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Minding the Baby®: Enhancing parental reflective functioning and infant attachment in an attachment-based, interdisciplinary home visiting program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2019

Arietta Slade*
Affiliation:
Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA
Margaret L. Holland
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT, USA
Monica Roosa Ordway
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT, USA
Elizabeth A. Carlson
Affiliation:
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Sangchoon Jeon
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT, USA
Nancy Close
Affiliation:
Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA
Linda C. Mayes
Affiliation:
Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA
Lois S. Sadler
Affiliation:
Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Arietta Slade, Yale Child Study Center, PO Box 207900, 230 South Frontage Road, New Haven, CT06520; E-mail: arietta.slade@yale.edu.

Abstract

In this article, we describe the results of the second phase of a randomized controlled trial of Minding the Baby (MTB), an interdisciplinary reflective parenting intervention for infants and their families. Young first-time mothers living in underserved, poor, urban communities received intensive home visiting services from a nurse and social worker team for 27 months, from pregnancy to the child's second birthday. Results indicate that MTB mothers' levels of reflective functioning was more likely to increase over the course of the intervention than were those of control group mothers. Likewise, infants in the MTB group were significantly more likely to be securely attached, and significantly less likely to be disorganized, than infants in the control group. We discuss our findings in terms of their contribution to understanding the impacts and import of intensive intervention with vulnerable families during the earliest stages of parenthood in preventing the intergenerational transmission of disrupted relationships and insecure attachment.

Information

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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