Tradução, adaptação e contributo para a validação do Reflective Functioning Questionnaire e do Physical Health Questionnaire para o português europeu

Abstract

The ability to recognize and understand the mental states of the self and others (i.e., mentalizing or reflective functioning) has been playing an important role in the context of psychological and physical health and well-being. Given the absence of self-report measures for assessing mentalizing validated for the portuguese context, the present investigation aimed to translate, adapt and contribute to the validation of the portuguese version of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ) in a sample of portuguese adults. Also considering the complex and interdependent relationship between physical health and psychological states, another aim was to analyze the relationship between mentalizing and the frequency of somatic symptoms, having for this purpose performed a preliminary adaptation of an instrument that operationalizes physical health - the Physical Health Questionnaire. A sample of 369 healthy adults (76.4% female; aged between 18 and 66 years, M= 25.62, SD= 10.39) completed the portuguese versions of the RFQ and PHQ. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the bifactorial structure of the RFQ, as well as the four-factor model of the PHQ and the hierarchical model with a second-order factor concerning physical health. Both instruments showed adequate reliability and internal consistency. It was found that greater uncertainty about mental states was significantly and moderately associated with a higher frequency of somatic complaints; and that the presence of somatic symptoms is higher in individuals with hypomentalizing than in those with genuine mentalizing or hypermentalizing. This study highlights the good psychometric properties of the portuguese versions of the RFQ and PHQ, in terms of reliability and factorial validity, offering an important contribution to the study of mentalizing in the portuguese context. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the quality of mentalizing has a significant moderate impact on levels of physical health, reinforcing the value of the mentalizing approach for the understanding of phenomena in the context of physical health.