Poster #136 - Fostering Playfulness through the Group Attachment Based Intervention

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Play is a child’s primary occupation and it is the means by which children explore and learn about their environment and their caregivers (Youell, 2008; Bundy et al., 2001). The current study aims to understand whether the The Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI ©) successfully fosters playfulness in children that experienced early childhood trauma. GABI is an attachment- and trauma informed intervention providing support for vulnerable families throughout New York (Steele and Steele, 2018; Murphy et al., 2014). The over-arching GABI model focuses on strengthening caregiving relationships and promoting secure attachment between parent-child dyads. GABI offers a unique frame that is designed to promote secure attachment. GABI begins with 45 minutes of family psychotherapy. Then, the families separate for parent-only and child-only groups that run simultaneously in separate rooms. Separation with a sense of security is a crucial piece of the attachment model (Bowlby, 1982). This study focuses solely on the effects of the sixty minute child-only psychotherapy when the separation occurs. During child-only psychotherapy, GABI clinicians provide a warm, empathetic environment while also scaffolding play and encouraging exploration in the children. These therapeutic concepts are operationalized for training purposes in the R.E.A.R.I.N.G. acronym (Steele and Steele, 2018). The acronym reminds GABI clinicians to focus on reflective functioning, emotional attunement, affect regulation, reticence, intergenerational patterns, nurturance, and group context when working with GABI families (Armusewicz et al., 2015). The current study used the R.E.A.R.I.N.G. Coding Scale (RCS) as a competency measure to assess the quality of the therapeutic interventions used by the clinicians. The current study utilized the Test of Playfulness (ToP) coding system to assess the children’s playfulness when interacting with a GABI clinician (Bundy et al., 2001). The results of the current study suggest that higher clinician competency in specific areas of therapeutic action (i.e. R.E.A.R.I.N.G.) significantly increases playfulness in GABI children. Specially, there is a significant correlation between the quality of a clinicians’ reflective functioning (R in R.E.A.R.I.N.G.) and the children’s extent of engagement in play, skill of engagement in play, and the children’s ability to engage in intimate play with others. A clinician’s competency in group context (G in R.E.A.R.I.N.G.) is significantly correlated with the children’s skills in regards to mischievous play. Although mischievous play is traditionally thought of as negative, the ToP coding system defines it as a child’s ability to demonstrate silliness and playful teasing all which may the play more interesting, fun and sophisticated (Bundy et al., 2001). Taken together, these results suggest that the GABI therapeutic model has the potential for influencing children’s playfulness. In broad scope, the children’s ability to interact with their caregivers, peers, and environments with increased playfulness may further promote secure attachment patterns in the GABI children.

Authors

• Lorena Lopez, The New School for Social Research
  Presenting Author

• Miriam Steele, The New School for Social Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anne Murphy, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Howard Steele, The New School for Social Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelsey Armusewicz, The New School
  Non-Presenting Author