Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Current Psychology, cilt.44, sa.17, ss.14493-14509, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)
Limitations in reflective functioning during adolescence are considered serious risk factors for the development of a wide range of psychological problems. However, little is known about adolescent reflective functioning, partly due to the lack of valid and reliable measures to assess it in this age group. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth and its short version, the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire Youth-5, in a Turkish adolescent community. Two adolescent samples were used for exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. To examine the factor structure, the first sample consisted of 272 (75.4% female) adolescents aged between 14 and 18 (Mage= 15.59; SD = 1.01). The second sample, used in confirmatory factor analysis, consisted of 300 (51.3% female) respondents between 14 and 18 years old (Mage = 15.43; SD = 1.06). In addition to the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Basic Empathy Scale, and the Brief Symptom Inventory were used in the study. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure that included “Uncertainty about mental states”, “Certainty about mental states”, and “Interest about mental states”. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the three-factor structure of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth and the single-factor model of its short version across genders. Other reliability and validity values were found to be satisfactory. Therefore, the Turkish versions of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth and its short version can be considered valid and reliable measures to assess mentalizing in adolescents.