The Italian version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire: Validity within a sample of adolescents and associations with psychological problems and alexithymia
Fabiola Bizzi, Anna Riva, Jessica L. Borelli, Simone Charpentier Mora, Monica Bomba, Donatella Cavanna, Renata Nacinovich
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to test the psychometric proprieties of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ) applied to younger (13-16 years) and older (17-20 years) Italian adolescents examining (1) the factorial structure of RFQ; (2) its invariance across age and sex; (3) correlations between RFQ subscale scores, as well as the associations of the RFQ with (4) psychological problems and alexithymia dimensions. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 593 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 20 years old recruited from the community within Italy. These participants completed the RFQ, Symptom Checklist-90, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale. RESULTS: The two-factor structure of the RFQ was confirmed. However, higher internal consistency of RFQ was obtained by removing two items that seemed problematic within this sample. Using a six-item version of RFQ, the two-factor structure was invariant across adolescent age and sex. Significant correlations among RFQ subscale scores, and between RFQ subscales with both psychological problems and alexithymia dimensions were found. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results reveal a short version of RFQ (six-item) is a suitable measure to assess mentalizing in adolescents in the Italian context.