Facilitating carers' mind-mindedness through education and early intervention

通过教育和早期干预促进护理人员的思想意识

• 批准号: ES/K010719/1
• 负责人: Elizabeth Meins
• 金额: $ 56.93万
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK010719%2F1
• 关键词: Facilitating; carers; mind; mindedness; through

What determines the people we become? How does children's early environment affect their development? In order to answer these questions, my group's research involves working with the same families over years or even decades to chart children's development. These longitudinal studies involve families from wide-ranging social backgrounds and start when the baby is around 6 months of age. Our findings show that parents' ability to 'tune in' to what their baby might be thinking or feeling (so-called 'mind-mindedness') is an important predictor of a range of positive child outcomes (secure attachment, language and play, children's understanding of other people's thoughts and feelings). Parents who are skilled at 'reading' their babies' minds also report lower levels of parenting stress. Specifically for families in poverty, parents' ability to tune in to their babies' thoughts and feelings protects the child against problem behaviours at school-starting age. Our research thus shows the widespread benefits of parents' willingness to see things from the child's perspective.Mind-mindedness focuses on very specific parenting behaviours and is relatively straightforward and quick to assess. The main research objective of this application is to develop and evaluate an intervention package that will inform parents in an accessible way about mind-mindedness. The intervention will consist of an animated film, short book and smartphone app that will help facilitate parents' mind-mindedness. The efficacy of this intervention package will be evaluated by exploring its impact on mother-baby interaction and child outcome in an at-risk sample (teenage mothers). The associated PhD studentships will explore (a) the relation between adoptive parents' mind-mindedness, success of the adoption placement and child outcome, and (b) mind-mindedness in childcare professionals and its relations with quality of caregiver-child interaction and child behaviour.The intervention package is crucial for ensuring that our academic research has real-world implications and applications. There is increasing Government recognition that early intervention is key to improving the outcome of vulnerable children. For example, Field's (2010) report summarised how to prevent poor children from becoming poor adults as follows: "The things that matter most are a healthy pregnancy; good maternal mental health; secure bonding with the child; love and responsiveness of parents along with clear boundaries, as well as opportunities for a child's cognitive, language and social and emotional development" (p. 5). However, concluding that these factors are crucial is easier than establishing what to do to increase the number of vulnerable children having positive parenting experiences. My research can help inform Government thinking on early intervention in a number of important ways because mind-mindedness predicts outcomes in the key factors identified in Field's report. The main impact-related objective of this Fellowship is to extend my existing work with MPs, local government and charities to ensure that the academic research on mind-mindedness is used to inform policies and programmes relating to children and families. Delivering professional training courses to midwives, health visitors and nursery nurses will be a key component in meeting this objective.The Fellowship research will be disseminated to academic audiences via a number of major research papers. A website and popular science book will disseminate the Fellowship activities to non-academic audiences.

是什么决定了我们成为什么样的人？孩子的早期环境如何影响他们的发展？为了回答这些问题，我的小组的研究涉及与同一家庭合作数年甚至数十年，以绘制儿童的发展图表。这些纵向研究涉及来自广泛社会背景的家庭，并在婴儿 6 个月左右大时开始。我们的研究结果表明，父母“调节”宝宝的想法或感受的能力（所谓的“心智”）是一系列积极的儿童成果（安全依恋、语言和游戏、孩子对他人想法和感受的理解）的重要预测因素。善于“读懂”宝宝想法的父母也表示，养育孩子的压力较小。特别是对于贫困家庭来说，父母了解婴儿的想法和感受的能力可以保护孩子在入学年龄免受问题行为的影响。因此，我们的研究表明，父母愿意从孩子的角度看问题会带来广泛的好处。心智专注于非常具体的养育行为，并且相对简单且可以快速评估。该应用程序的主要研究目标是开发和评估一套干预方案，以一种易于理解的方式向家长介绍思想意识。干预措施将包括一部动画电影、一本小书和智能手机应用程序，有助于提高父母的思维能力。该干预措施的有效性将通过探索其对高危样本（少女母亲）中母婴互动和儿童结局的影响来评估。相关的博士生奖学金将探讨（a）养父母的思想意识、收养安置的成功与儿童结果之间的关系，以及（b）儿童保育专业人员的思想意识及其与照顾者与儿童互动质量和儿童行为的关系。干预方案对于确保我们的学术研究具有现实世界的影响和应用至关重要。政府越来越认识到早期干预是改善弱势儿童状况的关键。例如，菲尔德（Field）（2010）的报告总结了如何防止贫困儿童成为贫困成年人如下：“最重要的是健康怀孕；良好的母亲心理健康；与孩子的安全联系；父母的爱和回应以及明确的界限，以及孩子认知、语言、社交和情感发展的机会”（第5页）。然而，得出这些因素至关重要的结论比确定如何增加拥有积极养育经历的弱势儿童的数量要容易得多。我的研究可以帮助政府以多种重要方式思考早期干预，因为心态可以预测菲尔德报告中确定的关键因素的结果。该奖学金的主要与影响相关的目标是扩展我与国会议员、地方政府和慈善机构的现有工作，以确保有关心灵的学术研究用于为与儿童和家庭有关的政策和计划提供信息。为助产士、健康访客和托儿所护士提供专业培训课程将是实现这一目标的关键组成部分。奖学金研究将通过一些主要研究论文向学术受众传播。网站和科普书籍将向非学术受众传播奖学金活动。

项目成果

Early psychosocial risk factors and postnatal parental reflective functioning.

早期心理社会危险因素和产后父母反思功能。

• DOI: 10.1111/infa.12552
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
• 作者: Arkle P

Imaginary Companions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-3540-y
• 发表时间: 2018-08
• 期刊: Journal of autism and developmental disorders
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: Davis PE;Simon H;Meins E;Robins DL
• 通讯作者: Robins DL

How does restricted and repetitive behavior relate to language and cognition in typical development?

• DOI: 10.1017/s0954579416000535
• 发表时间: 2017-08-01
• 期刊: DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Larkin, Fionnuala;Meins, Elizabeth;Leekam, Susan R.
• 通讯作者: Leekam, Susan R.

Callous-unemotional traits and impulsivity: distinct longitudinal relations with mind-mindedness and understanding of others.

• DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12445
• 发表时间: 2016-01
• 期刊: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines
• 作者: Centifanti LCM;Meins E;Fernyhough C
• 通讯作者: Fernyhough C

Are adult mentalizing abilities associated with mind-mindedness?

• DOI: 10.1177/0165025415616200
• 发表时间: 2016-07-01
• 期刊: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Barreto, Ana Luisa;Fearon, R. M. Pasco;Martins, Carla
• 通讯作者: Martins, Carla