Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) to capture individual differences in parent-child relationship quality: An exploration of diverse approaches and applications.
Chair(s): Efrat Sher-Censor (University of Haifa, Israel)
Originally developed for clinical use, the FMSS offers a simple tool for capturing individual differences in parent-child relationship quality that has become widely used within family research (for reviews, see Rea et al, 2020; Sher-Censor, 2015). Highlighting its utility, the studies reported in this symposium involve samples from three distinct cultural settings (England, Hong Kong and Israel) that span from expectant couples to at-risk parents of 0- to 3-year-olds to parents of young school-aged children and parents of young children with and without complex care needs. The studies also illustrate the diversity of coding approaches that can be applied to the FMSS to identify key themes within the narratives and assess both the coherence and mind-mindedness of parental representations.
Alter and colleagues demonstrate the feasibility of gathering speech samples before birth, explore stability and change in parental representations across this important transition to parenthood, and consider whether maternal and paternal representations differ in their use of ‘time travel’ to portray the unborn child as either an infant or a child. Sher-Censor and colleagues provide evidence for the utility of the FMSS as a tool for evaluating the success of interventions to support at-risk groups during early parenthood. Xu and colleagues apply the FMSS to demonstrate that parental mind-mindedness can mitigate the impact of family adversity on childhood problems of anxiety and depression. Dolling and colleagues use the FMSS to highlight important similarities in the coherence of parental representations of children with and without complex needs. Together, these papers document the value and flexibility of the FMSS as a tool for ensuring that parents’ views and feelings about their child are at the heart of evidence-based interventions and policies.
Presentations of the Symposium
Father's Voices: Do prenatal experiences and expectations differ by child gender
Or Perah Midbar Alter1, Rosie Michaelson1, Sarah Foley2, Claire Hughes1
1University of Cambridge, UK, 2University of Edinburgh, UK
Highlighting the salience of gender for parental perceptions, a study of family stories has shown that fathers emphasize autonomy, while mothers adapt themes to the child’s gender, placing a stronger emphasis on autonomy for boys (Fiese & Skillman, 2000). Moreover, while there is evidence that fathers play a critical role in supporting the well-being of both mothers and children (Pleck, 2010), few studies have explored fathers’ very early experiences and perceptions, particularly in the prenatal period (Venning et al., 2021). This is important, as gathering expectant parents’ views is crucial for understanding family dynamics and designing effective support systems (Barlow, 2017).
To address this gap, this study draws on 80 Five Minute Speech Samples (FMSS) gathered from a subset of 20 heterosexual couples expecting their first child, selected from a larger UK sample of 400 participants to maximise demographic diversity and focus on expectant couples who knew the sex of their unborn child, enabling analysis of gender-specific expectations. The speech samples are drawn from two study timepoints: before birth and approximately four months postpartum. The study addresses two primary objectives using reflexive thematic analysis: (1) examining how fathers’ and mothers’ perceptions of their child evolve before and after birth, and (2) exploring whether fathers’ expectations for daughters versus sons align with or diverge from their parenting experiences. The analysis incorporates open and thematic coding within the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) framework, which focuses on autonomy, competence, and relatedness. SDT provides a theoretical lens to explore how fathers’ motivations and parenting identities are shaped by their expectations and experiences (Joussemet et al., 2008). By amplifying fathers’ voices, this study contributes to a broader understanding of fatherhood. Insights into prenatal expectations and post-birth transformations have the potential to benefit fathers, inform early childhood education, and enhance parental support programs.
Using the FMSS to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs for parents: Evidence from “Orim” National Project in Israel
Efrat Sher-Censor, Rinat Feniger-Schaal, Michal Slonim, Nina Koren-Karie
University of Haifa, Israel
Several early intervention protocols for parents that are based on attachment theory have proven effective (e.g., Dozier & Bernard, 2019). However, most parents in the community receive interventions that are informed by attachment theory but do not strictly follow evidence-based protocols. Despite the widespread use of such programs, little research has evaluated their effectiveness. Our study aimed to address this gap by examining the impact of programs offered through the “Orim” project for first-time parents at risk of inadequate caregiving across Israel. Our secondary goal was to identify rigorous and cost-effective measures for intervention research. We focused on the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure (FMSS; Magaña et al., 1986), a tool designed to evaluate parents’ narrated representations of their children.
We hypothesized that parents would show improvement in their FMSS narratives about their children, specifically in their acceptance of the children, narrative coherence (i.e., the ability to portray the children in a multi-dimensional, well-supported manner), and insightfulness into the children’s motivations underlying their behavior.
