Children and Youth Services Review最新文献

Background

Adoption is typically considered an appropriate means of providing stability for children who have experienced developmental trauma and cannot live with their birth families. Unfortunately, in a small number of cases, adoptive parents are unable to continue to parent their child, and the family therefore experience adoption disruption. The present study explores the lived experiences of adoptive parents who have experienced adoption disruption in order to better understand the meaning they attach to these experiences.

Method

Six participants from England and Wales took part in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted either remotely or in person on premises associated with an independent psychology practice. Interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Findings

Participants reported similar experiences of the adoption process and the associated challenges of parenting children who have experienced developmental trauma. Participants’ narratives were summarised using three overarching themes: (1) the relational identity of adoptive families; (2) adoptive parenting as a losing battle; and (3) adoption disruption as a journey of acceptance; comprising seven subthemes in total. Similarities and differences between participants’ meaning-making are described.

Conclusions

Participants’ meaning-making of adoption disruption is discussed in relation to previous literature, as well as theoretical concepts about idiocentrism, ecological systems theory and individual appraisals. The present study contributes to the growing body of literature that describes the determination of adoptive parents in light of significant challenges, and calls for better support for such families in order to help break transgenerational cycles of trauma.

School plays a crucial role in adolescent development and in the prevention of antisocial behaviors. This study focuses on five common antisocial behaviors within the school environment. Analysis was conducted with various groups of adolescents aged 11–16, including a normative sample of Spanish adolescents, and two samples of adolescents from high psychosocial risk areas: Polígono Sur (Seville, Spain), and IV Municipalità (Naples, Italy). The normative sample consisted of a representative group of Spanish adolescents who responded to the 2014 HBSC questionnaire, whereas data from Polígono Sur and IV Municipalità were collected specifically from these populations. The prevalence of each antisocial behavior was analyzed according to reference group, age, sex, and two key school adjustment variables: feelings about school and perceived school pressure. Additional analysis explored how these variables and their interactions contribute to variations in antisocial behavior. The findings offer valuable insight for designing prevention and intervention programs aimed at addressing antisocial behaviors within the school context.

Introduction

The association of adverse childhood experience (ACE) with physical and mental well-being is predominantly examined using a cumulative ACE score. However, less is known how different dimensions of adversity (e.g., threat and deprivation) may uniquely predict children’s mental health and development. We examined (i) whether two aspects of ACE – threat and deprivation – are differently associated with children’s anxiety, depression, and flourishing and (ii) whether family resilience and connection index (FRCI) moderates these associations.

Methods

We analyzed data from the National Survey of Children’s Health (2017–20). The analytic sample consisted of 81,626 children (6–17 years). Logistic regression with survey weights was used to obtain odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) adjusting for sociodemographic factors.

Results

The experience of threat-only ACE and deprivation-only ACE showed differential associations with anxiety, depression, and child flourishing. For example, children who experienced threat-only ACE had a 4.2-fold higher odds of depression (OR=4.2; 95 % CI: 3.37–5.24), and those who experienced deprivation-only ACE had a 2.4-fold (OR=2.4; 95 % CI: 1.98–2.92) higher odds of depression compared to those exposed to neither threat nor deprivation experience. Experiencing both a threat and deprivation showed larger than an additive association with all outcomes. Further, interaction models suggest that the associations of threat and deprivation-type ACE with all outcomes significantly differed by the levels of FRCI.

Conclusions

Threat and deprivation dimensions of adversity were differentially associated with mental health and flourishing outcomes in childhood. Family resilience appears to be protective against the negative effect of threat and deprivation dimensions of ACE on children’s mental health and developmental outcomes.

Background

Domestic (DV) is a significant social issue. Women and children who are displaced by violence in their homes often access shelters for critical support and housing. Support for the mother–child relationship can mitigate the impacts of trauma and enhance recovery. DV Shelters can play a role in provision of therapeutic approaches that strengthen the mother–child relationship however there is little evidence of these approaches being applied within the refuge environment.

Aims

This review explored the application of therapeutic interventions that support the mother–child relationship in DV shelters. A systematic scoping review was conducted to determine the therapeutic approaches that have been applied in DV shelters, their effectiveness and to describe the activities that strengthen the mother–child relationship following an incident of DV with a particular focus on play and art-based approaches.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted in six electronic databases (Medline, Embase, PsychInfo, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), SocINDEX and Web of Science). Twelve articles were included in the review. Findings were thematically synthesized using deductive coding against the research aims and inductively for findings in each paper.

Findings

The results of this study demonstrated that there is little recent evidence of the use of therapeutic interventions that support trauma recovery and strengthen the mother–child relationship in DV shelters. However, the small number of included studies demonstrated that there is some use of these therapeutic interventions and that these interventions with mothers and their children can provide essential safety and stabilization support, which lays the foundation for recovery from trauma.

This paper explores the role that gender plays in moderating the relationship between protective factors and rule violating behavior among adolescents and young adults. We explore the relationship between rule violating behavior, protective factors, and gender for regulatory strengths, meaning making strengths, and interpersonal strengths. The Resilience Portfolio Model is used to understand the process of resilience and how utilizing various types of strengths may decrease the prevalence of rule violating behavior. Participants were 860 adolescents and young adults (12–20 years old) within a rural, Appalachian area of the United States who self-reported behaviors based on survey data. Blockwise regression analyses and interaction analyses were conducted to identify gender differences. Findings indicate that overall, males are significantly more likely to report rule violating behaviors than females. Gender moderated the relationship between psychological endurance and moral meaning making with these strengths showing a stronger protective effect for male versus female youth. Several strengths were associated with less rule violating behavior and operated similarly for male and female youth, including emotion regulation, optimism, and community support. Findings suggest that more attention needs to focus on identifying and understanding gender-specific strengths as well as identifying strengths which may operate similarly for both males and females that contribute to reduced rule violating to improve developmental outcomes for adolescents and young adults. These findings are important especially as it relates to prevention of rule breaking among all adolescents and young adults.

