AMBIT CLIENT OUTCOMES Version 2.0

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Differences in adolescents' empathy, trust, attachment and mentalization skills: Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment (AMBIT)

• IRAS ID

  150423

• Contact name

  Peter Fonagy

• Contact email

  p.fonagy@ucl.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Joint Research Office (part of the Research Support Centre)

• Research summary

  Mentalization-based treatments are beginning to be applied to an increasing variety of populations in a variety of settings. The number of studies evaluating the applications of these therapies is increasing too. This study is encouraged by the growing demand for Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment (AMBIT) training both in the UK and across the world in recent years. Despite its increasing popularity and application to different populations, there has been limited research assessing the impact of AMBIT. There is a growing need for an evaluation of the specific features of AMBIT to examine the objectives and expected outcomes of the approach.
  My main research aim is to evaluate the indication that teams operating using an AMBIT model positively influence how the young person views the care-giving system around them, which subsequently affects their internal working model. Bowlby (1973, p. 203) wrote that ‘each individual builds working models of the world and of himself in it, with the aid of which he perceives events, forecasts the future, and constructs his plans. In the working models of the world that anyone builds, a key feature is his notion of who his attachment figures are, where they may be found, and how they may be expected to respond. Similarly, in the working model of the self that anyone builds, a key feature is his notion of how acceptable or unacceptable he himself is in the eyes of his attachment figures’. This internal working model will be examined alongside a range of factors such as relationship to help, trust, empathy, attachment and ability to mentalize. Some of these factors are overlapping and will all be considered as part of this research.

• REC name

  London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/LO/0596

• Date of REC Opinion

  9 Jul 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion