Mentalization, session-to-session negative emotion expression, symbolic play, and affect regulation in psychodynamic child psychotherapy

Internalizing and externalizing problems have been related to negative emotionality, and affect regulation deficits in several studies. Certain psychodynamic models of treatment use children’s symbolic play activity as a medium to mentalize negative emotions in order to develop children’s affect regulation. However, the complex associations among these constructs and their associations with outcome have not been examined. This study aimed to investigate, first, whether average mentalization practices in treatment, as well as session-to-session expression of negative emotions and symbolic play predict gains in affect regulation and, second, whether changes in these variables are associated with clinically significant change in symptoms and global function. The sample included 40 outpatient children, who underwent long-term psychodynamic treatment. Nine hundred seventy-five sessions were coded for children’s symbolic play, affect expression (anger and dysphoric affect), and affect regulation characteristics, and each treatment was scored for average adherence to mentalizing principles. Time Series Panel Analyses (TSPA) indicated session-to session use of symbolic play predicted gains in affect regulation. A significant 2-way interaction indicated that dysphoric affect expression in high mentalization adherent treatments was associated with higher affect regulation than in low adherent treatments. Partial correlation analyses indicated that mentalization adherence in treatment was associated with symptomatic improvement at trend level of significance, and changes in affect regulation and symbolic play were significantly associated with gains in global function. Findings point to the importance of use of symbolic play, and dysphoric affect expression in the context of mentalization practices for gains in affect regulation and outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved