Circle of Security-Parenting Randomized Waitlist Control Study: Change in Reflective Functioning Explains Positive Caregiver Behavior

Sensitive and responsive parenting is known to promote secure attachment. Caregiver reflective functioning (RF), one’s capacity to mentalize, is a critical mechanism for caregiver behaviors supportive of secure attachment. Interventions targeting RF can improve caregiving quality, and in turn, attachment security. One such promising intervention is Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P), a brief eight-week parenting program designed to improve caregiver behaviors known to promote attachment security. Using a randomized wait-list control design, we examined the efficacy of the COS-P program in improving caregiver RF, and in turn, positive caregiver behaviors. The present sample of forty-six primary caregivers (3 fathers, 40 mothers, 1 grandfather, 2 grandmothers) were predominately low-income and people of color. Caregivers were randomly assigned to the COS-P intervention group or wait-list control group. Pre/post data collection included demographic information, interview to assess RF (PDI-R2-S), and a caregiver-child semi-structured play interaction (Crowell). As a result of the brief intervention, intervention caregivers, compared to control group caregivers, demonstrated significant growth in RF, behavioral responsiveness, and emotional responsiveness. Caregiver RF at posttest explained a significant amount of variance in both posttest behavioral and emotional responsiveness above and beyond pretest RF, pretest parenting behavior, and intervention condition. Using a randomized waitlist control trial, and a gold-standard measure of RF, these findings extend previous literature by not only demonstrating a significant intervention effect on key outcomes known to promote attachment security, but also by highlighting the important role that caregiver RF plays in this process.