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Parental reflexivity and latent psychological violence among urban parents in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: an exploratory study
Автор(ы)
Дата публикации
30 сентября 2026 г.
Тип
journal article
Издатель
Frontiers Media
Журнал
Том
17
ISSN
1664-1078
Аннотация
Introduction Parental reflective functioning (PRF) has been associated with less harmful parenting behavior and a lower likelihood of intergenerational continuity of violence. However, little is known about whether the association between parental reflexivity and psychologically harmful parenting differs between fathers and mothers in Central Asia. This study examined parental reflexivity, measured using A. V. Karpov’s Reflexivity Scale as an operational proxy for PRF, and its association with latent psychological violence among urban parents in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Methods A cross-sectional multi-city study was conducted in Almaty, Shymkent, Turkestan, and Bishkek. The analytical sample ( N = 400), drawn from a larger dataset ( n = 500), included 158 fathers and 242 mothers. Measures included reflexivity, aggression, empathy, latent psychological violence (ILV), uyat intensity, and family-of-origin violence. Analyses comprised parent-group-specific regressions, bootstrap coefficient comparisons, hierarchical moderation models with a PRF × parent-group interaction, and robustness analyses using recruitment-site fixed effects, robust standard errors, the full sample, parent-group weighting, and additional family-context covariates. Results Reflexivity was strongly inversely associated with latent psychological violence in both parent groups. The PRF–ILV slope was descriptively steeper among fathers than mothers ( b = −0.900, R 2 = 0.485 vs. b = −0.779, R 2 = 0.417), but the difference was not statistically significant ( z = −1.27, p = 0.204; 95% bootstrap CI [−0.320, 0.067]). The PRF × parent-group interaction was also nonsignificant (Δ R 2 = 0.002, p = 0.201). Among highly reflective parents with family-of-origin violence, none of five fathers met the exploratory high-ILV threshold (ILV ≥ 70), compared with 1 of 7 mothers; this difference was nonsignificant ( p = 1.000). Family-of-origin violence was associated with lower reflexivity among both fathers ( d = 0.64) and mothers ( d = 0.74). Discussion Parental reflexivity showed a robust inverse association with latent psychological violence, but formal analyses provided no evidence that this association differed between fathers and mothers. The descriptively steeper father association should therefore be regarded as hypothesis-generating rather than as evidence of a father-specific effect. These findings support further longitudinal and intervention research in urban Central Asian populations.
Области науки (FoS)