A Bilingual “Neighborhood Club”: Intervening with Children Exposed to Urban Violence

Mental health practitioners have offered relatively little in response to the pervasive community violence faced by many children living in impoverished neighborhoods. The “neighborhood club” is a school-based, short-term, support group designed to assist children with the psychological impact of exposure to community violence. Ten “neighborhood clubs” were conducted in two public elementary schools in Detroit, Michigan. This paper reviews the implementation of a bilingual “neighborhood club,” undertaken to better serve the Spanish-speaking Latino students in a school community. We discuss many of the rewards and challenges of conducting a bilingual, multicultural support group for children and conclude that a bilingual support group provides all children with a model that validates ethnic and cultural diversity while also building empathic bonds based on mutually-reinforcing, common experiences.     

Children and Violence: The Role of Children’s Regulation in the Marital Aggression–Child Adjustment Link

Exposure to marital psychological and physical abuse has been established as a risk factor for children’s socio-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems. Understanding the processes by which children develop symptoms of psychopathology and deficits in cognitive functioning in the context of marital aggression is imperative for developing efficient and effective treatment programs for children and families, and has far-reaching mental health implications. The present paper outlines our research program, Child Regulation and Exposure to Marital Aggression, which focuses on children’s emotional and physiological reactivity and regulation as pathways in the marital aggression–child development link. Findings from our research program, which highlight the importance of children’s regulatory processes for understanding children’s adjustment in contexts of intimate partner violence, are presented, and future directions in this line of inquiry are outlined.     

Future Directions for Advancing Issues in Children’s Mental Health: A Delphic Poll

The current study utilized a Delphic poll to identify significant problems regarding children and families in which psychologists can assist. The Delphic poll methodology combines both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to obtain information and predictions about the future from a panel of knowledgeable experts. Thirty-one professionals participated in the first round of the survey, and 26 participants (83.9 % of the round 1 participants) chose to complete the second-round survey. Several themes emerged consistently across questions as important issues to be addressed in the future of childhood mental health. For example, participants frequently identified access, advocacy, research and research dissemination, prevention/early intervention, and integration of services as important issues. Implications and recommendations are drawn for organizations and individual psychologists as advocates for improving children’s mental health in the United States.     

Evaluation of a Train-The-Trainers Model for Family Peer Advocates in Children’s Mental Health

Standardized training and credentialing is increasingly important to states and healthcare systems. Workforce shortages in children's mental health can be addressed through training and credentialing of professional peer parents (called family peer advocates or FPAs), who deliver a range of services to caregivers. A theory-based training program for FPAs targeting skills and knowledge about childhood mental health services (Parent Empowerment Program, or PEP) was developed through a partnership among a statewide family-run organization, state policy leaders, and academic researchers. Prior studies by this team using highly-experienced family peer advocates (who were also co-developers of the training program) as trainers found improvements in knowledge about mental health services and self-efficacy. In 2010, to meet demands and scale the model, a training of trainers (TOT) model was developed to build a cohort of locally-trained FPAs to deliver PEP training. A pre/post design was used to evaluate the impact of TOT model on knowledge and self-efficacy among 318 FPAs across the state. Participants showed significant pre-post (6 month) changes in knowledge about mental health services and self-efficacy. There were no significant associations between any FPA demographic characteristics and their knowledge or self-efficacy scores. A theory-based training model for professional peer parents working in the children's mental health system can be taught to local FPAs, and it improves knowledge about the mental health system and self-efficacy. Studies that evaluate the effectiveness of different training modalities are critical to ensure that high-quality trainings are maintained.     

Preschool Children’s Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Mother–Child,Father–Child and Teacher–Child Relationships

Prosocial behavior is considered an important dimension of positive development. Although previous research suggests the quality of children’s early relationships may influence prosocial behaviors, the specific contributions of mother, father and teacher to children’s prosocial behavior have been less examined. This is a cross-sectional study that investigates (a) the combined associations between mother–, father– and teacher–child relationships, and prosocial behavior in 168 children aged 36–72 months, and (b) the mediating role of the teacher–child relationship in the association between the parent–child relationship and prosocial behavior. Results suggested a positive link between the quality of relationships with early caregivers and children’s prosocial behavior. The quality of both father– and teacher–child relationships were found to have a direct association with children’s prosocial behavior. The quality of the mother–child relationship was indirectly linked to children’s prosocial behavior, via the teacher–child relationship. Results suggesting connections between multiple relational contexts were discussed based on the notion of internal working models proposed by attachment theory. Mothers’ and fathers’ contributions to children’s prosocial behavior were also discussed considering differences on relational styles and changing roles of mothers and fathers from dual-earner families.     

