Parents' perception of environmental variables in pediatric offices.

In a study of 15 pediatric practices in the Greater Hartford, Connecticut area the effects of 16 reception room variables upon the comfort and behavior of children were investigated. A total of 300 parents were requested to rate the variables as to their relative importance to the child's comfort and behavior when well and when acutely ill. Variables were differentially ranked both within and between stiuations. The "human-oriented" variables were perceived as generally more important in the care of an acutely ill child. For the well child, a mixture of "human-oriented" and "physical" variables were perceived as having an impact on the comfort and behavior of the patient.     

Parental meta-emotion structure predicts family and child outcomes

Abstract

Fifty-six families with a preschool child whose parents varied widely in parental marital satisfaction were studied at two time points: at time-I when the children were 5 years old and again at time-2 when the children were 8 years old. At time-1 each parent was separately interviewed about their “meta-emotion structure”, that is, their feelings about their own emotions, and their attitudes, and responses to their children's anger and sadness. Their behaviour during this interview was coded with a meta-emotion coding system. Two meta-emotion variables were studied for each parent, awareness of the parent's own sadness, and parental “coaching” of the child's anger. We termed the high end of these variables an “emotion coaching” (EC) meta-emotion structure. Meta-emotion structure was found to relate to time-1 marital and parent-child interaction. EC-type parents had marriages that were less hostile and they were less negative and more positive during parent-child interaction. Their children showed less evidence of physiological stress, greater ability to focus attention, and had less negative play with their best friends. At time-2 those children showed higher academic achievement in mathematics and reading had fewer behaviour problems, and were physically healthier than non-EC parents. The relations between child outcome and parental meta-emotion structure were not explained by social class variables, emotional expressiveness, or the greater happiness and stability of parents with an EC-type meta-emotion structure.     

The Peter Pan Syndrome: Inpatient treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa

Specific strategies designed for intervening in family, hospital, community, and school systems are discussed as crucial components in the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa. It is suggested that all these systems inadvertently collude in the “Peter Pan Syndrome”: maintaining the adolescent-identified patient in a latency age role in order to protect mother from depression and the family in its entirety from an “empty nest” developmental crisis. When strategic and structural alterations occurred within the above mentioned systems while the child was hospitalized and after discharge, the anorectic symptom was alleviated.     

The Peter Pan Syndrome: Inpatient treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa

Specific strategies designed for intervening in family, hospital, community, and school systems are discussed as crucial components in the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa. It is suggested that all these systems inadvertently collude in the “Peter Pan Syndrome”: maintaining the adolescent-identified patient in a latency age role in order to protect mother from depression and the family in its entirety from an “empty nest” developmental crisis. When strategic and structural alterations occurred within the above mentioned systems while the child was hospitalized and after discharge, the anorectic symptom was alleviated.     

Youth sports and physical activity: The relationship between perceptions of childhood sport experience and adult exercise behavior

ObjectiveParticipation in organized youth sports has been shown to positively correlate with increased levels of exercise in adulthood. However, there is limited research to suggest why youth sports participation is related to increased physical activity as an adult. One possible explanation is that positive youth sport experiences lead youth to be more positively inclined to engage in physical activity as adults. Research into the positive youth development aspect of organized sports provides the framework for the current investigation.MethodsAdult participants (N = 234, M_age = 35.35) were asked to retrospectively assess their youth sports experiences using the “Four C's” (i.e., competence, confidence, connectedness, character) framework of positive youth development in sport. These assessments were then compared to current physical activity levels and related variables found in the Health Action Process Approach model (HAPA; Schwarzer, 2008).ResultsBivariate correlations revealed statistically significant and moderate correlations among competence, confidence, and connectedness and all of the HAPA variables including physical activity levels. Further, a MANCOVA analysis revealed that when participants were sub-divided into “non-intenders,” “intenders,” and “actors” using a validated staging algorithm, a general linear trend emerged for competence, confidence, and connectedness such that “non-intenders” rated these constructs the lowest and “actors” rated them the highest.ConclusionThese findings provide preliminary evidence that the relationship between participation in organized youth sports and adulthood levels of exercise could be contingent on how positively that experience is perceived.     

