Does maternal reflective functioning mediate associations between representations of caregiving with maternal sensitivity in a high-risk sample?

Although it is known that mothers with substance abuse disorders struggle to provide adequate parenting to their children, little is understood about the mechanisms behind this. This cross-sectional study uses an attachment perspective to examine whether reflective functioning mediates the relationship between mental representations of caregiving and maternal sensitivity, in an ethnically diverse sample of 142 substance-abusing mothers (M [SD] = 29.83 [5.79] years of age) and their toddlers (M [SD] = 24.04 [15.15] months of age). Data were baseline measures from two randomized controlled trials. The three variables of primary interest were positively correlated. As expected, there was a significant relationship between mental representations of caregiving and maternal sensitivity that was largely explained by reflective functioning. Confounding and alternate explanations were not supported by a secondary data analyses. The findings underscore the importance of reflective functioning in positive parenting within this high-risk population of mothers, and they provide support for the development of attachment-based interventions.