Parenting young children with challenging behaviour

Previous research has established the link between harsh parenting and poor outcomes in children, although little attention has been paid to the concurrent protective factors which may exist. The relationship between parenting behaviours and childhood externalizing behaviours was investigated in a sample of 60 parents of young children (ages 2–5 years). Thirty families were selected for participation based on teacher‐reported externalizing behaviour in their young child which exceeded normal limits and matched with a sample of 30 parents of children without externalizing behaviour problems. Results found that parents of young children with externalizing behaviours tended to use more frequent verbal and corporal punishment with their young children, and reported more behaviour problems with their young children when compared with a control group. However, no significant differences were found between groups with respect to positive, nurturing behaviours, or utilizing appropriate developmental expectations. Implications for prevention are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

失独父母创伤后应激障碍症状的潜在类别及其相关因素

摘 要 研究旨在探讨失独父母创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状的潜在类别及相关因素,分析不同类别失独父母心理韧性的差异。采用创伤后应激障碍量表（PCL-5）、心理韧性量表对385名失独父母进行测查。结果发现：（1）失独父母PTSD症状存在三种潜在类别：PTSD高症状组（30%）、PTSD中度症状组（38%）、PTSD低症状组（32%）。（2）相比PTSD低症状组而言,PTSD高或中度症状组有显著的年龄和失独年限效应,PTSD高症状组中年龄≤60岁、失独年限<10年的人群所占比例较高;PTSD中度症状组的年龄≤60岁的人群所占比例更高。（3）PTSD高症状组心理韧性得分显著低于其他两组。应及时关注和干预小于60岁、失独年限<10年和低心理韧性的失独群体。     

5岁半幼儿掌控动机、气质及入学准备能力的关系探析

通过对51名5.5岁幼儿掌控动机的问卷评估、入学准备能力的情境测验以及气质的教师评定,考察了幼儿多领域掌控动机与入学准备各领域能力之间的关系及气质在两者关系中的调节作用。结果发现,对于专注倾向(高专注性-低活动性和情绪性)幼儿,物体掌控动机正向预测了精细动作技能和学习方式,大动作掌控动机正向预测了感觉运动技能;对于反应倾向(高反应性-低抑制性)幼儿,同伴社会掌控动机正向预测了精细动作技能;而对于抑制倾向(低反应性-高抑制性)幼儿,同伴社会掌控动机则负向预测了精细动作技能、感觉运动技能和学习方式。     

中青年冠心病患者冠脉介入治疗后精神心理改变及影响因素调查分析

应用焦虑、抑郁自评量袁对84例行冠脉介入治疗的中青年冠心病患者分别进行术前、术后3个月的问卷调查,分析其变化的影响因素后进行综合评价。发现此类人群大多有焦虑、抑郁倾向,其发病率与性别有关而与年龄无关;其影响因素与对疾病的认识、医疗保险、家庭结构有一定相关性。     

Learning to use novel objects: a training study on the acquisition of novel action representations

Many studies have suggested that the motor system is organized in a hierarchical fashion, around the prototypical end location associated with using objects. However, most studies supporting the hierarchical view have used well-known actions and objects that are highly over-learned. Accordingly, at present it is unclear if the hierarchical principle applies to learning the use of novel objects as well. In the present study we found that when learning to use a novel object subjects acquired an action representation of the end location associated with using the object, as evidenced by slower responses in an action observation task, when the object was presented at an incorrect end location. By showing the importance of knowledge about end locations when learning to use a novel object, the present study suggests that end locations are a fundamental organizing feature of the human motor system.     

Predicting parenting stress: children's behavioural problems and parents' coping

This study examined the effects of child characteristics and parent coping practices on parenting stress, based on a sample of parents of 64 boys with behavioural problems and a comparison group with parents of 128 boys. All parents completed questionnaires about stress, length of education, child characteristics, social support, sense of coherence and coping practices, in addition to interviews in their home about daily activities and relations with the child. A hierarchical regression model for predicting parenting stress was tested, and the results showed that having a child with behavioural problems predicted 57% of the variance in parenting stress. Social support and parental resources and strategies added to the prediction of parenting stress after controlling for family demographics and child characteristics. The parents in the clinical group (with boys referred to psychiatric units) were more often single parents with lower education, more often unemployed, less content with social support, and had lower scores on comprehensibility. These parents were significantly more stressed than parents in the comparison group. All these risk factors might be barriers against establishing a protective frame around a child. These parents, with a difficult child‐rearing situation, who perceived less support and had fewer material benefits, seemed to be more vulnerable. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

