Mental disorder diagnoses and symptoms and functional impairment in school-age children in the care of child protective services.

Background: About 50 % of children in the care of child protective services present at least one mental disorder, but few studies have looked at whether there are differences in mental disorders or symptoms between children placed in out-of-home care (foster care and residential care) and their community peers.

Objective: This study documents the mental disorder diagnoses and symptoms among children in out-of-home care and their associations with children functional impairment. It also compares out-of-home care children with those from the community.

Profiles of self-regulation and their association with behavior problems among sexually abused children.

This study aimed to delineate profiles of self-regulation among sexually abused children and their association with behavior problems using a person-centered approach. A sample of 223 children aged six to 12, their parents, and teachers were recruited in specialized intervention centers. Latent profile analysis revealed four profiles: (1) (2) (3) and (4) .

Parental History of Childhood Maltreatment and Offspring Attachment Insecurity and Disorganization: Two Meta-Analyses.

Research findings have shown that parental history of childhood maltreatment (CM) increases the risk of insecure and disorganized attachment in offspring. However, the extent of the detrimental effects of childhood trauma on attachment in the next generation is unclear. The current meta-analyses aimed at synthesizing the available literature on the link between parental history of CM and offspring attachment insecurity and disorganization (with no restriction of offspring age).

Validation of the Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder Assessment (RADA): A -5 Semistructured Interview.

Very few empirically validated tools exist for assessing reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED). The RAD and DSED assessment interview (RADA), a semistructured diagnostic interview, was updated in 2018 from the CAPA-RAD interview to reflect the diagnostic criteria changes in the (5th ed.; ).

Early childhood attachment stability to mothers, fathers, and both parents as a network: associations with parents' well-being, marital relationship, and child behavior problems.

This study examines the stability of child attachment to mothers and fathers separately, and to both parents as a network between the infancy and preschool periods using a sample of 143 biparental families and their children (73 boys) recruited from the general population. Attachment was assessed at 15 months with the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) and at 45 months with the Preschool Attachment Classification Coding System (PACS). First, results show no stability in attachment to mothers, to fathers, or to both parents as a network.

Executive functioning in child victims of sexual abuse: A multi-informant comparative study.

Background: Research examining the association between child sexual abuse and executive functions is limited. Yet, exposure to traumatic situations at a young age has been associated with changes in the prefrontal cortex, which hosts executive functions (Wesarg et al., 2020).

Longitudinal associations between the quality of family interactions and school-age children's narrative abilities in the context of financial insecurity.

This longitudinal study investigates whether the quality of family interactions at 3-5 years of age predicts narrative abilities in 7-9-year-old children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. The sample consists of 67 children and their parents receiving social welfare. Family interactions were filmed during mealtime at home and coded using the Mealtime Interaction Coding System.

Effects of the Attachment Video-feedback Intervention (AVI) on parents and children at risk of maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in situations of risk of child abuse and neglect.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine whether the Attachment Video-feedback Intervention (AVI) program can improve protective factors (decrease parental stress and household chaos, increase parent-child emotional availability and parental reflective functioning) that may diminish child maltreatment in a group of families at risk for child abuse and neglect during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants And Setting: The sample consisted of 41 children aged between 0 and 5 years (M = 35.

Romantic attachment and cyber dating violence in adolescence: A dyadic approach.

Introduction: Little research has documented cyber dating violence (DV)-a type of teen DV with unique characteristics that has been associated with negative consequences. Attachment is central to understanding negative behaviors in the context of relationships and has been associated with other forms of DV in teens. This study used an actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) to examine how cyber-DV victimization and perpetration (direct aggression and control) relate to attachment anxiety and avoidance.

Paternal mind-mindedness and children's academic achievement: Investigating developmental processes.

