Child & Youth Care Forum最新文献

Background

Although the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, Short Form (DASS-21) was developed for adults, its authors noted no compelling reasons to not use the measure with youth as young as 12 years. Despite increasingly widespread use with youth, psychometric evidence in support of its use with this population needs to be investigated to fully understand its utility.

Objective

The goal of this paper was to conduct a systematic review to identify and appraise evidence for the psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, Short Form (DASS-21) when used with youth populations.

Methods

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, this systematic review identified 18 studies that reported relevant information on the psychometrics of the DASS-21 with youth samples. Each article was coded for evidence of three indicators of particular importance to progress monitoring: reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change.

Results

Studies have found varied factor structures (i.e., 1–4 factors) for the DASS-21 and validity evidence based on relations to other variables has been limited. As such, further research is needed to understand the utility of the depression, anxiety, and stress subscales. Furthermore, no information is currently available about the sensitivity to change of the measure.

Conclusions

Most studies reporting psychometric properties in this review utilized the DASS-21 with mixed-gender groups of secondary school students, thus supporting its use with similar populations. Pending additional inquiry, however, both researchers and practitioners are encouraged to utilize the total score, for which stronger evidence of reliability and validity exist.

Background

Verbal bullying is often reported by students. However, little is known about the exact things that bullies say to students or the immediate emotional reactions elicited by verbal bullying.

Objective

This study examined verbal bullying to determine what specific taunts are used in bullying, how students feel when they hear these taunts, if there is a relationship between particular taunts and feelings, and gender differences among these variables.

Method

Participants in this field study included a sample of middle school students, grades 6–8, with data collected over three years (N = 339) from a large school district in the United States. Using an open-ended format, students wrote things they thought bullies might say and how they would feel if they heard these taunts.

Results

Individual taunts such as “ugly” and “fat” and those falling into the categories of Stupid, Name Calling, and Personal Insults were most common. Frequent emotional responses were Sad, Angry/Hatred, and Depressed. Gender differences in both taunts and feelings were few, but females were more likely than males to be sensitive to issues of appearance, sexual propriety, and genuineness.

Conclusions

These data expand the literature by specifying the content of verbal bullying and immediate emotional reactions to it. They identify appearance as well as competence and warmth, key factors in the Stereotype Content Model, as underlying much of the content of verbal bullying.

Background

Parent engagement in child-focused interventions is increasingly recognised as an important aspect of effective intervention delivery. While several fields have an emerging literature around parent engagement, no reviews currently exist which combine findings across allied health literatures.

Objective

This review aimed to explore factors relevant to understanding parent engagement in child-focused interventions, as described in qualitative literature across allied health disciplines, toward informing the clinical practice of helping professionals in effectively engaging parents.

Methods

A systematised qualitative literature review was carried out, with a comprehensive search of five online databases (CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus) for allied health literature (specifically: behaviour analysis, occupational therapy, psychology, and speech-language therapy) using parent engagement key words. Reference searching and citation tracking steps supported the search. Thematic synthesis was used as the overarching framework and analysis approach.

Results

8824 unique studies were generated in the search. Of the 71 studies which met inclusion criteria, 38 reported qualitative findings and were included in the analysis. Five themes were identified including: societal context, interpersonal context, clinician features, family features, and relationship as engagement.

Conclusions

Findings support conceptual explanations of parent engagement as a complex and dynamic process, emphasising the joint contributions of parents and clinicians in developing therapeutic relationships which promote engagement. Across allied health research there are consistency of understandings around parent engagement, supporting the conclusion that clinicians can look to literatures from various helping fields to inform clinical practice around engaging parents in interventions.

Background

School engagement is a positive, malleable aspect of youth functioning that may be influenced by familial factors. Both risk and protective factors may affect youth’s school engagement.

Objective

Utilizing an intergenerational transmission of risk framework, the current study examined how maternal factors (i.e., maternal psychopathology, maternal trauma history, maternal education) and youth factors (i.e., social support) relate to school engagement.

Methods

Participants were 117 youth of color aged 8–13 years (M_age = 9.96, SD = 1.40), 51% female, 89% Black or African American and their female primary caregivers; all families had experienced adversity. Using a single-group, cross-sectional design, hierarchical linear regression models examined direct and interactive effects. The first block included maternal psychopathology (i.e., anxiety or depression), maternal trauma history, maternal education, and child social support. The second block added the interaction between maternal psychopathology and child social support.

Results

Results revealed a direct, positive relation between child social support and school engagement. Social support also moderated the association between maternal anxiety and school engagement; for individuals with extremely low social support, higher maternal anxiety was related to lower school engagement.

Conclusions

Results illustrate the value of an intergenerational approach to exploring how maternal factors have implications for youth functioning. Findings also highlight the importance of social support among families of color exposed to adversity. Limitations include the cross-sectional design; thus, future research would benefit from longitudinal examination of maternal and child factors related to school engagement to assess temporal and directional effects.

Background

Labeling theory underscores the sequential process that unfolds within an individual, influenced by those in his or her immediate surroundings. Nevertheless, research into the developmental characteristics of labeling theory remains limited. Furthermore, prior studies investigating the impact of informal labeling have predominantly occurred within a Western cultural context.

Objective

This study explores two fundamental aspects of within-individual dynamics in the influence of perceived informal labeling on deviant self-concept, utilizing a sample of Korean youth: (1) the evolution of a labeled youth’s deviant self-concept over time and (2) variations in the development of the deviant self-concept among individuals.

