Program logic of a service collaboration to support parents with intellectual disability.

Background: This article describes the Steps to Confident Parenting (SCP) program, developed by an Australian family service consortium. The SCP integrates home-based and case-management services to enhance the skills of parents with a diagnosed or suspected intellectual disability/cognitive impairment and to prevent child protection interventions.

Method: 'Program explication' methodology documented the components/activities, and underpinning evidence for this practitioner designed service through interviews with nine agency staff.

Efficacy of a Smartphone App Intervention for Reducing Caregiver Stress: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Caregivers play a pivotal role in maintaining an economically viable health care system, yet they are characterized by low levels of psychological well-being and consistently report unmet needs for psychological support. Mobile app-based (mobile health [mHealth]) interventions present a novel approach to both reducing stress and improving well-being.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-guided mobile app-based psychological intervention for people providing care to family or friends with a physical or mental disability.

A methodological review of fetal neurosonographic studies: New directions in assessment of neurodevelopmental risk for mental health problems.

Most mental disorders are now considered to have neurodevelopmental origins, with a growing body of research pointing to neural alterations that predate birth. However, lack of established methods for reliable investigation of fetal brain development has limited research into early neural vulnerability. Using a systematic approach and quantitative evaluation of study methodology, we review neurosonographic studies of fetal brain structure with objective quality measures.

Health needs and timeliness of assessment of Victorian children entering out-of-home care: An audit of a multidisciplinary assessment clinic.

Aim: To describe the health needs identified in children attending a comprehensive health assessment at a tertiary hospital, multidisciplinary clinic for children following entry to out-of-home care and timeliness of referral and assessment compared with national recommendations.

Methods: This was a retrospective audit of all the children who attended the Pathway to Good Health clinic at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne from May 2013 until 31 August 2016.

Results: A total of 119 children aged 0-12 years attended the clinic during the audit period.

Psychosocial profiles of adolescents from dissolved families: Differences in depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood.

Background: When parents separate, on average, children are at greater risk for concurrent and subsequent depression; however, mean outcomes mask substantial variation in depressive risk. This study aimed to (1) identify multivariate risk profiles (classes) in adolescents from separated families and (2) prospectively estimate class risk for depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood.

Methods: The sample comprised 449 participants with separated parents from an Australian population based longitudinal cohort study established in 1983.

Sometimes It's Good to be Short: The Serotonin Transporter Gene, Positive Parenting, and Adolescent Depression.

In threatening environments, the short (S) allele of 5-HTTLPR is proposed to augment risk for depression. However, it is unknown whether 5-HTTLPR variation increases risk for depression in environments of deprivation, lacking positive or nurturant features. Two independent longitudinal studies (n = 681 and 176, respectively) examined whether 5-HTTLPR moderated associations between low levels of positive parenting at 11-13 years and subsequent depression at 17-19 years.

Linking the serotonin transporter gene, family environments, hippocampal volume and depression onset: A prospective imaging gene × environment analysis.

A single imaging gene-environment (IGxE) framework that is able to simultaneously model genetic, neurobiological, and environmental influences on psychopathology outcomes is needed to improve understanding of how complex interrelationships between allelic variation, differences in neuroanatomy or neuroactivity, and environmental experience affect risk for psychiatric disorder. In a longitudinal study of adolescent development we demonstrate the utility of such an IGxE framework by testing whether variation in parental behavior at age 12 altered the strength of an imaging genetics pathway, involving an indirect association between allelic variation in the serotonin transporter gene to variation in hippocampal volume and consequent onset of major depressive disorder by age 18. Results were consistent with the presence of an indirect effect of the serotonin transporter S-allele on depression onset via smaller left and right hippocampal volumes that was significant only in family environments involving either higher levels of parental aggression or lower levels of positive parenting.

Developmental antecedents of abnormal eating attitudes and behaviors in adolescence.

Objective: This study capitalizes on developmental data from an Australian population-based birth cohort to identify developmental markers of abnormal eating attitudes and behaviors in adolescence. The aims were twofold: (1) to develop a comprehensive path model identifying infant and childhood developmental correlates of Abnormal Eating Attitudes and Behaviors in adolescence, and (2) to explore potential gender differences.

Method: Data were drawn from a 30-year longitudinal study that has followed the health and development of a population based cohort across 15 waves of data collection from infancy since 1983: The Australian Temperament Project.

The longitudinal prediction of alcohol consumption-related harms among young adults.

This study explores the longitudinal pathways by which risk and protective factors influence the development of alcohol-related harms in a representative community sample of 941 young adults (19-20 years) from Victoria, Australia, focusing on the role of concurrent risky drinking. Impulsivity at 15-16 years, alcohol-related harms at 15-16 years and 17-18 years, frequency of intoxication at 17-18 years, and antisocial behavior, friends' drinking and living arrangements at 19-20 years were directly related to alcohol-related harms, as well as indirectly related to harms through increased risky drinking. Paternal drinking at 17-18 years was directly related to alcohol-related harms.