Identification of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) Subgroups with Distinct Trajectories on Ultimate Outcomes in Norway.

The effect of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) treatment for serious behavior problems among adolescents has been established through multiple studies. However, variations across individuals should also be examined to better understand how MST works or for whom. In this study, we explored and identified subgroups of youth with serious problems in Norway regarding their responses to MST in terms of ultimate MST outcomes (e.

An examination of validity and reliability of the Parental Stress Scale in a population based sample of Norwegian parents.

The parental stress scale (PSS) is a widely used instrument that assesses stress related to child rearing. Even though several studies have investigated the construct validity and reliability of the PSS, no consensus has been reached regarding which and how many of the original eighteen items that should be included, or a robust factor structure with satisfactory reliability. The present study tested the psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the PSS and used the advantages of complementary exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to investigate the underlying factor structure of the PSS items.

Six- and Twelve-Month Follow-up Results of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of a CBT-Based Group Course.

In the current study, we examined the durability of intervention gains over a 6- and 12-month follow-up period after the implementation of a CBT-based group intervention "Adolescent Coping with Depression Course" (ACDC) for adolescents with subclinical or mild-to-moderate depression. Data were collected from 228 youth, 133 of whom were allocated to the 14-week ACDC intervention and 95 to the usual care (UC) control condition. Analyses for the main outcome variable of depressive symptoms were performed using a random effects repeated measures piecewise growth model to estimate trajectory shape over time on an intention-to-treat basis.

Culture competence and mental health across different immigrant and refugee groups.

Background: Over the last decades, due to high rates of immigration, many high-income countries have witnessed demographic shifts towards more cultural diversity in the population. Socio-economic deprivation and traumatic experiences pre-migration contribute to a high risk for mental health problems among immigrant background youth. Moreover, when adapting to the multi-cultural contexts of the resettlement countries they face several acculturation demands, which may also affect their mental health in adaptive or hazardous ways.

Common Elements of Practice, Process and Implementation in Out-of-School-Time Academic Interventions for At-risk Children: a Systematic Review.

Academic achievement is a strong preventive factor against marginalization. Children at risk of academic failure and drop out can benefit from out-of-school-time academic (OSTA) interventions. Wide-scaled implementation and sustainment of effective interventions remain a struggle across education, welfare, and health.

Preterm birth and risk for language delays before school entry: A sibling-control study.

We investigated whether children born preterm are at risk for language delay using a sibling-control design in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Participants included 26,769 siblings born between gestational weeks 23 and 42. Language delay was assessed when the children were 1.

The relation between behavioral problems and social competence: A correlational Meta-analysis.

Background: Previous studies have shown that children who display behavioral problems also tend to display low social competence. The relation does however vary according to type of behavior being measured, as well as demographic characteristics of the respondent. The present meta-analysis examined the correlation between different types of behavioral problems and social competence among children aged 3-13, and investigated possible moderators in this relation.

Predictors of family focused practice: organisation, profession, or the role as child responsible personnel?

Background: Health professionals in Norway are required by law to help safeguard information and follow-up with children of parents with mental or physical illness, or who have substance abuse problems, to reduce their higher risk of psychosocial problems. Knowledge is lacking regarding whether organisation and/or worker-related factors can explain the differences in health professionals' ability to support the families when patients are parents.

Methods: Employing a translated, generic version of the Family Focused Mental Health Practice Questionnaire (FFPQ), this cross-sectional study examines family focused practice (FFP) differences in relation to health professionals' background and role (N = 280) along with exploring predictors of parent, child, and family support.

Emotions in motion: impact of emotion understanding on children's peer action coordination.

Peer action coordination has been often studied in terms of its underlying cognitive mechanisms, and little is known about its emotional processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which children's emotion understanding explains their coordination of actions with a peer in a cooperative sensorimotor problem-solving task. Sixty-eight 5- to 9-year-old children were assessed for their emotion understanding with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) and for their problem-solving capacities with a sensorimotor task in an individual setting (individual sensorimotor skills) and in a cooperative setting (peer action coordination).

