System of Care Development in Children’s Mental Health: Lessons Learned from a Process Evaluation

Despite ongoing public calls for reform, the mental health needs of many children with psychological, emotional and behavioral disorders remain unmet. In response, providers continue to seek effective alternatives to institutional treatment by implementing comprehensive systems of care. The Children’s Enhancement Project (CEP) is a collaborative effort to provide holistic, community-based mental health services for children with an individualized, flexible, family-driven approach. We conducted a process evaluation of CEP’s early stage development and implementation utilizing both qualitative stakeholder interviews and quantitative survey components. The current article describes that evaluation and highlights the challenges and potential solutions encountered in developing a system of care. The lessons learned regarding system of care development, including the importance of a shared vision, establishing programmatic guidelines, achieving collaboration, and addressing sustainability concerns, are discussed.     

Children Exposed to the Arrest of a Family Member: Associations with Mental Health

The arrest of a parent or other family member can be detrimental to children’s health. To study the impact of exposure to the arrest of a family member on children’s mental health and how said association may change across developmental periods, we examined baseline data for children (birth through 11 years) entering family-based systems of care (SOC). Children exposed to the arrest of a family member had experienced significantly more 5.38 (SD = 2.59) different types of potentially traumatic events (PTE) than children not exposed to arrest 2.84 (SD = 2.56). Multiple regression model results showed that arrest exposure was significantly associated with greater behavioral and emotional challenges after controlling for children’s age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, caregiver’s education, parenting factors, and other PTE exposure. Further analyses revealed differences in internalizing and externalizing behaviors associated with arrest exposure across developmental levels. This study highlights some of the mental health challenges for children exposed to the arrest of a family member, while adding to our knowledge of how such an event affects children across different developmental periods. More trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate systems need to be in place at all levels to assist children and families experiencing arrest.     

Young‐age gender differences in mathematics mediated by independent control or uncontrollability

We studied whether the origins of math anxiety can be related to a biologically supported framework of stress induction: (un)controllability perception, here indicated by self‐reported independent efforts in mathematics. Math anxiety was tested in 182 children (8‐ to 11‐year‐olds). Latent factor modeling was used to test hypotheses on plausible causal processes and mediations within competing models in quasi‐experimental contrasts. Uncontrollability perception in mathematics, or (in)dependence of efforts, best fit the data as an antecedent of math anxiety. In addition, the relationship of math anxiety with gender was fully mediated by adaptive perception of control (i.e. controllability). That is, young boys differ from girls in terms of their experience of control in mathematics learning. These differences influence math anxiety. Our findings are consistent with recent suggestions in clinical literature according to which uncontrollability makes women more susceptible to fear and anxiety disorders. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4b_47Y-e_U     

Children,Paternalism and the Development of Autonomy

This paper addresses the issue of paternalism in child-rearing. Since the parent–child relationship seems to be the linguistic source of the concept, one may be tempted to assume that raising a child represents a particularly appropriate sphere for paternalism. The parent–child relationship is generally understood as a relationship that is supposed to promote the development and autonomy-formation of the child, so that the apparent source of the concept is a form of autonomy-oriented paternalism. Far from taking paternalism to be overtly unproblematic in such paradigmatic, pedagogical settings, this article analyzes how an effort should be made to understand a child’s capacities and which standards parents should be held to when deciding whether interference truly serves the child’s interests.     

Mind-Wandering and Childhood ADHD: Experimental Manipulations across Laboratory and Naturalistic Settings

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The conceptual overlap between mind-wandering and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related impairments is considerable, yet little...     

Effect of Parenting Interventions on Perinatal Depression and Implications for Infant Developmental Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - Considering the significant impact of perinatal depression on both maternal wellbeing and infant development, it is important to examine the...     

The Role of Affective Instability in Loss of Control Eating in Youth with Overweight/Obesity Across Development: Findings from Two EMA Studies

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Affective instability is common during adolescence, but at high levels it is associated with a variety of internalizing and externalizing...     

Toward Relationship‐Directed Parenting: An Example of North American Born Second‐Generation Korean‐American Mothers and their Partners

Historically, parenting has been constructed hierarchically; however, contemporary parenting models frequently emphasize parenting as relationship (Siegel & Hartzell [2004] Parenting from the inside out: How a deeper self‐understanding can help you raise children who thrive; Tuttle, Knudson‐Martin, & Kim [2012] Family Process, 51, 73–89). Drawing on interviews with 20 North American born second‐generation Korean–American mothers and their partners, and sensitized by TP‐CRO, a social constructionist framework for conceptualizing parent–child relational orientations, this grounded theory analysis identified three main processes that facilitate relational connection as a parenting orientation rather than the rule‐directed approach historically associated with first‐generation immigrant Asian families. These include: (a) emphasizing dominant culture values; (b) inviting open communication; and (c) promoting mutuality. Results also show how parents integrate collectivist cultural values of their first generation immigrant parents' traditional culture into North American parenting ideals with which they primarily identify. The study demonstrates the usefulness of the TP‐CRO for understanding parent–child relationships within multicultural parenting contexts and offers suggestions for working with second‐generation Korean families.