Psychosocial effects of disaster: birth rate in Aberfan.
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An increased birth rate occurred in Aberfan during the five years after the disaster there in 1966. It was not confined to the bereaved parents. (+info)
Psychological adaptation and social support of parents of pediatric cancer patients: a prospective longitudinal study.
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OBJECTIVE: To investigate levels of support and the concurrent and prospective effects of support on the psychological functioning of parents of children with cancer in a prospective longitudinal study. METHODS: Parents' (n = 128) self-perceived level of psychological distress, quantity of support, and dissatisfaction with support were assessed, at diagnosis, at 6, and at 12 months. RESULTS: Parents received most support at diagnosis. Self-perceived quantity decreased with time, but parents indicated they remained equally satisfied. Support significantly predicted concurrent and prospective distress of fathers, but not of mothers. Dissatisfaction with support and negative interactions were consistent risk factors for fathers. Mothers who adjusted well psychologically received more support and were less dissatisfied than mothers who remained clinically distressed. Nevertheless, no persisting effect of support was found. CONCLUSIONS: Findings illustrate that social support varies with the stress situation and with gender. Identification of vulnerable parents at diagnosis on the basis of their perception of received quantity of and dissatisfaction with support seems difficult. Intervention efforts aimed at mobilization of needed support may be efficacious. (+info)
Effects of a parent-child communications intervention on young adolescents' risk for early onset of sexual intercourse.
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CONTEXT: The quality of parent-child communications about sex and sexuality appears to be a strong determinant of adolescents' sexual behavior. Evaluations of interventions aimed at improving such communications can help identify strategies for preventing early onset of sexual behavior. METHODS: A school-based abstinence-only curriculum was implemented among 351 middle school students, who were randomly assigned to receive either the classroom instruction alone or the classroom instruction enhanced by five homework assignments designed to be completed by the students and their parents. An experimental design involving pretest and posttest surveys was used to assess the relative efficacy of the curriculum delivered with and without the parent-child homework assignments. RESULTS: In analyses of covariance controlling for baseline scores, immediately after the intervention, adolescents who received the enhanced curriculum reported greater self-efficacy for refusing high-risk behaviors than did those who received the classroom instruction only (mean scores, 16.8 vs. 15.8). They also reported less intention to have sex before finishing high school (0.4 vs. 0.5), and more frequent parent-child communications about prevention (1.6 vs. 1.0) and sexual consequences (1.6 vs. 1.1). In all significant comparisons, the direction of the findings favored adolescents who received the enhanced curriculum. Dose-response relationships supported the findings. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-child homework assignments designed to reinforce and support school-based prevention curricula can have an immediate impact on several key determinants of sexual behavior among middle school adolescents. (+info)
Stress in families of children who have ingested poisons.
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One hundred families of children under 5 years admitted to Cardiff Hospitals after accidentally ingesting poisons were compared with 100 control families matched for socioeconomic class and age and sex of the child. Questioning about five major stress factors (serious family illness, pregnancy, recent family moves, one parent away from home, anxiety or depression in one or both parents) disclosed significantly more stress in the affected families than in the controls. Thirty of the affected families had more than one major stress factor compared with four of the controls, while 63 of the controls had no major stress factor compared with 24 of the affected families (P less than 0.001). In only four of the affected families was there no stress factor. Fifteen children took poisons in homes other than their own. Unemployment was significantly more prevalent in the affected families than in the general population, though apart from this the socioeconomic backgrounds were similar. There were significantly more accidents and childhood poisonings in the parents and siblings of affected children than in the control families. In 25% of the cases poisoning was with Angiers Junior Aspirin. (+info)
Proximal and distal effects of play on child compliance with a brain-injured parent.
