Less is more: meta-analyses of sensitivity and attachment interventions in early childhood.

By M. Bakermans‐Kranenburg, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, F. Juffer. Psychological bulletin, 2003

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Is early preventive intervention effective in enhancing parental sensitivity and infant attachment security, and if so, what type of intervention is most successful? Seventy studies were traced, producing 88 intervention effects on sensitivity (n = 7,636) and/or attachment (n = 1,503). Randomized interventions appeared rather effective in changing insensitive parenting (d = 0.33) and infant attachment insecurity (d = 0.20). The most effective interventions used a moderate number of sessions and a clear-cut behavioral focus in families with, as well as without, multiple problems. Interventions that were more effective in enhancing parental sensitivity were also more effective in enhancing attachment security, which supports the notion of a causal role of sensitivity in shaping attachment.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Demography, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/467e34a74b1e24a20278eae68911194d7b77cc43

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Citations in the corpus

Responsive parenting: establishing early foundations for social, communication, and independent problem-solving skills. (2006, background): “The playing and learning strategies (PALS) condition incorporated factors known to impact intervention efficacy: short term, starting later in 1st year of life, a clearly defined focus, and linking intervention goals to theoretical models (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003).”
Does prosody make the difference? A meta-analysis on relations between prosodic aspects of infant-directed speech and infant outcomes. (2017, neutral): “Contrasts were only tested when at least two of the subsets consisted of at least four studies (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003).”
Maternal sensitivity, its relationship with child outcomes, and interventions that address it: a systematic literature review (2020, background): “Characteristics such as socioeconomic status or age of the mother, prematurity of the infant, or multiple risk factors were not associated with significant differences in effect sizes between the studies (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003).”
Precursors of attachment security (2018, background): “Indeed, the combined effect size for 10 studies that sought to promote security by focusing specifically on sensitivity was 0.39 (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003; for additional discussion of attachment-based interventions, see Berlin, Zeanah, and Lieberman, Chapter XX, this volume).”
Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study. (2007, background): “For a detailed discussion of this issue, see Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, and Juffer (2003).”
Attachment, caregiving, and volunteering: Placing volunteerism in an attachment‐theoretical framework (2005, methodology): “6. See Mikulincer and Shaver (2001) and Mikulincer et al. (2001) for examples of such procedures used in experimental studies and Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, and Juffer (2003) for a meta-analysis of securityenhancing clinical and educational techniques.”
The significance of insecure attachment and disorganization in the development of children's externalizing behavior: a meta-analytic study. (2010, methodology): “We computed 85% CIs for the point estimates of the combined effect sizes and compared these intervals across the two sets of studies: Nonoverlapping 85% CIs indicated a significant difference in combined effect sizes (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003).”
Assessment of postnatal paternal–infant attachment: development of a questionnaire instrument (2008, background): “In recent years, there has been a tendency for attachment research to be less focused on measurement and assessment, and more focused on prediction and intervention (Bakermans‐Kranenburg, van Ijzendoorn, & Juffer, 2003 ).”
Caregiver sensitivity, contingent social responsiveness, and secure infant attachment. (2008, methodology): “The focus of these interventions included parental awareness of their children’s behavior, accurate interpretation of these behavior, and contingent social responsiveness to the children’s behavior (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003; Egeland et al., 2000).”