Targeted Child Mental Health Prevention and Parenting Support Within a Canadian Context: A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the U.S.-Developed Family Check-Up®.

Canada lacks an approach to early childhood mental health prevention aimed at decreasing barriers to care among highest-needs families. In this Canadian randomized controlled trial, we aimed to evaluate whether participation in the Family Check-Up® (FCU®) would be associated with lower severity of child behavior problems (primary outcome) and caregiver psychological distress and daily parenting stress (secondary outcomes). Eligible caregivers of children aged 2-4 years with (i) high severity of behavior problems and/or (ii) above-average severity plus ≥ 1 family psychosocial risk factor were recruited from early education, community, and clinical settings in Hamilton, Ontario.

Family functioning in the context of current and historical stressors: Exploring the buffering role of social support.

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can be passed onto future generations through complex biopsychosocial mechanisms. However, social support in caregivers who have experienced adversity may lead to adaptation. Most research on the intergenerational consequences of ACEs has focused on mental health in subsequent generations, while overlooking family functioning as an outcome.

Parental mental health trajectories over the COVID-19 pandemic and links with childhood adversity and pandemic stress.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant disruptions, with parents of school-age children being identified as a vulnerable population. Limited research has longitudinally tracked the mental health trajectories of parents over the active pandemic period. In addition, parents' history of adverse (ACEs) and benevolent (BCEs) childhood experiences may compound or attenuate the effect of COVID-19 stressors on parental psychopathology.

Empirical support for a model of risk and resilience in children and families during COVID-19: A systematic review & narrative synthesis.

Background.: The COVID-19 Family Disruption Model (FDM) describes the cascading effects of pandemic-related social disruptions on child and family psychosocial functioning. The current systematic review assesses the empirical support for the model.

An ultra-brief systemic intervention to address child mental health symptomatology.

Drawing on decades of research in family systems, coparenting, and developmental science, we present a clinical approach to address unmet service needs in children's mental health. Specifically, we describe Lausanne Family Play - Brief Intervention (LFP-B) - a manualized family systems approach providing a caregiver-caregiver-child therapy (and sibling/s, when applicable). The LFP-B is ultra-brief, typically delivered in as few as three sessions (two assessment sessions followed by a video feedback session), with the aim of reducing children's mental health symptomatology by enhancing the coparenting relationship.

Positive Parenting and Early Childhood Cognition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

This review examines the effectiveness of positive parenting interventions aimed at improving sensitivity, responsiveness, and/or non-harsh discipline on children's early cognitive skills, in four meta-analyses addressing general mental abilities, language, executive functioning, and pre-academics. The objectives are to assess the magnitude of intervention effectiveness and identify moderators of effectiveness. We include randomized controlled trials of interventions targeting positive parenting to improve cognition in children < 6 years.

Latent Classes of Adverse and Benevolent Childhood Experiences in a Multinational Sample of Parents and Their Relation to Parent, Child, and Family Functioning during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are known to contribute to later mental health. Conversely, Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCEs) may buffer against mental health difficulties. The importance of ACEs and BCEs for mental health of both parents and children may be most obvious during periods of stress, with potential consequences for functioning of the family.

Assessing positive adaptation during a global crisis: The development and validation of the family positive adaptation during COVID-19 scale.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the psychosocial functioning of children and families. It is important to consider adversity in relation to processes of positive adaptation. To date, there are no empirically validated multi-item scales measuring COVID-related positive adaptation within families.

Pandemic-Related Disruption and Positive Adaptation: Profiles of Family Function at the Onset of the Pandemic.

Unlabelled: The onset of the pandemic brought heightened stress to parents due to disruptions to family life, in addition to processes of positive family adaptation, including greater closeness, more time spent together, and shared problem-solving. Delineating how early pandemic-related family stress and positive adaptation simultaneously operate is important for understanding risk and resilience. We use a person-oriented approach to identify subgroups of caregivers based on patterns of stress and positive adaptation in the first months of the pandemic.

Love Together, Parent Together (L2P2): a protocol for a feasibility study of a conflict reappraisal writing intervention for interparental couples with young children.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced or amplified stress and challenge within couples' relationships. Among those who are particularly vulnerable to heightened conflict and lower relationship satisfaction during this time are interparental couples with young children, whose relationships may have already been tenuous prior to the pandemic. Stress within the interparental relationship may have ripple effects on all family subsystems and child adjustment.

