The interventions

Our team seeks to explore the potential protective buffer of caregiver stress through piloting three resilience-promoting, caregiver-child interventions based in primary care settings:  

• Resilience Clinic, a six-session, group-based program designed to teach mindfulness and other resiliency-promoting skills to caregivers and young children. More information on the Resilience Clinic can be found here.
• Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), a 10-session telehealth program focused on enhancing parental sensitivity and other optimal parenting behaviors among families who have been exposed to adversity.  
• HEROES Family Program, a four-session intervention teaching mindfulness, child development, and healthy communication and attunement for caregivers and children.

How the interventions work

One hundred caregivers and their children, per site, will provide biospecimens before entering and three-months post intervention, in order to assess biologic stress markers. Moreover, this intervention pathway will employ a randomized wait-list controlled trial design, in which families are assigned either to the intervention or enhanced primary care. Those under the enhanced primary care arm, or “wait-list” will be offered the intervention at the end of their study enrollment.  

The enhanced primary care group will receive care coordination services for community resources in addition to usual care. Participants will be asked about any unmet social needs, and those who endorse need will be offered navigational services to link to community resources.  

Pre- and post-intervention health (behavioral, caregiver stress) and biology will be compared between intervention and controls, as well as modifying factors such as setting and delivery method.