Preventing opioid use among justice-involved youth as they transition to adulthood: leveraging safe adults (LeSA).

Background: Juvenile justice (JJ) youth are at high risk of opioid and other substance use (SU), dysfunctional family/social relationships, and complex trauma. The purpose of the Leveraging Safe Adults (LeSA) Project is to examine the effectiveness of Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®; leveraging family systems by providing emotional and instrumental guidance, support, and role modeling) in preventing opioid and other SU among youth after release from secure residential facilities.

Methods: An effectiveness-implementation Hybrid Type 1 design is used to test the effectiveness of TBRI for preventing non-medical use of opioids among JJ-youth (delayed-start at the site level; a randomized controlled trial at participant level) and to gain insight into facility-level barriers to TBRI implementation as part of JJ re-entry protocols.

Attention focus and self-touch in toddlers: The moderating effect of attachment security.

The superior self-regulation and attention-regulation abilities of securely attached children have been repeatedly demonstrated. However, the mechanisms that allow securely attached children to exhibit higher levels of attention focus than insecurely attached (anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant) children need to be explored. One possible mechanism that has been hypothesized to play a role in focusing attention is self-touch.

MENTAL STATE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: THE LONGITUDINAL ROLES OF ATTACHMENT AND MATERNAL LANGUAGE.

Maternal mental state language is thought to influence children's mental state language and sociocognitive understanding (e.g., theory of mind), but the mechanism is unclear.

Decrease in Behavioral Problems and Trauma Symptoms Among At-Risk Adopted Children Following Trauma-Informed Parent Training Intervention.

Children who have experienced early adversities are at risk for behavioral problems and trauma symptoms. Using a two-group, pre-post intervention design, the current study evaluated the effectiveness of a parent training utilizing Trust-Based Relational Intervention, a trauma-informed, attachment-based intervention, in reducing behavioral problems and trauma symptoms in at-risk adopted children. Children of parents in the treatment group ( = 48) demonstrated significant decreases in behavioral problems on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and significant decreases in trauma symptoms on the Trauma Symptoms Checklist for Young Children after intervention.

Decrease in Behavioral Problems and Trauma Symptoms Among At-Risk Adopted Children Following Web-Based Trauma-Informed Parent Training Intervention.

Children who have experienced early adversities are at risk for behavioral problems and trauma symptoms. Using a two-group, pre-post intervention design, the authors evaluated the effectiveness of an online parent training for Trust-Based Relational Intervention, a trauma-informed, attachment-based intervention, in reducing behavioral problems and trauma symptoms in at-risk adopted children. Children of parents in the treatment group (n = 48) demonstrated significant decreases in behavioral problems and trauma symptoms after intervention.

Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI): A Systemic Approach to Complex Developmental Trauma.

Children and youth who have experienced foster care or orphanage-rearing have often experienced complex developmental trauma, demonstrating an interactive set of psychological and behavioral issues. Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) is a therapeutic model that trains caregivers to provide effective support and treatment for at-risk children. TBRI has been applied in orphanages, courts, residential treatment facilities, group homes, foster and adoptive homes, churches, and schools.

Severe punishment of children by staff in Romanian placement centers for school-aged children: effects of child and institutional characteristics.

The objective of this study was to determine whether children's characteristics and/or institutional characteristics were predictors of severe punishments (including beatings) and/or frequency of punishments that children received from staff in Romanian institutions. The data was hierarchical with institutionalized children (N=1391) nested within 44 institutions, and the measurement of punishments by the staff and frequency of punishments had a binary distribution. Thus, multilevel logistic regression models were used to examine the effects of individual and institutional level variables on reported punishments and to account for the clustering of the children within institutions.

A spontaneous emergence of attachment behavior in at-risk children and a correlation with sensory deficits.

Problem: Complex developmental trauma affects large numbers of children who have suffered from abuse, neglect, and/or deprivation. The effects often manifest in problems of attachment.

Methods: Researchers conducted therapeutic day camps for at-risk children to determine whether multimodal therapies could ameliorate the effects of complex developmental trauma.

Factors influencing mercury accumulation in three species of forage fish from Caddo Lake, Texas, USA.

Most studies that have examined mercury (Hg) contamination of fish have focused on game species feeding near the top of the food web, while studies that examine forage fish that feed near the base of the food web are rare. We conducted a survey of Hg contamination in three species of forage fish, brook silverside (Labidesthes sicculus), threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) and gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), from Caddo Lake, Texas, USA and found species-specific differences in Hg concentrations. We examined total length, age, trophic position (determined using delta15N), and growth rate of forage fish as factors that could have influenced within- and between-species differences in Hg concentration.