Manuscript Detail | Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness

Yarger, H. A., Bronfman, E., Carlson, E., & Dozier, M. (2019). Intervening with Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up to decrease disrupted parenting behavior and attachment disorganization: The role of parental withdrawal. Development and Psychopathology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000786

Manuscript screening details
Screening decision	Screening conclusion	HomVEE procedures and standards version
Passes screens	Eligible for review	Version 1

Study design details
Rating	Design	Attrition	Baseline equivalence	Compromised randomization	Confounding factors	Valid, reliable measure(s)
Moderate	Randomized controlled trial	High	Established on race/ethnicity and SES; outcomes not feasible to assess at baseline	None	None	Not assessed in manuscripts reviewed before 2021

Notes:

This manuscript analyzes findings from the same randomized controlled trial as Bernard et al. (2012). Additional contextual information about the study and to determine attrition is from Bernard et al. (2012) and based on correspondence with the author.

Study characteristics
Study participants	This randomized controlled trial (RCT) assigned eligible families to either ABC-Infant or a comparison home visiting program. Eligible families were participants in a foster care diversion program with children younger than 2 years who were referred to the program from Child Protective Services for various issues placing children at risk (for example, domestic violence, parental substance use, homelessness, or neglect). A total of 105 mother-child dyads were included in the study at follow-up (50 in the ABC-Infant group and 55 in the comparison group). In the ABC-Infant group, 64 percent of children were African American, 12 percent were Caucasian, 24 percent were biracial, and 20 percent were Latino. The majority (56 percent) of households reported an annual income of less than $10,000.
Setting	The study was conducted in a large mid-Atlantic city.
Intervention services	ABC-Infant consisted of 10 weekly hour-long home visits. The sessions focused on five topic areas: providing nurturance, following the child’s lead, refraining from frightening behavior, parents recognizing the effect of their own childhood experiences on their parenting behavior, and learning the importance of touch and children’s emotions. Across all sessions, parent trainers engaged parents in structured activities with their children and then provided feedback on observations of participants’ parenting behavior, both in real-time and by playing back video recordings from the sessions.
Comparison conditions	Comparison families received Developmental Education for Families (DEF) in home visits that were the same duration (10 hour-long sessions) and frequency (weekly) as ABC-Infant. DEF was designed to enhance cognitive and linguistic development. For this study, the components related to parental sensitivity were removed to distinguish it from ABC-Infant.
Subgroups examined	This field lists subgroups examined in the manuscript (even if they were not replicated in other samples and not reported on the summary page for this model’s report). Subgroups are not listed for manuscripts reviewed before 2021.
Funding sources	This research was supported by Award Numbers R01MH052135, R01MH074374, and R01MH084135 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Author affiliation	Mary Dozier, one of the authors of the study, is a developer of the ABC home visiting program model. Elisa Bronfman, another author, is a developer of the current Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) manual.
Peer reviewed	Peer reviewed status is not listed for manuscripts reviewed before 2021.

Study Registration:

Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT02093052. Study registration was assessed by HomVEE beginning with the 2014 review.

Findings that rate moderate or high

Child development and school readiness
Rating	Outcome measure	Effect	Sample	Timing of follow-up	Sample size	Intervention group	Comparison group	Group difference	Effect size	Statistical significance	Notes
Moderate	Strange Situation Procedure - Disorganized attachment	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 children	Unadjusted proportion = 0.32	Unadjusted proportion = 0.46	Mean difference = -0.14	HomVEE calculated = -0.34	Not statistically significant, p= 0.16	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.

Positive parenting practices
Rating	Outcome measure	Effect	Sample	Timing of follow-up	Sample size	Intervention group	Comparison group	Group difference	Effect size	Statistical significance	Notes
Moderate	Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) Scale - Disrupted parenting	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 mothers	Unadjusted proportion = 0.52	Unadjusted proportion = 0.62	Mean difference = -0.10	HomVEE calculated = -0.24	Not statistically significant, p= 0.31	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.
Moderate	Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) Scale - Parental affective communication errors	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 mothers	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	HomVEE calculated = 0.31	Not statistically significant, p = 0.33	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.
Moderate	Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) Scale - Parental fearful/disoriented	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 mothers	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	HomVEE calculated = 0.12	Not statistically significant, p= 0.52	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.
Moderate	Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) Scale - Parental intrusive/negativity	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 mothers	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	HomVEE calculated = 0.10	Not statistically significant, p= 0.60	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.
Moderate	Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) Scale - Parental role/boundary confusion	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 mothers	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported	HomVEE calculated = -0.32	Not statistically significant, p= 0.74	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.
Moderate	Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) Scale - Parental withdrawal	FavorableUnfavorable or ambiguousNo Effect	ABC-Infant vs. DEF; Large mid-Atlantic city	7 months after enrollment (1 month post-intervention)	105 mothers	Unadjusted mean = 3.76	Unadjusted mean = 4.42	Mean difference = -0.66	Study reported = -0.42	Statistically significant, p= 0.03	Submitted by user on Fri, 03/15/2019 - 14:29 Negative effect is favorable to the intervention.