The Spanish version of the reflective functioning questionnaire: Validity data in the general population and individuals with personality disorders

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 4; p. e0274378
• Main Authors: Ruiz-Parra, Eduardo, Manzano-García, Guadalupe, Mediavilla, Roberto, Rodríguez-Vega, Beatriz, Lahera, Guillermo, Moreno-Pérez, Ana I, Torres-Cantero, Alberto M, Rodado-Martínez, Juan, Bilbao, Amaia, González-Torres, Miguel Ángel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 06.04.2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Alexithymia; Biology and Life Sciences; Child; Cognitive ability; Comprehension; Diffusion; Emotions; Engineering and Technology; Health aspects; Humans; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental disorders; Mental health surveys; Parent and child; Parents & parenting; Personality; Personality disorders; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Physical Sciences; Psychology, Pathological; Psychopathology; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reliability analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; Self Report; Social Sciences; Stability; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers; Translating and interpreting; Translations; Validation studies; Spain; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274378

Mentalization or reflective functioning (RF) is the capacity to interpret oneself or the others in terms of internal mental states. Its failures have been linked to several mental disorders and interventions improving RF have a therapeutic effect. Mentalizing capacity of the parents influences the children's attachment. The Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8) is a widely used tool for the assessment of RF. No instrument is available to assess general RF in Spanish-speaking samples. The aim of this study is to develop a Spanish version of the RFQ-8 and to evaluate its reliability and validity in the general population and in individuals with personality disorders. 602 non-clinical and 41 personality disordered participants completed a Spanish translation of the RFQ and a battery of self-reported questionnaires assessing several RF related constructs (alexithymia, perspective taking, identity diffusion and mindfulness), psychopathology (general and specific) and interpersonal problems. Temporal stability was tested in a non-clinical sub-sample of 113 participants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a one-factor structure in the Spanish version of the RFQ-8. RFQ-8 understood as a single scale was tested, with low scorings reflecting genuine mentalizing, and high scorings uncertainty. The questionnaire showed good internal consistence in both samples and moderate temporal stability in non-clinical sample. RFQ correlated significantly with identity diffusion, alexithymia, and general psychopathology in both samples; and with mindfulness, perspective taking, and interpersonal problems in clinical sample. Mean values of the scale were significantly higher in the clinical group. This study provides evidence that the Spanish version of the RFQ-8, understood as a single scale, has an adequate reliability and validity assessing failures in reflective functioning (i.e., hypomentalization) in general population and personality disorders.