Methods

Using HLM 8.0, A series of random-effects models were estimated using six-wave panel data from Korean youth.

Results

The findings reveal that (1) the immediate within-individual effect of perceived informal labeling on deviant self-concept was significantly positive. However, when one- and two-year time intervals between variables were considered, the effects showed a reverse significance. (2) The increase in deviant self-concept over a six-year span was less pronounced for those with a higher level of perceived informal labeling in the first wave, suggesting that these youths attempted to mitigate the adverse effects of labeling.

Conclusions

The impact of perceived informal labeling is not consistent over time. Moreover, labeling effects may be shaped by an individual’s cultural background. This study is significant as it offers empirical testing of the developmental aspects of labeling theory within a unique cultural context.

Background

As autistic children are being diagnosed at a younger age, the need to identify appropriate early supports has increased. Therapist-delivered and parent-mediated autism intervention may benefit children and parents.

Objective

This pilot study examined developmental outcomes for autistic pre-schoolers and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for their parents (n = 53) following a 10-month intervention period.

Methods

All families were accessing therapist-delivered interventions—the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) or usual community services—and some families also received additional parent-coaching ESDM (P-ESDM). Families were assessed at 3 timepoints.

Results

Overall children made significant gains in cognitive skills and adaptive behaviour, with no differences between groups. Parents overall reported increased parenting stress over time. P-ESDM conferred no added benefit for child outcomes, and similarly, no clear benefit for parent outcomes.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that children receiving early intervention make developmental gains, regardless of type of intervention, and challenges assumptions that, as an adjunct to other intervention programs, P-ESDM improves child or parent outcomes. Further research is needed to explore the effects of parent-mediated programs.

Background

Both child temperament (specifically high shyness and fear) and environmental stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic are known to confer risk for elevated anxiety symptoms in children. However, few studies have examined the long-term impact of the pandemic on young children’s anxiety.

Objective

We examined the moderating effects of disruptions experienced during the early months of the pandemic on the longitudinal association between shy and fearful temperament at age 2 pre-pandemic and anxiety symptoms in the year following the start of the pandemic.

Methods

Participants were 125 parents of toddlers (M_age = 26 months, 54% girls, 80% White) who were participating in an ongoing anxiety screening study when the pandemic started in 2020. Shy and fearful temperament were assessed pre-pandemic at age 2 years using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire and anxiety symptoms were assessed within the first post-pandemic year (at ages 3 or 4) using the Spence Preschool Anxiety Scale. Parents completed the Epidemic-Pandemic Impacts Inventory at the start of the pandemic to assess types of disruptions experienced.

Results

Shyness predicted higher anxiety symptoms among children whose parents experienced more work-related disruptions. Fear was associated with higher anxiety symptoms at lower levels of social activities disruption but was unrelated to anxiety symptoms at high levels of these disruptions.

Conclusions

Results suggest that anxious temperament may serve as a meaningful screening target for identifying the children most in need of support during times of major stress.

Abstract

Background

In an American society where a majority of students are from minoritized backgrounds, a better understanding of the relationship between psychosocial factors and school climate across racial groups is needed to assist schools in providing a supportive and positive learning environment for all students.

Objective

The relationship between school climate and five psychosocial factors—motivation, academic self-concept, goal valuation, attitude towards teachers, and attitude towards school—is explored and a better understanding of how these psychosocial factors predict one’s experience of their school’s climate, both in general and across racial groups is further investigated.

Method

Data was collected through a school-administered survey focused on improving school climate. A diverse sample of 2524 high school students completed the survey, which was administered by school teachers during a school-wide free period with students.

Results

All five psychosocial factors predict students’ having a positive perception of their school’s climate, with medium to large effect sizes. Further, results from a series of stepwise multiple regressions indicate that (a) student attitudes toward their teachers were the most significant predictor of their perceptions about their school’s climate, and (b) the combination of psychosocial factors that best predict student perceptions of their school climate varied across racial groups.

Conclusion

The findings highlight an important first step in exploring how psychosocial perceptions can be leveraged to improve students’ perceptions of their school climate, in addition to considering the importance of teachers and racial considerations within school climate.

Background

Child care quality rating and improvement systems exist to inform child care decisions and improve the quality of care. While previous research has shown QRIS have effects on quality, less is known about how child care providers vary in engagement and improvement within QRIS. In a voluntary QRIS, it is important to understand how providers vary in motivation, engagement, and progress within the system.

Objective

Identify provider characteristics and attitudes that predict QRIS quality advancement. Identify and describe provider subgroups whose rates of quality improvement were different.

Method

A random sample of providers (N = 179) and their coaches were interviewed five times over 2 years. The outcome was change in QRIS levels. Predictors were type of care, personal/professional characteristics, QRIS motivation, and coach perceptions of provider motivation and likelihood to advance. Linear regression was used to model change in QRIS level over five time points. Latent profile analysis was used to sort providers into classes.

Results

Significant overall predictors of QRIS change were providers’ education level and fewer years of experience, and coach’s perception of the provider’s likelihood to advance. Four subgroups in the latent profile analysis varied by rate of advancement, type of care, education, experience, professional engagement, QRIS motivation, and general readiness to change.

Conclusions

Results point to the importance of assessing early and continuing attitudes, engagement, professionalization, and education of participating child care providers. The incentives and needs of providers in most QRIS will vary widely. Technical support geared to provider characteristics will be more effective in improving within QRIS.