The RCS (Rearing Coding System) coding group focuses primarily on clinician competence and therapeutic action within the Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI). The coding group watches 10 minute clips of clinicians and trainees delivering GABI with parent-child dyads and codes them using a 5 point likert scale (where 1 indicates less “competence” or skillfulness in the intervention and 5 a skillful, meaningful intervention) across 7 modes of therapeutic action, termed REARING. REARING is the theoretical basis for GABI and exemplifies the things the clinician does, or does not do, to create therapeutic change in parent-child dyads. REARING stands for: Reflective functioning, Emotional attunement, Affect regulation, Reticence, Intergenerational patterns of attachment, Nurturance, and Group context. This coding group is perhaps most relevant for people who are interested in dissemination of evidence based treatments in psychology, psychotherapy process research, and understanding therapeutic action.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted on the Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI) to determine its effectiveness in improving the parent-child relationship of high-risk families. One of the main goals of the intervention is to improve the reflective functioning of the parent and in turn their children. This refers to the ability to assign mental states to the thoughts, feelings and intentions of the self and others. Increased reflective functioning in parents has been associated with parental sensitivity, which in turn promotes compliance and cooperation in toddlers and children. This coding group will code various forms of compliance and noncompliance in children engaging in a clean up task with their parents. The coding scheme also includes parent verbal and physical codes to understand how parents contribute to the task. The footage comes from assessments carried out before treatment began, after treatment was complete, and six months after treatment ended, for a follow up. This group will assess how compliance changes over treatment and how those changes compare to a standard parent education program called STEP (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting).

The Center for Attachment Research uses the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) global rating scheme (developed by Ruth Feldman, 1998) to objectively assess the progress of families participating in the Group Attachment-Based Intervention (GABI) program. At each meeting, a three- to five-minute video of parent-child unstructured play is viewed and coded via group consensus using 45 individual scales from the CIB manual, with a primary focus on reflections of parental sensitivity vs. intrusiveness, child involvement vs. withdrawal, and dyadic reciprocity; additional clinical and domestic violence markers are also coded wherever relevant. While in this group we’re most interested in the behavioral effects and artifacts of responsive parenting on young children, the CIB system has broad utility for understanding dynamics in couples, families, etc., and is helpful for building/honing observation skills.

The Body Group is currently investigating and understanding body image representation in various studies. One study is currently investigating the role of body image representation and the intergenerational transmission of body image in gay men. Another study is currently looking at the body image representation of dancers and their interoceptive awareness. The work of the body group is centered around the factors contributing to an individual’s sense of self, understanding toward their body, and the influences shaping both their self-esteem and body esteem. We aim to discern this influence through use of the Mirror Interview Paradigm, conceptualized from an attachment framework in which the relationship to the mirror represents the relationship an individual has not only to themself but also to their mother.During meetings we will code the Mirror Interview, specifically participant’s cognitive and affective behavior, using both verbal and non-verbal content.

Reflective Functioning (RF) is the psychological process underlying mentalization, or the ability to understand and infer the mental states of the self and others. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is a structured clinical interview that asks questions about early childhood experiences and parental relationships. The coding of this group focuses on the mentalization process of the interviewee by investigating their relationship with the self and the other. The interviewee discusses their mental and emotional processes of past, current, and future relationships through a series of prompts given within the AAI. We will be using the Reflective Functioning Manual (Fonagy, Target, Steele, & Steele, 1998) to code RF in transcribed Adult Attachment Interviews collected during the RCT for Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI).

The Child Development Coding System (CDCS) is a proposed monitoring tool created to objectively assess child development using video footage of child-parent interactions. The coding system examines development from birth to 5-years of age across four key domains: social-emotional, language/communication, cognitive and movement/physical. The objective of this group is to utilize the CDCS to monitor child development using videos from the randomized control trial conducted on the Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI). In addition to learning how to utilize the CDCS, this group will learn to assess child development with guidance from Dr. Romina Barros, a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician, who serves as the Medical Director for GABI and as the CDC See the Signs, Act Early Ambassador to New York State. This new research endeavor may appeal to students looking to refine their observation skills, increase their understanding of child development and, if validated, this coding system has the potential to contribute to additional MA theses.