Mary Dozier, an American psychologist, holds the Amy E. du Pont Chair of Child Development at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

. Dozier studied at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

where she received her degree in psychology in 1976, and her PhD in clinical psychology in 1983. She joined the faculty at Delaware in 1994. She is one of the originators of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) parenting intervention. The intervention has been endorsed by the California Evidence-Based Clearing House for Child Welfare. The focus of the intervention is on increasing caregiver nurturance, the capacity of the caregiver to follow the child's lead, and the avoidance of intrusive or frightening behaviours by the caregiver. Several randomised control trials have documented the effectiveness of ABC in improving caregiver sensitivity and infant attachment security, as well as reducing later aggressive behaviour by the child. The ABC intervention has also been documented to have impacts on neurological and endocrine processes suggestive of emotion regulation. ABC is currently regarded as among the most successful of the second generation of attachment-based parenting interventions. In acknowledgement of her contributions to

attachment theory Attachment theory is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal ...

, Dozier was awarded the Bowlby-Ainsworth Award for Translational Research on Adoption.

Publications

Her most highly cited articles include: * Dozier M, Stoval KC, Albus KE, Bates B. Attachment for infants in foster care: The role of caregiver state of mind .''

Child development Child development involves the Human development (biology), biological, developmental psychology, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages o ...

''. 2001 Sep;72(5):1467-77. *Dozier M, Kobak RR. Psychophysiology in attachment interviews: Converging evidence for deactivating strategies. ''Child development''. 1992 Dec;63(6):1473-80. *Mary Dozier, Kelly L Cue, Lara Barnett. Clinicians as caregivers: role of attachment organization in treatment. ''

Journal of consulting and clinical psychology The ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology'' is a monthly academic journal published by the American Psychological Association. Its focus is on treatment and prevention in all areas of clinical and clinical-health psychology and especiall ...

'' 62 (4) 793.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dozier, Mary American women psychologists 20th-century American psychologists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American psychologists University of Delaware faculty Duke University alumni American women academics