IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0206433.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Italian version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire: Validity data for adults and its association with severity of borderline personality disorder

Author

Listed:
  • Niccolò Morandotti
  • Natascia Brondino
  • Alessia Merelli
  • Annalisa Boldrini
  • Giulia Zelda De Vidovich
  • Sara Ricciardo
  • Vera Abbiati
  • Paolo Ambrosi
  • Edgardo Caverzasi
  • Peter Fonagy
  • Patrick Luyten

Abstract

Introduction: Impairments in the ability to understand others and the self in terms of internal mental states (reflective functioning [RF] or mentalizing) are thought to play a key role in the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The first aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), a brief self-report measure of RF, by examining its factor structure with Principal Component Analyses (PCA), and correlations with constructs that should be theoretically related to RF. In addition, we investigated whether the RFQ could empirically distinguish between healthy controls and carefully diagnosed BPD patients using Research Operating Curve methods, and was related to severity of borderline pathology as measured with the Shedler–Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP), an observer-rated measure of BPD pathology. Methods: An Italian translation of the RFQ was administered to a sample of 154 healthy controls and a clinical sample of 59 BPD patients diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II disorders. Clinical severity of BPD was assessed with the SWAP. Normal controls completed self-report inventories of constructs related to RF (mindfulness, empathy, Theory of Mind, alexithymia, and autistic traits). Results: PCA confirmed the a priori factor structure in the Italian translation of the RFQ, showing two subscales that measure certainty and uncertainty about mental states, with satisfactory reliability and construct validity. These dimensions also distinguished BPD patients from healthy controls (p

Suggested Citation

  • Niccolò Morandotti & Natascia Brondino & Alessia Merelli & Annalisa Boldrini & Giulia Zelda De Vidovich & Sara Ricciardo & Vera Abbiati & Paolo Ambrosi & Edgardo Caverzasi & Peter Fonagy & Patrick Luy, 2018. "The Italian version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire: Validity data for adults and its association with severity of borderline personality disorder," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0206433
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206433
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0206433
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0206433&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0206433?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vittorio Lenzo & Alberto Sardella & Alessandro Musetti & Maria Cristina Petralia & Irene Grado & Maria C. Quattropani, 2022. "Failures in Reflective Functioning and Reported Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Bereaved Individuals: A Study on a Sample of Family Caregivers of Palliative Care Patients," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-9, September.
    2. Marianna Liotti & Grazia Fernanda Spitoni & Vittorio Lingiardi & Antonella Marchetti & Anna Maria Speranza & Annalisa Valle & Elliot Jurist & Guido Giovanardi, 2021. "Mentalized affectivity in a nutshell: Validation of the Italian version of the Brief-Mentalized Affectivity Scale (B-MAS)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Gianluca Santoro & Antonino Costanzo & Christian Franceschini & Vittorio Lenzo & Alessandro Musetti & Adriano Schimmenti, 2024. "Insecure Minds through the Looking Glass: The Mediating Role of Mentalization in the Relationships between Adult Attachment Styles and Problematic Social Media Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(3), pages 1-15, February.
    4. Annalisa Tanzilli & Alice Cibelli & Marianna Liotti & Flavia Fiorentino & Riccardo Williams & Vittorio Lingiardi, 2022. "Personality, Defenses, Mentalization, and Epistemic Trust Related to Pandemic Containment Strategies and the COVID-19 Vaccine: A Sequential Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Andrea Fontana & Sonia Mangialavori & Grazia Terrone & Lucrezia Trani & Eleonora Topino & Valeria Trincia & Giulia Lisi & Giuseppe Ducci & Marco Cacioppo, 2024. "Interplay of Dyadic Consensus, Reflective Functioning, and Perinatal Affective Difficulties in Modulating Fear of COVID-19 among First-Time Mothers: A Mediation Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-11, June.
    6. Guadalupe Manzano-García & Juan Carlos Ayala-Calvo & Pascale Desrumaux, 2020. "Entrepreneurs’ Capacity for Mentalizing: Its Influence on Burnout Syndrome," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Rachele Mariani & Alessandro Musetti & Cinzia Di Monte & Kerri Danskin & Christian Franceschini & Christopher Christian, 2021. "Maladaptive Daydreaming in Relation to Linguistic Features and Attachment Style," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Teresa Rinaldi & Ilaria Castelli & Andrea Greco & David M Greenberg & Elliot Jurist & Annalisa Valle & Antonella Marchetti, 2021. "The Mentalized Affectivity Scale (MAS): Development and validation of the Italian version," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0206433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.