Scaling up an Empirically Supported Intervention with Long-Term Outcomes: the Nationwide Implementation of GenerationPMTO in Norway.

Effective implementation outcomes are necessary preconditions for effective service and positive treatment outcomes for children with behavioral problems. The aim of this study is to assess outcomes of the transfer of the empirically supported intervention GenerationPMTO from the developer in the USA to a nationwide implementation in Norway. Adoption, sustainability, reach, and fidelity are tested across seven generations of therapists in Norway.

Significance of Leaders for Sustained Use of Evidence-Based Practices: A Qualitative Focus-Group Study with Mental Health Practitioners.

Evidence-based practices that are implemented in mental health services are often challenging to sustain. In this focus-group study, 26 mental health practitioners with high fidelity scores were interviewed regarding their experiences with implementing the illness management and recovery, an evidence-based practice for people with severe mental disorders, in their services and how this could influence further use. Findings indicate that high fidelity is not equivalent to successful implementation.

Cognitive behavioral treatment for depressed adolescents: results from a cluster randomized controlled trial of a group course.

Background: The group-based CBT intervention, the Adolescent Coping with Depression Course (ACDC), has previously been evaluated within a quasi-experimental design, showing reduction in depressive symptoms compared to a benchmark of similar studies. The aim of our study was to investigate the effectiveness of ACDC within a randomized controlled (RCT) design.

Method: Thirty-five course/control leaders randomly assigned to provide ACDC or usual care (UC) recruited 133 adolescents allocated to ACDC and 95 to UC.

Impacts of school-wide positive behaviour support: Results from National Longitudinal Register Data.

Problem behaviour in schools may have detrimental effects both on students' well-being and academic achievement. A large literature has consistently found that school-wide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) successfully addresses social and behavioural problems. In this paper, we used population-wide longitudinal register data for all Norwegian primary schools and a difference-in-difference (DiD) design to evaluate effects of SWPBS on a number of primary and secondary outcomes, including indicators of externalising behaviour, school well-being, pull-out instruction, and academic achievement.

Awareness and perceptions of clinical guidelines for the diagnostics and treatment of severe behavioural problems in children across Europe: A qualitative survey with academic experts.

Background: Severe behavioural problems (SBPs) in childhood are highly prevalent, impair functioning, and predict negative outcomes later in life. Over the last decade, clinical practice guidelines for SBPs have been developed across Europe to facilitate the translation of scientific evidence into clinical practice. This study outlines the results of an investigation into academic experts' perspectives on the current prevalence, implementation, and utility of clinical guidelines for SBPs in children aged 6-12 across Europe.

Evaluating Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and Conduct Problems (MATCH-ADCT) in Norwegian child and adolescent outpatient clinics: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Norwegian health, care, and welfare services are experiencing increased demands to deliver services that are safe, effective, of high quality, and that ensure user involvement. Yet, evidence-based treatment for common disorders such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and behavioral problems in children are not regularly used in clinical practice in Norway. Possible explanations for this are that many standard, evidence-based treatments may have difficulty addressing the complexity and comorbidity of referred children and the fact that children's treatment needs often shift during treatment.

Knowledge translation in child welfare-improving educational outcomes for children at risk: study protocol for a hybrid randomized controlled pragmatic trial.

Background: In Norway, a disproportionately high number of children receiving Child Welfare Services (CWS) struggle academically and drop out of school. Academic attainment is one of the strongest protective factors against societal marginalization. The present study is part of a knowledge translation project in collaboration with local CWS with the aim to develop, implement, and evaluate Enhanced Academic Support (EAS) for primary school children in CWS.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children of ill or substance abusing parents: examining factor structure and sub-group differences.

