Therapeutic Alliance and Group Cohesion Across Telehealth Delivery of Mentalizing-focused Parenting Groups.

This study assessed changes in therapeutic alliance and group cohesion among parents/primary caregivers enrolled in Connecting and Reflecting Experience (CARE), a short-term, group-based, mentalizing-focused parenting program designed to support a diverse community facing socioeconomic and health disparities. Caregivers (N = 44) experiencing parenting stress or parent-child relational challenges were recruited from their children's outpatient psychiatry clinic to participate in one of nine 12-session telehealth CARE groups. Caregivers completed the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised and the Therapeutic Factors Inventory Cohesiveness subscale after CARE Sessions 1 and 12.

Emotional impacts of racial discrimination on caregiver-child dyads: Can mentalizing-focused parenting groups buffer against racism-related stress?

Black and Latinx caregivers face high risk for parenting stress and racism-related stress due to experiences of racial discrimination (RD). This study aimed to explore the associations between RD, parenting stress, and psychological distress in caregiver-child dyads, as well as the impact of a mentalizing-focused group intervention on caregivers' experiences of RD distress. Ethnoracially minoritized caregivers of children aged 5-17 years old participated in a non-randomized clinical trial ( = 70).

Frustration Response and Regulation Among Irritable Children: Contributions of Chronic Irritability, Internalizing, and Externalizing Symptoms.

Objective: The need to understand and treat childhood chronic irritability (CI; i.e. frequent temper loss and angry/irritable mood) is imperative.

Safe haven in adolescence: Improving parental reflective functioning and youth attachment and mental health with the Connecting and Reflecting Experience.

Attachment security provides a well-documented protective developmental function for children exposed to individual- and community-level trauma, yet the effectiveness of prevention and intervention efforts targeting attachment during adolescence has been relatively underexplored. The Connecting and Reflecting Experience (CARE) program is a transdiagnostic, bi-generational, group-based, mentalizing-focused parenting intervention developed to dismantle the intergenerational transmission of trauma and support secure attachment relationships across the developmental spectrum within an under-resourced community. This exploratory study evaluated outcomes among caregiver-adolescent dyads (N = 32) in the CARE condition of a nonrandomized clinical trial at an outpatient mental health clinic within a diverse, urban U.

Feasibility and acceptability of a brief cognitive-behavioral group intervention for chronic irritability in youth.

Chronic irritability is a core feature of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), but few irritability-specific interventions have been tested. Existing evidence-based treatments for disruptive behavior problems offer a strong template. This pilot study was conducted to develop and evaluate a brief irritability-specific module of a validated cognitive-behavioral group intervention for children (Stop Now And Plan (SNAP) Program).

Reciprocity in Undesirable Parent-Child Behavior? Verbal Aggression, Corporal Punishment, and Girls' Oppositional Defiant Symptoms.

Parental verbal aggression and corporal punishment are associated with children's conduct problems and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). The strength of bidirectional relationships among specific disruptive behaviors has been inconsistent across gender, and the direction of influence between parental aggression and girls' ODD symptoms is particularly understudied. This study tested reciprocal effects between aggressive parent behaviors and girls' ODD dimensions of oppositionality, antagonism, and irritability.

CBT-Enhanced Emotion Regulation as a Mechanism of Improvement for Childhood Irritability.

Research supports the clinical importance of childhood irritability, as well as its developmental implications for later anxiety and depression. Appropriate treatment may prevent this progression; however, little evidence exists to guide clinician decision making regarding treatment for chronic irritability symptoms. Given the empirical support for irritability as a dimension of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), behavioral interventions that improve ODD symptoms, especially through emotion regulation training, are strong candidates for identifying effective treatment strategies for irritability.