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A Pilot Study Implementing Co** Power in Italian Community Hospitals: Effect of Therapist Attachment Style on Outcomes in Children

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Abstract

The study presented the initial report of a project regarding the implementation of the Co** Power Program in Italian community hospitals, and the program’s ability to reduce externalizing behavioral problems in children with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder diagnosis. Usually, interventions for children are implemented by a number of therapists with different personal characteristics, which therefore influence the implementation quality of an intervention. That said, the present study aimed to establish whether the insecure attachment styles of therapists predict unfavorable outcomes for children treated with the Co** Power Program. The sample included 80 children with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder diagnosis and 16 therapists. The results showed that the change in children’s aggressive behavioral problems was significantly related to the levels of the therapist’s preoccupation with relationships. Higher levels of change in aggression (where a higher value means that the aggression at the end of the treatment is higher than aggression at the baseline evaluation) are associated with higher levels of therapist’s preoccupied attachment style (anxious attachment style). This study provided some preliminary evidence that therapists need to be sensitive to their own attachment experiences when delivering therapy for children.

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Author Contributions

P.M. designed, executed the study, and wrote the paper. L.P. collaborated with the design of the study and wrote the paper. S.C. collected data. VD: collected data. M.M. collected data. A.M. collaborated with the design of the study. A.N. analyzed the data and wrote part of the results. D.S. collected data. D.V. collected data. F.L. collaborated with the design of the study. J.L. collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Scientific Institute of Child Neurology and Psychiatry, Calambrone (Pisa), Italy

    Pietro Muratori, Lisa Polidori & Annarita Milone

  2. AUSL, npia, Bologna, Italy

    Simona Chiodo

  3. Centro Edimar, Padova, Italy

    Valentina Dovigo

  4. AUSL, Romagna, Italy

    Michela Mascarucci

  5. Department of Sciences of Education and Psychology, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy

    Annalaura Nocentini

  6. Associazione “Dalla parte dei minori”, Ravenna, Italy

    Daniele Stumpo & Dalila Visani

  7. S.B.P.C, Bologna, Italy

    Furio Lambruschi

  8. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    John E. Lochman

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  1. Pietro Muratori
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  2. Lisa Polidori
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Correspondence to Pietro Muratori.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Muratori, P., Polidori, L., Chiodo, S. et al. A Pilot Study Implementing Co** Power in Italian Community Hospitals: Effect of Therapist Attachment Style on Outcomes in Children. J Child Fam Stud 26, 3093–3101 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0820-7

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