Child & Youth Care Forum最新文献

Background

The working memory (WM) system is recognized as a crucial cognitive function that underpins the acquisition of new knowledge and the development of foundational skills during childhood. Children’s early literacy and numeracy skills lay the foundation for future academic success in reading and mathematics. While previous research has established a link between WM and early literacy as well as numeracy, the specific contributions of different WM components to the development of various skills in kindergarten-aged children remain unclear.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the associations between distinct profiles of WM and academic achievements in early literacy and numeracy among kindergarten children.

Method

A battery of memory tests (simple WM and complex WM) were administered to a cohort of 250 kindergarten children aged between five and seven years. Additionally, a range of tasks assessing mathematical and language skills were administered.

Results

Our findings align with our initial hypotheses, revealing differences between profiles of simple WM and complex WM in relation to early mathematics and language skills. Generally, children who exhibited higher WM abilities outperformed their peers who had lower WM capabilities.

Conclusion

This study emphasizes the critical role of WM in early childhood education. Children with limited WM function are at a heightened risk of academic underachievement. Furthermore, both components of WM—simple WM and complex WM—emerge as influential factors in shaping children's proficiency in early literacy and numeracy skills.

Abstract

Background

A brief, parent-led, transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach demonstrated utility among youth struggling with emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Homework completion between sessions is directly associated with psychotherapy treatment outcomes in non-parent-led CBT interventions. The present study sought to examine the relationship between homework completion and treatment response in a parent-led transdiagnostic CBT protocol.

Objective

The first aim was to determine if completion of between session CBT homework was associated with change in symptom severity. The second aim was to determine if pre-treatment anxiety severity, social anxiety severity, and depressive symptoms were associated with treatment outcomes.

Methods

One-hundred twenty-nine parents of youth (ages 5–13) with significant emotional problems received 6 sessions of telehealth parent-led CBT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on children’s anxiety symptomology, clinical severity, homework compliance, depression, family relationships, perceptions on the impacts of the pandemic, treatment response, and therapists rating of symptom improvement were collected.

Results

Homework completion explained 9% of the variance in symptom improvement at post-treatment. Greater homework completion was associated with a significantly higher odds of treatment response (OR = 1.52, p = .001). Child anxiety severity, depressive symptoms, family relationships, and perceptions on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were not significantly related to treatment outcome.

Conclusions

Completion of homework predicted treatment outcomes in parent-led, transdiagnostic CBT for youth with emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, while controlling for parent-rated anxiety, depression, family relationships, and COVID-related distress. Enhancing and targeting homework compliance between CBT sessions should be a central element of parent-led treatment.

Background

Racism is a public health crisis impacting the health and wellbeing of adolescents. Finding valid tools to measure race-based discrimination, a form of racism, is necessary to accurately assess the effectiveness of programs aimed to reduce those experiences.

Objectives

Our objective was to evaluate measurement invariance of a race-based discrimination scale by gender among a sample of youth (ages 13–19) from historically marginalized groups and to assess associations of race-based discrimination with sexual violence victimization and perpetration.

Methods

We used pooled cross-sectional baseline data from two sexual violence prevention programs from 2015 to 2019. Male and female participants were from Manhood 2.0 (a cluster randomized trial) and Sisterhood 2.0 (a quasi-experimental study), respectively. All participants were recruited through community organizations from the same neighborhoods. In this study, we included all non-white youth with completed responses to the 10-item Perceptions of Racism in Children and Youth (PRaCY) Scale. This study was approved by the University of Pittsburgh IRB.

Results

We conducted confirmatory factor analysis (N = 749) and measurement invariance among male-identifying (n = 560) and female-identifying (n = 189) participants resulting in a unidimensional factor structure with weak factorial invariance by gender. Lifetime discriminatory experiences were common among all participants. Mean discrimination scores were associated with a significant increase in the odds of lifetime sexual violence victimization in males (OR = 3.03, 95%CI 1.43–6.42) and females (OR = 10.80, 95% CI 2.23–52.33), respectively.

Conclusion

We confirmed construct validity of the PRaCY Scale among youth experiencing marginalization and found associations between experiences of discrimination and sexual violence victimization in both boys and girls.

Background

The literature suggests that educators can use parent–educator communication to support parents with engaging their children in home learning activities (Epstein, 1995; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997).

Objective

This study examines the relations between parent–educator communication and preschoolers’ numeracy, literacy, executive function, and vocabulary, and explores if the home numeracy environment (HNE) and the home literacy environment (HLE) was a better predictor of children’s outcomes than parent–educator communication.

Method

Data for this study came from a larger quasi-experimental study evaluating a state-funded preschool program (n = 558). Regression models were run controlling for child’s age, sex, race/ethnicity, family income, group, parental education, and baseline skill scores.

