Journal of Child and Family Studies最新文献

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Pennsylvania’s state-wide intensive in-home treatment for youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED), EcoSystemic Structural Family Therapy-Family Based Mental Health Services (ESFT-FBMHS). Despite its long history of implementation, the program remains empirically under-evaluated. In this archival study, out-of-home placement and youth functioning outcomes were compared across four tiers of length of stay. Given the high-risk population treated in ESFT-FBMHS, it was hypothesized that the families and youth who completed the full duration of treatment (169–224 days) would have better outcomes than those who stopped treatment after 168 days or less. We utilized an ex post facto quantitative research design analyzing archived medical claims data of 2251 youth treated between 2018 and 2022 to assess out-of-home placement rates and analyzed archived data from six domains of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS; Problem Presentation, Risk Behaviors, Functioning, Child Safety, Caregiver Needs, and Child Strengths) to assess changes in youth functioning post-discharge (90 and 180 days). An analysis using generalized estimating equations (GEE), controlling for potential confounding variables such as demographics and clinical features, suggest that length of stay in ESFT-FBMHS was significantly associated with out-of-home placement and youth improvement on the CANS at both 90- and 180-days post-discharge. As a group, youth with SED who did not complete the full duration of the program had 2–3 times the odds of out-of-home placement at 90 days post-discharge and 1–3 times the odds at 180 days post-discharge as compared to program completers. CANS scores showed improvement in 40.1% of youth who completed the program as compared to only 11.7%–18.2% for those who did not. The results of this study suggest that ESFT-FBMHS is effective for youth with SED as a group and can improve youth functioning and reduce out-of-home placement.

Young autistic children and their siblings often need support to play and engage with each other. The inclusion of older siblings in the provision of support may improve outcomes for autistic children and strengthen the sibling relationship. This study evaluated the inclusion of older siblings in the delivery of Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) support to autistic children aged between 3 and 4 years. It used a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of sibling-mediated ESDM for four young autistic children and their older, non-autistic siblings. For most dyads, there were improvements in autistic child engagement and in sibling initiations during the sibling-mediated ESDM, which were generally maintained at follow-up. There was some improvement in sibling responses and minimal improvement in autistic child imitation and functional utterances. Sibling initiations and responses were generally positively correlated with autistic child engagement, functional utterances, and imitation. The parents of children in all four dyads found the sibling-mediated ESDM to be acceptable. These preliminary results suggest that sibling-mediated ESDM may be beneficial for improving the interaction between autistic children and their non-autistic siblings while benefits for teaching additional child skills might be more limited.

Prior studies show a heightened risk of child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic because of financial difficulties and parenting stress, but little is known about what happened to the veteran families. This study aimed to examine the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on veteran parents’ harsh parenting – creating a potential for child maltreatment. Further, we explored the potential moderating effects of parental PTSD and parental role on the association between COVID-19 impacts and veteran harsh parenting. We recruited 509 veteran parents from Qualtrics online research panel and assessed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., perceived threat, financial and psychological impacts) on the participants, parental PTSD, and parents’ past year prevalence of corporal punishment and psychological aggression. We used Mplus 8.8 to build main models, two-way moderation models, and three-way moderation models. There was a significant association between COVID-19 pandemic impacts and harsh parenting (Corporal punishment: β = 0.09, p < 0.05; Psychological aggression: β = 0.10, p < 0.05), while parental PTSD was a significant moderator (Corporal punishment: β = 0.10, p < 0.05; Psychological aggression: β = 0.08, p < 0.05). Parents with higher levels of PTSD were more vulnerable to the negative influences of COVID-19 on their harsh parenting. However, the association between COVID-19 pandemic impacts and harsh parenting did not differ by parental role. Our study findings contribute to the current knowledge of veteran families during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide implications for both Veteran Affairs services and child protective services.

