The Mothers and Toddlers Program: Preliminary findings from an attachment-based parenting intervention for substance-abusing mothers.
Open accessAbstract
The authors examined pilot data from an attachment-based parenting intervention for substance-abusing mothers of toddlers (ages 12-36 months). The Mothers and Toddlers Program (MTP) is a 20-week individual therapy intervention that aims to help mothers develop more balanced representations of their children and improve their capacity for reflective functioning (i.e., recognition of the intentional nature of children's behavior). The authors hypothesized that improvement in maternal representational balance and maternal capacity for reflective functioning would correspond with improvements in maternal behavior with toddlers (e.g., sensitivity to cues, responsiveness to distress, and social-emotional growth fostering) and reduction in maternal psychiatric distress and substance abuse. Eight mothers who completed MTP showed moderate improvements in representational balance and reflective functioning, and these changes corresponded with significant improvements in maternal behaviors with toddlers. The authors also compared MTP completers and noncompleters on sociodemographic and psychosocial indexes and examined the validity of the intervention's proposed mechanisms of change. Preliminary findings support the importance of attachment mechanisms and indicate that attachment-based interventions may strengthen substance-abusing mothers' capacities to foster their toddlers' socioemotional development.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
MIO has been associated with reduced rates of relapse in multiple clinical trials.
“MIO has been associated with reduced rates of relapse and depressive symptoms, improved caregiving, and enhanced child attachment in multiple clinical trials (Lowell, DeCoste, et al., 2023; Suchman et al., 2008; Suchman et al., 2010; Suchman et al., 2011; Suchman, DeCoste, et al., 2017; Suchman, Ordway, et al., 2016)”
From Home‐based family recovery supports: Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of training home visitors in “Mothering from the Inside Out” (2025) · cites this paper as Suchman et al., 2008
The Results (Treatment Outcomes; page unavailable) report that positive cocaine or heroin screens fell from 63% before baseline to 13% during the third month of MTP, and the Methods treat positive screens as evidence of recurrent substance use. This supports an association with less drug use, but the paper reports one preliminary, uncontrolled MTP study—not reduced relapse rates for MIO across multiple clinical trials. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMIO has been associated with reduced depressive symptoms in multiple clinical trials.
“MIO has been associated with reduced rates of relapse and depressive symptoms, improved caregiving, and enhanced child attachment in multiple clinical trials (Lowell, DeCoste, et al., 2023; Suchman et al., 2008; Suchman et al., 2010; Suchman et al., 2011; Suchman, DeCoste, et al., 2017; Suchman, Ordway, et al., 2016)”
From Home‐based family recovery supports: Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of training home visitors in “Mothering from the Inside Out” (2025) · cites this paper as Suchman et al., 2008
The Results (Treatment Outcomes; page unavailable) report that maternal depression decreased after 12 weeks in the Mothers and Toddlers Program (MTP), but the decrease was not statistically significant (p = .11). The Discussion says the study lacked a randomized control group. This paper provides preliminary evidence of a decrease, not evidence from a controlled clinical trial, and it calls the intervention MTP rather than MIO. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMIO has been associated with improved caregiving in multiple clinical trials.
“MIO has been associated with reduced rates of relapse and depressive symptoms, improved caregiving, and enhanced child attachment in multiple clinical trials (Lowell, DeCoste, et al., 2023; Suchman et al., 2008; Suchman et al., 2010; Suchman et al., 2011; Suchman, DeCoste, et al., 2017; Suchman, Ordway, et al., 2016)”
From Home‐based family recovery supports: Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of training home visitors in “Mothering from the Inside Out” (2025) · cites this paper as Suchman et al., 2008
The Abstract and Discussion (Treatment Outcomes; page not provided) report improved caregiving behaviors among mothers who completed the Mothers and Toddlers Program (MTP). This paper reports one small, uncontrolled pilot study, not multiple clinical trials, and our copy does not identify MTP as MIO. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMIO has been associated with enhanced child attachment in multiple clinical trials.
