THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ATTACHMENT BASED THERAPLAY ON MATERNAL SENSITIVITY AND CHILD NEGATIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF SELF AND MOTHER

the purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of attachment based theraplays using video feedback method on increasing maternal sensitivity and decreasing child's negative representations of self and mother. Twenty five motherchild dyads (12 dyads in experimental group; 13 dyads in control group) ages between three and five were selected by convenience sampling from 3 nursery schools and a counseling center in Tehran. The sample was assessed using the Maternal Behavior QSORT (Pederson, Moran, & Bento, 1999) and the MacArthur Story Stem Battery (Emed, Wolf, & Oppenheim, 2003). The research design was semi-experimental with pretest-posttest and follow up. The intervention of the experimental group was eight, 60-minute individual, weekly sessions. Mothers of the control group received an educational package focusing on increasing cognitive skills of the children. The results indicated that the attachment based theraplays have significantly increased the maternal sensitivity and significantly decreased the child's negative representations of self and mother in the experimental group. The findings suggested that using attachment based theraplay could be effective in developing secure base in preschoolers.