During the past decade, video games have become the main industrial entertainment sector, although research on the effects of violence in video games on juvenile aggressiveness has raised concerns that they may pose a significant social risk. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship of exposure to violent video games, pathological video-gaming, and justification of violence with the perpetration of Child-to-Parent Violence (CPV) against the mother and the father, controlling for the sex, educational level, and violent TV exposure of the participant. The sample consisted of 439 students from Compulsory Secondary Education, (238 boys and 201 girls), aged between 13 and 18. Exposure to video games was assessed through an author-elaborated questionnaire, violence justification, and pathological video-gaming were evaluated with the Exposure to Violence Questionnaire and the Assessment of Pathological Computer-Gaming, respectively, and CPV was assessed through the Child-to-Parent Aggression Questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that pathological video-gaming and, specially, justification of violence, were related to the perpetration of CPV against both mothers and fathers. However, a relationship of exposure to violent video games and violence on TV with the perpetration of CPV was not found. These results suggest a potential new target for CPV prevention, as well as for the treatment of juvenile offenders.

Supportive relationships have been hypothesized to protect against psychological distress in general and to reduce the impacts of adversity on distress. Bullying victimization by peers is a salient adverse experience for many adolescents. Being bullied increases the risk of psychological distress which in turn increases the risk of further bullying victimization. There is minimal previous research on whether and how supportive relationships protect adolescents from bullying victimization, psychological distress and the recursive relationships between victimization and distress. This study investigated the direct and moderating effects of supportive relationships with parents, peers, and teachers on later psychological distress and bullying victimization of adolescents. This longitudinal study involved 1425 Australian adolescents aged 12–18 years (mostly male, 74.3%), using questionnaires on bullying victimization, psychological distress, and supportive relationships at two-time points, 6 months apart. All types of supportive relationships reduced the risk of later psychological distress predicted from earlier psychological distress, suggesting a direct compensatory effect. Support from classmates and parents also protected adolescents against ongoing bullying victimization and mitigated the impact of bullying victimization on later psychological distress, consistent with a stress-buffering hypothesis. The pattern of results confirms the important role that supportive relationships play in protecting adolescents from psychological distress and bullying victimization. Persistent bullying victimization and later psychological distress are less likely to occur for victimized adolescents supported by parents and classmates. Strategies and programs that improve parental support may enhance the effectiveness of programs to prevent bullying and improve outcomes for victims.

White parents in the United States are unlikely to engage their preschool children in proactive discussions about race, instead waiting to follow their children’s lead in broaching these topics. This passive approach risks missing critical opportunities to build children’s positive racial identities and interrupt bias formation. This study aimed to increase parent-child discussions of race in white families in the U.S. through the implementation of a race-conscious book-reading curriculum in preschool classrooms. We hypothesized that children’s proactive exposure to race-conscious content in preschool would have a spillover effect on parent-child conversations about race at home, such that white preschoolers and their parents would have more race-conscious conversations following the implementation of a classroom book-reading curriculum. Participants consisted of 29 monoracial white parents of preschool children, most of whom were highly educated, high-income mothers. Each day during the study period, parents reported any race-related conversations they had with their child. Results demonstrated that race-conscious conversations between white parents and their preschoolers increased following the implementation of the book reading curriculum. Book reading in preschool prompted children’s bids for conversation about race with their parents on the same day, and these child-initiated bids resulted in more race-conscious parent-child conversations than bids initiated by parents or other adults. Further, families with more child-initiated bids had more total conversations about race than families with fewer conversations started by children. These findings suggest that white preschool children are capable of engaging in discussions about race and school-based socialization may be a promising avenue for supporting these conversations.

Taking coparenting into consideration is essential when assessing children and their relational environment, regardless of the family structure. This paper presents three studies we conducted with the aim of developing and validating a reliable instrument for the assessment of coparenting in Spanish. The first study consisted of developing the items to be included in the assessment tool and evaluation of this content by a panel of nine experts. In the second study, we explored both the psychometric properties and the factorial structure of the prototype instrument using a sample of 251 participants. The third study confirmed the factorial structure and tested measurement invariance, the reliability, and convergent and discriminant evidence of our tool in a general population sample of 312 participants. We obtained a 15-item unidimensional questionnaire, the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Coparenting (CECOP), with very good psychometric properties: excellent internal consistency with α of 0.97 and supported validity with the selected conceptually related metrics; convergent validity with the Instrument for the Assessment of Adaptation to Divorce–Separation’s (CADS) coparenting dimension and Questionnaire on Perceived Support from the Former Partner (CARE); and divergent validity with parenting and dyadic adjustment. Furthermore, the results in terms of measurement invariance across family structures and sex allowed us to assume the configural invariance between the groups. However, it was not possible to assume metric invariance. Finally, we also provide normative scores for its interpretation. The CECOP shows excellent psychometric properties and can be considered the first questionnaire in Spanish that assesses coparenting in any family structure, which also includes the triadic conceptualization of coparenting, providing valuable information on the relational environment in which children and adolescence live.

High levels of stress experienced in the parental role can lead to parental burnout, a condition with severe consequences for both parents and children. Researchers have begun to document the antecedents of parental burnout, focusing primarily on risk factors. However, little is known about resources that prevent parents from developing parental burnout. Based on identity literature and self-determination theory, the purpose of this study was to examine both the unique and interacting roles of two psychological resources potentially protecting parents against parental burnout, that is, parental identity and psychological need satisfaction. A total of 450 parents (63.8% mothers, M age = 36.53) completed online questionnaires on parental identity, psychological need satisfaction, and parental burnout. Results showed that parents’ ruminative exploration of identity was related to more parental burnout. Using a bifactor model for psychological need satisfaction, in which general need satisfaction was distinguished from the three specific needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), we found that autonomy satisfaction and general need satisfaction in particular were related to less parental burnout. Regarding the interplay of parental identity and psychological need satisfaction, we found systematic evidence for a moderating role, with the presence of one resource buffering the absence of the other resource. Overall, findings suggest that both parental identity and psychological need satisfaction serve as sources of resilience and may be interesting targets in prevention and intervention programs supporting parents at risk for parental burnout.

Parental influence and children’s anxiety have a complex interaction. Robust findings revealed that parenting styles and practices, modeling, and parent-child emotion socialization play a role in a child’s anxiety. However, research has focused on global behavioral and emotional tendencies derived from quantitative studies with large samples, neglecting their link to parental cognitive factors and the heterogeneity of the family’s distinctive experiences. Our study aimed to broaden this knowledge, capture what parents think, feel, and behave during anxiety-enhancing childhood experiences, and identify distinct parental profiles based on these complementary elements. The present study adopted a cross-sectional qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 parents of children with anxiety disorders (9–12 years old). A content analysis was first performed, and then representations of the associations between the emergent categories obtained from the content analysis, and latent constructs that can work as major determinants in parents’ responses to the child’s anxiety, were assessed by a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) combined with a hierarchical clustering algorithm. Parental cognitions, emotions, and behaviors are first derived into two distinct dimensions: capacity to respond and emotional reactivity. Three typological profiles of parents were derived from these dimensions: (a) Reactive and ineffective; (b) Unreactive and moderately effective, and (c) Anxious and effective. The qualitative exploration of parental cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in a child’s anxiety context contributes to engrossing the current literature. Our results have essential implications and the need to adjust treatments in clinical settings according to parents’ profiles.

Children and youth often face barriers that hinder their ability to engage in school, such as poverty, family challenges, and maltreatment. For this reason, children require additional supports if they are to be set up for success in school and life. Collaborative school-community models of wraparound support have been demonstrated as effective approaches for supporting vulnerable children and families to foster positive outcomes. Such models rely on collaborative partnerships between schools and community agencies to coordinate services for children and families. Accordingly, there is a need to understand factors that influence this collaboration in school settings. This study explores partnership collaboration between school and community partners through the case of All in for Youth, a school-based wraparound model of support in western Canada. Focus groups of n = 79 partners across eight schools were analysed, guided by qualitative description methodology. Five essential conditions were identified for partnership collaboration, including value-based training, mutual recognition of expertise, school leadership, established and flexible communication channels, and appropriate staff resources. These conditions can be used to help inform the implementation of similar school-community models of support to foster collaborative partner processes and promote positive outcomes among children, youth, and families.