Can typical US home visits affect infant attachment? Preliminary findings from a randomized trial of Healthy Families Durham.
Date
2017-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Citation Stats
Abstract
US government-funded early home visiting services are expanding significantly. The most widely implemented home visiting models target at-risk new mothers and their infants. Such home visiting programs typically aim to support infant-parent relationships; yet, such programs' effects on infant attachment quality per se are as yet untested. Given these programs' aims, and the crucial role of early attachments in human development, it is important to understand attachment processes in home visited families. The current, preliminary study examined 94 high-risk mother-infant dyads participating in a randomized evaluation of the Healthy Families Durham (HFD) home visiting program. We tested (a) infant attachment security and disorganization as predictors of toddler behavior problems and (b) program effects on attachment security and disorganization. We found that (a) infant attachment disorganization (but not security) predicted toddler behavior problems and (b) participation in HFD did not significantly affect infant attachment security or disorganization. Findings are discussed in terms of the potential for attachment-specific interventions to enhance the typical array of home visiting services.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Berlin, Lisa J, Tiffany L Martoccio, Karen Appleyard Carmody, W Benjamin Goodman, Karen O'Donnell, Janis Williams, Robert A Murphy, Kenneth A Dodge, et al. (2017). Can typical US home visits affect infant attachment? Preliminary findings from a randomized trial of Healthy Families Durham. Attach Hum Dev, 19(6). pp. 559–579. 10.1080/14616734.2017.1339359 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15854.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
Ben Goodman
Ben Goodman is a research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy. His research interests focus broadly on the implementation and evaluation of population-based interventions to reduce child maltreatment and improve parent and child health and well-being, including the evidence-based Family Connects postpartum nurse home visiting program. His research also examines how sources of stress and support shape the quality of parent-child relationships, parents’ own well- being, and child development.
Research Interests:- Home Visiting
- Child Maltreatment
- Parenting
- Program Evaluation
- Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University - 2009
Robert A. Murphy
Dr. Murphy is a licensed clinical psychologist focused on child traumatic stress, including its treatment and prevention and development and dissemination of evidence-based interventions. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Murphy serves as Executive Director for the Center for Child & Family Health (CCFH), a community and three university partnership (Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina Central University) dedicated to research, training, and intervention related to child trauma and maltreatment. Interests include treatment and prevention of child maltreatment and traumatic stress, dissemination of evidence based interventions, and improving mental health care for military families. In partnership with the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy Center for Child and Family Policy, he has been active in the development and evaluation, via two randomized controlled trials, of a brief, postnatal, universal nurse home visiting program (Family Connects) that has demonstrated improved parenting and parental distress, as well as reduced emergency medical care costs and lower rates of reported child maltreatment. Since 2003, CCFH has been a community treatment and services center within the National Child Traumatic Stress Network focused on improving access to evidence based mental health care for foster care youth and developing trauma informed child welfare systems.
Kenneth A. Dodge
Kenneth A. Dodge is the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He is also the founding and past director of the Center for Child and Family Policy, as well as the founder of Family Connects International.
Dodge is a leading scholar in the development and prevention of aggressive and violent behaviors. His work provides a model for understanding how some young children grow up to engage in aggression and violence and provides a framework for intervening early to prevent the costly consequences of violence for children and their communities.
Dodge joined the faculty of the Sanford School of Public Policy in September 1998. He is trained as a clinical and developmental psychologist, having earned his B.A. in psychology at Northwestern University in 1975 and his Ph.D. in psychology at Duke University in 1978. Prior to joining Duke, Dodge served on the faculty at Indiana University, the University of Colorado, and Vanderbilt University.
Dodge's research has resulted in the Family Connects Program, an evidence-based, population health approach to supporting families of newborn infants. Piloted in Durham, NC, and formerly known as Durham Connects, the program attempts to reach all families giving birth in a community to assess family needs, intervene where needed, and connect families to tailored community resources. Randomized trials indicate the program's success in improving family connections to the community, reducing maternal depression and anxiety, and preventing child abuse. The model is currently expanding to many communities across the U.S.
Dodge has published more than 500 scientific articles which have been cited more than 120,000 times.
Elected into the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, Dodge has received many honors and awards, including the following:
- President (Elected), Society for Research in Child Development
- Fellow, Society for Prevention Research
- Distinguished Scientist, Child Mind Institute
- Research Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Health
- Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution from the American Psychological Association
- J.P. Scott Award for Lifetime Contribution to Aggression Research from the International Society for Research on Aggression
- Science to Practice Award from the Society for Prevention Research
- Inaugural recipient of the “Public Service Matters” Award from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration
- Inaugural recipient of the Presidential Citation Award for Excellence in Research from the Society for Research on Adolescence
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.