Trial reportThe American journal of psychiatry2020
Early Parenting Intervention Effects on Brain Responses to Maternal Cues Among High-Risk Children.
Trial report in The American journal of psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Attachment-Based Interventions for Maltreated Children's Well-Being: A Systematic Review.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Pooled it
- The neuroscience of social feelings: mechanisms of adaptive social functioning.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Preliminary examination of the effects of an early parenting intervention on amygdala-orbitofrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity among high-risk children: A randomized clinical trial.Development and psychopathology · 2025Trial
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Parenting Intervention During Infancy Alters Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry in Middle Childhood.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Effects of an attachment-based intervention on autonomic regulation among opioid-exposed infants.Developmental psychobiology · 2022Trial
- Increasing secure base script knowledge among parents with Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up.Development and psychopathology · 2021Trial
- Early Relational Health and its Impact on the Developing Brain: A Scoping Review.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Article
- Practitioner Review: Clinical insights from attachment theory and research for professionals working with young children and their families.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Annual Research Review: Early conduct problems - precursors, outcomes, and etiology.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Causal Effects of Enhanced Parenting on Resting-State Graph Properties of Adolescents at Risk for Maltreatment.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Social circuits under developmental threat: Bridging rodent and human neuroscience.Developmental review : DR · 2025Article
- Weaving Invisible Threads: The Impact of Caregiver Trauma on Parenting and Child Brain Development.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Attachment as Prediction: Insights from Cognitive and Developmental Neuroscience.Current directions in psychological science · 2025Article
- How will developmental neuroimaging contribute to the prediction of neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders? Challenges and opportunities.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Using randomized controlled trials to ask questions regarding developmental psychopathology: A tribute to Dante Cicchetti.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- Love on the developing brain: Maternal sensitivity and infants' neural responses to emotion in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.Developmental science · 2024Article
- The effects of parental presence on amygdala and mPFC activation during fear conditioning: An exploratory study.Developmental science · 2024Article
- [Preventive early intervention strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders of high-risk infants].Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics · 2024Review
- Leveraging the developmental neuroscience of caregiving to promote resilience among youth exposed to adversity.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Introduction to the Special Issue.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveEarly adversity is correlated with increased risk for negative outcomes, including psychopathology and atypical neurodevelopment. The authors aimed to test the causal impact of an early parenting intervention (Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up; ABC) on children's neural processing of parent cues and on psychosocial functioning in a longitudinal randomized clinical trial.
methodsParticipants (N=68, mean age, 10.0 years [SD=0.8 years]) were 46 high-risk children whose parents were randomly assigned to receive either the ABC intervention (N=22) or a control intervention (N=24) while the children were infants, in addition to a comparison sample of low-risk children (N=22). During functional MRI scanning, children viewed pictures of their own mothers and of a stranger.
resultsChildren in the ABC condition showed greater maternal cue-related activation than children in the control condition in clusters of brain regions, including the precuneus, the cingulate gyrus, and the hippocampus, regions commonly associated with social cognition. Additionally, greater activity in these regions was associated with fewer total behavior problems. There was an indirect effect of early intervention on middle childhood psychosocial functioning mediated through increased activity in brain regions in response to maternal cues.
conclusionsThese results suggest that early parenting intervention (in this case the ABC intervention) can enhance brain regions supporting children's social cognitive development. In addition, the findings highlight these brain effects as a possible neural pathway through which ABC may prevent future behavior problems among high-risk children, yielding psychosocial benefits that endure through at least middle childhood without the need to intervene with the child directly.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.