John Beebe in conversation with Beverley Zabriskie

John Beebe speaks with Beverley Zabriskie about the central motifs of his life and depth psychological experience, and how these informed his choice of vocation as psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, educator and author. Dr. Beebe narrates how he moved beyond the fate assigned the son of a needy mother and abandoning father. He illustrates how the role his family expected him to fill constellated archetypal motifs--the magical or divine curative child, the whiz kid--from which he had then to disidentify for the sake of becoming an individual with a personal voice and capacity to express his own true values. He tells of his differentiation and search for completion through the perspective of Jung's psychological types theory. He also reflects on the evolution of Jungian analytic theory and practice generally, his editorship of the JAP and the San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, his confrontation with analytic homophobia, and the emerging quality of professional and personal relationships in relation to ethics and to love. He assesses Jung's courage and integrity as displayed through the release of Jung's Red Book, and his own quest for an organic and psychological moral stance expressed in his benchmark book, Integrity in Depth.     

Religion and Gambling Among Young Adults in the United States: Moral Communities and the Deterrence Hypothesis

Despite voluminous research examining religion as an integrative force and a mechanism of social control, relatively few studies have examined the association between religion and proscribed or morally ambiguous behaviors beyond crime and drug use. The present exploratory study examines the role of religion, at both the individual and county levels, in predicting self‐reported gambling problems. Hierarchical linear models are employed to examine religion and self‐reported gambling problems using the restricted use data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A negative association between religious attendance and problem gambling (at the individual level) is strongest when church adherents per capita is relatively high (measured at the county level). However, when the number of conservative Protestants per capita is relatively high, religious attendance (measured at the individual level) is associated with an increased risk of gambling problems. These countervailing findings are interpreted as supportive of the bonding and bridging capital thesis.     

An evaluation of persistence of treatment effects during long-term treatment of destructive behavior

Eight young children who displayed destructive behavior maintained, at least in part, by negative reinforcement received long‐term functional communication training (FCT). During FCT, the children completed a portion of a task and then touched a communication card attached to a microswitch to obtain brief breaks. Prior to and intermittently throughout FCT, extinction probes were conducted within a withdrawal design in which task completion, manding, and destructive behavior were placed on extinction to evaluate the relative persistence of appropriate and destructive behavior over the course of treatment. FCT continued until appropriate behavior persisted and destructive behavior failed to recur at baseline levels during extinction probes. The completion of FCT was followed by four challenges to the persistence of treatment effects conducted within mixed‐ or multiple‐schedule designs: (a) extended extinction sessions (from 5 to 15 min), (b) introduction of a novel task, (c) removal of the microswitch and communication card, and (d) a mixed schedule of reinforcement in which both appropriate and destructive behavior produced reinforcement. The results showed that although FCT often resulted in quick reductions in destructive behavior and increases in appropriate behavior, destructive behavior often recurred during the extinction probes conducted during the initial treatment. When the effects of treatment persisted during the extinction probes, the remaining challenges to treatment effects resulted in only mild to moderate disruptions in behavior. These results are consistent with the quantitative predictions of behavioral momentum theory and may provide an alternative definition of maintenance as constituting behavioral persistence.     

Quality of maternal thinking and mother-child interaction in at-risk contexts

This study investigates how the maternal level of perspectivistic reasoning and the level of socialization goals in the representation of their actions are related to the quality of mother-child behaviors as well as to the expert ratings on maternal practices in at-risk contexts. It also investigated whether there is any direct link between mother and child behaviors and expert ratings. A sample of 75 mothers of children between 8 and 12 years old reported on their level of perspectivistic reasoning and were characterized by the social workers of municipal services as being coercive, neglectful or meeting their child's needs. Interactions during a collaborative task were observed to obtain information on level of socialization goals and mother-child behaviors. Structural equation models showed that mothers' higher levels of perspectivism and higher levels of socialization goals positively predicted the mother's and child's sensitivity and active involvement in the task and negatively predicted avoidance and passivity. Higher levels of perspectivism consistently predicted experts' views on maternal practices. However, only mother's avoidance predicted negatively expert ratings on coercion practice, indicating that expert views were mostly derived from the mothers' perspective on their child. The implications of these results for parental assessment and intervention programs are discussed.