Adverse Childhood Experiences and Parenting Stress in Foster Families: Mentalizing as a Pathway to Strain.

Laura H Dosanjh, Tina Adkins, Kiera Coulter, Peter Fonagy

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Journal of child and family studies, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Laura H DosanjhPopulation Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 305 E. 23rd Street, Texas 78712 Austin, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9184-2961

Tina AdkinsTexas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing, The University of Texas at Austin, 405 W. 25th Street, Texas 78705 Austin, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4486-9691

Kiera CoulterPopulation Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 305 E. 23rd Street, Texas 78712 Austin, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8111-4952

Peter FonagyResearch Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, London , UK.ORCID 0000-0003-0229-0091

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can compromise parents' ability to form supportive and attuned parent-child relationships, and mentalizing may be a critical conduit linking ACEs to perceived relational strain, a core dimension of parenting stress. Foster parents may be especially vulnerable due to elevated ACE exposures and the demands of parenting children with complex needs in high-stakes caregiving contexts. Despite these risks, research examining how ACEs influence perceived relational strain through mentalizing remains limited in foster families. Data was obtained from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a psychoeducational mentalizing intervention for 89 foster parents. A mediation analysis tested mentalizing as an indirect influence on links between parental ACEs and perceived relational strain (as a key dimension of parenting stress). ACEs were associated with increased pre-mentalizing scores, reflecting a reduction in mentalizing capabilities ( Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10826-026-03280-7.

Indexed as

Adverse childhood experiencesdysfunctional parent-child interactionsmentalizingparenting stressreflective functioning

Identifiers

PMID41971221

DOI10.1007/s10826-026-03280-7

PMCPMC13061810

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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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.