Mentalizing and its role as a mediator in the relationship between childhood experiences and adult functioning: Exploring the empirical evidence

The introduction of the concept of mentalizing into psychoanalytic discourse has provided researchers with an important tool for beginning to understand the mechanisms mediating the relationships between childhood experiences and later psychological functioning. Researchers have made strong statements regarding the strength of this mediational relationship in their movement toward the building of novel and efficacious intervention approaches. The goal of this systematic review was to critically examine the empirical evidence for these statements. Five unique studies were identified that assessed the relationships between the variables of attachment and/or childhood adversity, mentalizing and adult functioning. Some preliminary evidence for the role of mentalizing as an important mediator variable was identified. However, researchers were cautioned to continue to engage in further empirical study to ensure that theoretical explorations do not overstate or move too far beyond the empirical research findings