Results

Analyses revealed a significant relation only between parent–educator communication and numeracy skills (β = − 0.14, p = < 0.001). Unexpectedly, more frequent parent–educator communication in preschool were related to lower numeracy skills. Additionally, there was a statistically significant association between all three predictors- parent-educator communication (β = − 0.15, p = < 0.001), the HNE (β = 0.14, p = .016), and the HLE (β = − 0.18, p = .004)- and children’s numeracy skills. Specifically, more frequent parent–educator communication and higher HLE scores in preschool predicted lower numeracy skills. Additionally, the higher quality of the HNE predicted greater numeracy skills in the spring of preschool.

Conclusion

There may be increased communication when the children are performing lower on their numeracy skills than their peers and teachers and parents are working to remediate those challenges.

Background

Foster care homes provide safe and supportive environments for children and young people who are unable to live with their families. Yet, the perspectives of children and young people currently living in foster care are under-researched.

Objective

More needs to be understood about the lives of children and young people currently living in foster care. The aim of this review was to systematically analyse the core thematic categories related to the lived experiences of those in foster care to provide a comprehensive update to inform and improve foster care processes.

Method

A systematic review of qualitative research was conducted to explore children and young people’s perspectives of everyday life in foster care.

Results

After searching three citation databases (PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO) and a citation index (Scopus), we identified and evaluated 20 studies. Adopting thematic analysis, four themes were identified: (a) Navigating biological and foster family, (b) Normal children in abnormal circumstances, (c) Searching for belonging and (d) Overcoming trauma.

Conclusions

The findings provide valuable insight into the complex realities of life in foster care. These perspectives of foster care can help inform future research, practice and policy. This includes more collaborative co-designed foster care processes. For a socially conscientious developmental approach to foster care, the voices of the children and young people need to be heard, valued and included.

Background

Rates of mental health challenges among children and youth are on the rise. Physical activity has been identified as a promising intervention to improve mental health outcomes for youth.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate how mental health clinicians perceive and utilize physical activity as a mental health intervention for children and adolescents.

Methods

Seventy-four Ontario mental health clinicians (psychologists, psychotherapists, and social workers) were surveyed about their perspectives and practices related to physical activity as part of mental health care for children and adolescents using a mixed-methods approach. Survey respondents were also asked about barriers to including physical activity in care.

Results

Although 100% of clinicians agreed that physical activity was beneficial to their own and to their clients’ mental health, only 61% reported prescribing physical activity to their clients. Barriers to prescribing physical activity as a treatment option included lack of training, time, and resources. Clinicians who were more physically active themselves were more likely to view physical activity as beneficial for mental health and were less likely to view time as a barrier to discussing and prescribing physical activity in their practice. Many clinicians expressed a need for more training, knowledge, and resources.

Conclusions

The results of this study suggest that with improved access to training and resources, clinicians will be well-positioned to leverage the benefits of physical activity for mental health in their practice.

Background

More research is needed to improve measurement selection and to better understand informant differences in reports of reactive and proactive aggression.

Objective

Toward this goal, the current study evaluated the psychometrics (i.e., reliability, factor structure, and validity) and correlates of two measures of reactive and proactive aggression (i.e., Dodge & Coie, in J Pers Soc Psychol 53:1146, 1987; Raine et al. in Aggress Behav 32:15–171, 2006) across three informants (i.e., parent, teacher, and youth).

Method

Parent, teacher and youth reports of measures were collected in a community recruited sample of 9–12 year-old youth (M = 10.44; 56% male).

Results

Both measures demonstrated adequate to good internal consistency by parent- and teacher-report, and borderline to adequate internal consistency by youth-report. Additionally, aggression subscales were correlated within and across measures and informants, and an appropriate 2-factor structure was identified for both measures across informants. Consistent with prior research, reactive aggression was more robustly associated with depression symptoms and effortful control than proactive aggression across measures, but there were some links with proactive aggression.

Conclusions

Overall findings suggest that both measures are psychometrically appropriate to use with parents, teachers, and youth. However, there were distinctions between the two measures, and relying solely on youth reports in this age group is not recommended. Further, there are unique associations evident with various informants, supporting the need for multiple informants when assessing functions of aggression in youth.

Background

Extensive research into wilderness therapy has not explored who benefits the most and who does not thrive in these programs.

Objective

The present study examined demographic, clinical, and familial characteristics that distinguished adolescents who improve most in wilderness therapy programs from those who deteriorate.

Method

Using data collected by the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs Practice Research Network, the study sample consisted of 5639 adolescents attending wilderness therapy programs which collected and contributed data to the Practice Research Network between 2017 and 2022. Measures included the Youth Outcome Questionnaire-Self Report and the McMaster Family Assessment Device, as well as demographic, familial, and clinical data collected by program staff.

Results

Using binary and univariate logistic regression, the study found individual and familial factors that predicted membership in the top 10% of adolescent participants in terms of mental health improvement from pre-to-post wilderness therapy and those factors which predicted membership in the bottom 10% in terms of poorer mental health from pre-to-post program.

Conclusions

Considering the intensity, length, and financial resources associated with wilderness therapy program participation, these findings have important implications for wilderness therapy program staff professional development, communication of expectations to adolescents’ parents/caregivers, and program admission decisions.