Interventions for Suicidal Children and Their Parents

ABSTRACT: Five features of the family organization of suicidal children include family inhibition of change, lack of defined generational boundaries, severity of spouse conflict, projection of inappropriate parental feelings onto the child, and a symbiotic parent-child interaction. The treatment of suicidal children must encompass a holistic family technique. The acute phases of treatment include protecting the child from harm, promoting family recognition of the seriousness of the child's suicidal behavior, promoting appropriate parental role responsibilities, and effecting an immediate significant family change. During the long-term process of treatment, attention must be focused on the child's unique psychopathology, the conflicts that preclude appropriate parental response to the child's needs, and the characterological difficulties of each parent.     

A Family Systems Approach to Behavioral Training with Parents of Autistic Children

This paper reviews briefly the use of behavioral procedures and parent training techniques with parents of autistic children. Potential hazards that may arise when the clinician fails to be sensitive to the family context are examined. Behavioral clinicians are urged to undertake behavioral parent training from a family systems context and thereby enhance the likelihood of more enduring changes for the autistic child and the family as a whole. Case illustrations are provided.     

Establishing the First Stages of Early Reciprocal Interactions Between Mothers and Their Autistic Children

No abstract available for this article.     

儿童合作倾向与家长价值观

本研究采用组内设计的方法,测量了53名5～6岁的儿童在两种情境中的合作行为倾向,以及与他们的家长的工作价值观的关系。结果表明：对情境的知觉影响儿童的合作倾向,一方面表现在对好朋友与不认识的小朋友的合作行为倾向有显著性差异;另一方面是对不同的实验材料有不同的合作行为表现。另外,儿童的合作行为倾向与父母的工作价值观——特别是经济利益价值、管理价值等有显著相关。     

The Treatment of Children Through Brief Therapy of Their Parents

This is a report on the successful resolution of behavior problems (encopresis and anorexia, respectively) in two small children through the brief therapy of their parents. Treatment was based on general systems theory and the cybernetic model and employed interventions designed specifically to bring about rapid change in family interaction. The course of the treatments, as well as the technical problems arising out of such rapid changes, are discussed.     

Play and Art in Existential Trauma Therapy with Children and Their Parents

In existential family trauma therapy play and art can be utilized during the treatment process to help children and their parents hold, tell, master, and honor their trauma experiences and trauma pain. Clinical material is offered to illustrate this existential treatment process.     

Perceptions of Turkish Parents with Children Identified as Dyslexic About the Problems that they and Their Children Experience

This study identified problems encountered by both dyslexic children and their parents. Seven parents were interviewed. Parents mentioned the negative attitudes of teachers towards them and their children, the use of incorrect practices in the classroom, and educational insufficiency in relation to dyslexia. Similarly, family members were found to display negative attitudes towards dyslexic children manifested in the form of insults, exclusion, psychological pressure, and physical violence. Dyslexic children were also subjected to exclusion and various bullying behaviors by their friends. An additional problem that emerged was the inordinate amount of time taken by schools to make diagnoses of dyslexia.     

A School-Based Program from Infancy to Kindergarten for Children and Their Parents

The authors present a program of service and research with preschool children that has been shown effective in providing positive preventive outcomes.     

Pilot Mindfulness Intervention for Children Born with Esophageal Atresia and Their Parents

A pilot mindfulness home intervention was conducted for 6 weeks among 8–12-year-old children born with esophageal atresia and their parents. Participants were randomly assigned to a waiting list control (WLC) group (n?=?8) and an experimental group (n?=?12). When all participants had completed the mindfulness-based program, data were pooled and treated for the entire sample (n?=?19). Self-assessment measures included the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale for Adolescents (MAAS-A), the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM), the modified Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory—Child (STAI-C), the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Kids version (CERQ-k). Parental assessment measures included the modified STAI-C. The results underlined the program’s feasibility and acceptability. Clinical effects of the mindfulness-based program were observed. Self-assessed data for children who had practiced mindfulness compared to the WLC group showed increased mindfulness and decreased depression. Reduced anxiety was found in all groups. Positive affect tended to improve from pre-test to post-test in children who had practiced mindfulness compared to the WLC group. Parental assessments showed significant improvement in positive affect and decreases in anxiety and negative affect in the intervention group compared to the WLC group. Cognitive emotion regulation strategies were also affected by the mindfulness-based program. Rumination scores significantly decreased from pre-test to post-test in the intervention group. This preliminary study suggests that regular mindfulness practice presents a promising approach to reducing the burden of this neonatal malformation.     

