After completing the assessment, you will receive scores for each dimension of your parent reflection function, as well as corresponding explanations and suggestions. Based on your scores, you can learn about the strengths and weaknesses of your parent reflection function and how to improve your parent reflection function. You can also invite other parents to take the assessment, compare your scores, and see the level of your parent reflection function among different groups.
Our free online assessments are based on scientific research and evidence and have good reliability and validity. Your answers and results will be kept confidential and will not be used for any other purpose. We hope that through this assessment, we can help you better understand the psychological state of you and your child, and how to improve your relationship and happiness.
If you are interested in taking our free online test, please click the start button below to enter the test.
