The viability of the Parenting Representations Interview for assessing and measuring change in parents of adolescents

Parents’ representations include parents’ views of their adolescent, of their own parenting and of the parent–adolescent relationship. Two longitudinal studies of parents and their adolescent sons and daughters support the validity of scales coding mothers in the Parenting Representations Interview-Adolescence (PRI-A). The studies, conducted in Israel during the transition from home to military service, demonstrated that three dimensions derived from the PRI-A: positive representations of adolescents, negative emotionality and inadequate boundaries were associated with adolescents’ AAI variables, relatedness-autonomy behaviors with mothers, and with other indicators, such as adolescents’ wellbeing, romantic intimacy and individuation. Examining parenting representations could help practitioners pinpoint targets for intervention and evaluate the changes that families go through during psychotherapy, as well as the therapeutic process and its outcomes. The findings support the viability of the PRI for use in attachment based interventions for adolescents.     

中小学生家庭教养方式与创伤症状相关性研究

目的 调查中小学生家庭教养方式和创伤症状,分析其相关性及影响心理创伤严重程度的因素,为有效的社区健康干预提供依据.方法 采用多阶段抽样,用埃森创伤症状和家庭教养方式量表,对筛检出的1 793例经历创伤事件的儿童青少年进行问卷调查并分析.结果 不同年龄儿童青少年放任型家庭教养方式得分差异有统计学意义(P＜0.05);不同性别儿童青少年专制型家庭教养方式得分差异有统计学意义(P＜0.05).专制型和放任型教养方式分别与创伤症状各维度及总分呈正相关(P＜0.05),相关系数r分布在0.065～0.271之间;权威型教养方式与创伤症状各维度及总分呈负相关(P＜0.05),相关系数r分布为-0.069～-0.196.多元回归显示创伤症状得分的影响因素为权威型、专制型和放任型家庭教养方式,以及是否为学生干部.结论 社区应建立儿童青少年创伤事件监测体系,关注社区经历创伤事件的儿童青少年,并提供针对性干预措施.     

‘I know it's wrong,but . . .’: a qualitative investigation of low‐income parents' feelings of guilt about their child‐feeding practices

In the developed world, child overweight and obesity rates are highest among the disadvantaged. This has resulted in calls for more research with low socio‐economic families to better understand their experiences with disadvantage and how they might lead to poorer weight outcomes. The present study, conducted in Australia, adopted a qualitative approach to investigate the factors affecting low socio‐economic parents' child‐feeding practices. Methods used to collect data were introspections, interviews and focus groups. In total, 37 parents of overweight or obese children aged between 5 and 9 years took part in the 6‐month study. Guilt emerged as an emotion that parents regularly experienced when allowing their children to consume too much food or foods high in fat, salt and/or sugar. Parents attributed their guilt‐inducing child‐feeding practices to both external and internal factors. Time scarcity and cost were factors that were primarily characterized by an external locus of control. The factors characterized by an internal locus of control were fear of their children experiencing hunger, the perceived need to secure their children's affection through the provision of treat foods, perceptions of their ability to balance their children's diets across eating situations and perceived laziness. Recommendations are provided for addressing guilt‐inducing child‐feeding practices.     

Parental disciplinary practices following acquired brain injury in children

Purpose: This study describes the disciplinary practices of parents following acquired brain injury (ABI) of their child and examines the relationship between disciplinary use, family-parental adversities and children's behavioural sequelae.

Method: Participants were 48 parent respondents of children between 3–12 years with mild, moderate and severe ABI. Parents provided demographic information and completed questionnaires investigating disciplinary strategy use, parental-family functioning and child behaviour.

Results: Over-reactive and lax disciplinary strategies were endorsed most by parents. Dysfunctional levels of disciplinary use were associated with children who displayed more behaviour problems, parents with elevated distress and families experiencing more dysfunction and social adversity.

Conclusion: Dysfunctional parenting practices, if not ameliorated, could exacerbate problematic child behaviour following ABI, as well as parent and family difficulties. Parental assessment may be useful as a method of screening for parental factors that put children at risk for ongoing behaviour problems and families for ongoing stress.     

Effect of a self‐help program for mothers of hemophilic children in Korea

Mothers of hemophilic children are under stressful situations because of the characteristics of disease and inheritance. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the self‐help group program for the mothers of hemophilic children. Fifty one mothers of hemophilic children were participated. The experiment group (n = 24) participated in the self‐help group program for 5 weeks, while the control group (n = 27) received a self‐help booklet only. Knowledge, self‐efficacy, depression, parenting stress, and quality of life were evaluated using questionnaires. Data were analyzed using χ²‐test, t‐test, and analysis of covariance (ancova ). The experiment and control groups were homogeneous in general characteristics and depending variables except knowledge (P < 0.05; P > 0.05, respectively). Knowledge, self‐efficacy, and quality of life in the experiment group were increased after the program (P < 0.001). Especially, the knowledge in the experiment group was lower than the control group in pretest, but higher in the posttest (P < 0.001). Depression and parenting stress were reduced in the experiment group compared to the control group (P < 0.001). It is suggestive that the self‐help group program can be a useful opportunity for mothers of hemophilic children to improve knowledge and self‐efficay of child care and quality of life of themselves; to decrease depression and parenting stress. Extended application of the program to fathers or all family members may be needed to investigate in the future.     

A Path Analysis of the Variables Related to the Quality of Life of Mothers with Disabled Children in Korea

This study examines how different variables affect the quality of life of mothers of children with disabilities. We attempted to identify the relationship between child variables (age and whether the child has single or multiple disabilities), economic variables (monthly income and average monthly treatment cost), mother‐related variables (parenting stress) and social variables (social support) as predictors of the quality of life of mothers of children with disabilities, and the path along which these variables affect their quality of life. The dataset comprised 160 mothers of children with disabilities, who resided in Seoul city and Gyeonggi province. The participants answered questions related to their general information, quality of life, social support and parenting stress. The data were analysed using SPSS 17.0 and AMOS 16.0. We found that social support not only influences the quality of life through parenting stress but also is a direct factor. We also found that both whether a child had single or multiple disabilities and the average monthly treatment cost were significant factors that influenced the parent's quality of life indirectly through parenting stress. Moreover, we concluded that whereas the age of children with disabilities is only a direct impact on the mother's quality of life, monthly income has a direct influence on both parenting stress and quality of life separately, but it does not directly influence quality of life through parenting stress. In our opinion, this is the first study that has conducted a holistic analysis of the quality of life of Korean mothers of children with disabilities by considering a range of variables. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.