The Mothers and Toddlers Program, an Attachment-based Parenting Intervention for Substance Using Women: Post-treatment Results from a Randomized Clinical Pilot

Overview

Journal Attach Hum Dev

Publisher Informa Healthcare

Specialty Social Sciences

Date 2010 Aug 24

PMID 20730641

Citations 78

Authors

Nancy E Suchman

Cindy DeCoste

Nicole Castiglioni

Thomas J McMahon

Bruce Rounsaville

Linda Mayes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This is a report of post-treatment findings from a completed randomized pilot study testing the preliminary efficacy of the Mothers and Toddlers Program (MTP), a 12 week attachment-based individual parenting therapy for mothers enrolled in substance abuse treatment and caring for children ages birth to 36 months. Forty-seven mothers were randomized to MTP versus the Parent Education Program (PE), a comparison intervention providing individual case management and child guidance brochures. At post-treatment, MTP mothers demonstrated better reflective functioning in the Parent Development Interview, representational coherence and sensitivity, and caregiving behavior than PE mothers. Partial support was also found for proposed mechanisms of change in the MTP model. Together, preliminary findings suggest that attachment-based interventions may be more effective than traditional parent training for enhancing relationships between substance using women and their young children.

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