ABSTRACT
The case study of Sarah and her daughter Linda described in this chapter offers an example of the implementation of four sessions of VIPP and VIPP-R in the Leiden intervention study. The intervention aimed at enhancing sensitive parenting and infant security and restructuring maternal insecure mental representations of attachment. Sarah's participation in the intervention resulted in positive effects on her sensitivity as well as on her daughter's attachment security. Overall, meta-analytic results demonstrate that short-term interventions focusing on sensitive parenting are most effective (Bakermans-Kranenburg, Van IJzendoorn, & Juffer, 2003; see Chapter 5). Positive effects on parental sensitivity were accompanied by positive, albeit somewhat smaller effects on attachment security. Because of the diverging outcomes of intervention studies, there is need to look more closely at the processes leading to successes in enhancing sensitive parenting and preventing or altering insecure attachment in young children. By examining the program implementations and process evaluations of more and less successful interventions (e.g., Lambermon, 1991; Lieberman, Weston, & Pawl, 1991), we may gain more insight into effective components of interventions and into the process of intergenerational transmission of attachment.
