Examining the help-seeking intentions of Chinese individuals in the United States

The underutilization of mental health services by Chinese individuals in the United States is concerning. In this study, we examined Chinese individuals’ help-seeking intentions utilizing the theory of planned behavior. Two hundred fifty-one participants were recruited for this study. The results revealed that help-seeking attitudes (β = 0.28, p < 0.001), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.21, p < 0.001), and subjective norms (β = 0.13, p < 0.001) were found to be significant predictors of help-seeking intentions. The implications of the results are discussed.     

Parents as Partners: A U.K. Trial of a U.S. Couples‐Based Parenting Intervention For At‐Risk Low‐Income Families

Despite the well‐established links between couple relationship quality and healthy family functioning, and burgeoning evidence from the international intervention field, there is little or no evidence of the efficacy of couples‐based interventions from the United Kingdom (U.K.). This study explored whether the Parents as Partners (PasP) program, a group‐based intervention developed in the United States, brought about the same benefits in the U.K. The evaluation is based on 97 couples with children from communities with high levels of need, recruited to PasP because they are at high risk for parent and child psychopathology. Both mothers and fathers completed self‐report questionnaires assessing parents’ psychological distress, parenting stress, couple relationship quality and conflict, fathers’ involvement in child care and, importantly, children's adjustment. Multilevel modeling analysis comparing parents’ responses pre‐ and postintervention not only showed substantial improvements for both parents on multiple measures of couple relationship quality, but also improvements in parent and child psychopathology. Analyses also indicated most substantial benefits for couples displaying poorest functioning at baseline. The findings provide initial evidence for the successful implementation of PasP, an American‐origin program, in the U.K., and add support for the concept of the couple relationship as a resource by which to strengthen families.     

ROLE OF FIRST‐YEAR MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND PATERNAL INVOLVEMENT IN BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN

Drawing on economic models of child development and attachment relationship perspectives, this study examined the effect of maternal employment in the first year after childbirth on subsequent behavioral and cognitive development in low‐income children. Analyses of data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (N = 411) revealed that despite the accompanying family income gains, maternal employment in the first year after childbirth adversely affected caregiver‐reported internalizing and externalizing behavior problems of Hispanic, Black, and White children at ages 3 and 5 years. This study also examined how paternal participation in childcare might affect children's outcomes. Results indicate that greater paternal participation eased the adverse impacts of maternal employment on internalizing behavior problems. There was no evidence that maternal employment was associated with children's memory cognitive functioning or that paternal involvement moderated children's cognitive development. These findings suggest that when early intervention programs are designed to assist low‐income families, enhancing supports (e.g., paternal involvement or parental leave) for working mothers during their child's first year may be valuable for young children's healthy development.     

A Population‐Based Comparison of Female and Male Same‐Sex Parent and Different‐Sex Parent Households

This investigation compared Dutch same‐sex parent and different‐sex parent households on children's psychological well‐being, parenting stress, and support in child rearing. It was also assessed whether associations among children's well‐being, parenting stress, and support in child rearing were different in the two household types. Data were based on a nationally representative survey (N = 25,250). Matching was used to enhance similarity in background characteristics between both types of families. Parental and child characteristics were matched for 43 female same‐sex parent, 52 male same‐sex parent, and 95 different‐sex parent households with offspring between 5 and 18 years old. No significant differences were found on children's well‐being, problems in the parent–child relationship, being worried about the child, or the use of formal and informal support between mothers in same‐sex and different‐sex parent households or for fathers in same‐sex and different‐sex parent households. Regarding perceived confidence in child rearing, fathers in same‐sex parent households and mothers in different‐sex parent households felt less competent than their counterparts. Neither the associations between children's well‐being and the predictors (parenting stress variables) nor those between support and the predictors (parenting stress and children's well‐being) differed along household type. In this population‐based study, the similarity in child outcomes regardless of household type confirms the results of prior investigations based on convenience samples. These findings are pertinent to family therapists, practitioners, court officials, and policymakers who seek information on parenting experiences and child outcomes in female and male same‐sex parent families.     

Co‐Occurring Trajectory of Mothers’ Substance Use and Psychological Control and Children's Behavior Problems: The Effects of a Family Systems Intervention

This study examined the effects of a family systems therapy (Ecologically‐Based Family Therapy [EBFT]) on the co‐occurring trajectory of mothers’ substance use and psychological control, and its association with children's problem behaviors. Participants included 183 mothers with a substance use disorder who had at least one biological child in their care. Mothers were randomly assigned to one of the three intervention conditions: EBFT—home, n = 62; EBFT—office, n = 61; or Women's Health Education, n = 60. Participants were assessed at baseline, 3, 6, 12, and 18 months post‐baseline. A dual‐trajectory class growth analysis identified three groups of mothers in regard to their change trajectories. The majority of the mothers exhibited a synchronous decrease in substance use and psychological control (n = 107). In all, 46 mothers exhibited a synchronous increase in substance use and psychological control. For the remaining 30 mothers, substance use and psychological control remained stable. Mothers in the family therapy condition were more likely to show reduced substance use and psychological control compared to mothers in the control condition. Moreover, children with mothers who showed decreased substance use and psychological control exhibited lower levels of problem behaviors compared to children with mothers showing increased substance use and psychological control. The findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of family systems therapy, EBFT, in treating mothers’ substance use, improving parenting behaviors, and subsequently improving child behavioral outcomes.     

