Description:

The Toddlers CARE-Index (TCI) is a clinical and research tool used to screen for risk and guide intervention in normative and at-risk dyads. The TCI assesses child attachment and adult-infant interaction from 15-72 months using 5-minute video-recorded play interactions.

Note: The TCI is not yet fully validated and relies on the Infant CARE-Index and Strange Situation for its validity.

 

The procedure:

The procedure involves 3 minutes of play, 1 minute of adult-initiated frustration, and 1 minute of repair; the frustration and repair sequence permit coders to estimate the child’s pattern of attachment. Coding of an interaction takes about 20 minutes. The TCI is suitable for mothers, fathers, grandparents, etc., including people who are unfamiliar to the toddler.

 

Applications:

The Toddler CARE-Index can be used with other family information to:
Screen dyads for services

• Assist parents to understand their infant’s behavior
• Estimate children’s attachment strategy
• Develop new understandings of children’s development through research
• Develop functional formulations of family problems
• Guide decision-making around placement, fostering, and adoption

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Classifications and scales:

The TCI yields an estimate of toddlers’ self-protective attachment strategy (A3-4, A1-2, B1-5, C1-2, C3-4, A.C) as well as a Dyadic Synchrony score and 7 adult and toddler scale scores (adults: sensitive, controlling (covertly and overtly hostile), and unresponsive (active and inactive); toddlers: cooperation, compulsive, threatening, and disarming. The toddler scales are related to the adult scales as follows: adult sensitivity with toddler cooperation, adult control with compulsive compliant toddlers, adult mixed patterns with coercive toddlers, and adult unresponsiveness with compulsive caregiving or depressed toddlers.

The scales:

• Are correlated with the infant Strange Situation assessment of attachment
• Differentiate many subgroups of risk dyads
• Can be used during and as a part of intervention
• Can assess the effectiveness of intervention.

 

The Training Course:

The Toddlers CARE-Index course is suitable for professionals and researchers working with 15-month to 5-year-old children in health, educational, social welfare, and psychotherapy. Participants bring practice interactions for evaluation that reflect their intended application. The course teaches participants to administer and score CI videos.

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This course is taught in person and online via Zoom.

 

Prerequisites

The prerequisites are the Infant CARE-Index and Attachment & Psychopathology. 

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DMM Developmental Series of Assessments of Attachment

Dr. Crittenden has developed a series of assessments: CARE-Index (Infants), Toddlers CARE-Index (TCI), Strange Situation for risk dyads (SSP), Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA), School-age Assessment of Attachment (SAA), Transition to Adulthood Attachment Interview (TAAI), DMM modifications to the Adult Attachment Interview (DMM-AAI), and the Parents Interview (PI). Further information about the DMM, including courses and downloadable materials can be found on the FRI website: www.familyrelationsinstitute.org.

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