Longitudinal Assessment of the Relationship Between Physical Self-Concept and Health-Related Behavior and Emotion in Adolescent Girls

This study investigated the changes in and the relationships among body mass index (BMI), global self-esteem, physical self-perceptions, social physique anxiety (SPA), physical activity, and dietary restraint in adolescent females over a 24-month period. Participants (N = 501) completed annual assessments in grade 9, 10, and 11. The results showed moderate covariance stability in all variables. There were several significant time effects (group mean change), with small increases in BMI, moderate decreases in physical activity, and very small changes over time in SPA and physical self-perceptions. Longitudinal analyses indicated that specific physical self-perceptions were important predictors of physical activity, dietary restraint and SPA; however, most of the variance was explained by previous year values. Evidence of bidirectional effects revealed that specific self-perceptions impact specific behaviors and SPA more so than the impact of behavior/emotion on self-perceptions. These results highlight the importance of understanding the physical self and its links to health-related behaviors and emotion in adolescents.     

Problem solving,recall, isomorphic transfer,and nonisomorphic transfer among third-grade and fourth-grade children

Analogical reasoning processes were studied in third- and fourth-grade children. During acquisition, each child received analogs of one of the following seven-move scheduling problems: “farmer's dilemma,” “three missionaries/two cannibals,” or “tower of Hanoi.” On each presentation of a problem, the child heard a list of statements representing the exact series of moves necessary to solve the problem and was immediately asked to recall the list. Physical materials representing the problem were then produced and the child was asked to solve it. A trial was terminated and a new one begun when an error was made on the physical task. Following acquisition, the children were transferred to either an isomorphic analog or an analog from one of the other training conditions. During acquisition, the propositions representing the solution to each problem were acquired piecemeal and incrementally, but consolidation of the generalizable problem representation was abrupt. Isomorphic transfer was good in all conditions, but nonisomorphic transfer was unexpectedly asymmetrical. This finding was discussed in terms of each problem space, number of solution paths, and similarity relations.     

The long and short of it: physical anchoring effects

Attempts to reconstruct the magnitude of recently encountered physical stimuli were influenced by the provision of physical anchors. Whether estimating length, weight, or loudness, those increasing the magnitude of a relatively small (short, light, or quiet) physical anchor produced estimates that were reliably lower than did those decreasing the magnitude of a relatively large (long, heavy, or loud) anchor. Estimates produced without an anchor were also low, suggesting that when people physically adjust upwards from a self‐selected starting point, “no anchor” may, in fact, act as a very low anchor. Physical anchors appear to influence estimates of recently encountered physical stimuli, much as numerical anchors influence estimates of more abstract numerical quantities. Implications for processes underlying anchoring, adjustment, and related tasks are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Communication and Understanding in Parent–Adolescent Relationships

This research examined communication and parent–adolescent understanding, including understanding about family conflicts, adolescent self‐concepts, and immediate thoughts (or “empathic accuracy”). Fifty parent–adolescent triads completed questionnaires, held a discussion, and reported on immediate thoughts during the discussion using video‐assisted recall methods. Alternative measures of understanding produced distinct results. Parental understanding of the child's self‐concept was associated with frequent and open communication, high parent–child relationship satisfaction, and a strong child self‐concept. Parental understanding of conflict perceptions was associated with high conformity and low relationship satisfaction. Parental understanding of the immediate thoughts of children was quite low overall and was not consistently related to communication, relationship satisfaction, or child self‐concept. The results suggest that alternative measures of understanding reflect different family processes.     

Asymbolic and symbolic play: Developmental perspectives in the treatment of disturbed children

“Put a lot of store on a child's ability to play. If a child is playing, there is room for a symptom or two, and if a child is able to enjoy playing, both alone and with other children, there is no very serious trouble afoot.”     

