Infant mental health home visiting in the context of an infant—toddler court team: Changes in parental responsiveness and reflective functioning

This article describes an infant–toddler court team in Michigan, the community-based participatory research approach to the implementation evaluation, and the resulting changes in parenting. Like other court teams, Michigan's Baby Court is led by a science-informed jurist, and all service providers are knowledgeable about the developmental needs of young children and engage in collaborative communication throughout the case. Relationship-based treatment in the form of infant mental health home-visiting was provided to families. Sixteen parents participated in pre- and posttest evaluation visits to assess changes in parents’ reflective functioning and interactions with their child. Findings suggest improvements in parents’ responsiveness, positive affect, and reflective functioning, with moderate effects. Higher risk parents demonstrated significant changes in reflective functioning, as compared to those at lower risk. These findings add to and support the limited literature on the effectiveness of infant–toddler court teams, which include relationship-based and trauma-informed services.     

The outcomes of effective career discussion at work

This article examines the outcomes that resulted from career discussions experienced by 104 employees. Employees appeared to benefit from discussions about their careers with individuals in a wide range of roles. Many effective career discussions produced multiple outcomes, and some of these were long-lasting. The most common types of outcomes experienced were a clearer view of future direction, self-insight, awareness of opportunities, and feeling reassured or better about self or work. The findings highlight the need for future research into the effectiveness of career interventions to take more account of multiple outcomes and how these evolve over time. Also, organizations need to encourage informal career discussions and informal mentoring.     

The Parents Matter! Program: Practical, Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives

We provide a commentary on the Parents Matter! intervention program. Our commentary is organized around core issues confronting those who design prevention programs, namely (1) making the program practical, feasible and economical, (2) reaching a broad base of target individuals, (3) making the intervention effective in changing the behavior or outcome for those who participate in it, and (4) ensuring that the intervention is sustainable for future generations. Parents Matter! is a thoughtful and impressive program that addresses each of these issues.     

Reflections on the Field of School Attendance Problems: For the Times They Are a-Changing?

This article presents reflections on the seven articles included in this special series. The classification of school attendance problems (SAPs) based on structured checklists of SAP types (school refusal, truancy, school withdrawal, and school exclusion) together with functional analysis opens the way for establishing norms and social referents. We discuss how authorized nonattendance can also be problematic if it is persistent, and that it is important to take this type of SAP into account if the field is to effectively understand and respond to the complex range of bio-psycho-socio-cultural determinants of absenteeism. We highlight other gaps in the current literature, one of which is the lack of attention to evidence-based prevention and early intervention strategies. Avenues for future research are suggested, with emphasis on the need for pragmatic approaches to address the complexities of SAPs. Promising work is beginning to address the SAPs that are prevalent in special populations such as those with autism spectrum disorder. Overall, our reflections highlight the incremental changes that have characterized the field, exemplified by this series of articles, and the promise of transformational change in tackling the major challenge of SAPs as research in the field continues.     

Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review

Work engagement is associated with important individual and organisational outcomes (e.g. employee health and well-being, performance). This narrative systematic review aims to synthesise the increasing number of work engagement interventions and inform future research by exploring: (1) the specific intervention foci, delivery methods and content of engagement interventions; (2) intervention effectiveness; and (3) underlying mediators and moderators. A systematic search for interventions employing a validated engagement measure revealed 40 studies. Five were personal resource building, twelve job resource building, three leadership training, eighteen health promotion, and two job and personal resource building. Twenty (50%) studies observed significant positive effects on work engagement, two (5%) had a negative effect, and eighteen (45%) had no effect. Job and personal resources, job demands and well-being were important mediators. Moderators included the specific intervention focus and delivery method, employee participation, manager support, and intervention level (top-down vs bottom-up). Bottom-up interventions, and job crafting and mindfulness interventions particularly, were most successful. Implementation difficulties were common, including poor response and attrition rates, and adverse factors (e.g. organisational restructuring, redundancy, economic downturn). We highlight implications for research and practice and stress the need to test underlying theories to build knowledge around how, why, and when interventions work.     

Sustainable antibullying program implementation: School profiles and predictors

We examined the sustainability of the KiVa antibullying program in Finland from its nationwide roll-out in 2009 to 2016. Using latent class analyses, we identified four different patterns of implementation. The persistent schools (43%) maintained a high likelihood of participation throughout the study period. The awakened (14%) had a decreasing trend during the first years, but then increased the likelihood of program participation. The tail-offs (20%) decreased in the likelihood of participating after the third year, and the drop-offs (23%) already after the first year. The findings suggest that many schools need support during the initial years to launch and maintain the implementation of evidence-based programs; yet a large proportion of schools manage to sustain the program implementation for several years. The logistic regression analyses showed that large schools persisted more likely than small schools. Lower initial level of victimization was also related to the sustainability of the program. Finally, persistent program participation was predicted by several school-level actions during the initial years of implementing the program. These results imply that the sustainability of evidence-based programs could be enhanced by supporting and guiding schools when setting up the program during the initial implementation.     

Engineering interaction: Structural change,locus of identification,and the formation and maintenance of cross-unit ties

Cross-unit ties–relationships that facilitate discretionary information sharing between individuals from different business units–offer a range of organizational benefits. Scholars argue that organizations can promote cross-unit ties by: (a) formally bringing together individuals from different business units into structural links (e.g., cross-unit strategic committees) to encourage the formation of new cross unit ties and, (b) transferring individuals across units, which can increase cross-unit interaction when ties to the prior unit are maintained. This study considers the notion that the success of these formal interventions in fostering cross-unit interaction is contingent on identification with the local unit relative to identification with the broader organization. Specifically, we propose that structural links are more likely to foster cross-unit ties when organizational identification is high and unit identification is low. In contrast, lateral transfers are more likely to result in cross-unit ties when both organizational identification and unit identification are high. We find general support for these propositions in data obtained from a sample of senior leaders of a Fortune 200 agribusiness company before and after a restructuring designed to stimulate cross-unit information sharing. Our model and results make important contributions to our understanding of the relationship between formal and informal structure and reconcile conflicting views regarding the moderating effect of unit identification on intergroup relations.     

A randomised trial of the effect of appearance versus health-framed messages on engagement with an online brief screening and alcohol reduction intervention

Objectives: To compare the impact of appearance versus health-framed messages on engagement in a brief web-based risk screening and alcohol reduction intervention.

Design: Randomised trial delivered via Drinkaware’s website. Visitors were exposed to appearance (n?=?51,588) or health-framed messages (n?=?52,639) directing them towards an AUDIT-C risk screening questionnaire. Users completing this questionnaire were given feedback on their risk level and extended frame-congruent information.

Outcomes: The primary outcome is completion of the AUDIT-C questionnaire. The secondary outcome is whether the participant accessed any of four further resources.

Results: The appearance-framed message led to a small but significant increase in the number of users completing the AUDIT-C compared to the health-framed message (n?=?3,537, 6.86% versus n?=?3,355, 6.37%, p?<?0.01). Conversely, following subsequent risk feedback, users exposed to extended health-framed information were more likely to access further resources (n?=?1,146, 2.17% versus n?=?942, 1.83%, p?<?0.01).

Conclusions: Physical appearance-framed messages increased the likelihood of engagement with an online alcohol screening and brief intervention tool, whereas health-framed messages increased the likelihood of accessing further resources. This highlights the potential for the use of multi-level approaches in alcohol reduction interventions.