title: Randomized controlled trial of a home-visiting intervention on infant cognitive development in peri-urban South Africa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether, in an impoverished South African community, an intervention that benefitted infant attachment also benefitted cognitive development.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pregnant females were randomized to intervention (n=220) and no-treatment control groups (n=229). The intervention was home-based parenting support for attachment, delivered until 6 months postpartum. At 18 months, infants were assessed on attachment and cognitive development (Bayley Scales Mental Development Index [MDI]) (n=127 intervention, n=136 control participants). Infant MDI was examined in relation to intervention, socio-economic risk, antenatal depression, and infant sex and attachment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, there was little effect of the intervention on MDI (p=0.094, d=0.20), but there was an interaction between intervention and risk (p=0.03, ηp2=0.02). MDI scores of infants of lower risk intervention group mothers were, on average, 4.84 points higher than those of other infants (p=0.002, d=0.41). Antenatal depression was not significant once intervention and risk were controlled (p=0.08); there was no association between infant MDI and either sex (p=0.41) or attachment (p=0.56).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parenting interventions for infant cognitive development may benefit from inclusion of specific components to support infant cognition beyond those that support attachment, and may be most effective for infants over 6 months. They may need augmentation with other input where adversity is extreme.
authors: School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.|Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
authors: Lynne
authors: L
authors: Murray
authors: School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.|Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Cooper
authors: Faculdade de Psucologia, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors: Adriane
authors: A
authors: Arteche
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.|School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Stein
authors: Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Tomlinson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003150:Community Health Workers; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D013019:South Africa; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult