Moving an Evidence‐Based Parenting Program Into the Community

Abstract

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is a parenting program developed to enhance sensitivity among parents of infants who experience early adversity. In several randomized clinical trials, the intervention’s efficacy has been demonstrated. Moving interventions into the community with adequate fidelity is challenging, though, and intervention effects are often much smaller than when tested in randomized clinical trials. To enhance the likelihood that ABC is delivered with high fidelity, a micro-analytic fidelity assessment was developed. Using this fidelity tool as a central component of training, supervision, and certification, changes in parent sensitivity for 108 families with children ages 6 months to 2 years were as large as those seen in laboratory settings. These findings are discussed with regard to implications for moving other evidence-based interventions into the community.

Developing self‐regulation in a dysregulating world: Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch‐up for a toddler in foster care

“…After parent coaches are certified in ABC, they can then attend a 1-day training for ABC-T, followed by a year of supervision in the toddler model. In community-based implementation studies of ABC, which involve these training, supervision, and certification procedures, effect sizes of the pre-post change in parent sensitivity are comparable to controlled studies conducted in the laboratory (Caron, Weston-Lee, Haggerty, & Dozier, 2016;Roben, Dozier, Caron, & Bernard, 2017).…”

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up: addressing the needs of infants and toddlers exposed to inadequate or problematic caregiving

“…Although ABC has not yet been tested in a randomized clinical trial in the community, pre- and post-intervention sensitivity data aggregated for108 dyads, seen by 38 coaches across 5 dissemination sites, show a large effect size ( d = .83 [57]), which is at least as large as effect sizes seen in efficacy studies. The successful dissemination of ABC is likely the result of first identifying the active ingredient for parent behavior change (i.e., in the moment commenting) and then developing training, supervision, and fidelity monitoring that enhance this active ingredient.…”

“Oh, the Places You'll Go” by Bringing Developmental Science Into the World!

“…This calls for being attentive to how parents view childhood and its implications for their children's future lives (Galinsky et al., ). It also calls for us to be clear about the target audience for any particular intervention (Schindler et al., ; Roben et al., ; Farran et al., ; Reynolds et al., ).…”

“…The first involves the intervention's resiliency in the face of turbulent real‐world conditions, including high turnover among staff (Farran et al., ), transitory relationships with participants (Dubois et al., ), and changing circumstances in the settings in which the expansion is taking place (Reynolds et al., ). The second emerges from inevitable heterogeneity: variation in children's needs (Roben et al., ); parent, teacher, and community expectations (Weber et al., ; Grob et al., ); resource availability (Reynolds et al., ; Farran et al., ); and the prevalence and form of external constraints on implementation (Schindler et al., ).…”

“…Among them are, how can we impact family life and encourage parents to engage in evidence‐based practices—even in the face of cultural proscriptions to the contrary—in Senegal (Weber, Fernald, & Diop, )? How can we use our scientific tools to engage in prevention and intervention with families to protect children from toxic stress (Roben, Dozier, Caron, & Bernard, ; Shindler, Fisher, & Shonkoff, )? How can we help schools improve their practices (Reynolds, Hayakawa, Ou, Mondi, Englund, Candee & Smerillo, ; Farrran, Meador, Christopher, Nesbitt, & Bilbrey, ) and find ways to encourage nonrelated adults to champion children's development (Dubois & Keller, )?…”