The Effectiveness of Mother-Child Attachment-Based Intervention in Enhancing Preschooler's Attachment Security

The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the mother-child attachment-based intervention in enhancing preschoolers’ attachment security. From all mothers and children ages between 4 and 6 years who referred to Atieh Clinic, 28 mother-child dyads were selected based on their attachment Q-sort scores (Waters, 1987) and the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The participants were randomly assigned into either control or experimental group. The mothers received six sessions of group education, the children received 6 sessions of group play therapy, and next each mother-child dyad received 4 sessions of individual psychotherapy. At the end of the intervention, 12 mother-child dyads of the experimental group and 11 mother-child dyads of the control group were assessed using attachment Q-sort. The results of ANCOVA indicated that in addition to the general security, four subscales of the 1) exploration from a secure base, 2) smooth interaction with the caregiver, 3) indications of availability and responsiveness related expectations, and 4) distress and comforting were improved significantly in experimental group compared with the control group. The findings suggested that the attachment-based intervention may be effective in enhancing attachment security which have crucial developmental outcomes and can be applied to the clinical settings.