Children of alcoholics, negative life events, and early experimentation with drugs

Questionnaires were completed by sixth-grade students and their parents in order to assess differences between children of alcoholics (COAs) and their peers, as well as the relations between family environment and children's experimentation with alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. Social competence and problematic behavior were also explored. The best predictors of early experimentation with alcohol, drugs, and tobacco were the experience of negative life events, family conflict, and lack of family cohesion, but not COA status per se. Differences were found between COAs and non-COAs in respect to family structure, parent education levels, and family environment. COAs were found to be significantly more likely than their peers to experiment with tobacco, but not alcohol or drugs. They also had a tendency to engage more frequently in delinquent behavior. Recommendations for future research and implications for preventive activities are discussed.     

Developmental and mental health characteristics of children exposed to psychosocial adversity and stressors at the age of 18-months: Findings from a population-based cohort study

BackgroundPrior research on adverse experiences in early childhood has mainly focused on at-risk populations while studies of unselected populations are scarce. This topic therefore remains to be elucidated in broader child populations. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine if and to what extent children from a general population sample are exposed to psychosocial adversity and stressors in early childhood and whether the development and mental health of children with and without such exposure differ at the age of 18-months.MethodsA random sample of the Copenhagen Child Cohort (CCC2000) comprising 210 children and their parents participated in the study when the children were approximately 18-months. Information on exposures was obtained from a semi-structured interview including the Mannheim Parent Interview (MPI) and classified in agreement with the Multiaxial Classification of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Disorders (ICD-10), and the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC: 0-3). Child development was assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development – Second Edition (BSID-II), while mental health was measured using the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL 1½-5).ResultsAmong the 210 children, 91 (43%) had been exposed to psychosocial adversity and persistent stressors. The exposed children differed from the non-exposed children by poorer cognitive development and behavioral regulation, as well as more attention problems and anxious/depressed symptoms. The children exposed to adverse caregiving environments were specifically more likely to have delayed cognitive development than the rest of the sample.ConclusionsIn a general population sample of children aged 18-months, exposure to psychosocial adversity and stressors was associated with poorer development and mental health in cognitive and affective domains. These findings highlight an avenue for further research with potential implications for early preventative practices.     

Unique System of Care Issues and Challenges in Serving Children Under Age 3 and their Families

This article addresses the primary modifications necessary for system change to better meet the mental health needs of children under the age of three. The role of risk and resiliency factors in the young child, family and community and the necessity for a comprehensive community infant-family mental health system with a focus on the whole family are addressed. Barriers to care within early childhood systems of care are examined, including stigma, community referral and collaboration, diagnostic concerns during infancy, issues around family engagement, empowerment and partnership, funding of comprehensive and well coordinated infant-family services, workforce capacity and evaluation. Recommendations for implementation of system changes at the community and federal levels are proposed.     

Young pedestrians' behaviours and risk perception: a pilot study with Italian early adolescents

This study aimed to investigate early adolescents’ mobility, taking into consideration risky pedestrian behaviours around roads and their relationship with independent mobility and risk perception in different traffic situations. The participants were 922 students, males (48%) and females, aged 10–14 and who attended the seventh (51%) and ninth grades in a medium-sized city in southern Italy. They completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire at school, specifically designed for the research. Measures included mode of transport, level of independent mobility, frequency of risky behaviours as a pedestrian and risk perception of these behaviours. Moreover, students were asked to evaluate the risk, their likely behaviour, and likely motives for risky behaviour in a specific traffic scenario concerning a risky road crossing shown on a video. Gender and age differences were taken into consideration, and relationships between risky behaviour as a pedestrian, level of independent mobility and different measures of risk perception (concerning both risk behaviour as a pedestrian and in the video scenario) were investigated. Results showed that risky behaviours while travelling as a pedestrian were more widespread among ninth grade students and those who were more independent. Moreover, a strong relationship between a greater involvement in risky pedestrian behaviours and lower risk perception and a greater tendency to justify risky behaviours were found in the students. Results suggested the implementation of a prevention programme in early adolescence to improve both risk perception in specific traffic situations and the awareness of motives of risky road behaviours.     

