The Effects Of In The Moment Commenting And Intervention Session Length On Parental Behavior Change In Attachment And Biobehavioral Catch-Up

Abstract

In high-risk environments, children are put at risk for the development of insecure parent-child attachments and physiological dysregulation. The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up intervention has been demonstrated effective in improving attachment and regulatory outcomes. The current study examines two hypothesized active ingredients of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention. First, parent coaches are trained to make In the Moment comments that label targeted parent behaviors. Previous work has shown that these comments encourage positive behaviors among the parent-child dyad. This study focused on evaluating the contribution of a second potential active ingredient of intervention, session length. Two studies were conducted, the first in a lab setting and the second in a community dissemination site. In the first study, parent behaviors were measured insession, while in the second study, parent behaviors were measured before and after intervention. Key aspects of parent coach commenting were coded from five-minute video clips of sessions. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that commenting predicted increased parental following the lead in the future, while session length had no effect on parental behavior. These results support a focus on commenting in training and supervision for ABC.