The study was conducted to determine the efficacy of the ABC (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up) and it role in establishing secure attachment and attachment organization in children who are likely to, or have suffered maltreatment and neglect from their primary caregivers, typically their parents. The results of the intervention’s efficacy are crucial to design a program that will benefit both the parents who have a difficult time exuding sensitivity towards their children and especially those with a history of maltreatment as reported to the relevant authorities such as the Children’s Welfare Agency. The programs could be merely the short-term ABC procedure or for severe cases, it could serve as a supplemental tool for other intensive and more behavior-oriented programs.
The study was longitudinal and randomized. It consisted of subjects who were both parents, and children, 120 and 113 respectively, the latter being attributed to 7 parents who had two children each. The children ranged in age from 1.7-21.4 months while the parents ranged in age from 15.7- 47 years old and were from mixed ethnic backgrounds but African-Americans consisted the majority at 61%, 9% were Biracial, 15% White/Hispanic and 15% White/non-Hispanic. 68% of the parents had also not completed high school. All these were cases that were referred to the researchers by the welfare as they had files on reports that had been filed and they were also working with the child protective agencies. The study itself consisted of employing the ABC method, and as a control, the DEF (Developmental Education for Families) which was a program that only dealt with the cognitive and language improvement in the control group.
There were five constructs divided up into eight sessions, carried out two at a time in succession in the ABC group. Sessions 1 and 2 consisted of providing nurturance where the parent trainers assess the reactions of parents with children who push them away when they try to make a connection. The trainers replayed recorded videotapes to criticize the reactions and offer points of corrections. Sessions 3 and 4 termed following the lead with delight where parents were asked to b active participants in their children’s activities especially during play time and refrain from taking over their projects. The parents were also encouraged to commend their children and these interactions were recorded on tape and served as reference points for the trainers. Session 5 and 6 named as frightening behavior where the trainers requested the parents to pay close attention to subtle signs and behavior changes in their children when interacting with them. Parents were made aware of looking out for warning signs that their children may be frightened by their parents’ behaviors. Sessions 7 and 8 dubbed recognizing voices from the past focused on the parents’ past experiences and how they may affect their interactions with their children. The trainers taught the parents to identify the triggers that they picked from their past experiences and prevented themselves from projecting them onto their children. Sessions 9 and 10 were consolidations of the gains. It served as a recap and reinforcement of the lessons the parents had learned.
Following the assessment of the two groups using the chi-square tests, the group that received the ABC procedure exhibited much lower numbers of children who had attachment disorganization. 41% of the ABC children exhibited attachment organization whereas only 26% of the DEF children exhibited the same. On the same, only 19% of the ABC children showed attachment disorganization and 34% of the control group showed the same. The same trend was also observed in security attachment whereby 31% of the ABC group showed secure attachment compared to DEF's 20%. As for insecure attachment, 29 % of the ABC group showed insecure attachment while it was 40% for the control group.
These results according to the researchers provide a framework that can be utilized by the public health sector as mainly a preventive measure for the children who are at risk of experiencing these disorganized attachments as a consequence of their upbringing. These individuals have often been cited as exhibiting poor social behaviors and may eventual lead to deviance in later adult life.
The study draws its strength from one, selecting the most likely individuals to benefit from the experiment which are the at-risk children and their parents. The ABC intervention is designed for children with difficulties establishing secure and organized attachments with their parents. Second, the study used the Strange Situation procedure to assess the effectiveness of their interventions which has been proven to be accurate. The procedure is also quite straightforward to analyze, and it also utilized decoders who were unbiased and thus provided relatively unaltered results. However, the study does have some weaknesses because of the glaring lack of information that the agency could not legally disclose to the researchers. It proved an obstacle especially because the ABC intervention is a case basis kind of intervention and the lack of history left the researchers only to make general assumptions. Secondly, the intervention took only a short while, and not all the participants may have had time to learn the techniques as a consequence of their history, whether learning disabilities or substance abuse that may have affected their learning capacities.
What are the effects of long-term ABC interventions? This question needs to be answered because only short-term studies have been conducted so far. In connection with this, the full history of the participants needs to be taken into account. The history provides a reference point for the interveners to fashion effective strategies that will produce the maximum results that will stick and prevent the cycle from being repeated once the children become parents themselves.
Reference
Bernard, K., Dozier, M., Bick, J. Lewis-Morrarty, E., Lindhiem, and Carlson, E. Enhancing attachment organization among maltreated children: Results of randomized clinical trial. Child Development, March/April 2012, Vol. 83, Number 2, pg 623-636.