The Interim Service Preferences of Parents Waiting for Children’s Mental Health Treatment: A Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment

Parents seeking help for children with mental health problems are often assigned to a waiting list. We used a discrete choice conjoint experiment to model preferences for interim services that might be used while waiting for the formal assessment and treatment process to begin. A sample of 1,059 parents (92 % mothers) seeking mental health services for 4 to 16 year olds chose between hypothetical interim services composed by experimentally varying combinations of the levels of 13 interim service attributes. Latent Class analysis yielded a four–segment solution. All segments preferred interim options helping them understand how agencies work, enhancing their parenting knowledge and skill, and providing an opportunity to understand or begin dealing with their own difficulties. The Group Contact segment (35.1 %) preferred interim services in meetings with other parents, supported by phone contacts, frequent checkup calls, and wait–time updates. Virtual Contact parents (29.2 %) preferred to meet other parents in small internet chat groups supported by e–mail contact. Membership in this segment was linked to higher education and computer skills. Frequent Contact parents (24.4 %) preferred face–to–face interim services supported by weekly progress checks and wait time updates. Limited Contact parents (11.3 %) were less intent on using interim services. They preferred to pursue interim services alone, with contacts by phone, supported by fewer check–up calls and less frequent wait time updates. All segments were more likely to enroll in interim services involving their child.     

A Community Mental Health Implementation of Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been identified as an evidence-based practice in the treatment of externalizing behavior among preschool-aged youth. Although considerable research has established its efficacy, little is known about the effectiveness of PCIT when delivered in a community mental health setting with underserved youth. The current pilot study investigated an implementation of PCIT with primarily low-socioeconomic status, urban, ethnic minority youth and families. The families of 14 clinically referred children aged 2–7 years and demonstrating externalizing behavior completed PCIT initial assessment, and 12 began treatment. Using standard PCIT completion criteria, 4 families completed treatment; and these families demonstrated clinically significant change on observational and self-report measures of parent behavior, parenting stress, and child functioning. Although treatment dropouts demonstrated more attenuated changes, observational data and parent-reported problems across sessions indicated some improvements with lower doses of intervention. Attendance and adherence data, referral source, barriers to treatment participation, and treatment satisfaction across completers and dropouts are discussed to highlight differences between the current sample and prior PCIT research. The findings suggest that PCIT can be delivered successfully in an underserved community sample when families remain in treatment, but that premature dropout limits treatment effectiveness. The findings suggest potential directions for research to improve uptake of PCIT in a community service setting.     

A Factor Mixture Model Approach to Elaborating on Offender Mental Health Classification With the MMPI–2–RF

A large proportion of prison inmates suffer from mental illnesses or severe personality disorders; therefore, offender classification is a worthwhile endeavor both for efficiently allocating mental health treatment resources and security risk classification. This study sought to elaborate on offender classification by using an advanced statistical technique, factor mixture modeling, which capitalizes on the strengths of both latent trait analysis and latent class analysis. A sample consisting of 616 male and 194 female prison inmates was used for this purpose. The MMPI–2–RF Restructured Clinical (RC) scales were used to elaborate on a variety of latent trait, latent class, and factor mixture models. A 3-factor, 5-class mixture model was deemed optimal in this sample. Remaining MMPI–2–RF scales as well as scores on external criterion measures relevant to externalizing psychopathology were used to further elaborate on the utility of the resulting latent classes. These analyses indicated that 3 of the 5 classes were predominantly different expressions of externalizing personality proclivities, whereas the remaining 2 indicated inmates with substantial internalizing or thought-disordered characteristics. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Parental Migration and Rural Left-Behind Children’s Mental Health in China: A Meta-Analysis Based on Mental Health Test