A narrative synthesis of the applicability of the CaR–FA–X model in child and adolescent populations: a systematic review

The CaR–FA–X model [Williams, J. M. G., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., Hermans, D., Raes, F., Watkins, E.,?…?Dalgleish, T. (2007). Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 122–148. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.122] is the most prominent and comprehensive model of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) and provides a framework for OGM. The model comprises of three mechanisms, capture and rumination, functional avoidance and impaired executive control. These can independently, or in interaction, account for OGM. This systematic review aims to evaluate the existing research on the CaR–FA–X model, and trauma exposure studies specific to child and adolescent populations. The following databases were searched: “PsychInfo”, “PsychArticles”, “PubMed”, “Web of Science”, “Medline”, “SCOPUS” and “Embase” for English-language, peer-reviewed papers with samples <M?=?18 years, published since 1986. Support was reported for a relationship between trauma exposure and OGM as well as for capture errors and OGM. Limited support was found for rumination, avoidance and impaired executive control in isolation. No support was found for interacting mechanisms and OGM. Partial support for the CaR–FA–X model was found for child and adolescent populations. Recommendations, proposals for future research and plausible explanations for the mixed findings are discussed.     

The Efficacy of Systemic Therapy for Childhood and Adolescent Externalizing Disorders: A Systematic Review of 47 RCT

Systemic (family) therapy is a widely used psychotherapy approach. However, most systematic efficacy reviews have focused solely on “family‐based treatment” rather than on the theoretic orientation “systemic therapy.” We systematically review trials on the efficacy of systemic therapy for the treatment of childhood and adolescent externalizing disorders. All randomized (or matched) controlled trials (RCT) evaluating systemic/systems‐oriented therapy in various forms (family, individual, group, multi‐family group therapy) with child or adolescent index patients (0–17 years) suffering from mental disorders were identified by data base searches and cross‐references. Inclusion criteria were as follows: index patient diagnosed with a DSM‐ or ICD‐listed mental disorder, and trial published in any language up to the end of 2011. The RCTs were analyzed for their research methodology, interventions applied, and results (postintervention; follow‐up). A total of 47 trials from the United States, Europe, and China, published in English, German, and Mandarin, were identified. A total of 42 of them showed systemic therapy to be efficacious for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, conduct disorders, and substance use disorders. Results were stable across follow‐up periods of up to 14 years. There is a sound evidence base for the efficacy of systemic therapy for children and adolescents (and their families) diagnosed with externalizing disorders.     

Gender differences in adolescent coping behaviors and suicidal ideation: findings from a sample of 73,238 adolescents

Suicide among adolescents is an emerging global public health problem as well as a socioeconomic problem. Stress-coping strategies have been shown to be associated with suicidal ideation. We examined coping behaviors related to suicidal ideation and gender differences in adolescents using the data from the 2010 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey (ages 12–19 years; N = 73,238). Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate associations between suicidal ideation and specific coping behaviors while controlling for potentially confounding variables. In both male and female groups, the coping behavior “drinking alcoholic beverages” and “smoking cigarettes” were positively associated with suicidal ideation. “Watching TV,” “playing online/mobile games,” and “sleeping” were negatively associated with suicidal ideation in both groups. In males, “engaging in sports” was negatively related to suicidal ideation. In females, “venting by talking to others” and “eating” were negatively related to suicidal ideation. The results indicate that there are gender differences in the effects of coping behaviors on adolescent suicidal ideation, and that developing adaptive coping strategies may function to reduce suicidality. Future studies are needed to examine whether improving coping skills can reduce suicidal ideation in a gender-specific manner.     

“Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,a Long Way from Home”: Complex Adolescent Identity Formation in a Transcultural Adoption

During adolescence, concerns about identity come to the fore. Questions such as “Who am I?” and “Who am I in relation to other people?” present unusual difficulty for the adopted child, who must navigate the complex developmental task of including two sets of parents (and possibly several cultures) within his representational world. Adopted children must also integrate the knowledge that they were born to one set of parents but are being raised by another. When the child's physical characteristics are different from the adoptive parents, this further complicates identity issues. Even when children have developed a safe and secure attachment to the adoptive parents, knowing that they were born into this world by a mother who then gave them away can evoke feelings of being utterly alone, bereft, and unloved. When adopted children enter adolescence, these feelings can loom large and powerful, derailing the development of their sense of identity. Presented here is the case of an adolescent in a transracial adoption in which the boy left his adoptive mother's home in a cataclysmic crisis, feeling alone and motherless, to run to his adoptive father, who suffered from major depression. The mother, too, felt bereft, and the therapist initially felt unable to help.     

