Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology

Dowell, Kathy A.; Ogles, Benjamin M.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532585pmid: 20390807

Forty-eight child psychotherapy outcome studies offering direct comparisons of an individual child treatment group to a combined parent–child/family therapy treatment group were included in this meta-analytic review. Results indicate that combined treatments produced a moderate effect beyond the outcomes achieved by individual child treatments, with an average weighted effect size that is within the medium range (d = 0.27). Moderator analysis indicated that, compared to non-cognitive-behavioral individual child treatments, cognitive-behavioral individual child treatments were closer in effectiveness to the overall more effective treatments that included parent participation. Results suggest that including parents in the psychotherapeutic treatment of children adds benefits beyond the outcomes achieved by individual child therapies. More research is needed on factors affecting parents' engagement and consistent participation in child psychotherapy treatment and on clinician's utilization of parents as therapy coparticipants.

DeBoard-Lucas, Renee L.; Fosco, Gregory M.; Raynor, Sarah R.; Grych, John H.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532593pmid: 20390808

Children's appraisals of conflict are a mechanism by which parental discord can lead to child maladjustment. The cognitive-contextual framework proposes that parent–child relationships may affect how children perceive conflict, but this idea has rarely been examined empirically. This study investigated relations between conflict appraisals, parenting, and child adjustment in a sample of 150 8- to 12-year-old children, using a multi-informant, multimethod design. Mothers' coercive/controlling and emotionally unsupportive parenting magnified the relation between conflict and children's self-blame; emotionally supportive parenting diminished this association. Children's secure attachment with fathers was linked with less threat and self-blame; more security reduced self-blame for conflict. Data suggest that supportive, responsive parenting can buffer the effects of interparental conflict on children by reducing self-blaming attributions for parental discord.

Copeland-Linder, Nikeea; Lambert, Sharon F.; Ialongo, Nicholas S.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532601pmid: 20390809

This study examined interrelationships among community violence exposure, protective factors, and mental health in a sample of urban, predominantly African American adolescents (N = 504). Latent Profile Analysis was conducted to identify profiles of adolescents based on a combination of community violence exposure, self-worth, parental monitoring, and parental involvement and to examine whether these profiles differentially predict adolescents' depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior. Three classes were identified—a vulnerable class, a moderate risk/medium protection class, and a moderate risk/high protection class. The classes differentially predicted depressive symptoms but not aggressive behavior for boys and girls. The class with the highest community violence exposure also had the lowest self-worth.

Raishevich, Natoshia; Kennedy, Susan J.; Rapee, Ronald M.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532668pmid: 20390810

In the current study, the Five Minute Speech Sample was used to assess the association between parent attitudes and children's behavioral inhibition in mothers of 120 behaviorally inhibited (BI) and 37 behaviorally uninhibited preschool-aged children. Mothers of BI children demonstrated significantly higher levels of emotional over-involvement (EOI) and self-sacrificing/overprotective behavior (SS/OP). However, there was no significant relationship between inhibition status and maternal criticism. Multiple regression also indicated that child temperament, but not maternal anxiety, was a significant predictor of both EOI and SS/OP.

Anderson, Emily R.; Veed, Glen J.; Inderbitzen-Nolan, Heidi M.; Hansen, David J.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532643pmid: 20390811

The current study examined the tripartite model of anxiety and depression in relation to social phobia in a nonclinical sample of adolescents (ages 13–17). Adolescent/parent dyads participated in a semistructured interview and completed self-report measures of the tripartite constructs and social anxiety. Adolescents gave an impromptu speech, and heart rate was monitored. Low positive affect, high negative affect, and high physiological hyperarousal were characteristic of adolescents diagnosed with social phobia; adolescents with elevated social anxiety symptoms who did not meet criteria for social phobia did not evidence low positive affect. Heart rate reactivity during the speech was not significantly correlated with social anxiety symptomatology or with self-reported physiological hyperarousal.

Begle, Angela Moreland; Dumas, Jean E.; Hanson, Rochelle F.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532650pmid: 20390812

This study investigated two theoretical risk models predicting child maltreatment potential: (a) Belsky's (1993) developmental-ecological model and (b) the cumulative risk model in a sample of 610 caregivers (49% African American, 46% European American; 53% single) with a child between 3 and 6 years old. Results extend the literature by using a widely accepted and valid risk instrument rather than occurrence rates (e.g., reports to child protective services, observations). Results indicated Belsky's developmental-ecological model, in which risk markers were organized into three separate conceptual domains, provided a poor fit to the data. In contrast, the cumulative risk model, which included the accumulation of risk markers, was significant in predicting child abuse potential.

Langberg, Joshua M.; Arnold, L. Eugene; Flowers, Amanda M.; Epstein, Jeffery N.; Altaye, Mekibib; Hinshaw, Stephen P.; Swanson, James M.; Kotkin, Ronald; Simpson, Stephen; Molina, Brooke S. G.; Jensen, Peter S.; Abikoff, Howard; Pelham, William E.; Vitiello, Benedetto;

Marcus, David K.; Fulton, Jessica J.; Clarke, Erin J.

doi: 10.1080/15374411003591455pmid: 20390814

This meta-analysis examined the association between conduct problems and lead exposure. Nineteen studies on 8,561 children and adolescents were included. The average r across all 19 studies was .19 (p < .001), which is considered a medium effect size. Studies that assessed lead exposure using hair element analysis yielded considerably larger effect sizes than those that assessed lead exposure using blood, tooth, or bone lead levels. Excluding the 3 hair analysis studies, the average r was .15 (p < .001). The age of the participants did not significantly moderate the relation between lead exposure and conduct problems. Overall, the relation between lead exposure and conduct problems was strikingly similar in magnitude to the relation between lead exposure and decreased IQ.

Shapiro, Cheri J.; Smith, Bradley H.; Malone, Patrick S.; Collaro, Alyssa L.

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532635pmid: 20390815

Little empirical data exist addressing potential iatrogenic effects of placing youth in juvenile justice settings. We took advantage of a natural experiment in one state where juvenile offenders are evaluated in either residential settings characterized by high-density contact with delinquent youth or community settings with naturally varying contact with delinquent peers. Higher rates of subsequent recidivism were found among first-time offenders when evaluation occurred in residential (N = 1,255) as opposed to community settings (N = 752). This finding was replicated in a subset (N = 634 per group) matched using propensity scores for five predictors of recidivism. Findings are interpreted in light of a deviancy training process occurring in residential juvenile justice settings.

Allen, Jennifer L.; Blatter-Meunier, Judith; Ursprung, Antonia; Schneider, Silvia

doi: 10.1080/15374410903532619pmid: 20390816

The current study evaluated the feasibility and validity of a parent-report measure of separation anxiety, the Separation Anxiety Daily Diary (SADD). Mother and child participants consisted of three groups: 96 children (aged 4–15 years) with separation anxiety disorder, 49 children with “other” anxiety disorders, and 43 healthy controls. The SADD assesses the frequency of anxiety-provoking and non-anxiety-provoking separations, along with associated parental anxiety, thoughts, child behaviors, and corresponding parental reactions. The SADD demonstrated acceptable compliance and convergent validity with hypothesized measures. Substantial improvement in the prediction of diagnostic group membership was shown when SADD items assessing child symptoms were added to information gathered from a separation anxiety symptom questionnaire.