Paternal child‐focused reflective functioning, parental sense of competence, and parental emotions recognition

Objective: We tested whether each dimension of the child-focused Reflective Functioning (i.e., prementalizing, certainty about, and interest/curiosity about the child's mental states) impacts the ability to recognize the child's emotions through the sense of competence. Background: Child-focused reflective functioning is the parental ability to keep in mind their child's mental state. This parental ability is associated with recognizing the child's emotional states and sense of competence. Method: One hundred forty-four Italian fathers, Myo(SD) = 38.62(6.6), solely of 3- to 5-year-old children, Myo(SD) = 3.34(1.91), filled out an e-survey. Results: Results revealed a total and an indirect effect considering the potential predictive role of the certainty, interest, and curiosity dimensions, respectively. Conclusion: Findings highlighted that fathers of older and full-term children showed a high sense of competence and emotional recognition ability. Implications: Results encourage parent coaching programs to improve fathers' awareness of the opacity of their child's mental state, providing new directions for interventions to improve overall family well-being.