Parental and family risk factors for substance use in inner-city African-American children and adolescents

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a multidimensional model of parental and family influences on risk for substance use in inner-city African-American primary grade children and their adolescent siblings. The risk factors investigated were conceptually grouped into three broad domains of family influences and the respective indices computed: parental risk attributes, family risk attributes, and parenting styles. Parenting styles were captured as indicators of a latent construct, poor parenting. In study 1, we hypothesized that the parental and family risk variables would be mediated through parenting styles to predict intentions to use drugs, actual drug use, positive drug attitudes, and negative drug attitudes in a sample of 455 inner-city African-American families and their primary-grade children. In study 2, the substance use risk model was tested on a sample of 59 adolescent sibilings to determine whether the pattern of parental and family factors that contributed to early high-risk attitudes and behaviors in children would predict drug attitudes and behaviors in teen siblings. The results confirmed our expectations that parental and family risks were important predictors of childrens' negative drug attitudes and intentions to use drugs in the future and that positive parental and family characteristics would protect against future risk by enhancing negative drug attitudes. Also, substance use attitudes and behaviors in the teen siblings were predicted primarily by family risk characteristics. The family risk index also predicted frequency of use of hard drugs, but only when mediated through poor parenting. The implications of these results for future research are discussed.     

Parents of Special Needs Children Mastering the Job of Parenting

The purpose of this investigation was to learn how parents master the job of parenting children with special needs. Through collaborative interviews using qualitative research methods, this study taps into the stories of five veteran families who reflect on the many challenges they faced from difficult beginnings to years of day-to-day struggles, and how they managed these challenges. Guidelines for family practitioners, based on the results, are discussed.     

Parental involvement and mental health among school-going adolescents in five Caribbean countries

The aim of this study was to assess the association between parental involvement and mental health among adolescents in five Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and Trinidad, and Tobago. Data were from the cross-sectional Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS) which sampled 10 063 adolescents (mean age 14.3 years, SD = 1.3) from 2009 to 2013. In multivariable logistic regression analyses (adjusted for age, sex, and socioeconomic status), bullied, having close friends and peer support, and higher levels of parental involvement were negatively associated with loneliness, anxiety, and suicidal ideation in all five countries. In Jamaica, parental involvement was not associated with suicide attempt. Parental involvement interventions for improving mental health among the Caribbean adolescents should consider peer influences.     

Parent – infant psychotherapy,the transition to parenthood and parental narcissism: Implications for treatment

In this article the author discusses some of the indications for short- or long-term parent?–?infant psychotherapeutic interventions in terms of what he defines as ‘problems of parenthood’ and ‘problems of parental narcissism’. Brief parent?–?infant psychotherapeutic interventions are most frequently indicated in the case of the former: more neurotic problems of parenthood where the parents present a manic or counter-depressive type of narcissism. Masochistic problems of parenthood are also susceptible to treatment through brief parent?–?infant interventions, although in such cases treatment may have to be continued in another modality of long-term psychotherapy. More dissociated problems of parental narcissism constitute a contraindication for brief psychotherapeutic parent?–?infant interventions. The persecutory narcissism of these parents contributes to a ‘negative pre-transference’ which creates a major resistance to the therapeutic process.