BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1651408
Attachment and reflective functioning in families with a child on the autism spectrum
Provisionally accepted
Charlotte Engberg Conrad1*
Carol George2
Emil Faerk1Helle Jakobsen1
Per Hove Thomsen3,4
Marlene Briciet Lauritsen1,5- 1Psychiatry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark
- 2Department of Psychology, Mills College at Northeastern University, Oakland, CA, United States
- 3Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- 4Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Aarhus University Hospital, Psychiatry, Aarhus, Denmark
- 5Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Gistrup, Denmark
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The concepts of attachment and reflective functioning are predictors of positive development in children on the autism spectrum. This is the one of the first cross-sectional studies to examine associations between parents' attachment representations and parental reflective functioning and child attachment in families with children on the autism spectrum. Twenty-eight parents completed the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System and questionnaires of Maternal Perception of Child Attachment and Parental Reflective Functioning regarding their child on the autism spectrum and when applicable a typically developing sibling. To test any associations between the parents' attachment and parental reflective functioning and parents' perception of child attachment, the sample was divided in organized (secure, dismissing and preoccupied combined) as compared with unresolved parents. We found a higher level of the parents' Interest and Curiosity in their child's mental states (a parental reflective functioning domain) in the organized as compared with unresolved parents. Also, mothers had significantly higher levels of Interest and Curiosity than fathers. There were no other significant differences regarding the remaining questionnaire domains. Also, there were no significant differences between parents' rating of child attachment or parental reflective functioning in relation to their child on the autism spectrum compared with their typically developing sibling. The findings suggest that future support may enhance focus on parents unresolved to loss and trauma and fathers. Also, more research is needed to understand the implications of attachment and reflective functioning in families affected by autism.
Keywords: autism, Attachment, adult attachment, Parental attachment, reflective functioning, Parental reflective functioning, Child Attachment
Received: 21 Jun 2025; Accepted: 16 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Conrad, George, Faerk, Jakobsen, Thomsen and Lauritsen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Charlotte Engberg Conrad, charlotte.conrad@rn.dk
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.