The infant outcome domains included in the study are stress-sensitivity, attachment, neuro-motor and cognitive development.
Furthermore, we will determine whether the distributions of securely attached children are moderated or mediated by variations in maternal sensitivity, mentalizing, attachment representations, and psychopathology obtained at baseline and at follow-up.
Biomed Research International has gifted us a tremendous example of sensitivity and attachment to the daily medical needs.
A meta-analysis on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving parental sensitivity and parent child attachment revealed that programs with fewer contacts were more effective in improving sensitivity and attachment [ 31], but it is unclear if this is also true for programs aimed at preventing or reducing child maltreatment.
A different conclusion was reached by Bakermans-Kranenburg et al [ 23] in a meta-analysis of interventions with the purpose of enhancing parental sensitivity and/or child attachment security.
Furthermore, by collecting data concerning the mother's psychopathology, parenting behaviors (i.e., sensitivity), mentalizing and attachment representations, both at baseline (at child's age 4 9 months) and at follow-up (at child's age 16 18 months), we will be able to test factors that might influence treatment responses on the transmission model.
Although it has been suggested that programs for the prevention of child maltreatment would be most effective if starting before birth [ 1], meta-analytic evidence showed that programs focusing on parental sensitivity or parent child attachment that started 6 months after birth were at least as effective as programs with an earlier onset [ 31].
It is concluded that a child had increased sensitivity at the tendon attachment site and the muscle belly (endplate zone) after age of 4 years.
Yet, it remains unknown how brief attachment-focused interventions designed for at-risk populations differentially impact mothers' mentalizing, mental representations of attachment, beyond sensitivity and mental illness, and children's level of attachment security.
It remains to be seen if parental sensitivity to children with attachment disorder behavior needs to be different or of a higher degree of magnitude, but it seems as likely, given the available evidence, that improvements in parental sensitivity may not yield major improvements in the child-caregiver relationship (although that, too, awaits formal testing).