Relationships Among Adolescent Girls' Eating Behaviors and Their Parents' Weight-Related Attitudes and Behaviors

This article examines adolescent girls' weightloss behaviors and possible parent influences related toweight and shape. Questionnaires were completed by 369grade 10 girls and their parents. Findings suggested that parent encouragement to loseweight was a more significant predictor of daughterdietary restraint than parents' own dietary restraintlevels. Mother influence variables added significantly to a regression equation after fatherinfluences had been entered, but the reverse was not thecase. Parents' food abstaining behaviors, such asfasting and skipping meals, predicted food abstaining in daughters. Most findings were replicated whendaughter body size was controlled for. Implications formodels of the transmission of diet and weight-relatedvalues from parent to child are discussed.     

Trauma Child on The Couch: Transference,Introjection, Identification

This paper attempts to explore some of the psychic processes at work with patients whom I identify as the “trauma child”. The term is a metaphor rather than a diagnosis of “traumatisation”, to indicate patients particularly resistant to maturational processes. They feel blocked and thereby find it difficult to evolve as creative adults. As opposed to the “traumatised” child no particular distressing event can be identified as a cause for emotional suffering. The malaise is often “low key” or silent but functions as a saboteur, undermining satisfactory existence. The trauma child is constantly seduced by regressive functioning and bound by numerous strategies of resistance of reality and often incapable of relinquishing the boundless pleasure of omnipotence. On the basis of my clinical work with the “trauma child”, I will explore the different processes of introjection in transference and counter transference, paying particular attention to the dynamics of identification between analyst and patient and its implications for object relations. Instead of “healthy” identification with the other, taking account of difference and reality, the mode of object relations can be that of “pathological imitation” based on fantasies of oral incorporation. A kind of regressive defense against “mature” relationships; it is an attempt to acquire a substitute identity through magical imitation. Analytical listening, associative work and interpretation stimulate maturational processes within the patient and help him/her to let go of immature relational modes fixated in childhood.     

Perceived Parental Control and Parent–Child Relational Qualities in Early Adolescents In Hong Kong: Parent Gender, Child Gender and Grade Differences

This study examined parent gender, child gender and grade differences in perceived parental control and parent–adolescent relational qualities in early adolescents in Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China. Utilizing a longitudinal research design, 2,559 Chinese secondary school students responded to instruments assessing perceived parental behavioral control, parental psychological control, and parent–child relational qualities over three consecutive years. Results showed that there were parent gender and child gender differences in parental control and parent–adolescent relational qualities, but interaction effects of parent gender and child gender were also found. These findings strongly challenge the traditional Chinese cultural belief of “strict fathers, kind mothers”. Results also consistently showed that the levels of perceived parental behavioral control and parent–child relational qualities gradually declined from grades 7 to 9 in early adolescent years in the Chinese culture.     

Conceptual response distance and intervening keys distinguish action goals in the Stroop color-identification task

In previous studies, a physical response-distance effect was found in the two-choice Stroop color-identification task, with the Stroop effect being larger when the two response keys were physically close together than when they were far apart. In the present study, we found a conceptual response-distance effect, with the Stroop effect being larger when the response keys were conceptually close (labeled as “5” and “6”) than when they were conceptually far (labeled as “1” and “9”). Moreover, a response-distance effect due to pure physical distance was not evident; rather, the effect was found only when additional keys were placed between the two far response keys. These results are in agreement with a view that response keys are coded as action goals, with farther conceptual distance and additional keys helping distinguish the action goals. The results are difficult to reconcile with accounts that place emphasis on the physical separation of the effectors or their inanimate extensions.