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Date of Graduation
8-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Department
Graduate Psychology
Advisor(s)
Anne Stewart, Ph.D.
Abstract
This study explored parents’ experiences as it relates to their capacity to think about their child’s thinking and feeling, Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF), an attachment theory construct. PRF was explored in the context of an attachment-based intervention, the Secure Child Program (SCP), that focuses on children and their families. Parents’ voices were centered in this study through the employment of narrative research methodology, specifically, the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique. Participants consisted of seven parents within the SCP. A semi-structured interview developed for the study was informed by extant measures of PRF. Findings indicate helping and hindering categories with the vast majority of incidents falling within the former. Nine overarching helping and three hindering categories were formulated. Themes within helping and hindering categories reflect theoretical aspects of PRF and attachment theory including the interplay of parent and child dynamics in attachment processes such as emotion regulation, parent stress, and the parent’s own attachment style. Parents also identified areas they desired to either be included in the SCP or experiences they desired to have beyond the SCP related to attachment-based therapy. Study findings point to the need for further capturing of parents’ experiences in interventions targeted towards them to highlight areas they find most helpful in promoting parenting approaches.
Recommended Citation
Peart James, Shelly-Ann, "Factors that Help and Hinder Experience of Reflective Functioning in an Attachment-Based Intervention: An Enhanced Critical Incident Technique Analysis of Parents’ Experiences" (2024). Dissertations, 2020-current. 164.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss202029/164
