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The use of multitreatment modalities in early intervention: A quantitative case study
Author(s) -
Leifer Myra,
Wax Linda Croner,
LeventhalBelfer Laurie,
Fouchia Andrea,
Morrison Margie
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
infant mental health journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1097-0355
pISSN - 0163-9641
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0355(198922)10:2<100::aid-imhj2280100204>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - modalities , intervention (counseling) , medicine , medical physics , psychology , nursing , sociology , social science
A quantitative single case study is presented to illustrate how an early intervention program used two therapeutic modalities to treat a depressed mother and her 2‐month‐old son. Drawing upon an ecological, transactional model of development, the case study utilized a multimethod, longitudinal approach to assess the infant's developmental competence and attachment status, the mother's history and current psychosocial functioning, patterns of mother‐infant interaction, and components of the family's social ecology. Measures were administered during a baseline period to assess pre‐intervention functioning and were systematically repeated throughout the 2‐year period of intervention. The treatment modalities included psychodynamically oriented individual therapy and Parent‐Infant Relationship Treatment (PIRT) in which the dyad was also seen by a second therapist to foster more adaptive mother‐infant transactional patterns. The findings indicated increased infant developmental competence and a shift from an insecure to a secure attachment classification, improved maternal psychosocial functioning, and a decline in the dyadic interactional pattern of maternal intrusiveness and infant withdrawal. The advantages of using two treatment modalities and a single case approach to evaluation are discussed.