This study tested a 5-year sequential mediation model linking paternal mind-mindedness in toddlerhood to child early academic achievement through a developmental process unfolding in the preschool years. A sample of 128 mostly White middle-class families (68 girls) living in Montreal, Canada was assessed for paternal mind-mindedness when children were 18 months old, child language at age 2, theory of mind and effortful control at age 4, cognitive school readiness in kindergarten, and finally, achievement in math and reading in first grade. Controlling for maternal mind-mindedness assessed at age 12 months, the results showed prospective associations from paternal mind-mindedness to both math and reading achievement, mediated by theory of mind, effortful control, and school readiness in sequence.

Marital satisfaction, parenting stress, and family alliance: Parental perspective taking as a moderator.

Research has shown that family alliance (FA), operationalized as the quality of mother-father-child triadic interactions, is important for child socioemotional development. However, few studies have investigated the predictors of FA, and there are few longitudinal studies available. Accordingly, this study first examined whether mothers' and fathers' marital satisfaction and parenting stress during infancy predicted FA five years later, when their children entered kindergarten.

Paternal distress and child behavior problems in low-SES families: Quality of father-child interactions as mediators.

This study examines, in low-income families, whether fathers' distress is associated with behavioral problems in preschool children and if the quality of father-child interactions mediates this association. Participants were 81 children between the ages of 3 and 5 years and their parents who were receiving social welfare. Quality of father-child interactions was assessed during a free-play situation and a toy cleanup task, fathers' parenting stress and psychological distress were self-reported, and children's behavior problems were assessed by both parents.

Meta-Analyses of the Associations Between Disinhibited Social Engagement Behaviors and Child Attachment Insecurity or Disorganization.

Children with disinhibited social engagement disorder show reduced reticence with strangers, do not check back with their caregiver after venturing away, and may willingly leave with an unfamiliar adult. The recent DSM-5 has moved away from an attachment framework to understand disinhibited social engagement behavior (DSEB) due to studies indicating its presence in previously institutionalized children even after these children are adopted and show a selective, more secure attachment with their substitute caregiver (e.g.

Further evidence for the multidimensional nature of maternal sensitivity: differential links with child socioemotional functioning at preschool age.

There has been increasing scholarly attention to the study of maternal sensitivity as a multidimensional construct. This report investigated the predictive value of three dimensions of sensitivity during mother-infant interactions in an effort to gain greater understanding of how specific facets of sensitivity relate to child socioemotional outcomes. Maternal cooperation/attunement (accurate interpretation of infant cues and capacity to adjust the interaction correspondingly), positivity (positive attitude toward the infant), and accessibility/availability (consistent attentiveness) were assessed observationally in 195 mothers of 1-year-old infants.

Attachment goes to court: child protection and custody issues.

Attachment theory and research are drawn upon in many applied settings, including family courts, but misunderstandings are widespread and sometimes result in misapplications. The aim of this consensus statement is, therefore, to enhance understanding, counter misinformation, and steer family-court utilisation of attachment theory in a supportive, evidence-based direction, especially with regard to child protection and child custody decision-making. The article is divided into two parts.

Transmission of parental childhood trauma to child behavior problems: Parental Hostile/Helpless state of mind as a moderator.

Background: Little attention has been given to intergenerational transmission of risk, mainly whether caregivers' history of childhood maltreatment is linked to behavioral symptoms in their children and which protective/risk factors are involved in this transmission process.

Objective: This study examined if parental Hostile/Helpless (H/H) state of mind with respect to attachment moderated the association between parental childhood trauma and behavior problems in maltreated children.

Participants And Setting: The sample included 61 parents and their children victims or at very high risk of maltreatment, aged between 1 and 6 years old.

Development and Validation of a Measure of Attachment Disorders Based on Criteria: The Early TRAuma-Related Disorders Questionnaire (ETRADQ).

Background: A review of the scientific literature showed few valid tools for assessing reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED), two diagnostic entities traditionally grouped under "attachment disorders." The Early TRAuma-related Disorders Questionnaire (ETRADQ), a caregiver report, was developed to assess attachment disorders in school-age children based on the criteria. This study sought to validate this instrument.