Participants included 195 first-time mothers (13.8% Arab-Israeli, 28.2% Ultra-Orthodox Jewish, 57.9% non-Ultra-Orthodox Jewish) and 30 fathers (children’s mean age = 22.04 months; 50% female). All parents received individual, group, and psychoeducational interventions. FMSS narratives were collected before (Time 1) and after (Time 2, one year later) the intervention and rated by blind coders using FMSS-Coherence scales (Sher-Censor & Yates, 2012), adapted from the Insightfulness Assessment (Koren-Karie et al., 2002).
Repeated Measure ANOVAs revealed significant increases in parents’ acceptance, coherence, and insightfulness over time, except for the improvement in fathers’ insightfulness, which showed marginal significance (p = .055).
These findings provide preliminary support for the sensitivity of the FMSS-Coherence assessment and the effectiveness of attachment-informed interventions in community settings. However, further randomized controlled trials are needed to strengthen these conclusions.
Using the FMSS in a cross-cultural study to investigate whether maternal mind-mindedness attenuates associations between parental mental health problems and child internalizing problems
Chengyi Xu1, Laure Lu Chen2, Zhenlin Wang3, Claire Hughes1
1University of Cambridge, UK, 2The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 3Massey University, New Zealand
Mentalizing has been described as ‘making parenting work’ (Camoirano, 2017). Support for this view comes from a recent meta-analytic review, which reported consistent inverse associations between parental mentalization and child externalizing problems (Nieto-Retuerto et al, 2024). The studies in this review included both Western sites (USA, Europe, Australia) and more traditional communities (Israel, Iran), but did not include any Asian samples, or any cross-cultural designs. The studies also showed a heavy focus on child externalizing problems; as a result, much less is known about the salience of parental mentalizing for internalizing problems. Additionally, only a small proportion of studies investigated whether parental mentalizing and mental health problems interact as predictors of child adjustment.
In the current study we aimed to address these three gaps in the field. To this end we recruited 638 parent-child dyads (299 from Hong Kong; Mage = 4.94 years, SD = 0.36; 53% male, and 339 from England; Mage = 5.29 years, SD = 0.35; 43% male). Parents completed the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) paradigm, and their transcripts were coded for mind-mindedness (MM), indexed by the proportion of mentalistic child descriptions. Parents also reported on demographic factors, child adjustment and their own mental health.
Across sites, MM was inversely associated with both parents' mental health problems and children's internalizing problems. MM also moderated the relation between parents’ mental health problems and children's internalizing problems. Specifically, the association between these measures was significant in the context of both low and average levels of MM, but was not evident when mothers’ FMMS descriptions of their child showed high levels of MM.
Narrative Coherence in Parental Five Minute Speech Samples in the Context of Early Rapid Genomic Testing and Diagnosis
Helen Dolling, Madeleine Freeman, Ilana Cope, Mishika Mehrotra, Claire Hughes
University of Cambridge, UK
Serious illness in infants exerts substantial stress on parents. Rapid technological advances have expanded the availability of whole exome and genome sequencing, accelerating diagnosis of rare complex conditions. There is strong evidence for clinical utility of early testing, but parental perspectives on potential harms to family relationships remain little explored. The Peregrin* study followed up families in the UK Next Generation Children Project (French et al., 2019, 2022) to elucidate benefits or harms, and to identify risk and protective factors for family adjustment.
Participants were 96 parents from 63 families, of whom 57% received a diagnosis of mostly rare/ultra-rare disease in their child (aged 2-15 at interview). Within this sample, 32 fathers and 53 mothers provided Five-Minute Speech Samples (FMSS); transcripts were double-coded for narrative coherence (Sher-Censor & Yates, 2012) to explore parents’ sense of competence, adaptive parenting, and attitudes and schemas regarding their child. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to examine associations between narrative coherence, parental wellbeing, and child’s health-related quality of life.
The severity of child’s condition, but not parental wellbeing, predicted FMSS-Coherence: parents caring for children with more complex disabilities showed less coherent narratives. Modal scores were higher for fathers than mothers but paired-sample comparisons showed no significant mean difference. Interviews illustrated both clinical and personal utility of genomic testing, coupled with contrasting attitudes and support needs over time and across parent gender. Survey responses indicated widespread parental anxiety and uncertainty about the future, and variation in parents’ ability to cope with diagnosis and prognosis.
Among families of children with rare complex conditions, FMSS offers a valuable window into parental experiences, concerns, and parent-child relationships, and could help to identify families needing most support. Narrative coherence coding provides a meaningful evaluation of parental adjustment and adaptation and could be helpful for triaging families for specific support.
