The modular approach to therapy for youths with anxiety, depression, trauma, and conduct problems (MATCH): results from the Norwegian randomized-controlled trial.

Background: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Modular Approach to Therapy for Youths with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Conduct Problems (MATCH) for Norwegian youths referred to seven Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Outpatient Clinics. MATCH addresses comorbid problems that are common in children and youth, and its transdiagnostic design may therefore be more effective compared to standard treatments that often address single problems. MATCH has, however, never been evaluated in a Nordic context, and the present study aimed to fill this gap.

Modeling trajectories of physical aggression from infancy to pre-school age, their early predictors, and school-age outcomes.

This study identified latent trajectories of physical aggression (TPA) from infancy to preschool age and evaluated (a) effects of early parent, parenting and child predictors on TPA as well as on social, behavioral, and academic functioning in Grade 2, and (b) TPA effects net of early predictor effects on Grade 2 functioning. We used data from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (BONDS), which included 1,159 children (559 girls). Parents reported on risk and protective factors, and on physical aggression from 1 to 5 years of age; teachers reported on Grade 2 outcomes.

Duration of Breastfeeding and Supportive Paternal Caregiving in Early Childhood and the Potential Mediating Function of Maternal Caregiving.

Objective: Supportive paternal caregiving is influenced by contextual factors, including maternal caregiving behaviors. Although longer periods of breastfeeding have been found to be associated with higher levels of maternal supportive parenting, it remains unknown whether the benefits of breastfeeding also extend to fathers' supportive caregiving. This study tested the indirect relation between the duration of breastfeeding and paternal supportive parenting through maternal supportive parenting.

Assessing social competence and antisocial behaviors in children: item response theory analysis of the home and community social behavior scales.

Background: The Home and Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS) is a rating scale that assesses social competence and antisocial behavior among children and youths between ages 5-18. The present study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the HCSBS by applying item response theory (IRT).

Methods: The HCSBS was completed by parents of 551 Norwegian children refereed to three independent interventions towards problem behaviors.

Interrater reliability and experiences of Assessment, Intervention, and Moving-on 3 Assessment Model in a multidisciplinary Norwegian sample.

Background: Assessing minors with harmful sexual behavior (HSB) is a complex and sensitive task. The AIM3 Assessment Model was developed to assist practitioners with information collection and HSB evaluations.

Objective: In this study, we explore the interrater reliability and the practitioners' experience with the AIM3.

Parental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic: A one-year follow-up.

Objective: This two-wave longitudinal study aimed at increasing knowledge about levels of parental stressors and rewards among mothers and fathers of children aged 1-18 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and infection-control measures have caused changes to family life. Managing homeschooling or caring for younger children while working from home may have posed significant strain on parental stress, negatively impacting the quality of parent-child relationships and parents' sensitivity to their children's needs.

Do more hours in center-based care cause more externalizing problems? A cross-national replication study.

Whether high quantities of center-based care cause behavior problems is a controversial question. Studies using covariate adjustment for selection factors have detected relations between center care and behavior problems, but studies with stronger internal validity less often find such evidence. We examined whether within-child changes in hours in center-based care predicted changes in externalizing problems in toddlers and preschoolers (N = 10,105; 49% female; data collection 1993-2012) in seven studies, including from Germany, Netherlands, Norway, two from Canada and two from the U.

Quality of life among young people in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic. A longitudinal study.

In this study, we aimed to examine health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic among a general sample of young people in Norway aged 11-19 years. More specifically, we examine: (1) Change over 2 time-points in five health-related quality of life dimensions, (2) Whether sociodemographic- and COVID-19-related factors contributed to change in these five dimensions, (3) Whether parental stress and socioeconomic status at T1 interacted with change in health-related quality of life across T1 and T2. Data collection lasted from April 27th to May 11th, 2020 (T1), and from December 16th, 2020, to January 10th, 2021 (T2).

Possible Interventions for Preventing the Development of Psychopathic Traits among Children and Adolescents?

Individuals with the combination of psychopathy and severe conduct disorder often get in a lot of trouble from their early childhood, and can cause great suffering and problems for other people and their immediate environment. Their antisocial behaviour has a tendency to develop into a chronic pattern early in life, and the treatment prognosis in adulthood is poor. A large proportion of serious violent crimes in society can be attributed to this group of perpetrators.

Pandemic-Related Stress Symptoms Among Norwegian Parents of Adolescents in Grades 6 to 8.

We investigated pandemic-related stress symptoms during the first COVID-19 lockdown period in spring 2020 among parents of adolescents that were 11 to 13 years old in the study period. We also investigated whether parental stress symptoms were associated with family situation and family activities during lockdown. Altogether 147 couples reported about their own trauma-related stress symptoms following the outbreak of the pandemic.

Effects of interventions for social anxiety and shyness in school-aged children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

In school, shyness is associated with psychosocial difficulties and has negative impacts on children's academic performance and wellbeing. Even though there are different strategies and interventions to help children deal with shyness, there is currently no comprehensive systematic review of available interventions. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to identify interventions for shy children and to evaluate the effectiveness in reducing psychosocial difficulties and other impacts.

Duration of Breastfeeding Mediates the Association Between Early Socioeconomic Risk and Child Vocabulary at Age 4.

Objective: Early-life socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with both obesity and lower cognitive abilities in childhood. One theorized underlying mechanism is breastfeeding duration because breast milk contains nutrients that can promote healthy adiposity profiles and stimulate brain development. However, studies have rarely examined these potential associations with child body mass index (BMI) in high-income Western countries, much less investigated breastfeeding duration as a mediator of the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and later child vocabulary.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.