Substance abuse risk reduction: Verbal mediational training for children by parental and nonparental models

Little is known regarding the etiology and maintenance of substance abuse, especially factors which place children at higher risk for later drug use. The present study evaluated the impact of a 12‐week verbal mediational program (Think Aloud), which teaches children and parents cognitive and social problem‐solving skills and addresses early childhood risk factors related to the onset of drug use in adolescence. Fifty children and parents were included in the present study and were randomly divided into four groups: two groups received either a verbal mediation condition comprising the Think Aloud training or time to complete homework assignments. Each of the topic groups was subdivided into two groups, one in which the parents served as models and one in which the experimenter served as the model. Measures of family cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict, family organization and control, social skills, level of disruptiveness of the child's peer choice, academic competence, and the child's problem behaviors were administered to the parents and the teachers pre‐ and postinterventivefy. Children in the verbal mediation condition with parental models were expected to show the greatest reduction in risk factor scores, and children in the verbal mediation condition with the experimenter model were predicted to show the second greatest reduction in risk factor scores at posttest. Results of the study demonstrated partial support for experimental hypotheses in that the children involved in the Think Aloud program showed improvement on four of the six factors on posttest measures. The superiority of the parental model was not found.     

Children and Digital Wellbeing in Australia: Online regulation,conduct and competence

This article contributes to the study of children and the internet by reporting on findings from an ethnographic study of children's online use, experience and regulation in Melbourne, Australia. As part of a social inclusion study of technology use, we worked with children and their families in the contexts of everyday and home internet use. This article begins by identifying age-related gaps in the literature on children's online risks, and then moves on to a discussion of the research findings relating to children's online mediation, conduct and competence. By developing a concept of digital wellbeing the article argues that rather than focus only on risk protection measures, it is important to equip children with the knowledge and skills to be active, ethical and critical participants online.     

Relationships between HIV testing,knowledge, and stigma among men: Reports from Belarus,Moldova, and Ukraine

A surge in heterosexual transmission of HIV among men in post-Soviet countries prompts the need to understand the determinants of HIV testing in the region. Survey data from Belarus (n?=?2,769), Moldova (n?=?1,545), and Ukraine (n?=?3,620) were used to assess an influence of psychosocial determinants on testing among men. A mediation analysis for binary outcomes was used to assess effects of knowledge and stigma on testing. While knowledge had a positive influence on testing in each country, an indirect influence of knowledge through stigma was unique for each country. Implications for interventions and social work are discussed in the light of findings.     

Extending the Lessons of Educational Television with Young American Children

As the availability of children's educational television has increased, initiatives to expand the educational impact of programs have emerged. One such initiative is experiential mediation, a form of mediation in which the viewer physically engages with materials designed to extend the program's educational content. Limited research on the effectiveness of experiential mediation exists. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 138 American children (M = 5.32 years) to evaluate the effectiveness of such mediation with the literacy-based television program Between the Lions. Viewing plus mediation was hypothesized to provide greater support for literacy skills than no viewing or unaided viewing. Further, mediation that incorporated character-branded materials was hypothesized to be superior to mediation that relied upon generic materials. Results suggest that the benefits of experiential mediation may be tied to (1) the connection between the mediation materials and television content and (2) the complexity of the educational content.     

The Interplay of Pain-Related Self-Efficacy and Fear on Functional Outcomes Among Youth With Headache

Pain-related self-efficacy and pain-related fear have been proposed as opposing predictors of pain-related functional outcomes in youth with chronic pain. Self-efficacy is a potential resiliency factor that can mitigate the influence that pain-related fear has on outcomes in youth with chronic pain. Drawing from theoretical assertions tested among adults with chronic pain, this study aimed to determine whether pain-related self-efficacy mediates the adverse influence of pain-related fear on functional outcomes in a sample of youth with chronic headache. In a cross-sectional design of 199 youth with headache, self-efficacy was strongly associated with fear, disability, school impairment, and depressive symptoms. Pain intensity and self-efficacy were only modestly related, indicating that level of pain has less influence on one's confidence functioning with pain. Self-efficacy partially mediated relationships between pain-related fear and both functional disability and school functioning but did not mediate the relationship between pain-related fear and depressive symptoms. These results suggest that confidence in the ability to function despite pain and fear avoidance each uniquely contributes to pain-related outcomes in youth with chronic headache. These results further suggest that treatment for chronic headache in youth must focus not only on decreasing pain-related fear but also on enhancing a patient's pain-related self-efficacy.PerspectivePain-related self-efficacy is an important resiliency factor impacting the influence of pain-related fear on functional disability and school functioning in youth with headache. Enhancing self-efficacy may be a key mechanism for improving behavioral outcomes. Clinicians can reduce pain-related fear and enhance pain-related self-efficacy through interventions that encourage accomplishment and self-confidence.     

Parental Mediation Of Children's Internet Use In Different European Countries

Given that various childrearing cultures exist in Europe, as confirmed by analysis of the 1999/2000 European Values Survey (Halman, 2001), the present study aimed to identify and explain cross-cultural similarities and differences in strategies of parental mediation of children's Internet use. The study also sought to identify which parental mediation strategies may protect children against experiencing content risks online in general and in various childrearing cultures in particular. Parental mediation strategies and content online risk were indexed on the basis of data from 18 European countries from the Eurobarometer 2005. Findings show that all parents favor social mediation of the internet for children over strategies based on technical solutions. Favoring restrictive (by time or content) to non-restrictive mediation depends on a country's value orientation in childrearing. Analyses showed that each parental strategy has the potential to reduce the probability of children's experience of content risk online. However, the extent to which particular parental mediation strategies are protective differs across European childrearing cultures.