Feasibility of training service providers on the AMBIANCE-Brief measure for use in community settings.

The Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification-Brief (AMBIANCE-Brief) was developed to provide a clinically useful and psychometrically sound assessment of disrupted parenting behavior for community practitioners. With prior evidence of this tool's reliability and validity in laboratory settings, this study aimed to determine whether providers from family service agencies could become reliable in the use of the level of disrupted communication following a brief training. Providers (N = 46) from three agency sites participated in a 2-day AMBIANCE-Brief training and, at the end of the training, coded eight videotaped mother-child interactions.

Disinhibited social engagement behaviors in young maltreated children: Dysfunctional behavior of biological parents and child attachment.

Background: Studies on children with disinhibited social engagement behavior (DSEB) and their caregivers have primarily been limited to institution-reared children.

Objective: Using a sample of intact parent-child dyads, the current study examined the distinct contributions of dysfunctional (disconnected/extremely insensitive) parental behaviors and type of maltreatment on maltreated children's levels of DSEB. Child time in foster care and quality of attachment to caregiver were taken in account.

An Attachment-Based Parental Capacity Assessment to Orient Decision-Making in Child Protection Cases: A Randomized Control Trial.

Two parenting capacity assessment (PCA) protocols, with a short parent-child intervention embedded in each protocol, evaluated the potential for enhanced parenting to orient child placement decision. Parents ( = 69), with substantiated reports of maltreatment by child protective services, and their children (0-6) were randomly assigned to one of two PCAs with either the Attachment Video-feedback (PCA-AVI) or a psychoeducational intervention (PCA-PI) as the embedded intervention component. The PCA-AVI group showed the highest increases in parent-child interaction quality at post-test.

Improving parent-child interactions in maltreating families with the Attachment Video-feedback Intervention: Parental childhood trauma as a moderator of treatment effects.

Research is demonstrating the effectiveness of attachment-based interventions for maltreating families. However, parents' own traumatic childhood experiences may interfere with treatment effects. The current study investigated in a sample of maltreating families whether effects of the Attachment Video-feedback Intervention (AVI) on parent-child interactive quality were moderated by parental childhood trauma.

Family environment and preschoolers' sleep: the complementary role of both parents.

Objective: To investigate in a sample of low-income families whether the quality of parent-child interactions mediated the association between coparenting and child sleep, and if this association was moderated by parents' anxiety.

Method: In sum, 81 two-parent families with a preschool child (aged 3 to 5 years) and receiving social security benefits were recruited. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires assessing coparenting, parental anxiety, and child sleep duration and sleep problems.

Parenting stress of adoptive mothers, mother-child conflict, and behavior problems during adolescence among international adoptees.

International adoptees show more behavior problems than their nonadopted peers do during childhood and adolescence. Although conditions of deprivation experienced prior to adoption have been found to have a long-lasting impact on child psychosocial adjustment, the influence of adoptive families tends to increase over age. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of parenting stress and parent-child conflict on international adoptees' behavior problems in adolescence.

Testing the cycle of maltreatment hypothesis: Meta-analytic evidence of the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment.

It has long been claimed that "maltreatment begets maltreatment," that is, a parent's history of maltreatment increases the risk that his or her child will also suffer maltreatment. However, significant methodological concerns have been raised regarding evidence supporting this assertion, with some arguing that the association weakens in samples with higher methodological rigor. In the current study, the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment hypothesis is examined in 142 studies (149 samples; 227,918 dyads) that underwent a methodological quality review, as well as data extraction on a number of potential moderator variables.

Identifying effective interventions for promoting parent engagement and family reunification for children in out-of-home care: A series of meta-analyses.

Background: An important obstacle for family reunification following child placement in residential care and other temporary out-of-home care services is the lack of engagement among parents.

Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis is to identify the most effective interventions to promote parental engagement and family reunification.

Method And Participants: Eight studies, for a total of 2996 families, were used to conduct two series of meta-analyses.