ABSTRACT

Objective

Attachment theory suggests that parent responsiveness to infant distress predicts secure parent–child attachment and subsequent healthy child development. While much is known about microsystem factors that interfere with responsive caregiving, there is a paucity of research investigating how exosystem factors, such as neighborhood crime, affect parenting.

Method

In a sample of 200 diverse caregivers and their 5- to 21-month-old infants (M = 11.82; 49% male), we leveraged data from a randomized clinical trial of Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), an attachment-based intervention, to assess whether individual level burden (indicated by single-parent status, low income, residential instability, young parenthood, parental psychopathology, and own history of early adversity) and neighborhood crime density (geocoded within a 500 ft radius of parent’s residence) were associated with their beliefs about infant crying, an indicator of responsive parenting.

Results

Consistent with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems' theory of development, both greater exposure to individual burden indicators and greater neighborhood crime density predicted greater maladaptive beliefs about infant crying, suggesting that contextual factors outside the household are associated with parenting cognitions. Further, when accounting for the effect of crime and individual burden on parental beliefs about infant crying, participation in the ABC intervention was effective in reducing maladaptive parenting beliefs.

Conclusions

We consider implications for multi-level intervention approaches that target family processes, neighborhood-level factors, and policy initiatives to promote community wellbeing and positive child development.

中文翻译：

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ABC随机临床试验中父母对婴儿哭闹的信念的生态预测因子

摘要

客观的

依恋理论表明，父母对婴儿痛苦的反应预示着安全的亲子依恋和随后的健康儿童发展。虽然人们对干扰响应式护理的微系统因素了解很多，但很少有研究调查诸如邻里犯罪等外系统因素如何影响育儿。

方法

在 200 名不同的照顾者及其 5 至 21 个月大的婴儿（M = 11.82；49% 男性）的样本中，我们利用了来自依恋和生物行为追赶 (ABC) 的随机临床试验的数据，这是一种依恋-基于干预，以评估个人水平的负担（由单亲身份、低收入、居住不稳定、年轻父母、父母精神病理学和自己的早期逆境史表示）和邻里犯罪密度（在父母居住地 500 英尺半径范围内进行地理编码） ) 与他们对婴儿哭闹的信念相关联，这是响应式育儿的一个指标。

结果

与 Bronfenbrenner 的生态系统发展理论一致，更多地暴露于个人负担指标和更高的邻里犯罪密度都预示着对婴儿哭泣的更大适应不良信念，这表明家庭之外的背景因素与育儿认知有关。此外，当考虑到犯罪和个人负担对父母关于婴儿哭泣的信念的影响时，参与 ABC 干预可有效减少适应不良的育儿信念。

结论

我们考虑了针对家庭过程、社区层面因素和促进社区福祉和积极儿童发展的政策举措的多层次干预方法的影响。