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Individuals with brain injury may experience severe cognitive and other impairments. For brain-injured parents, such deficits may be associated with child behavior problems, including noncompliance. We assessed the effects of a play period conducted by a brain-injured father on the compliance of his son, who had become uncooperative with his father after the injury. The child consistently demonstrated improved compliance during proximal and distal compliance sessions that followed father-son play periods. (+info)
Multicentre controlled trial of parenting groups for childhood antisocial behaviour in clinical practice.
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OBJECTIVE: To see whether a behaviourally based group parenting programme, delivered in regular clinical practice, is an effective treatment for antisocial behaviour in children. DESIGN: Controlled trial with permuted block design with allocation by date of referral. SETTING: Four local child and adolescent mental health services. PARTICIPANTS: 141 children aged 3-8 years referred with antisocial behaviour and allocated to parenting groups (90) or waiting list control (51). INTERVENTION: Webster-Stratton basic videotape programme administered to parents of six to eight children over 13-16 weeks. This programme emphasises engagement with parental emotions, rehearsal of behavioural strategies, and parental understanding of its scientific rationale. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Semistructured parent interview and questionnaires about antisocial behaviour in children administered 5-7 months after entering trial; direct observation of parent-child interaction. RESULTS: Referred children were highly antisocial (above the 97th centile on interview measure). Children in the intervention group showed a large reduction in antisocial behaviour; those in the waiting list group did not change (effect size between groups 1.06 SD (95% confidence interval 0.71 to 1.41), P<0.001). Parents in the intervention group increased the proportion of praise to ineffective commands they gave their children threefold, while control parents reduced it by a third (effect size between groups 0.76 (0.16 to 1.36), P=0.018). If the 31 children lost to follow up were included in an intention to treat analysis the effect size on antisocial behaviour was reduced by 16%. CONCLUSIONS: Parenting groups effectively reduce serious antisocial behaviour in children in real life conditions. Follow up is needed to see if the children's poor prognosis is improved and criminality prevented. (+info)
Family settings and children's adjustment: differential adjustment within and across families.
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BACKGROUND: Children in stepfamilies and single-parent families exhibit elevated levels of behavioural and emotional problems compared with children in intact (biological) families, but there is variation within and across these family types. AIMS: To examine the sources of variation in children's behavioural and emotional problems across diverse family settings. METHOD: Levels of behavioural and emotional problems in children from diverse stepfamilies and single-parent families were compared with children living with both biological parents. Psychosocial risks were measured at the individual child and family levels. RESULTS: Behavioural and emotional problems were elevated in children in stepmother/complex stepfamilies and single-parent families, but not in simple stepfather families, relative to 'biological' families. Psychopathology associated with family type was explained by compromised quality of the parent-child relationship, parental depression and socio-economic adversity. Sibling similarity in behavioural and emotional problems was most pronounced in high-risk family settings. CONCLUSIONS: Family type is a proxy for exposure to psychosocial risks; the extent of family-wide influence on children's development may be strongest in high-stress settings. (+info)
Effect of an intervention to reduce procedural pain and distress for children with HIV infection.
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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a multicomponent pain management intervention, including cognitive behavioral strategies, for children with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection undergoing routine venipuncture. METHODS: Following a baseline venipuncture, children were exposed to an intervention including preparation, relaxation, distraction, reinforcement, parent involvement, and EMLA (eutectic mixture of local anesthetics) cream, and followed for three additional venipuncture procedures. After each procedure, child distress was rated on the Procedure Behavior Checklist (PBCL), child self-report of pain was obtained using the FACES scale, and parent anxiety was reported on the State Trait Anxiety Inventory-State Scale (STAI). RESULTS: Significant reductions in child distress and pain were found by the second postintervention procedure and maintained at the third. Parent anxiety was significantly reduced by the second postintervention procedure, but many parents chose not to participate in the third postintervention procedure. CONCLUSIONS: With repeated exposure, a multicomponent pain management intervention, including cognitive behavioral strategies and EMLA, appears effective at reducing pain, distress, and parent anxiety for children with HIV. (+info)