The relationship between reflective functioning, psychological distress, academic engagement and intention to drop-out in a sample of university students: a network analysis

Introduction: Mentalizing refers to the human ability to interpret one’s own and others’ behaviour as based on intentional mental states. This construct, operationalized as Reflective Functioning (RF), may be conceived as a psycho-social competence associated with psychological well-being and good outcome treatment. In university context, some studies demonstrated that the students’ psychological well-being may be related to genuine RF; other studies showed that students psychological health coul be related to Academic Engagement (AE). Nevertheless, no study has evaluated the association between RF, AE, psychological well-being and intention to dropout in the university context. In fact, to date, the relationship between RF, AE and intention to dropout was only theorized by Fonagy. Methods: This study aims to analyze, using a network analysis, the association between the aforementioned variables in a sample of Italian university students recruited during the a.a. 2022-23, specifically during re-opening of university after Covid-19 lockdown. Participants (N= 355; F= 69%; M= 31%; MeanAge= 23.01; SD= 3.044) were recruited online, by sharing a link including a set of questionnaires to measure RF (RFQ-8), AE (SAES), intention to drop-out and psychological distress (DASS-21). Results: Results showed that the negative association between RF and psychological distress, here defined as characterized by anxiety, depression, and stress, is confirmed also in the university context. Moreover, RF is negatively associated to dropout intention, but not associated to any dimension of AE. Finally, AE showed to be a protective factor for psychological well-being, as AE is negatively associated to anxiety, depression, and stress. Discussion: The findings of this study suggested that both AE and RF could act as protective factor for psychological distress and its manifestations also in the university context. Therefore, these findings may have some clinical implications and may suggest that interventions focused on both AE and RF promotion could prevent psychological distress of university students.