Impact of Peer Partner Support on Self Efficacy for Justice-Involved Parents: A Controlled Study of Juvenile Justice 101

Systems of care and other health-related initiatives have encouraged the proliferation of parent support policies in mental health, child welfare and education systems. However, the juvenile court system has relatively few programs that provide direct peer support for parents and little is known about the impact of parent support on families navigating the court process. Juvenile Justice 101 is one of only a few such programs. The present study examined the effect of the peer support element of Juvenile Justice 101 compared to video-only and no intervention conditions in a pre/post-test design. One hundred and ten parents agreed to participate in the study, 54 on a day with the peer support condition, 28 on a video-only day and 28 on a no-intervention day. Sixteen parents in the peer support condition were able to participate in the full program and seven parents in the video-only condition participated in the full video. Analyses disaggregate the effects of condition assignment and participation. Self-efficacy in navigating the juvenile court process improved for parents who participated in peer support but no improvement was observed for the other conditions. Parents in the peer support condition also rated peer partners higher than court staff on a dimension assessing process of care. The implications for practice and policy for peer support and family-driven services in juvenile court are discussed.     

Aligning Policy to Promote Cascade Genetic Screening for Prevention and Early Diagnosis of Heritable Diseases

Cascade genetic screening is a methodology for identifying and testing close blood relatives of individuals at increased risk for heritable conditions and follows a sequential process, minimizing testing costs and the number of family members who need to be tested. It offers considerable potential for cost savings and increased awareness of heritable conditions within families. CDC-classified Tier 1 genomic applications for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC), Lynch Syndrome (LS), and familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) are recommended for clinical use and support the use of cascade genetic screening. Most individuals are unaware of their increased risk for heritable conditions such as HBOC, LS, and FH. Consistent implementation of cascade genetic screening could significantly increase awareness and prevention of heritable conditions. Limitations to effective implementation of cascade genetic screening include: insufficient genetic risk assessment and knowledge by a majority of healthcare providers without genetics credentials; a shortage of genetic specialists, especially in rural areas; a low rate of reimbursement for comprehensive genetic counseling services; and an individual focus on prevention by clinical guidelines and insurance coverage. The family-centric approach of cascade genetic screening improves prevention and early diagnosis of heritable diseases on a population health level. Cascade genetic screening could be better supported and augmented through changes in health policy.     

Development of Visually Guided Locomotion

This article presents a developmental account of changes in the visual guidance of locomotion. In contrast to the impressive efficiency of adult locomotion, locomotor activity is not under prospective control at the onset of human mobility. Infants require extensive crawling and walking experience before responding adaptively to variations in the terrain. At the same time that they are learning to navigate in increasingly varied environments, their bodies and skills are rapidly changing. Learning generalizes from safe, flat ground to novel surfaces but it does not transfer to new methods of locomotion. We account for these patterns of generality and specificity of learning by focusing on the role of exploratory behavior in detecting threats to balance control.