Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Intervention

Welcome

Welcome to the official website for Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) Intervention.

This site is intended to introduce you to the rationale behind the intervention, the evidence regarding the intervention’s effectiveness, and a little about how the intervention is implemented.

What is the ABC Intervention?

The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Intervention is a training program for caregivers of young children who have been neglected and caregivers of young children in foster care. Over the last 15 years, we have studied the development of young children who have experienced early adversity.  We have identified three key issues:  

Children who have experienced early adversity:

• Tend to push caregivers away when they are hurt or frustrated, acting as if they can handle things on their own.
• Especially need nurturing care; without such care, they are at risk for developing disorganized attachments to caregivers.
• Are often dysregulated at behavioral and biobehavioral levels.

The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) Intervention targets these three issues through 10 sessions.  The intervention is tailored so as to be appropriate for working with foster parents and young children, and for working with neglecting birth parents.  

The ABC Intervention is designed to help parents:

• Provide nurturance even when children do not appear to need it.
• Provide nurturance even when it does not come naturally to parents.
• Provide a very predictable environment, so the children can learn to regulate their behavior and emotions.