The relationship between parental styles and the regulation of emotions in adolescents has been extensively explored in previous research conducted in Western countries. However, the absence of research conducted within the cultural context of China, combined with imprecise methodologies, impedes the empirical validation of this association. This study aims to examine the longitudinal relationship between parental acceptance and preadolescent emotion regulation in the Chinese cultural context, utilizing a cross-lagged panel model with random intercepts. The sample comprised 1987 middle school students, with 56.10 % being male and a mean age of 12.32 years, from Guangdong and Shandong provinces. Participants provided feedback on assessments of parental acceptance and emotion regulation at three time points: the first and final semesters of seventh grade and the initial semester of eighth grade. The findings revealed a significant association between the random intercepts of paternal and maternal acceptance and adaptive emotion regulation in preadolescents at the between-person level. However, no statistically significant within-person cross-lagged effect was observed from parental acceptance to preadolescent adaptive emotion regulation. Similarly, changes in preadolescent emotion regulation did not significantly predict changes in parental acceptance. These findings challenge the tripartite model and suggest that the association between parental acceptance and preadolescent adaptive emotion regulation is predominantly influenced by trait-related factors.

The aim of this study was to investigate legal protections for sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth population who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex (LGBTQ+), or any nonheterosexual orientation, gender identity, or expression (SOGIE) within the context of the United States (US) publicly administered state child welfare foster care system through federal Public Law 113–183 (Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act – Prudent Parenting for short). SGM youth are identified in foster care 2.5 times higher than their heterosexual peers and often report worse outcomes. There are some federal recommendations for SGM youth, but it does not include normalcy or other activities that are federally supported. A state-by-state analysis of legislation, policy, implementation policy and youth bill of rights was conducted. While there was significant variance across the USA, many states provided levels of support in their legislation, policy implementation and youth bill of rights that could assist SGM youth impact normalcy efforts. More research is needed to investigate if SGM youth in foster care experience protections in the states that have legal protections.

This scoping review aims to identify instruments that measure child outcomes assessed in evidence-based family support programs and to investigate reported differences in the magnitude of Cronbach’s alpha by type of study participant (i.e., community, clinical, at-risk samples). We analyzed publications extracted from three databases, which were then narrowed down to 77 articles. The most used interventions were Triple P (23 studies), Incredible Years (13), and Parent Management Training (13) conducted mainly in Europe (35) and (North) America (25). A total of 30 studies were conducted with clinical, 22 with at-risk, and 22 with community samples. The most used instruments with parents as the respondents were the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (32), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (25), and the Child Behavior Checklist (19). The most used instrument with children/adolescents as the respondents was the Child Depression Inventory (5), and for teachers or other professionals it was the Teacher Report Form (9). Regarding Cronbach’s alpha, one-third of the studies did not report any information, one-third yielded mixed findings, and one-third reported good values. Furthermore, it became evident that information regarding Cronbach’s alpha was often incomplete or missing, especially in studies conducted with clinical and at-risk samples. Further research is needed to investigate why there is a bias in reporting Cronbach’s alpha. This work recommends that future studies emphasize the importance of reporting the psychometric properties of the instruments used to be able to properly compare different studies across different populations, especially when used to measure children’s outcomes.

Childhood trauma is a significant contributor to the heightened susceptibility to psychiatric disorders. This study aims to clarify the impact of childhood maltreatment on adolescents by investigating the longitudinal associations between childhood trauma, emotion regulation, peer interactions, and family functioning. The study involved a sample of 1280 students (M_age = 14.78, SD=1.58) enrolled in two high schools in Fujian Province, including 749 females and 531 males. Participants completed two rounds of questionnaires with a six-month interval between administrations. A directed network was constructed to explore the longitudinal connections. The findings revealed that emotional abuse exhibited the strongest predictive influence, and family functioning emerged as the most influential bridge node within the network. This means that the activation of emotional abuse may subsequently trigger the activation of other risk factors in the network, and family functioning is the most susceptible in the present network. In future research, much more work is needed to test the network replicability and investigate the specific differences between male and female networks.

Teachers of students with visual impairments (TSVIs) have long expressed frustrations about the difficulty of getting a dyslexia diagnosis for students with visual impairments, but there is limited data to validate their concerns. Moreover, although most U.S. states have passed dyslexia laws that require universal screening and/or intervention for students with dyslexia, the laws may not be applied equally across all populations of students. A mixed-methods approach can validate TSVIs’ perspectives by revealing whether dyslexia legislation is associated with TSVIs’ perceptions of how their students’ needs are being met. To this end, we conducted a qualitative analysis of TSVI survey data to investigate concerns of underidentification/undersupport of reading difficulties among students with visual impairments. We then analyzed whether TSVIs’ concerns were statistically associated with characteristics of their state’s dyslexia laws. When questioned about their experiences and challenges teaching reading to students with visual impairments, 26.32% of TSVIs spontaneously mentioned the theme of underidentification/undersupport, suggesting dyslexia may go unidentified or untreated in many students with visual impairments. Passage of a law in the past seven years and several individual screening and intervention requirements were associated with lower odds of a TSVI expressing the underidentification/undersupport theme, but a law’s requirement of Response-to-Intervention (RTI)/Multitiered Systems of Support (MTSS) was associated with higher odds of a TSVI expressing the theme. We suggest that, though many aspects of state dyslexia laws appear to benefit students with visual impairments, RTI/MTSS requirements in conjunction with U.S. federal education law may serve as a barrier to reading interventions for many students with visual impairments.