Parental migration has been an important predictor of left-behind children’s developmental outcomes. Based on the ecological model of rural left-behind children’s development, we systematically reviewed studies related to rural left-behind children’s mental health in China and investigated left-behind children’s mental health and its influencing factors. Thirty-two studies involving 28,629 participants met the inclusion criteria were included in our meta-analysis to compare mental health of left-behind children and non-left-behind children. Twenty-two studies involving 8,634 participants were included in gender difference meta-analysis. The results indicated that left-behind children report more mental health problems than non-left-behind children, left-behind girls were confronted with higher level of mental health problems than left-behind boys, left-behind children in primary school and junior high school reported more mental health problems than those in senior high school, and self-guardian children have more serious mental health problems than children guarded by grandparents, former generation, and single parent. Implications for future practice were analyzed from family, school, and government perspectives.     

Mothers,Fathers, and Parental Systems: A Conceptual Model of Parental Engagement in Programmes for Child Mental Health—Connect,Attend, Participate,Enact (CAPE)

Parenting programmes are one of the best researched and most effective interventions for reducing child mental health problems. The success of such programmes, however, is largely dependent on their reach and parental engagement. Rates of parental enrolment and attendance are highly variable, and in many cases very low; this is especially true of father involvement in parenting programmes. This paper proposes a conceptual model of parental engagement in parenting programmes—the CAPE model (Connect, Attend, Participate, Enact) that builds on recent models by elaborating on the interdependent stages of engagement, and its interparental or systemic context. That is, we argue that a comprehensive model of parental engagement will best entail a process from connection to enactment of learned strategies in the child’s environment, and involve consideration of individual parents (both mothers and fathers) as well as the dynamics of the parenting team. The model provides a framework for considering parent engagement as well as associated facilitators and mechanisms of parenting change such as parenting skills, self-efficacy, attributions, and the implementation context. Empirical investigation of the CAPE model could be used to further our understanding of parental engagement, its importance for programme outcomes, and mechanisms of change. This will guide future intervention refinement and developments as well as change in clinical practice.     

The Family Cycle: An Activity to Enhance Parents’ Mentalization in Children’s Mental Health Treatment

This article introduces the Family Cycle, a therapeutic activity informed by attachment theory, family systems theory, and current literature on reflective functioning. The Family Cycle helps clinicians and families create a narrative about a child’s psychopathology that considers complex trauma and/or adverse childhood experiences. It reframes observable dysfunctional phenomena as behavioral sequelae of more deeply rooted emotional loss. After the theoretical underpinnings of the Family Cycle are laid out, we describe the implementation of the Family Cycle within the context of an intensive home-based, family-focused intervention created at the Yale Child Study Center, the Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (IICAPS). The Family Cycle provides a teachable clinical framework to facilitate the treatment of families with complex, multigenerational trauma.     

A Model of Mindful Parenting: Implications for Parent–Child Relationships and Prevention Research

This paper introduces a model of “mindful parenting” as a framework whereby parents intentionally bring moment-to-moment awareness to the parent–child relationship. This is done by developing the qualities of listening with full attention when interacting with their children, cultivating emotional awareness and self-regulation in parenting, and bringing compassion and nonjudgmental acceptance to their parenting interactions. First, we briefly outline the theoretical and empirical literature on mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions. Next, we present an operational definition of mindful parenting as an extension of mindfulness to the social context of parent–child relationships. We discuss the implications of mindful parenting for the quality of parent–child relationships, particularly across the transition to adolescence, and we review the literature on the application of mindfulness in parenting interventions. We close with a synopsis of our own efforts to integrate mindfulness-based intervention techniques and mindful parenting into a well-established, evidence-based family prevention program and our recommendations for future research on mindful parenting interventions.     

The Application of Behavior Change Theory to Family-Based Services: Improving Parent Empowerment in Children’s Mental Health

We describe the development of a parent empowerment program (PEP) using a community-based participatory research approach. In collaboration with a group of dedicated family advocates working with the Mental Health Association of New York City and state policy makers, academic researchers took an iterative approach to crafting and refining PEP to better prepare family advocates to help bridge the gaps in service access among children with emotional and behavioral problems. Despite the growth of family-led, family support programs nationally, research that demonstrates the positive benefits of such programs is scarce in the children’s mental health literature. The PEP model is based on research data about barriers families face in mental health service utilization (e.g., stigma, perceptions of providers, attitudes towards mental illness, service availability, etc.). PEP is premised on (a) the concept of empowerment as a process, (b) the need to engage parents in becoming active agents of change, and (c) the application of an integrated framework to empower parents, called the Parents as Agents of Change model. Our paper focuses on describing the application of a Unified Theory of Behavior Change as a theoretical framework to help activate parents as change agents in meeting their children’s mental health needs. Based on an integrated model of grassroots driven Principles of Parent Support and research-based Unified Theory of Behavior Change, PEP’s Parents as Agents of Change model provides a conceptual framework for testing the effectiveness of family support services in children’s mental health, a much-needed area for future research.     

