Shared Traumatic Reality During the Continuous War in Ukraine and the Protective Role of Transgenerational Transfer: Voices of Mental Health Professionals.

Shared traumatic reality has nagative professional effects on mental health providers. The study explores the professional effects of prolonged shared traumatic reality, and the protective role of intergenerational transfer, among Ukrainian psychotherapists during the war with Russia, in the context of their national history of traumatic events. We conducted focus group interviews with 20 Ukrainian therapists who lived and worked in Ukrainian war zones.

Engaging fathers to strengthen the impact of early home visitation on physical child abuse risk: Findings from the dads matter-HV randomized controlled trial.

Background: Despite growing recognition of the importance of fathers in child abuse risk, the field of perinatal home visitation has only begun to consider fathers' roles in the implementation of such services.

Objectives: This study examines the effectiveness of Dads Matter-HV ("DM-HV"), a father-inclusion enhancement to home visitation, and hypothesized mediators of impact.

Methods: A multisite cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with 17 home visiting program teams serving 204 families across study conditions.

The Effect of Dads Matter-HV on Father Engagement in Home Visiting Services.

Engaging fathers early in child and family services has the potential to promote positive father contributions towards positive child development, improve family well-being, and enhance service outcomes over time. However, low father engagement in child and family services remains a persistent problem, and few interventions designed to improve father engagement in these services have been rigorously tested. The current study assesses the effect of a service enhancement intervention called Dads Matter-Home Visiting (Dads Matter-HV) on biological father engagement in home visiting services when compared to home visiting services delivered as usual.

The relationship between exposure of Palestinian youth to community violence and internalizing and externalizing symptoms: Do gender and social support matter?

Background: Youth exposure to community violence (ECV) in the Palestinian society is an alarming problem. Yet, there is serious scarcity of research on its mental health consequences.

Objectives: The study examined the relationships between youth ECV and internalizing and externalizing symptoms as well as the moderating and mediating effects of gender and support from family and teachers on these relationships.

The Roles of Family and Teacher Support in Moderating and Mediating Externalized and Internalized Outcomes of Exposure to Community Violence Among Arab and Jewish Adolescents in Israel.

The study examined family and teacher support as factors that can protect adolescents from internalized and externalized problems after exposure to community violence (ECV). Self-administered questionnaires were filled out by a sample of 1,832 Arab and Jewish Israeli high school students. The Arab adolescents reported significantly higher levels of community violence victimization, internalized problems, externalized problems, family support, and teacher support than the Jewish adolescents.

Promoting father involvement in early home visiting services for vulnerable families: Findings from a pilot study of "Dads matter".

Despite mounting evidence on the importance of fathers in children's development, evidence-based perinatal home visitation programs have largely overlooked fathers in the design and delivery of services. This paper describes the design, development, and pilot testing of the "Dads Matter" enhancement to standard home visiting services. Dads Matter is a manualized intervention package designed to fully incorporate fathers into perinatal home visiting services.

Examining the effectiveness of home-based parent aide services to reduce risk for physical child abuse and neglect: six-month findings from a randomized clinical trial.

Objective: This study set out to carry out a feasible, real-world, randomized clinical trial to examine the benefits of home-based paraprofessional parent aide services in reducing physical abuse and neglect risk in high-risk parents.

Methods: Families were randomly assigned to receive either parent aide plus case management services (n = 73) or case management services only (n = 65), collecting in-home data on physical child abuse and neglect and proximal risk and protective factors, just prior to service initiation, and again after six months of services.

Results: Mothers receiving parent aide and case management services reported significant improvements from baseline to six-month follow-up in self-reported indicators of physical child abuse risk, as well as improvements on parental stress, mastery, depression, and anxiety, whereas mothers receiving only case management services did not.

The rates and characteristics of the exposure of Palestinian youth to community violence.

The article presents the results of a study that explored the rates and characteristics of exposure to community violence (CV) and its relevance to several sociodemographic factors among a sample of 1,930 Palestinian youth (1,018 girls and 912 boys), aged 12 to 19 years residing in diverse residential areas in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire. The frequency of boys' exposure to CV during the previous 12 months was significantly higher than among girls.

Young mother-father dyads and maternal harsh parenting behavior.

Objective: This study examined whether the age of parents predicted maternal harsh parenting behavior, specifically whether younger mothers might be at higher risk than older mothers, and which paternal characteristics might be associated with maternal parenting behavior.

Methodology: This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) study. In the present study, the authors examined a subsample of families for which complete data were available on all variables that were used in the analyses (n=1,597).

Use of spanking for 3-year-old children and associated intimate partner aggression or violence.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine associations between maternal and paternal use of corporal punishment (CP) for 3-year-old children and intimate partner aggression or violence (IPAV) in a population-based sample.