“MIO has been associated with reduced rates of relapse and depressive symptoms, improved caregiving, and enhanced child attachment in multiple clinical trials (Lowell, DeCoste, et al., 2023; Suchman et al., 2008; Suchman et al., 2010; Suchman et al., 2011; Suchman, DeCoste, et al., 2017; Suchman, Ordway, et al., 2016)”
From Home‐based family recovery supports: Feasibility, acceptability, and adoption of training home visitors in “Mothering from the Inside Out” (2025) · cites this paper as Suchman et al., 2008
The Results (Treatment Outcomes; page unavailable) report changes in mothers’ representations and caregiving, not a measured improvement in child attachment. The Research Design describes this work as a preliminary pilot and says a randomized trial was upcoming. Searches for child attachment outcomes and multiple clinical trials found no passage substantiating the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 28 · Cited by 152
Research works printed but not linked: 18
- Baron RM Kenny DA 1986 The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51 1173 1182 3806354
- Bowlby J 1982 Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment 2 New York Basic Books
- Burns KA Chethik L Burns WJ Clark R 1997 The early relationship of drug abusing mothers and their infants: An assessment at eight to twelve months of age Journal of Clinical Psychology 53 279 287 9075056
- Edelman GM Tononi G Cornwell J 1995 Neural Darwinism: The brain as a selectional system Nature’s imagination: The frontiers of scientific vision 78 100 New York Oxford University Press
- Fonagy P Gergely G Jurist EL Target M 2002 Affect regulation, metallization, and the development of the self New York Other Press
- Grienenberger J Slade A 2004 Maternal reflective functioning, mother-infant affective communication, and infant attachment: Exploring the link between mental states and observed care giving behavior Manuscript in preparation 16210241
- Hans LL Bernstein VJ Henson LG 1999 The role of psychopathology in the parenting of drug-dependent women Development and Psychopathology 11 957 977 10624734
- Karen R 1994 Becoming attached New York Oxford University Press
- Koob GF 1996 Hedonic valence, dopamine and motivation Molecular Psychiatry 1 186 189 9118342
- Koob GF LeMoal M 1997 October 3 Drug abuse: Hedonic homeostatic dysregulation Science 278 52 58 9311926
- Leckman JF Mayes LC 1998 Understanding developmental psychopathology: How useful are evolutionary accounts? Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 37 1011 1021 9785712
- Luthar SS Walsh KG 1995 Treatment needs of drug-addicted mothers: Integrated parenting psychotherapy interventions Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 12 341 348 8583517
- Mayes L Truman S Bornstein M 2002 Substance abuse and parenting Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4. Social conditions and applied parenting 2 329 359 Mahwah, NJ Erlbaum
- Murphy S Rosenbaum M 1999 Pregnant women on drugs: Combating stereotypes and stigma New Brunswick, NJ Rutgers University Press
- Pajulo M Suchman NE Kalland M Mayes LC 2006 Enhancing the effectiveness of residential treatment for substance abusing pregnant and parenting women: Focus on maternal reflective functioning and mother-child relationship Infant Mental Health Journal 27 448 465 PMC2813060 20119507
- Slade A Cohen LJ 1996 The process of parenting and the remembrance of things past Infant Mental Health Journal 17 217 222
- Sroufe LA Carlson EA Levy AK Egeland B 1999 Implications of attachment theory for developmental psychopathology Development and Psychopathology 11 1 13 10208353
- Suchman NE Mayes L Conti J Slade A Rounsaville B 2004 Rethinking parenting interventions for drug dependent mothers: Fostering maternal responsiveness to children’s emotional needs Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 27 179 185 15501370
- Authors
- Suchman, N., DeCoste, C., Castiglioni, N., Legow, N., & Mayes, L.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- ORCID
- Suchman, Nancy
- Venue
- Psychoanalytic Psychology
- Published
- 2008-07
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 499-517
- ISSN
- 0736-9735 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1331
- PMC
- PMC2802496
- OpenAlex
- W2025032083
- Cited by
- 152
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 6.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychoanalytic Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R01DA017294; K23DA14606)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- maternal substance abuse, toddlers, reflective functioning, maternal sensitivity, maternal responsiveness, social-emotional development, mechanisms of change
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