The Impact of Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles on Children’s Later Mental Health in Japan: Focusing on Parent and Child Gender

Few studies in Japan have examined whether children’s later mental health is influenced by the way parental authority is exercised, specifically with a focus on gender. Our main purposes of this study were to confirm the three-factor structure of the Japanese version of the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and to verify its reliability and validity. We then used structural equation modeling to examine whether children’s later mental health was influenced by parents’ authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian parenting. The subcategories included in the Japanese version of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure were chosen as mental health indices. A total of 1,320 people in Japan, including company employees, university students, and hospital staff members, were asked to recall and evaluate the parenting they received and to report on their current mental health. Confirmatory factor analyses verified the three-factor structure of the Japanese version of the PAQ, with a reduction in the number of items from the original version. The respondents, regardless of gender, evaluated their mothers as having been more authoritative than their fathers. Concerning the impact of parenting styles on respondents’ later mental health, both maternal and paternal authoritarian parenting styles worsened respondents’ later mental health, including symptomatic problems, risk to self and others, life functioning, and psychological well-being. Both maternal and paternal authoritative parenting had a beneficial impact on respondents’ later mental health. Simultaneous analyses of multi-groups demonstrated that the nature of these influences did not vary with respondent gender. We present the above results in detail, and discuss them from psycho-socio-cultural viewpoints.     

Household Chaos and Caregivers’ and Young Children’s Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mediation Model

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Based on 764 households with young children in Wuhan, China, where the COVID-19 pandemic started, this study investigated how household chaos during the...     

A Social Desirability Item Response Theory Model: Retrieve–Deceive–Transfer

Psychometrika - In this study, a new item response theory model is developed to account for situations in which respondents overreport or underreport their actual opinions on a positive or negative...     

Unequal Division of Child Care between Korean Spouses and Children’s Self-Regulation: The Mediating Roles of Parental Mental Health,Marital Conflict,and Parental Warmth

Journal of Child and Family Studies - This longitudinal study examined associations between parents’ unequal division of child care when children were 5 years of age and children’s...     

Stressors, Quality of the Child–Caregiver Relationship, and Children's Mental Health Problems After Parental Death: The Mediating Role of Self-System Beliefs

Investigated whether three self-system beliefs, fear of abandonment, coping efficacy, and self-esteem, mediated the relations of stressors and caregiver–child relationship quality with concurrent and prospective internalizing and externalizing problems in a sample of children who had experienced parental death in the previous 2.5 years. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 340 children ages 7–16 and their surviving parent/current caregiver; the longitudinal analyses employed a subset of this sample that consisted of 100 children and their parents/caregivers who were assessed at three time points. A multirater, multimethod measure of caregiver–child relationship quality and a multirater measure of children's mental health problems were used. The cross-sectional model supported a mediational relation for fear of abandonment, coping efficacy, and self-esteem. The three-wave longitudinal model showed that fear of abandonment at Time 2 mediated the relation between stressors at Time 1 and internalizing and externalizing problems at Time 3. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of mental health problems in parentally bereaved children and designing interventions for this at-risk group are discussed.

The Quest for ‘A Common Word’: Initial Christian Responses to a Muslim Initiative

To a world experiencing heightened suspicion and distrust between Christians and Muslims, a call for dialogue and understanding between the two faiths may seem a welcome event. Such a call was issued in October of 2007 when 138 Muslims from around the world sent an invitation to Christian leaders to cease their mutual fear and diatribe, find some measure of theological common ground, and work together for world peace. What motivated such an initiative, and how has it been received? In this essay we will examine some of the reasons for the call, the content of the invitation, and the kinds of responses given by Christian individuals, denominations and communities.