NIMH-funded randomized clinical trial, called Services for Children in Their Own Homes (SCOH), testing the efficacy of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up intervention at 8, 9, 10-years of age.
The project involves children from families who are involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) are at greater risk for developing problems related to their socio-emotional, cognitive, and brain development. In efforts to improve these children’s developmental outcomes, we assessed the efficacy of ABC among parents with CPS. Parents were randomly assigned to either receive ABC or to receive a control intervention of the same duration and frequency. We then followed up with the families when children were ages 8, 9 and 10.
Funding: National Institute of Mental Health R01 MH074374 award, “Intervening Early with Neglected Children: Key Adolescence Outcomes.” Period of support: June 1, 2023-May 31, 2024. PI: Mary Dozier, PhD
Key findings:
1. Children in the ABC group show more age-typical (near-zero) amygdala-OFC resting-state
functional connectivity as compared to the control group (manuscript under review). The
control intervention showed a negative functional connectivity.
Intervention effects and cluster-masked mean estimates. Bar plot with overlaid distribution plot of cluster parameter estimates.
2. Children in the ABC group showed greater prefrontal cortex activation in response to
photographs of fearful faces compared to children in the control group. This suggests
that ABC children had better regulation to threat at the level of brain activation
(see Valadez et al., 2023).
Intervention effects on reactivity to faces (from Valadez et al., 2023).
3. ABC intervention improves inhibitory control at age 10 (see Korom et al., 2021).
Specifically, children who received ABC during early childhood showed faster reaction
time on the Stop Signal Reaction Time paradigm as compared to the control
intervention group. No statistically significant effect emerged between the ABC and
the low-risk comparison group.
Intervention effects on inhibitory control (see Korom et al., 2021).
References
2023
A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Parenting Intervention During Infancy Alters Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry in Middle Childhood
Emilio A. Valadez, Nim Tottenham, Marta Korom, and 3 more authors
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2023
Objective: Early adverse parenting predicts various negative outcomes, including psychopathology and altered development. Animal work suggests that adverse parenting might change amygdala–prefrontal cortex (PFC) circuitry, but work in humans remains correlational. The present study leveraged data from a randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of an early parenting intervention targeting parental nurturance and sensitivity (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up [ABC]) to test whether early parenting quality causally affects amygdala-PFC connectivity later in life. Method: Participants (N = 60, mean age = 10.0 years) included 41 high-risk children whose parents were referred by Child Protective Services and randomly assigned to receive either ABC (n = 21) or a control intervention (n = 20) during the children’s infancy and a comparison sample of low-risk children (n = 19). Amygdala-PFC connectivity was assessed via functional magnetic resonance imaging while children viewed fearful and neutral faces. Results: Across facial expressions, ABC produced different changes than the control intervention in amygdala-PFC connectivity in response to faces. The ABC group also exhibited greater responses than the control intervention group to faces in areas classically associated with emotion regulation, including the orbitofrontal cortex and right insula. Mediation analysis suggested that the effect of ABC on PFC activation was mediated by the intervention’s effect on amygdala-PFC connectivity. Conclusion: Results provide preliminary causal evidence for the effect of early parenting intervention on amygdala-PFC connectivity and on PFC responses to face viewing. Findings also highlight amygdala-PFC connectivity as a potential mediator of the effects of early parenting intervention on children’s emotion regulation development. Clinical trial registration information: Intervening Early With Neglected Children; https://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT02093052. Diversity & Inclusion Statement: We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper received support from a program designed to increase minority representation in science. While citing references scientifically relevant for this work, we also actively worked to promote sex and gender balance in our reference list.
2021
Early parenting intervention accelerates inhibitory control development among CPS‐involved children in middle childhood: A randomized clinical trial
Marta Korom, Alison Goldstein, Alexandra R. Tabachnick, and 3 more authors
Children at risk for neglect or abuse are vulnerable to delays in inhibitory control development. Prior findings suggest that early parenting interventions that target parental sensitivity and responsiveness during infancy can improve executive function outcomes of high‐risk children during preschool years; however, little is known about how persistent these gains are through middle childhood. Participants included 76 CPS‐involved children who were randomly assigned to either the ABC intervention ( N = 32) or the Developmental Education for Families (DEF) control intervention ( N = 44), and 53 low‐risk children. Children completed the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) paradigm at ages 8 and 10. Intervention group predicted performance on the SSRT at age 8 such that children who received the ABC intervention and children in the low‐risk group performed significantly better than children who received the DEF intervention (ABC vs. DEF: Cohen’s d = 0.92; low‐risk group vs. DEF: d = 0.56). The performances of the ABC and the low‐risk groups were not statistically different. There were no significant group differences in SSRT performance at age 10. These findings demonstrate that the ABC intervention has long‐term beneficial effects on inhibitory control development in children with a history of early caregiving adversity. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/P9oLyfo7pYA
