Mentalizing the University experience: an exploratory study on the relationship between university students' reflective functioning, psychological well-being and academic performance

Authors

  • Giovanna Esposito Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II
  • Raffaella Passeggia Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II
  • Giuliana Pepicelli Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II
  • Anna Cannata Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II
  • Federica Parlato Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II
  • Maria Francesca Freda Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/mjcp-2415

Keywords:

Mentalization, Group counselling, Clinical health psychology, Psychological well-being, University students.

Abstract

In a Clinical Health Psychology perspective, which focuses on the promotion and maintenance of mental and physical health of the individuals, mentalization (operationalized as reflective functioning; RF) may be conceived as a psycho-social competence associated with psychological well-being and good outcome treatment. In the university contexts, some studies demonstrated that the students' academic achievements may be related, on one hand, to RF improvements, on the other, to psychological well-being. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies exploring RF in relationship with both academic achievement and psychological well-being regarding university students. This study aims at assessing the effectiveness, in terms of RF, psychological well-being and academic performance, of ten counselling groups addressed to 63 underachieving university students lagging behind in their studies. The counselling adopted an innovative narrative methodology, the Narrative Mediation Path (NMP), which aims to improve mentalization and psychological well-being in order to produce an impact on the students' academic performance. The Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI), and the Academic Performance Inventory (API) were administered at the beginning and at the end of the counselling. Results showed an overall improvement of students in genuine mentalization, especially of the hypomentalizing dimension of RF, an increase of the psychological well-being index and its sub-dimensions (except for the General Health dimension) and an improvement of the academic performance. This study highlighted the effectiveness of the NMP methodology for students' success and suggests the utility of planning clinical psychology interventions aimed at enhancing mentalization in the university contexts.

Author Biographies

  • Giovanna Esposito, Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II
    Giovanna Esposito received her PhD in  Health Psychology and Psycho-Social Risks Prevention from the University of Naples Federico II, in Italy. Currently she is a researcher in Clinical Psychology at the Department of Humanities of the University of Naples, Italy. Her areas of research interest include the study of mentalization in counseling and psychotherapy, the use of multimodal narrative devices in clinical psychology interventions and the process analysis in psychotherapy research.
  • Raffaella Passeggia, Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II

    Raffaella Passeggia received her Master Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Naples Federico II, in Italy. Currently she is a national civilian services volunteer at the Center for Active and Integrated Inclusion of Students - SInAPSi - of the University of Naples. Her areas of research interest include the study and evaluation of mentalization in group psychological interventions.

  • Giuliana Pepicelli, Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II

    Giuliana Pepicelli received her Master Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Naples Federico II, in Italy. Currently she is a national civilian services volunteer at the SInAPSi Centre at the University of Naples Federico II. Her research areas are: mentalization among university students and clinical populations, group counselling, qualitative and quantitative research.

  • Anna Cannata, Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II
    Anna Cannata is a Psychologist and Psychotherapist in the systemic approach. She is a member of the directive team of Research Institution Anima (www.animaonline.org), based in Naples, Italy. She has worked as a Narrative Group Trainer for the INSTALL Project and as a psychotherapist and counsellor for web-based psychological interventions. She has written on and researched lifelong learning; life skills and key competences; life design, career counselling, and resilience; active participation and inclusion in the university context and contemporary educational theories/interventions; qualitative research and narrative approaches/methods; non-traditional/disadvantaged/underachieving students and narrative/reflexive methods; and online psychology.
  • Federica Parlato, Sinapsi Center, University of Naples Federico II
    Federica Parlato is a Psychologist and Psychoanalyst. She worked at the SInAPSi Center, where she leads many counselling groups and psychological individual consultations with university students. She has written on active participation and inclusion in the university context and psychodynamic interventions with university students.
  • Maria Francesca Freda, Department of Humanities, University of Naples Federico II
    Maria Francesca Freda received her PhD in Psychology of Education from the Department of Relational Science of University of Naples Federico II, in Italy. Currently she is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Department of Humanities of the University of Naples Federico II, in Italy. Her areas of research interest include clinical psychological intervention in the health sector within the institutional framework, mentalization, narrative methods, the combined medical and psychological interventions in health sector, trauma elaboration during illness.

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Published

13-08-2020

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Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020)

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