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INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Vol. 26(3), 284–286 (2005)� 2005 Michigan Association for Infant Mental HealthPublished online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/imhj.20049

B O O K R E V I E W

Enhancing Early Emotional Development:Guiding Parents of Young Children

By JEAN W. GOWEN AND JUDITH B. NEBRIGPaul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2002, 388 pp.

Reviewed by Marion O’Brien, Ph.D.

Enhancing Early Emotional Development offers a thoughtful philosophy of parent interventionand would be useful reading for all individuals who work with parents of young children.Drawing on years of experience with parent intervention and a thorough grounding in currentdevelopmental literature, authors Jean Gowen and Judith Nebrig describe an attachment-basedand supportive approach to intervention with parents, focusing particularly on mothers whoare at risk for ineffective parenting. The primary emphases of the intervention approach arethreefold: development of a nurturant and supportive professional–parent relationship thatmeets mothers’ emotional needs so that they, in turn, can meet the emotional needs of theirchildren; building on parents’ strengths to promote positive parent–child interactions; andimproving the quality of the caregiving environment by removing risk factors that interferewith positive parenting and child development.

In Part 1, “Nurturing Babies, Toddlers, and Their Parents,” the core features of this rela-tionship-based approach to intervention are described. The authors emphasize the developmentof emotionally nurturing relationships between interventionists (termed “parent guides”) andthe parents they seek to help. The attachment framework, which is further developed later inthe volume, is evident throughout; the authors link attachment difficulties in childhood withmothers’ inadequate parenting. Interventionists are encouraged to use an approach termed bythe authors as “reflective,” which involves thinking about the reasons for a mother’s ineffectivebehavior with her child and asking questions aloud that encourage themother herself to considerher underlying feelings and their sources.

Part II of the book, “Promoting Emotional Development During the First 2 Years,” presentsa summary of social and emotional development in infants and toddlers, with particular em-phasis on emotional and physiological regulation, social interactions between parents and ba-bies, attachment, and individual temperamental differences (in both babies and parents). Alsoincluded are ways in which effective parents help promote optimal social–emotional devel-opment in their young children. There are many examples of positive and less positive parent–child interactions, along with suggestions for how interventionists might use the reflectiveapproach to suggest different ways to parent. One technique recommended is for the interven-tionist to “speak for the baby,” or narrate what the baby may be thinking or feeling for themother who does not appear to be tuned in to her baby’s signals. The overall emphasis forinterventionists is on building positive parent–child relationships by making mothers feel com-petent and effective as parents.

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cap heightbase of textThe third section, “Understanding the Caregiving Environment,” first presents the theo-

retical and research-based support for intergenerational effects of attachment on parenting,and then moves beyond the mother–child relationship to consider how wider family, socialnetwork, and community factors influence parenting. Suggestions are given for intervention-ists working with mothers who face particular challenges (for example, mental health issues,substance abuse, early childbearing, spousal abuse); emphasis is placed on recruiting a rangeof services to help overwhelmed parents, including quality child care as a means of providinginfants and toddlers with the emotional support and positive interactions that may be lackingat home.

There is a plethora of useful information and experience in this book. However, it is noteasy to access all the ideas that are presented. For example, the authors do not explicitlyaddress how interventionists working in existing programs can best incorporate the attach-ment focus and relationship-based approach into their curriculum models. Additionally, prac-tical ideas for intervention approaches are spread throughout the book rather than beingorganized into a set of chapters that could serve as a guide to the home visitor in the fieldwho faces a particular set of issues with a parent. It is somewhat troublesome that the bookdoes not include a thorough discussion of the wisdom of encouraging non-clinically trainedparaprofessionals (who often serve as home visitors in community programs) to use thera-peutic interaction techniques. Such techniques may release strong emotions and uncoverserious problems that the average home visitor will not be prepared to confront. Althoughthe authors encourage interventionists to connect families with the full range of communityservices, they do not place as much emphasis as they could on the importance of trainingand oversight of home visitors using this kind of therapeutic approach. Sections on super-vision of home visitors and individualizing interventions to meet the specific needs of fam-ilies—issues that are central to the effectiveness of any intervention program—are hiddenat the end of two separate chapters that are not focused on implementation issues. It wouldbe easy for readers to overlook these sections. In general, it would have been useful for theauthors to have organized the book in such a way that the “how-to” of putting their philosophyinto practice was explicit and readily accessible.

The authors include a lot of scenarios involving parents, children, and “parent guides” thatare undoubtedly drawn from their own experience with family intervention. By and large, thesescenarios do not present the “tough cases” that every home visitor has had to deal with, butinstead describe either idealized parent behavior or responsive and compliant parent behaviorwhen suggestions for change are made by the parent guides. If home visitors generally ran intoparents such as the ones used as examples in this book, home-based parent intervention wouldbe a breeze! The reality is that home-based intervention is extremely difficult, at least, in part,because of the resistance and noncompliance of parents. More realistic scenarios, and partic-ularly situations in which the professional–parent relationship did not develop positively andthe reflective technique backfired, would be encouraging to novice home visitors and convincemore experienced interventionists that the authors were truly aware of the difficulties andbarriers they face. Although the scenarios are undoubtedly intended to make the authors’ phi-losophy of intervention concrete and give home visitors an idea of the range of situations inwhich the attachment-based intervention approach can be useful, they actually present a too-rosy view of professional–parent interactions to be convincing.

Overall, however, Enhancing Early Emotional Development would be a valuable additionto the library of every home-visiting agency, community-based parent intervention program,infant– toddler child care center, and parent support center. The relationship-based interventionapproach described by Gowen and Nebrig could enhance the efforts of all those who workwith young children and families. The approach is not only intuitively appealing but well

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cap heightbase of textsupported by research findings and by the practical experience of many home visitors. The

authors are clearly knowledgeable about the range of challenging situations faced by parents;they present a positive and supportive outlook toward addressing these situations and offergood advice for home visitors. This is an approach to parent intervention that deserves to bewidely considered and to be the focus of some well-designed evaluation studies so that itsactual effectiveness can be determined.