ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2025
Reliability and validity of the Mentalization Questionnaire in a potentially depressed group of Chinese college students.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Models of Cultural Reproduction as Drivers of Socio-cultural Resilience: Insights from a Systematic Review.F1000Research · 2026Pooled it
- Baseline Mentalization Predicts Depression and Alexithymia Following Brief Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Students Seeking Help at a University Clinic: A Pre-Post Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Purpose: Mentalization, as a core psychosocial function, not only encompasses emotional regulation but also involves the perception and comprehension of one's own and others' emotional states, constituting a crucial capacity for establishing adaptive interpersonal relationships. University students, due to their unique challenges including academic competition, identity transition during this critical developmental period, and social pressures, demonstrate that impairments in mentalization capacity may significantly elevate the risk of depressive disorders. Concurrently, the exacerbation of depressive symptoms can further compromise mentalization functioning, thereby creating a self-perpetuating pathological cycle.However, there is a lack of validated assessment tools for mentalization in China. This study aims to provide a validated instrument for assessing mentalization in the Chinese population. Methods: The Chinese version of the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ) was developed through rigorous cross-cultural adaptation procedures. Following Brislin's translation model, medical English experts initially translated the instrument into Chinese. Subsequently, a panel of specialists in psychology and psychiatry conducted comprehensive reviews, back-translation, and iterative revisions to ensure conceptual equivalence. The finalized scale was administered to 874 Chinese university students exhibiting subthreshold depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9] score ≥10). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were sequentially implemented to establish and verify the factorial structure. Concurrent validity was examined using the 8-item Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ-8). To assess test-retest reliability, 85 participants were randomly selected for retesting one week after initial administration. Results: The MZQ revealed a 3-factor structural model, and confirmatory factor analysis showed satisfactory fit indices for all three structures (χ²/df = 3.69, NFI = 0.83, CFI = 0.87, GFI = 0.92, IFI = 0.87, TLI = 0.83, RMSEA = 0.078). The correlation coefficient between the total MZQ score and the RFQ-C (Certainty about mental states) was -0.557, while the correlation coefficient between the total MZQ score and the RFQ-U (Uncertainty about mental states) was 0.428. Conclusion: The Chinese version of the Mentalization Questionnaire (MZQ) demonstrates good validity and reliability, making it a suitable tool for assessing mentalization levels among college students with potential depressive symptoms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.