Is mind-mindedness in mothers, fathers and children related to child adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation?

Abstract Parental mind-mindedness is an important predictor of child development. It is not clear whether parental mind-mindedness is also related to child emotion regulation in school-aged children or whether child mind-mindedness plays a role. The current study aimed to examine maternal, paternal and children’s mind-mindedness in relation to child emotion regulation and to examine the importance of the valence of mind-related comments (positive, neutral or negative). The study had a cross-sectional design. Mothers, fathers and children from eighty-three families with children aged 8–18 years participated in a mind-mindedness interview, and the children completed a questionnaire measuring adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation. There was no significant association between maternal or paternal mind-mindedness and children’s mind-mindedness; however, when valence was taken into account, maternal positive and negative mind-mindedness were significantly associated with paternal positive and negative mind-mindedness, respectively. Additionally, children’s mind-mindedness toward their mother and father were significantly associated. Maternal mind-mindedness was the only significant predictor of children’s adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation: positive and neutral mind-related comments predicted more adaptive emotion regulation, and neutral and negative mind-related comments predicted more maladaptive emotion regulation. Although it appears possible to reliably measure children’s mind-mindedness, the question remains regarding the meaningfulness of measuring this concept in childhood. The results of the current study suggest that, in school-aged children, mothers’ representational mind-mindedness plays a more significant role in the development of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation than fathers’ representational mind-mindedness. The valence of mind-related comments seems to matter. However, additional research is needed to determine the directionality of these effects.