Parent-child mutuality and relationship-based parenting: Evaluating Circle of Security Parenting effectiveness

The Circle of Security® Parenting™ (COSP™) program is a relationship-based intervention that targets attachment security and caregiver internal working models. Effectiveness and efficacy research utilizing observational measurement of parent-child interaction remains limited in the Circle of Security® literature and few studies have examined changes in parent-child/dyadic mutuality as a construct of interest. The aims of this exploratory study were to evaluate the efficacy of COSP™ by examining changes in dyadic mutuality and parent positivity/negativity using the Parent Child Interaction System (PARCHISY), a validated observational measurement tool, in 16 parent-child dyads. A quasi-experimental repeated measures design was employed to investigate changes in observed parent-child interaction before and after the 8-week COSP™ intervention and across two tasks, structured play and clean-up. Analyses revealed theoretically predicted positive changes in dyadic mutuality and parent positivity and no significant change in parent negativity. These results support the utility of PARCHISY in the assessment of attachment-focused parenting interventions.