an attachment-based intervention designed to address the special needs of infants in foster care by creating a predictable interpersonal environment that encourages and sustains their nurturance by their foster parents. By attending to the disrupted attachment needs of these infants, many of whom have been put in foster care because of previous maltreatment by their original caregivers, the intervention seeks to develop their regulatory capacity at both the physiological and behavioral level. Research suggests, for example, that the intervention is effective in helping to decrease levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in these children. They are also reported to show less avoidance behavior and to seek their caregivers’ comfort when distressed. The intervention is proposed to be particularly effective when involving foster caregivers predisposed to value secure attachments; see autonomous states of mind. [developed by U.S.
psychologist Mary Dozier (1954– )]