Adolescence in lockdown: The protective role of mentalizing and epistemic trust

Abstract

Objective: Mentalizing is the ability to interpret one's own and others' behavior as driven by intentional mental states. Epistemic trust (openness to interpersonally transmitted information) has been associated with mentalizing. Balanced mentalizing abilities allow people to cope with external and internal stressors. Studies show that social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic was highly stressful for most people, especially for adolescents. Here we examine whether mentalizing and epistemic trust were protective factors in relation to emotional distress during the lockdown.

Method: A total of 131 nonclinical adolescents, aged between 12 and 18 years, were evaluated during the lockdown using the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, Perceived Stress Scale, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale.

Results: Results from network analysis showed that epistemic trust and mentalizing were negatively associated with perceived stress and emotion dysregulation. Epistemic trust in fathers was associated with level of perceived stress, and epistemic trust in mothers with emotion dysregulation.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that epistemic trust and the capacity to mentalize were low in adolescents during lockdown, and this was associated with high levels of stress. However, robust levels of epistemic trust and mentalizing may have acted as protective factors that buffered individuals from the risk of emotional dysregulation during the lockdown.

Keywords: COVID-19; adolescence; epistemic trust; lockdown; mentalizing.

Figure 1

Confidence intervals for network edges.  95% confidence intervals built on 2000 nonparametric bootstrap samples. ET, Epistemic Trust, RF, Reflective Functioning.

Figure 2

Network of Reflective Functioning, Epistemic Trust (in Mother, Father, and Peers), Perceived Stress, and Emotion Dysregulation Edges represent conditional associations between pairs of nodes. Dashed edges are negative associations. The pie chart around each node represents its predictability. Green solid lines correspond to positive associations, red dashed lines to negative associations. DYS, Emotion Dysregulation; ET_F, Epistemic Trust in Father; ET_M, Epistemic Trust in Mother; ET_P, Epistemic Trust in Peers; RF, Reflective Functioning; STR, Perceived Stress.

Figure 3

Node Centrality Plot Note: Network of Reflective Functioning (RF), Epistemic Trust (ET) in Mother, Father, and Peers, Perceived Stress (STRESS) and Emotion Dysregulation (DYSREGULATION).