Which emotional regulatory strategy makes Chinese adolescents happier? A longitudinal study

Growing interest in emotion regulation is reflected in the studies of cognitive and social development. However, the extant studies mainly highlight how emotion regulation develops based on a western value system. This study utilised a longitudinal design to examine the development of emotion regulation and explored the contributions of different regulatory strategies to emotion experience regarding the early adolescent development period in a Chinese population. A total of 303 Chinese adolescents (age range = 10–14 years) were followed up in a three‐phase longitudinal study for 3 years. In each phase of the study, participants completed Adolescents Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Daily Emotion Scale. Results of hierarchical linear regressions revealed that Chinese adolescents reported more down‐regulation. Down‐regulation is more effective than up‐regulation in enhancing desirable emotion experience and reducing undesirable emotion experience during adolescents' development. Also, the adaptive functions of emotional regulatory strategies in Chinese background were discussed.     

Longitudinal Associations among Fathers' Perception of Coparenting,Partner Relationship Quality,and Paternal Stress during Early Childhood

This study examined the longitudinal and concurrent associations among fathers' perceptions of partner relationship quality (happiness, conflict), coparenting (shared decision making, conflict), and paternal stress. The sample consisted of 6,100 children who lived with both biological parents at 24 and 48 months in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort data set. The results showed that there are significant and concurrent associations between fathers' perceptions of the coparenting relationship and paternal stress, and between partner relationship quality and paternal stress. There was also a positive direct longitudinal association between partner relationship conflict and paternal stress. However, we found only one longitudinal cross‐system mediation effect: fathers' perception of coparenting conflict at 48 months mediated the association between partner relationship conflict at 24 months and paternal stress at 48 months. The family practice implications of these findings are discussed.     

Infant Movement Motivation Questionnaire: Development of a measure evaluating infant characteristics relating to motor development in the first year of life

This paper highlights the development and testing of the Infant Movement Motivation Questionnaire (IMMQ), an instrument designed to evaluate qualities of infant characteristics that relate specifically to early motor development. The measurement development process included three phases: item generation, pilot testing and evaluation of acceptability and feasibility for parents and exploratory factor analysis. The resultant 27-item questionnaire is designed for completion by parents and contains four factors including Activity, Exploration, Motivation and Adaptability. Overall, the internal consistency of the IMMQ is 0.89 (Cronbach's alpha), with test–retest reliability measured at 0.92 (ICC, with 95% CI 0.83–0.96). Further work could be done to strengthen the individual factors; however it is adequate for use in its full form. The IMMQ can be used for clinical or research purposes, as well as an educational tool for parents.     

Multidimensional perfectionism and the DSM-5 personality traits

Encouraging further research on the dimensional assessment of personality disorders (PDs), Section III of the DSM-5 introduced a hybrid model for the assessment of six PDs employing self-reports on 25 maladaptive personality traits (“DSM-5 personality traits”). Following suggestions that multidimensional perfectionism is an important characteristic across various personality disorders (Ayearst, Flett, & Hewitt, 2012), the present study investigated how personal (self-oriented) and interpersonal (other-oriented and socially prescribed) forms of perfectionism predicted the DSM-5 personality traits in a sample of 311 university students. Multiple regressions (controlling for the overlap between the different forms of perfectionism) showed that socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted the traits defining schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive PD; other-oriented perfectionism positively predicted the traits defining narcissistic PD; and both socially prescribed and other-oriented perfectionism positively predicted the traits defining antisocial PD. In contrast, self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted only one of the four traits defining obsessive-compulsive PD (rigid perfectionism). Showing that multidimensional perfectionism predicted all DSM-5 traits defining the personality disorders of Section III, the findings suggest that future DSM-5 updates may profit from including interpersonal aspects of perfectionism as a diagnostic criterion.     

Parents' inconsistent emotion socialization and children's socioemotional adjustment

Parents socialize children's emotion through active, purposeful strategies and through their own expressivity; yet little research has examined whether parents are inconsistent within or between these socialization domains. The author presents a heuristic model of inconsistency in parents' emotion socialization. Parents (M age = 34.8 years, 85% mothers) of preschool-aged children (M age = 4.5 years, 53% female) reported on their responses to children's emotions, their own expressivity, child emotion regulation and expressivity, child social competence, and child internalizing and externalizing. Parents were largely consistent in their emotion socialization, with one exception being that some highly negatively expressive parents punished children's negative expressivity. This pairing of inconsistent socialization behaviors interacted to explain variance in child emotion regulation and internalizing. The author discusses the implications and limitations of the findings and directions for future research.     

Body talk: somatic countertransference

This article focuses on a clinically observed event: the impact of the analytic session on the corporeality of the psychotherapist. The author sees this as an example of countertransference, in this instance ‘somatic countertransference’. Short and long clinical extracts are used to detail these events. The author touches on some early ideas on somatizing. The Kleinian concept of projective identification is itself explored and then used to explore further the idea of somatic countertransference.