Dr. Sheri Madigan
Contribution: Attachment: what recent research shows, and how it affects practice

Sheri Madigan is a registered clinical psychologist and professor of Determinants of Child Development at the University of Calgary in Canada. She is the director of the Madigan Lab at her university: a research group focused on understanding the impact of childhood experiences on cognitive development and the mental well-being of young people. Her research involves practice-relevant topics such as attachment, ACEs, child abuse, and the influence of parents' mental well-being on their children.

She has published nearly 200 articles, books, and chapters on these topics.

In her introductory contribution, Sheri will discuss the most recent research on attachment and its implications for clinical practice.

Dr. Mary Dozier
Contribution: Improving attachment quality among vulnerable infants and young children: The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Approach

Mary Dozier is a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware in the United States. She has studied the development of young children in foster care and those living with neglectful biological parents, focusing on challenges in attachment and regulatory skills. Together with her research team, she developed the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) intervention for parents of vulnerable infants. Randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that ABC is effective in improving parental sensitivity and the behavioral and biological functioning of children. In 2016, she was named the Francis Alison Professor, the highest faculty honor at the University. In 2018, Mary received the International Society for Infancy Studies Translational Research Award and in 2019, she received the American Psychological Association Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for lifetime contribution to developmental psychology in service to science and society.

This talk will provide an overview of a brief home visiting program, Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), designed to enhance young children's attachment quality through improving parents' sensitivity. The rationale for each of the three intervention targets (increasing nurturance and following the lead and reducing frightening behavior) will be discussed and the method of implementation will be described. Intervention outcomes in terms of child attachment quality and self-regulation will be discussed.

Dr. Or Dagan
Contribution: Attachment in single-parent families

Or Dagan received his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he also served as a Clinical Consultant. He completed post-doctoral research fellowships at the Developmental Stress and Prevention lab at Stony Brook University's Department of Psychology, and at the Clinical Child and Family Studies Unit at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Currently, he is a professor of clinical psychology at Long Island University, as well as a clinical psychologist and supervisor at a private practice.

In his lecture, he will focus on recent developments in non-traditional family structures, particularly the increasing number of single-parent families. He will share research-based insights on how his team has discovered that close relationships of children with both parents—not just one parent (mother or father)—are crucial for their mental health. He will discuss how these findings have significant implications for supporting families in clinical practice.