The present study evaluated whether families receiving Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) experienced significant improvements in both parent and child internalizing symptoms, and if so, whether ...the relationship between improvement in child externalizing symptoms and internalizing symptoms was mediated by reductions in parenting stress and parent depressive symptoms. Participants were an ethnically diverse sample of 72 families with 2–7-year-old children experiencing clinically significant externalizing symptoms who were assigned to receive a version of PCIT in one of two previously conducted clinical trials designed to evaluate culturally modified versions of PCIT. Analyses revealed that parent-reported child internalizing symptoms, parenting stress, and parent depressive symptoms improved significantly from pre to post treatment in PCIT. Additionally, the relation between child externalizing improvement and internalizing improvement was mediated through reduction in parenting stress, but not parent depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that ethnically diverse children are likely to experience significant improvement in co-occurring externalizing and internalizing symptoms following PCIT. Furthermore, decreases in parenting stress may play a role in the improvement of child internalizing symptoms.
Highlights
Both parent-reported child in- and externalizing symptoms decreased significantly after PCIT.
Parenting stress and parent depressive symptoms decreased significantly after PCIT.
Improvements in parenting stress mediated the relation between improvements in child externalizing and internalizing symptoms.
Improvement in parent depressive symptoms did not mediate the relation between improvements in child externalizing and internalizing symptoms.
Previous research has demonstrated the association between child maltreatment and household composition, with increased maltreatment risk generally present in single mother households. However, ...existing research does not fully examine the complexity and configuration of single mother households. In particular, less is known about important variants of single parent family structures, such as grandparents residing in the home, and the extent to which household compositions change across time.
The present study examines rates of maltreatment allegations across various household compositions in a sample of single biological mother households. Participants and Setting: Youth participants (N = 417) were part of the larger multi-site Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) study.
Participants completed longitudinal assessments of household composition and maltreatment allegations from ages 4 to 10. Results: The present study illustrates substantial variability in the rate of maltreatment allegations across different types of single mother household compositions. In particular, the presence of non-relatives, especially unrelated males, demonstrated an increased risk for maltreatment allegations in the home. Conversely, single mother homes with two or more adult relatives, especially grandmothers, were at reduced risk for child maltreatment allegations.
This study highlights variability in maltreatment allegations among single mother homes, including how maltreatment allegations vary across different household configurations, across child age periods and across different risk levels.
Background/Objectives: Evidence supports the efficacy of Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) interventions such as Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for treating child behavior problems; however, ...treatment engagement and outcomes vary across ethnic groups. Risk for poor treatment engagement and outcomes may be attributed in part to misalignment between parent explanatory model components (PEMs) and the traditional BPT model, including treatment expectations, etiological explanations, parenting styles, and family support for treatment. The present study aims to examine whether personalized treatment adaptations addressing these PEM–BPT misalignments reduce risk for poor treatment engagement and outcomes. Methods: The authors previously utilized the PersIn framework to develop a personalized version of PCIT (MY PCIT) that assesses these PEMs in order to identify families at risk for poor treatment engagement and outcomes. Families were identified as high risk (due to PEM–BPT misalignment) and low risk (meaning those without identified PEM–BPT misalignment) for specific PEMs. Families at elevated risk then received tailored treatment materials designed to improve alignment between the parental explanatory model and the PCIT treatment explanatory model. A recent pilot trial of MY PCIT demonstrated positive treatment outcomes; however, the extent to which adaptations were successful in reducing the underlying risk factors has not yet been examined. Results: Findings demonstrate that the personalization approach was effective in reducing indicators of risk, and that families who were initially at high and low risk during pre-treatment reported similar levels of treatment engagement and outcomes by post-treatment. Conclusions: The findings suggest that this personalized approach has the potential to reduce risk associated with poor treatment engagement and outcomes for culturally diverse families.
In parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT), therapists encourage parents to imitate child behaviors in order to convey approval of the child’s actions and promote the development of linguistic and ...social–cognitive skills. However, the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS-IV), used to measure skills taught during PCIT, does not include guidelines for coding parent–child imitation, making it difficult to determine how PCIT affects it. The current study addresses this problem by developing guidelines for coding imitation, which were then used to code DPICS-IV segments from 58 Mexican American families that participated in a past clinical trial. Results suggest that these coding guidelines can be used to reliably measure parent and child imitation. A series of additional analyses supported the construct validity of the codes. Specifically, there was a trend for parent imitation, but not child imitation, to increase more from pre–post treatment in PCIT relative to treatment as usual. In addition, parents who imitate their children were found to have children who imitate them more in return. Finally, improvement in parent imitation, but not child imitation, was significantly related to a decrease in child behavior problems. Further study is needed to determine the optimal frequency of imitation, and findings suggest that additional attention to coaching imitation may be warranted.
•Parent and child imitation coding guidelines have acceptable interrater reliability.•Parent imitation increases marginally significantly more after PCIT than treatment as usual.•Increases in child imitation do not differ between PCIT and treatment as usual.•Frequencies of parental and child imitation are positively correlated.•Increase in parent-, but not child imitation, is related to decreased child behavior problems.
Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) interventions are efficacious for young children with externalizing behavior problems. However, not all families benefit, and ethnic minority families in particular ...are less likely to enroll, engage, and improve in BPT. Versions of BPT interventions tailored for specific ethnic groups have been successful at improving engagement and outcomes for ethnic minorities; however, the specificity of these models presents challenges for broad dissemination. This article presents a personalization approach (PersIn) that utilizes cultural assessment results to tailor treatment protocols to the characteristics of individual families. We believe this approach has the potential to maximize cultural sensitivity while preserving generalizability to both minority and non-minority ethnic groups. We further propose that personalization on Parent Explanatory Model (PEM) parameters that have been found to vary across ethnic groups and to impact treatment engagement and/or outcomes is a promising approach to decreasing disparities in BPTs. We describe examples of evidence-supported PEMs that present good targets for personalization and provide examples from MY PCIT to illustrate how PersIn can be applied to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).
Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is a best-practice treatment for behavior problems in young children. In PCIT, therapists coach parents during in-vivo interactions to strengthen the ...parent-child relationship and teach parents effective ways of managing difficult child behaviors. Past research has found that different therapist coaching styles may be associated with faster skill acquisition and improved parent engagement. However, most research examining therapist behaviors has been conducted with English-speaking families, and there is limited research examining therapist behaviors when working with Spanish-speaking clients. In this study, English- and Spanish-speaking therapists' coaching behaviors (e.g., directive versus responsive) were examined, as well as their association with client outcomes, including speed of parental skill acquisition and treatment completion. Results suggested that coaching styles varied significantly between sessions conducted in Spanish versus English. In Spanish sessions, therapists had more total verbalizations than in English sessions and demonstrated higher rates of both total directive and responsive coaching. Responsive coaching was found to predict treatment completion across groups, while directive coaching was not. Directive and responsive coaching were not found to predict the rate of parental skill acquisition. Implications regarding the training of therapists and emphasizing cultural considerations are discussed.