Methods: The study sample (N=1997) was derived from wave 3 of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Mother and father reports regarding their use of CP and their IPAV victimization were analyzed.

Paternal psychosocial characteristics and corporal punishment of their 3-year-old children.

This study uses data from 2,309 biological fathers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS) to examine associations between psychosocial characteristics and levels of corporal punishment (CP) toward their 3-year-old children over the past month. Results indicate that 61% of the fathers reported no CP over the past month, 23% reported using CP once or twice, and 16% reported using CP a few times in the past month or more. In multivariate models controlling for important sociodemographic factors as well as characteristics of the child, fathers' parenting stress, major depression, heavy alcohol use, and drug use were significantly associated with greater use of CP, whereas involvement with the child and generalized anxiety disorder were not.

Parental perceptions of neighborhood processes, stress, personal control, and risk for physical child abuse and neglect.

Objective: This study set out to examine whether mothers' individual perceptions of their neighborhood social processes predict their risk for physical child abuse and neglect directly and/or indirectly via pathways involving parents' reported stress and sense of personal control in the parenting role.

Methods: In-home and phone interview data were examined cross-sectionally from a national birth cohort sample of 3,356 mothers across 20 US cities when the index child was 3 years of age. Mothers' perceptions of neighborhood social processes, parenting stress, and personal control were examined as predictors, and three subscales of the Parent-To-Child Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS-PC) were employed as proxies of physical child abuse and neglect risk.

Fathers and maternal risk for physical child abuse.

This study set out to examine father-related factors predicting maternal physical child abuse risk in a national birth cohort of 1,480 families. In-home and phone interviews were conducted with mothers when index children were 3 years old. Predictor variables included the mother-father relationship status; father demographic, economic, and psychosocial variables; and key background factors.

Fathers, physical child abuse, and neglect: advancing the knowledge base.

Fathers are overrepresented as perpetrators of physical child maltreatment, particularly in its most severe forms. Despite this, the research literature continues to lack specificity regarding the role fathers play in risk for physical child abuse or neglect (PCAN). Furthermore, although fathers have received more attention with respect to child sexual abuse and its treatment, their influence has been largely disregarded in many intervention efforts to reduce PCAN.

Intimate partner violence, maternal stress, nativity, and risk for maternal maltreatment of young children.

Objectives: We examined the associations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and maternal risk factors with maternal child maltreatment risk within a diverse sample of mothers.

Methods: We derived the study sample (N=2508) from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study. We conducted regression analyses to examine associations between IPV, parenting stress, major depression, key covariates, and 4 proxy variables for maternal child maltreatment.

Risk factors for paternal physical child abuse.

Objective: This study uses the developmental-ecological framework to examine a comprehensive set of paternal factors hypothesized to be linked to risk for paternal child abuse (PCA) among a diverse sample of fathers. Attention was given to fathers' marital status and their race/ethnicity (White, African American, and Hispanic).

Methods: Interviews were conducted with 1257 married or cohabiting biological fathers who participated in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.

The role of fathers in risk for physical child abuse and neglect: possible pathways and unanswered questions.

Despite overrepresentation of fathers as perpetrators in cases of severe physical child abuse and neglect, the role they play in shaping risk for physical child abuse and neglect is not yet well understood. This article reviews the possible father pathways that may contribute to physical child abuse and neglect risk and their existing empirical support. The present empirical base implicates a set of sociodemographic factors in physical maltreatment risk, including fathers' absence, age, employment status, and income they provide to the family.

Advancing prevention research on child abuse, youth violence, and domestic violence: emerging strategies and issues.

Prevention research on the related problems of child abuse, youth violence, and domestic violence has grown at an accelerating pace in recent years. In this context, a set of shared methodological issues has emerged as investigators seek to advance the interpersonal violence prevention knowledge base. This article considers some of the persistent methodological issues in these areas and points out emerging research strategies that are forging advances in garnering valid, rigorous, and useful knowledge to prevent interpersonal violence.

Acculturation and parental attachment in Asian-American adolescents' alcohol use.

Purpose: To test whether the degree of acculturation predicts subsequent alcohol use among Asian-American adolescents, and to test the moderating effect of parental attachment.

Methods: This was a prospective study using a subsample of the National Longitudinal Adolescent Health data set. A nationally representative sample of 714 Asian-American boys (n = 332) and girls (n = 382) in grades 7-12 was analyzed.

Adolescent victimization and subsequent use of mental health counseling services.

Purpose: To test the extent to which adolescent victimization predicts subsequent use of mental health services in a prospectively assessed nationwide sample of high school students.

Methods: Data were analyzed from 4590 adolescents participating in Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. In-home self-report data were collected on four types of personal victimization, mental health service use, demographics, psychological symptoms/needs, and family connectedness.