Emotional relief for parents: Is rational-emotive parent education effective?

The effects of a rational-emotive parent education program were studied on forty-eight parents from a nonclinical population using a pre-test, post-test control group design. The RET parenting program included four components: a) reducing emotional stress through disputing irrational beliefs, b) implementing rational discipline methods, c) rational problem solving skills and d) fostering rational thinking traits in their child. Four dependent variables were studied: parent irrationality, parent emotionality, parent perceptions of child problems and the perception of participants' parenting by their spouses. Results showed that for experimental group subjects there was a statistically significant reduction in parent irrationality, parent guilt and parent anger. An exploratory ten month follow-up suggested maintenance of effects, a reduction in perceived child behavior problems, and changes in parental irrational beliefs regarding self worth.     

Treatment Efficacy of Multiple Family Therapy for Chinese Families of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The treatment efficacy of multiple family therapy (MFT) for Chinese families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has not been studied in the past. In this paper, the effect of MFT on different aspects of the lives of the parents in the experimental group (n = 61) was compared with the effect of only the psychoeducational talks on parents in the control group (n = 53). The results of a MANOVA have shown that by the time they reached the posttreatment phase, the parents who had completed the full 42 hours of the MFT program perceived their children's ADHD symptoms as being less serious and less pathological than they had originally thought compared to the parents in the control group. The effect of MFT on parent–child relationships, parenting stress, parental efficacy, hope, and perceived social support was statistically insignificant. Contributions and limitations of our study are discussed.     

Dutch Norms for the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory: Comparisons with other Western Countries

The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) is one of the most widely used and well-validated parent rating scales for children’s disruptive behavior. This screening instrument is a short, targetted and easy to implement inventory with good psychometric properties and is normed for different countries, among which the United States, Spain, Sweden and Norway. The ECBI has been successfully used for research and clinical purposes, in several countries including The Netherlands. To date, Dutch studies have relied on Scandinavian or US norm scores. However, this may be problematic because of cross-cultural differences in the degree to which certain behaviors are seen as problematic by parents. The main goal of this paper therefore was to obtain norm scores for The Netherlands among 6462 Dutch children aged 4 to 8 years (M _age?=?6.37 years; SD?=?1.32; 50.6% boys). In line with previous research, we found small differences on the mean sum scores across children of different ages (intensity scale) and gender (intensity and problem scale). Therefore, Dutch norm scores were provided age- and gender specific. Our results showed that disruptive behavior of children in the most rural areas was reported as occurring less frequently and was seen as less problematic by parents compared to the disruptive behavior of children in less rural areas. Finally, we found that Dutch norm scores on the ECBI were significantly lower than US norm scores, and significantly higher on the intensity scale (but not the problem scale) than Norwegian and Swedish norm scores.     

Insoluble Paradoxes: Thoughts About Michelle Shubin’s and Marc Rehm’s Essays

Michelle Shubin’s and Marc Rehm’s papers (this issue) are linked by their creative use of paradox. Each addresses the dynamics of the clinical moment and invites us to query what we assume—about psychoanalytic goals and about our role in therapeutic process. Shubin revisits the role of analytic honesty, challenging the assumption that we analysts are always honest, and, more importantly, that we always need to be. Rehm asks us to consider the places of forgetting along with remembering in clinical work. He suggests that we may sometimes need not to help our patients remember, but instead to help them forget. I address the clinical and theoretical implications of each paper.     

Missed Opportunity: International Students in Canada Face Barriers to Permanent Residence

With their youth, Canadian post-secondary credentials, fluency in an official language, and time already spent in Canada, international students represent an ideal immigration source for this country. In many cases, they have lived in communities where they would be happy to continue living and working if provided the opportunity. Yet, despite recognition by the federal government of the attractiveness of international students, federal policies enacted in 2015 have inadvertently created barriers for international students wishing to become permanent residents of Canada. The Express Entry processing system has left international students in Canada in precarious situations at risk of losing their ability to work and to immigrate. This policy brief describes the challenges that Express Entry poses for international students and makes recommendations to the federal government to address these barriers.     

Mothers’ neural responses to infant faces are associated with activation of the maternal care system and observed intrusiveness with their own child

Certain infant facial characteristics, referred to as baby schema, are thought to automatically trigger parenting behavior and affective orientation toward infants. Electroencephalography (EEG) is well suited to assessing the intuitive nature and temporal dynamics of parenting responses, due to its millisecond temporal resolution. Little is known, however, about the relations between neural processing of infant cues and actual parenting behavior in a naturalistic setting. In the present study we examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) of mothers (N = 33) watching infant faces of varying attractiveness, in relation to activation of the maternal care system and the mothers’ observed parenting behavior (sensitivity, nonintrusiveness) with their own child (2–6 years old). The results revealed that, irrespective of the cuteness of the infant face, mothers’ neural processing of infant faces involved both early P1 and P2 components (related to orienting/detecting processes) and late positive potentials (LPPs; related to more controlled cognitive evaluation/attentional engagement). Increased early detection and processing of infant faces (reflected by P1 and P2 activity) was related to increased activation of the parental care system. In later stages of face processing, increased attentional engagement with infant faces (as reflected by LPP activity) was associated with more intrusiveness of a mother with her own child during interaction. These findings suggest that individual variations in responses to infant stimuli are associated with individual differences in parental care system activation and parenting quality. Furthermore, the parental care system might be activated relatively automatically, but actual parenting and caregiving behavior requires more conscious control.     

Alcohol and remembering a hypothetical sexual assault: Can people who were under the influence of alcohol during the event provide accurate testimony?

We examined the influence of alcohol on remembering an interactive hypothetical sexual assault scenario in the laboratory using a balanced placebo design. Female participants completed a memory test 24 hours and 4 months later. Participants reported less information (i.e., responded “don't know” more often to questions) if they were under the influence of alcohol during scenario encoding. The accuracy of the information intoxicated participants reported did not differ compared to sober participants, however, suggesting intoxicated participants were effectively monitoring the accuracy of their memory at test. Additionally, peripheral details were remembered less accurately than central details, regardless of the intoxication level; and memory accuracy for peripheral details decreased by a larger amount compared to central details across the retention interval. Finally, participants were more accurate if they were told they were drinking alcohol rather than a placebo. We discuss theoretical implications for alcohol myopia and memory regulation, together with applied implications for interviewing intoxicated witnesses.