Client-therapist consensus has been hypothesized to be an important element of culturally competent care. However, little is known about the relationship between explanatory model agreement and ...treatment engagement, particularly for services involving adolescents, where both parent and youth perspectives may need to be considered. This longitudinal study collected youth, parent, and therapist survey data on etiological beliefs as well as therapist-rated treatment engagement related to a culturally diverse sample of 285 outpatient mental health service-using youth (aged 12-18, M = 14.06 at Time 1 interview; 40% female). Youth-therapist and parent-therapist agreement on beliefs about the etiology of the youth's mental health problems were examined in relationship to later treatment engagement. Although parent-therapist agreement was unrelated to parent engagement, youth-therapist coendorsement of etiological beliefs predicted overall youth treatment engagement. In addition, youth-therapist agreement significantly predicted specific aspects of youth engagement: client-therapist interaction, communication/openness, and client's perceived usefulness of treatment. Results speak to the importance of agreement between therapist and youth upon key issues related to the youth's problems in mental health treatment settings and support facilitation of consensus as a component of culturally competent care. Differences between findings for youth and parents suggest that therapeutic relationships may vary for different stakeholders, indicating a need to consider individual perspectives and contributions separately.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Behavioral parent training (BPT) interventions for child behavior problems have been based on decades of research that demonstrate links between particular parent behaviors and child externalizing ...problems. However, the majority of this research has been conducted with European-American (EA) families, and less is known about whether these findings can be generalized to Mexican Americans (MAs). In the current study, we investigated self-reported parenting practices that have been associated with externalizing behavior problems among EA families (harsh parenting, inconsistency, and low parental warmth), to determine if those practices can also differentiate MA mothers whose young children have clinically significant behavior problems from MA mothers whose children do not have behavior problems. Participants were 115 MA families with young children, 58 with a child with clinically significant behavior problems and 57 with a child in the normal range for such problems. Results indicated that MA mothers whose children have behavior problems self-reported significantly less warmth and consistency and more harsh parenting compared to parents whose children’s behavior was in the normal range. These findings indicate that parenting behaviors that are associated with externalizing behavior problems among EA families are associated with the same problems among MA families with young children, suggesting that parent training interventions designed to target these behaviors are also likely to be relevant to MA families with children in this age range. However, findings also indicate that parenting behaviors differ depending on acculturation level, suggesting that BPT programs must respond to variation in normative parenting practices for MA families.
OBJECTIVE: Racial and ethnic disparities in mental health service use have been identified as a major public health problem. However, the extent to which these disparities may be accounted for by ...other confounding sociodemographic or clinical predictors of service use (e.g., family income, functional impairment, caregiver strain) is relatively unexplored, especially for youth services. The goal of this study was to test for racial ethnic disparities in use of a variety of outpatient, inpatient, and informal mental health services among high-risk youths, with the effects of other predictive factors controlled. METHOD: Participants were 1,256 youths ages 6-18 years who received services in a large, publicly funded system of care (including the child welfare, juvenile justice, special education, alcohol and drug abuse, and mental health service sectors). Youths and caregivers were interviewed with established measures of mental health service use, psychiatric diagnoses, functional impairment, caregiver strain, and parental depression. RESULTS: Significant racial ethnic group differences in likelihood of receiving any mental health service and, specifically, formal outpatient services were found after the effects of potentially confounding variables were controlled. Race ethnicity did not exert a significant effect on the use of informal or 24-hour-care services. CONCLUSIONS: Racial ethnic disparities in service use remain a public health problem.
Therapist-client cognitive match upon key constructs such as treatment goals is purported to be an important component of culturally competent care. For adolescent clients, treatment may involve both ...youths and their parents, suggesting the need to consider both youth-therapist and parent-therapist perspectives. This longitudinal study examined broadband youth-therapist and parent-therapist treatment goal matching and mismatching in relationship to treatment engagement in a culturally diverse sample of 245 outpatient mental health service-using youth. Although goal matching/mismatching did not uniformly predict treatment engagement as measured by a total score, youth-therapist internalizing goal matching predicted better youth engagement, and parent-therapist externalizing goal mismatch marginally predicted worse parent engagement. When selected post hoc analyses examined relationships to four individual engagement dimensions, youth-therapist internalizing goal matches positively predicted youth Client-therapist interaction, Communication/Openness, Client's perceived usefulness of therapy, and Collaboration with treatment, while parent-therapist externalizing goal mismatch negatively predicted parent Collaboration with treatment. Findings support the importance of cognitive match on treatment goals as well as the consideration of both parent and youth perspectives, matched and mismatched goals, internalizing and externalizing goals, and examining individual dimensions in addition to total scores of engagement.