Less is more: Meta-analytic arguments for the use of sensitivity-focused interventions

The idea that early interventions may be most effective in preventing less optimal or even deviant developmental pathways has led to an increase in efforts to shape and evaluate preventive interventions in the first few years of life, and even before the birth of the target child. Several reviews on early interventions have documented their effectiveness in enhancing parental child-rearing attitudes and practices and children's socioemotional development. Intervention efforts vary in focus, duration, and method. Highly intensive interventions with numerous sessions focusing on sensitivity, representations, and support show disappointingly small or even negative effect sizes on attachment security. Indeed, the association between effect sizes for sensitivity and attachment confirms the hypothesis of a causal link between sensitivity and attachment security. Sensitivity interventions with rather large effect sizes were also most effective in enhancing infant attachment security.