Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
Annual Research Review: The role of caregiver sensitivity in children's developmental outcomes – an umbrella review
Originally published 2026-01-07 · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines
Wiley · DOI 10.1111/jcpp.70087 ↗
Editorial reading guide · Trust
What does the wider evidence say about noticing and responding to a child’s signals?
This broad synthesis connects responsive caregiving with attachment and developmental outcomes. It offers a research foundation for the Trust theme while showing that associations differ across outcomes.
Who was studied?
Seventeen meta-analyses of caregiver sensitivity and related parenting constructs
Age / stage: Childhood; age ranges vary across included meta-analyses
Read with three questions
- How did the review define caregiver sensitivity?
- How did the associations differ for attachment, language, cognition and socioemotional problems?
- Why can this umbrella review not establish that sensitivity alone caused these outcomes?
Keep the limits in view
The synthesized findings are correlational. Overlapping primary evidence, varied sensitivity constructs and the limitations of the included meta-analyses constrain causal and individual-family conclusions.
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Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Marissa D Nivison; Pasco Fearon; Jennifer M Jenkins; Sheri Madigan (2026). Annual Research Review: The role of caregiver sensitivity in children's developmental outcomes – an umbrella review Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70087
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.