Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Waters, Harriet | DeRose, Laura | Goldfried, Marvin | Waters, Everett | Waters, Harriet.
Date
2014-12-01
Keywords
Developmental psychology | Attachment, Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, Intervention, Parenting Education, Secure base support, Social and Emotional Development
Department
Department of Social/Health Psychology.
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76803
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
Secure attachment is associated with a host of positive outcomes including higher levels of prosocial behavior and self-efficacy, better stress regulation, and a lower incidence of psychopathology. Secure base support and sensitive caregiving interactions are predictive of secure attachment. Interventions designed to promote sensitive caregiving have had success in both improving parental behaviors and in increasing levels of attachment security. These interventions are, however, too time consuming and resource intensive to be rolled out to the general population. This study sought to determine if a brief and easy to deliver intervention could be successful in enhancing secure base cognitions in participants. 136 female participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control condition, and placed in either a secure script or no script group based on their scores on the Attachment Script Assessment. The intervention group watched a set of videos of mothers and toddlers interacting in three situations (clean-up task, tool-use task, and free play on the playground), with accompanying audio commentary guiding participants' attention to important secure base features of the interactions. The control group watched the same interaction videos but without the commentary. Participants were then asked to comment on six different mother-child interactions of the same situations two days later. Comments made by the participants were scored for secure base knowledge on three separate scales (recognition of the need for exploration, secure base support given by the mother, and taking the child's perspective). The intervention group scored significantly higher than the control group on all three scales. The script group also scored higher than the no script group on all three scales. Furthermore, there was an interaction between the intervention/control groups and the script/no script groups indicating that, although all participants benefited from the intervention, those with secure script knowledge benefitted to a greater degree. These results demonstrate that a brief and economical parenting intervention can be successful, and also illustrate the importance of an individual's existing attachment scripts in determining how they view interactions with children as well as how easily they can apply acquired secure base concepts to new situations. | 128 pages
Recommended Citation
Skinner, Sandra, "A Study Modeling Secure Base Parenting Cognitions" (2014). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 2680.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/2680