Remediating Child Attachment Insecurity: Evaluating the Basic Trust Intervention in Adoptive Families

Abstract

Purpose: This study evaluated the video-feedback intervention Basic Trust in families with internationally adoptive children aged 2–12 years. The intervention aims to reduce child attachment insecurity and behavior problems by enhancing mothers’ and fathers’ sensitivity and mind-mindedness (parents’ capacity to hold in mind the mind of their child). Method: Fifty-three adoptive families participated in a pretest, posttest, and 6-month follow-up assessment. Questionnaires on parenting stress, child attachment insecurity, and behavior problems were administered. Parents’ sensitivity was assessed from free-play observations at home, and mind-mindedness was measured with a describe-your-child interview. Results: Parents reported less child behavior problems, insecure and disorganized attachment, and parenting stress at posttest and follow-up. Parents’ mind-mindedness increased from pre- to post-test but not from pretest to follow-up. Parents’ sensitivity showed an improvement at follow-up. Conclusions: Future studies should investigate whether the present study’s positive results can be replicated under conditions of strict experimental control.