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The assessment of representational risk (ARR): Development and psychometric properties of a new coding system for assessing risk in the parent–infant relationship
Author(s) -
Sleed Michelle,
Isosävi Sanna,
Fonagy Peter
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/imhj.21932
Subject(s) - psychology , coding (social sciences) , infant development , psychopathology , developmental psychology , risk assessment , clinical psychology , computer science , statistics , mathematics , computer security
There are few clinically valid tools that can be used to assess potential parent–infant relational risk. This study describes the development and initial validation of the assessment of representational risk (ARR) coding system to be applied to the parent development interview (Slade, A., Aber, J. L., Bresgi, I., Berger, B., & Kaplan, M. (2004). The Parent Development Interview – Revised . Unpublished protocol. New York, NY: The City University of New York.) for assessing potential risk in caregivers’ representations of their infant, themselves as parents, and their relationship. The ARR was developed and validated in three samples in England. A review of the literature informed the selection of 10 items. It had a three‐factor structure that was used to inform subscales: hostile, helpless, and narcissistic caregiving representations. The subscales and total risk scores showed good criterion validity for discriminating between high and low risk samples and good concurrent validity with measures of parental psychopathology and parent–infant interaction. The ARR is a potentially valuable coding system for identifying risk in early attachment relationships.