COVID-19 disruption gets inside the family: A two-month multilevel study of family stress during the pandemic.

Developmental research during COVID-19 suggests that pandemic-related disruptions in family relationships are associated with children's mental health. Most of this research has focused on 1 child per family, thereby obfuscating patterns that are differentially operative at the family-wide (i.e.

Effects of household chaos and parental responsiveness on child executive functions: a novel, multi-method approach.

Background: Executive functions can be adversely affected by contextual risks in the home environment including chaos and parenting challenges. Furthermore, household chaos negatively influences parenting practices. Few studies, however, have examined the role of parenting in the association between household chaos and child executive functions.

The causal influence of responsive parenting behaviour on academic readiness: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Children's academic readiness has important implications for subsequent achievement and psychosocial functioning. A growing number of studies are utilizing randomized controlled trials (RCT) to examine whether responsive parenting interventions lead to positive gains in children's academic readiness. A synthesis of the extant literature is warranted to gain a precise estimate of the causal influence of responsive parenting on academic readiness, as well as to examine moderators that may serve to strengthen or weaken this effect.

The COVID-19 Family Stressor Scale: Validation and Measurement Invariance in Female and Male Caregivers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised significant concerns regarding the effect of social disruptions on parental mental health, family well-being, and children's adjustment. Due to the pace of the pandemic, measures of pandemic-related disruption have not been subject to rigorous empirical validation. To address this gap, a multi-national sample (United Kingdom, 76%; United States, 19%; Canada, 4%, and Australia, 1%) of 372 female caregivers and 158 male caregivers of 5-18-year-old children was recruited online.

From screen time to the digital level of analysis: a scoping review of measures for digital media use in children and adolescents.

Objectives: This scoping review aims to facilitate psychometric developments in the field of digital media usage and well-being in young people by (1) identifying core concepts in the area of "screen time" and digital media use in children, adolescents, and young adults, (2) synthesising existing research paradigms and measurement tools that quantify these dimensions, and (3) highlighting important areas of need to guide future measure development.

Design: A scoping review of 140 sources (126 database, 14 grey literature) published between 2014 and 2019 yielded 162 measurement tools across a range of domains, users, and cultures. Database sources from Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus were extracted, in addition to grey literature obtained from knowledge experts and organisations relevant to digital media use in children.

The disparate impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of female and male caregivers.

Caregiver mental health is crucial to the wellbeing of children. This is most apparent when caregivers face high levels of stress or life adversity. To study this phenomenon in the current global context, this study examined the relation between stress/disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic and the mental health of female and male caregivers.

Linking Quality and Quantity of Parental Linguistic Input to Child Language Skills: A Meta-Analysis.

This meta-analysis examined associations between the quantity and quality of parental linguistic input and children's language. Pooled effect size for quality (i.e.

The application of positive parenting interventions to academic school readiness: A scoping review.

Background: Positive parenting interventions were traditionally developed for use in infant and preschool mental health. However, there is increasing application to a broader range of developmental outcomes. A scoping review was conducted to map the landscape of the diverse applications of positive parenting interventions to academic school readiness.

Risk and resilience in family well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an acute threat to the well-being of children and families due to challenges related to social disruption such as financial insecurity, caregiving burden, and confinement-related stress (e.g., crowding, changes to structure, and routine).

Technology-Assisted Parenting Interventions for Families Experiencing Social Disadvantage: a Meta-Analysis.

Technology-assisted interventions have been identified as a means to increase accessibility and enhance engagement of parenting programs. The current meta-analytic review examines the effectiveness of these interventions in families experiencing social disadvantage. A literature search was conducted spanning March 2007-June 2019.

From 'screen time' to the digital level of analysis: protocol for a scoping review of digital media use in children and adolescents.

Introduction: Research on the relationship between digital media exposure and child development is complex, inconsistent and fraught with debate. A highlighted area of inadequacy surrounds the methodological limitations of measuring digital media use for both researchers and clinicians, alike. This protocol aims to (1) identify core concepts in the area of screen time and digital media use in children and adolescents (2) map existing research paradigms and screening/measurement tools that serve to underpin and operationalise core concepts and (3) provide an initial step in integrating these findings into a consolidated screening toolkit.