Recoupling in Mid‐Life and Beyond: From Love at Last to Not So Fast

Divorce rates have dropped in the United States, except for couples over 50 where they are rising steeply, along with rates of late‐life recoupling. Both stepcouples and their young adult and adult children in new older stepfamilies are often surprised to find themselves facing many of the same challenges that younger stepfamilies do. Some challenges are even intensified by the decades‐long relationships and additional layers of extended family that come with recoupling after mid‐life. Stepfamilies formed in later life must also negotiate decisions about estate planning and elder care among stakeholders who often have sharply divergent agendas before there is time to establish trusting relationships. This article describes the “normal” challenges facing stepcouples who come together over age 50. It provides evidence‐informed guidance for therapists in meeting these challenges on three levels of clinical work: Psychoeducational, Interpersonal, and Intrapsychic/Intergenerational. As in younger stepfamilies, “family therapy” must usually begin in subsystems—often the adult stepcouple and parent–adult child. The article then describes a particularly fraught subgroup of recouplers: over‐50 fathers and their new partners, where the dad's young adult or adult daughter is very unhappy with his new relationship. In these latter stepfamilies, father–daughter repair must precede stepfamily bonding. Stepfamilies that are preceded by a partner's death and those that begin with affairs are also discussed. Finally, some “easy wrong turns” for therapists are described.     

Socio-demographic and psychopathological risk factors in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Epidemiologic study of school population

We assessed the presence of emotional disorders (obsessive-compulsive, anxiety and depressive) in 1,514 Spanish non-referred children (8–12 years old) to investigate the predictive ability of psychopathological and socio-demographic characteristics, and identify which of these were possible correlates for clinical obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical OCD. At one year later, 562 subjects (risk group and without risk group) were re-assessed and we established the OCD diagnoses or the subclinical OCD diagnoses. We found that 20 participants presented clinical OCD and 46 participants presented subclinical OCD. Somatic and separation anxiety symptomatology were good predictors for clinical OCD, and obsessive concern was a predictor for subclinical OCD. Clinical OCD was associated with order/checking/pollution symptoms and with a lower socioeconomic status (SES). Subclinical OCD was associated with hyperactive and impulsive manifestations, obsessive concern, and superstition/mental compulsion. An early detection and the follow-up of anxiety or obsessive symptoms in children may be important for preventing the course of OCD.     

Jungian socioanalysis,social dreaming and the emerging complexity of Europe1

This paper presents central elements of what we have termed Jungian socioanalysis – an emerging theory combining analytical psychology, complexity theories, sociological theories, socio- and psychoanalysis, social dreaming, group analysis and affect theories consisting of five assumptions (see also Odde & Vestergaard 2021). Jungian socioanalysis develops a process approach, as opposed to a systems approach, to sociality. In this paper we focus mostly on one of the five assumptions, namely that Jungian socioanalysis explores social fields ‘from within’ through smaller groups, treating group processes as a vehicle to gain a psychosocial and cultural understanding of larger social entities. We give an example of this approach with a presentation of two local social dreaming experiences in Denmark, focusing on Europe in transition. We show that the most significant outcome doesn't rely on the specific content of the dreams, but rather on the engagement in the social dreaming process itself, resulting in transformative image-affects. The paper ends with reflections on how these social dreaming experiences inform a Jungian socioanalysis, pointing to enabling intersubjective meetings, or present moments, opening for a deeper understanding from within the group as opposed to a systems approach. The paper is a revised version of a presentation at the 2018 European Congress in Avignon.     

Archetypes of the pandemic

This paper attempts to read the psychological and emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through the archetypal images contained in patients’ dreams. In these dreams, symbols related to the power of nature and to extreme danger are paired with feelings of detachment that seem to point to a traumatic dissociation, due to the archetypal experience that erupts in familiar surroundings. Through the humanization of the ineffable experience, dissociation, which in the beginning of the pandemic showed in high levels of anxiety, panic attacks and depersonalization, can be transformed into the overview needed for the search for meaning. The container for this process of transformation is the analyst, the real, virtual or imagined one, and his or her ability to relate and feel.