Establishing treatment fidelity in evidence-based parent training programs for externalizing disorders in children and adolescents.

The current review evaluates the use of treatment fidelity strategies in evidence-based parent training programs for treating externalizing disorders. We used a broad framework for evaluating treatment fidelity developed by the National Institutes of Health Treatment Fidelity Workgroup that includes the aspects of treatment design, treatment delivery, training providers, and assessment of participant receipt of treatment and enactment of treatment skills. Sixty-five articles reporting outcome trials of evidence-based parent training programs met inclusion criteria and were coded for treatment fidelity strategies.

A Community Mental Health Implementation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has been identified as an evidence-based practice in the treatment of externalizing behavior among preschool-aged youth. Although considerable research has established its efficacy, little is known about the effectiveness of PCIT when delivered in a community mental health setting with underserved youth. The current pilot study investigated an implementation of PCIT with primarily low-socioeconomic status, urban, ethnic minority youth and families.

Effectiveness of Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT) in a preschool setting.

This research addressed the need for trained child care staff to support optimal early social-emotional development in urban, low-income, ethnic minority children. We evaluated effectiveness of Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT), an approach adapted from Eyberg's Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). TCIT focuses on increasing preschool teachers' positive attention skills and consistent discipline in order to enhance children's psychosocial functioning and prevent mental health problems.

Antecedents and concomitants of parenting stress in adolescent mothers in foster care.

Objective: This study's aim was to examine variables associated with different short-term trajectories in multiply disadvantaged adolescent mothers by investigating antecedents and concomitants of parenting stress.

Method: We followed 49 adolescent mothers (ages 14-18 at study outset) who were wards in Illinois foster care using a longitudinal correlational design. We examined whether parenting variables (childrearing beliefs, quality of parent-child interactions, and child abuse risk) and personal adjustment variables (emotional distress and social support) at initial assessment predicted parenting stress measured at follow-up (a mean of 22.

Child and adolescent advocacy through research: introduction to special section.

In this special section, Clinical Child and Adolescent Advocacy Through Research, luminaries in advocacy for children tell important, personal stories of how research and values intertwine to influence the policies that affect children and families. In this introduction, we provide a brief historical overview of child advocacy in the United States, its link to American child psychology, and the roles of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and the Division of Child, Youth, and Family Services of the American Psychological Association in educating and showing us how to use our science wisely in the service of children. We then preview the individual themes of the articles of this special section.