| dc.description.abstract | Mentalising is an “imaginative mental activity that enables us to perceive and interpret
human behaviour in terms of internal mental states (e.g. needs, desires, feelings,
beliefs, goals, purposes and reasons)” (Bateman & Fonagy, 2012; page 4). While this
has been studied within an adult population, there has been a lack of research in
understanding this construct in adolescence and its associations with mental health.
This thesis aimed to systematically review the literature to establish if there was an
association between mentalising difficulties and mental health disorders in
adolescence. It further aimed to empirically investigate using a questionnaire-based
study with adolescents, the constructs of mentalising and their associations with
mental wellbeing.
The review found a negative association, indicating that low mentalising skills were a
risk factor for mental health difficulties. However, there was a lack of research in this
area and methodological and conceptual concerns about the measurement of
mentalising.
The empirical study found that the theoretical model of mentalising did not fit for
adolescents. This was discussed in relation to the need for further adolescent specific
research to understand this developing construct. In addition, a refined model that
was hypothesised to be ‘self-awareness’ was suggested that was found to predict the
mental wellbeing outcomes, indicating a potential risk factor for mental health
difficulties in adolescence. | en |
