Is there a better way of getting a reference to the parent RecyclerView from the adapter?

There’s actually a specific method that callsback with the RecyclerView that attaches to the adapter. Just override the onAttachedToRecylerView(RecyclerView recyclerView) method.

public class Adapter_RV extends RecyclerView.Adapter<RecyclerView.ViewHolder>{

    RecyclerView mRecyclerView; 


    @Override
    public void onAttachedToRecyclerView(RecyclerView recyclerView) {
        super.onAttachedToRecyclerView(recyclerView);

        mRecyclerView = recyclerView;
    }

    @Override
    public RecyclerView.ViewHolder onCreateViewHolder(ViewGroup parent, int viewType) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onBindViewHolder(RecyclerView.ViewHolder holder, int position) {

        mRecyclerView....
    }