The effects of the attachment and biobehavioural catchup Intervention on parenting- and child-related outcomes : A Systematic Review

Abstract

Children who are exposed to early childhood adversity, such as abuse, neglect or violence to name a few, are at the greatest risk for the development of a disorganised attachment and, subsequently, are prone to experiencing increased internalising and externalising behaviours. This is commonly the case when children are exposed to foster care systems. In an attempt to mitigate this risk, the Attachment and Biobehavioural Catch-Up (ABC) intervention was developed as a parenting intervention with the intention of enhancing the degree of parental sensitivity and nurturance employed by foster caregivers towards their children in order to promote attachment security. This is done by parent coaches who guide caregivers on how to be more responsive and attuned to their child’s needs when their child is feeling distressed. To date, only one other systematic review exists that has summarised and synthesised the effects of the ABC intervention on child-related outcomes. The current systematic review sought to provide an update to this already existing knowledge while also expanding thereon by including a summary and synthesis of the effects of the ABC intervention on parent-/parenting-related outcomes. In order to do this, seven scholarly databases were searched for published and grey literature assessing the effectiveness of the ABC intervention. Following screening by title, abstract and full-text, the application of inclusion criteria resulted in a final sample of nine records which were included in the review and subject to narrative synthesis. The findings related to the child-related outcomes suggested that the ABC intervention resulted in improved self-regulatory capacities, decreased anger dysregulation, increased social-emotional competence, and the development of more organised attachments. Additionally, findings suggested that the developmental trajectories of participating children reflected more normative pathways. The findings related to the parent-/parenting-related outcomes suggested that the ABC intervention resulted in increased parental sensitivity and positive regard, decreased intrusive parenting behaviours and decreased atypical or anomalous parenting. Overall, therefore, the evidence suggests that the ABC is an intervention effective at improving the developmental outcomes of at-risk children as well as the parenting capacities of their parents/caregivers.