This co‐registered Cochrane and Campbell systematic review compares the effectiveness of parent‐infant psychotherapy (PIP) in improving the mental health of parents, the parent‐infant relationship and infant emotional wellbeing with that of no treatment, treatment as usual and alternative treatments. The review summarises findings from eight randomised controlled trials (RCTs), with a total of 846 participants.
Compared with no treatment or treatment‐as‐usual, PIP participants show an increase in the number of infants securely attached; fewer infants with an avoidant or disorganised attachment style; and more infants moving from insecure to secure attachment. This was maintained at follow up.
PIP is neither more nor less effective than no treatment or treatment‐as‐usual in improving maternal mental health, and reflective functioning; infant stress and development; or the quality of the mother‐infant interaction.
Parent‐infant psychotherapy (PIP) is a dyadic intervention that works with parent and infant together, with the aim of improving the parent‐infant relationship and promoting infant attachment and optimal infant development. PIP aims to achieve this by targeting the mother's view of her infant, which may be affected by her own experiences, and linking them to her current relationship to her child, in order to improve the parent‐infant relationship directly.
Abstract
BACKGROUNDParent‐infant psychotherapy (PIP) is a dyadic intervention that works with parent and infant together, with the aim of improving the parent‐infant relationship and promoting infant attachment and optimal infant development. PIP aims to achieve this by targeting the mother's view of her infant, which may be affected by her own experiences, and linking them to her current relationship to her child, in order to improve the parent‐infant relationship directly.
OBJECTIVES
To assess the effectiveness of PIP in improving parental and infant mental health and the parent‐infant relationship.
To identify the programme components that appear to be associated with more effective outcomes and factors that modify intervention effectiveness (e.g. programme duration, programme focus).
SEARCH METHODSWe searched the following electronic databases on 13 January 2014: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, 2014, Issue 1), Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, BIOSIS Citation Index, Science Citation Index, ERIC, and Sociological Abstracts. We also searched the metaRegister of Controlled Trials, checked reference lists, and contacted study authors and other experts.
SELECTION CRITERIATwo review authors assessed study eligibility independently. We included randomised controlled trials (RCT) and quasi‐randomised controlled trials (quasi‐RCT) that compared a PIP programme directed at parents with infants aged 24 months or less at study entry, with a control condition (i.e. waiting‐list, no treatment or treatment‐as‐usual), and used at least one standardised measure of parental or infant functioning. We also included studies that only used ...