Purpose: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) may be helpful in identifying children at risk of developing adjustment problems. Few studies have focused on HRQoL among children of ill or substance abusing parents despite their considerable risk status. In the present study, we used the KIDSCREEN-27 to assess self-reported HRQoL in children and adolescents living in families with parental illness, or substance dependence.

Behavioral Trajectories During Middle Childhood: Differential Effects of the School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Model.

The aims of this study were to assess the longitudinal trajectories of externalizing problem behavior during middle childhood among typically developing children and to examine subgroup differences in the effectiveness of the School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) model, called N-PALS in Norway. Participants were approximately 3000 students, and behavioral assessments were performed by class head teachers at four time points from the 4th or 5th grade through the 7th grade. Using a combination of latent class growth analyses (LCGA) and growth mixture modeling (GMM), four distinct trajectory classes were identified, i.

Hospitals implementing changes in law to protect children of ill parents: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Norway is one of the first countries to require all health professionals to play a part in prevention for children of parents with all kinds of illnesses (mental illness, drug addiction, or severe physical illness or injury) in order to mitigate their increased risk of psychosocial problems. Hospitals are required to have child responsible personnel (CRP) to promote and coordinate support given by health professionals to patients who are parents and to their children.

Methods: This study examined the extent to which the new law had been implemented as intended in Norwegian hospitals, using Fixsen's Active Implementation Framework.

A meta-analysis of group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions for adolescents with depression.

The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematically examine the short- and long-term effects of group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for adolescent depression and to examine the role of various moderators of the reported effect sizes. A comprehensive literature search of relevant randomized-controlled trials identified 23 studies containing 49 post-intervention and 56 follow-up comparisons. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated both for post-intervention and follow-up.

Hot and Cool Self-Regulation, Academic Competence, and Maladjustment: Mediating and Differential Relations.

This study examined differential and mediating relations between hot and cool self-regulation (M  = 48.2 months; N = 1,155, 48% girls), first-grade (M  = 77.5 months) maladjustment (externalizing [EXT] and internalizing [INT] behavior), and first- and second-grade (M  = 89.

The longitudinal association between internalizing symptoms and academic achievement among immigrant and non-immigrant children in Norway.

The aim of this study was to explore the longitudinal relation between internalizing symptoms and academic achievement, as two processes of children and youth development, among children in Norway, and whether having an immigrant background moderated this association. Data collected from 4,458 students in Norway in four waves over three years were analyzed with multi-group latent growth curve modeling (LGM). Results showed that internalizing symptoms level remained unchanged over time both for immigrant and non-immigrant children, while levels of academic achievement increased only for children of immigrants with both parents born outside of Norway.

Dimensionality of oppositional defiant disorder.

Background: The present study examined dimensionality of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) using 10 alternative items using network analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.

Methods: The sample constituted 551 Norwegian children aged 2-12 and their parents. We used network analysis to investigate the connections between different symptoms.

Stressful life events and depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers of young children.

Background: Parents of young children generally report more depressive symptoms than parents of adult children or people without children, mainly because the presence of young children increases exposure to significant stressors (such as stressful life events). However, most studies on the depressogenic role of stressful life events in parents of young children have focussed on mothers.

Methods: Using data from 1138 families with young children in Norway, we investigated gender differences in the effect of stressful life events after a child's birth on the development of parental depressive symptoms in 3 follow-ups at child's ages 3-6 years.

Family Resources and Effects on Child Behavior Problem Interventions: A Cumulative Risk Approach.

Family resources have been associated with health care inequality in general and with social gradients in treatment outcomes for children with behavior problems. However, there is limited evidence concerning cumulative risk-the accumulation of social and economic disadvantages in a family-and whether cumulative risk moderates the outcomes of evidence-based parent training interventions. We used data from two randomized controlled trials evaluating high-intensity ( = 137) and low-intensity ( = 216) versions of Parent Management Training-Oregon (PMTO) with a 50:50 allocation between participants receiving PMTO interventions or regular care.