Sixteen-Session Group Treatment for Children and Adolescents With Parental Alienation and Their Parents

This study reports the findings of a 16-session parallel group therapy program for 22 children with parental alienation and their parents. The children's level of anxiety and depression decreased significantly following the therapeutic intervention. Families who had participated in the treatment protocol were found to have improved practical parameters of parental collaboration 12 months following the completion of treatment than a control group of families with parental alienation treated with standard community treatment. Parental object relation scores were negatively correlated with children's level of anxiety and depression at pretreatment and with the decrease in anxiety and depression level along the treatment.     

Development of the Connectedness to Treatment Setting Scale for Children with Cancer and Their Parents

Treatment for pediatric cancer requires periodic and long hospital admissions. The intensity and frequency of the interactions taking place in the treatment setting indicate that this is a context to which children and their families can feel connected. This study’s main goal was to develop the Connectedness to Treatment Setting Scale (CTSS-Pediatric Cancer), a 10-item scale assessing children’s and parents’ connectedness to the health setting where children receive cancer treatment. Participants were 128 dyads of children receiving treatment at two Portuguese public hospitals and their parents. Two exploratory factor analyses with children’s and parents’ data separately and a dyadic confirmatory factor analysis with the whole sample supported a second-order factorial structure of the CTSS-Pediatric Cancer, where three dimensions (Sense of Belonging, Comfort and Emotional Care) loaded onto a total score of connectedness. Findings suggest that the CTSS-Pediatric Cancer is a valid and useful assessment measure.     

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis: Understanding What Parents Plan to Tell Their Children About Their Conception

Over 10,000 babies have been born by PGD and PGS worldwide (Simpson, Prenatal Diagnosis 30(7): 682–695 2010). The experience of parents who have undergone this procedure and their children’s well-being are documented, but no research to date has explored whether parents intend to tell their children how they were conceived and whether this raises special issues for them. PGD practitioners recommend research in this area as parents of children born by PGD increasingly ask questions pertaining to disclosure. We conducted 30 in-depth interviews with couples who have had a baby conceived by PGD. We explored what couples plan to tell their children about how they were conceived, when they plan to do this, and issues they anticipate may arise. The couples had a family history of a monogenic disorder or chromosome rearrangement. Six themes emerged which highlight key issues: (1) To tell or not to tell? (2) Primary reason for undergoing PGD, (3) The ideal time to tell, (4) Situations which may warrant earlier disclosure, (5) Words which parents might choose, and (6) Issues which parents anticipate may arise. We conclude that parents are likely to inform their children about PGD because there is an affected sibling or relative about whom they ask questions, and/or their children are carriers of a condition their parents feel obliged to tell them about. Parents felt they would benefit from access to a genetic counsellor at the time of disclosure and are optimistic about the future of reproductive technology for their children.     

Counseling the Children of Handicapped Parents

The children of the handicapped frequently need counseling to help them cope with the consequences of their parents' handicaps. Parental handicaps typically lead to modifications in parenting behavior and family structure that may be perceived as deficiencies. Kennedy and Bush discuss the child's reaction to parental handicap in the context of object loss and attachment. Evidence suggests that the children of the handicapped are overrepresented among those who are in some way maladjusted or in need of counseling. This article focuses on multiple sclerosis in parents, including its impact on children, suggested interventions, and a case study.     

Treating Parents and Children Together

SUMMARY

In this paper I look at two traditions of psychotherapy with children: family therapy {here considered in its common paradigm of systems theory and not in its diversity of approaches) and individual psychodynamically oriented child therapy. The author examines how, in these two modalities of treatment, the real world of the parent-child relationship, which remains mostly a world of women and children, tends to be left out in practice. Many family therapists “exclude” children from their sessions and concentrate on the marital relationship while child therapists “exclude” parents from the core of the therapeutic process. The issues for therapists and the consequences for adults and children in families in this com-partmentalization of services are examined within a feminist framework. The development which is advocated is for therapists to expose themselves fully to the world of the parent-child relationship as a fust step in reexamining their stereotypical views of motherhood and fatherhood which trap women in conflicted and potentially exploitative situations and do not consider that children actively construct their own relationships.