Children who are exposed to trauma often develop difficulties with reflective functioning, affect, and emotion regulation. These problems are thought to arise from and are reflective of disruptions in the process of mentalization, or the human capacity to interpret and reflect upon the thoughts, feelings, wishes, and intentions of oneself and others. This scoping review sought to describe the empirical support for focusing on mentalization processes in psychotherapy for children who have been exposed to trauma. Two independent researchers searched electronic databases, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, and Cochrane. Search terms child, trauma, mentalization and mentalization-based therapy were applied. A total of 425 studies were screened against the inclusion criteria, to include 18 studies comprising quasi-experimental, cross-sectional, naturalistic, case-control, and case studies. In all, 3 themes were identified across the articles: (a) trauma and mentalization, (b) measurement of mentalization, and (c) charting recovery. The literature suggests the role of mentalization treatment in the remission of symptoms for internalizing and externalizing disorders and shaping mentalization deficits over time. Mentalization focused treatments may also improve reflective functioning, emotional regulation capacity and the quality of attachment. The implementation of a child mentalization-based model as a preventative intervention may contribute to increased positive outcomes for vulnerable children. This scoping review presents an overview of the evidence for program developers, mental health services, family support services and those in independent practice that wish to adopt a mentalization approach in child psychotherapy. Future systematic reviews are needed to support this evidence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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心理化在儿童心理治疗，人际创伤和康复中的作用：范围回顾。

遭受创伤的儿童经常在反射功能，情感和情绪调节方面出现困难。这些问题被认为是源自和反映了心理过程的中断，或者反映了人类解释和反思自己和他人的思想，感觉，愿望和意图的能力。这项范围界定的综述试图描述在遭受创伤的儿童心理治疗中专注于心理治疗过程的经验支持。两名独立的研究人员搜索了电子数据库，即心理学与行为科学馆藏，MEDLINE，PsycARTICLES，PsycINFO和Cochrane。应用了儿童，创伤，心理化和基于心理化治疗的搜索词。根据纳入标准筛选了425项研究，包括18项研究，包括半实验性研究，横断面研究，自然主义研究，病例对照研究和案例研究。文章中总共确定了3个主题：（a）创伤和心理状态；（b）精神状态的度量；（c）图表恢复。文献表明，心理治疗在缓解症状中的作用是随着时间的推移而内化和外化疾病，并形成心理缺陷。以心理治疗为重点的治疗还可以改善反射功能，情绪调节能力和依恋质量。实施基于儿童心理化的模型作为预防干预措施，可能有助于增加弱势儿童的积极成果。此范围界定审查为程序开发人员，心理健康服务，家庭支持服务以及希望在儿童心理治疗中采用心理化方法的独立实践者。需要未来的系统评价来支持这一证据。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。