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The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is an increasingly common model of health care delivery with many exciting opportunities for psychologists. The PCMH reflects a philosophy and model of care that is highly consistent with psychological science and practice. It strives to provide patient-centered, comprehensive, team-based, coordinated, accessible, and quality and safety-oriented health care delivery to individuals and families. Moreoever, in keeping with changes in the health care system more broadly, the PCMH model prioritizes the integration of behavioral and physical health care, and this emphasis lays the foundation for active and full engagement of psychologists in this context. This article provides an overview of the PCMH and the evidence and roles for psychologists across a range of pediatric, adult, and geriatric health care populations and settings. Current challenges to the necessary expansion of psychology in the PCMH are discussed, with particular attention to the needs for training and advocacy to support the contributions of behavioral health care in the PCMH. Psychology must embrace its rightful place as a health profession and appreciate and highlight the ways in which psychologists can play unique and critical roles in transforming present and future health care delivery models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood cancers are life-threatening diseases that are universally distressing and potentially traumatic for children and their families at diagnosis, during treatment, and beyond. Dramatic improvements in survival have occurred as a result o f increasingly aggressive multimodal therapies delivered in the context of clinical research trials. Nonetheless, cancers remain a leading cause of death in children, and their treatments have short- and long-term impacts on health and well-being. For over 35 years, pediatric psychologists have partnered with pediatric oncology teams to make many contributions to our understanding of the impact of cancer and its treatment on children and families and have played prominent roles in providing an understanding of treatment-related late effects and in improving quality of life. After discussing the incidence of cancer in children, its causes, and the treatment approaches to it in pediatric oncology, we present seven key contributions of psychologists to collaborative and integrated care in pediatric cancer: managing procedural pain, nausea, and other symptoms; understanding and reducing neuropsychological effects; treating children in the context o f their families and other systems (social ecology); applying a developmental perspective; identifying competence and vulnerability; integrating psychological knowledge into decision making and other clinical care issues; and facilitating the transition to palliative care and bereavement. We conclude with a discussion of the current status of integrating knowledge from psychological research into practice in pediatric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood cancer has long-term implications for survivors and their family members. While the impact of cancer on the family continues into adulthood, little research exists on family related issues during this important developmental period. In order to advance our understanding of families of adolescent and young adult (AYA) childhood cancer survivors, a measure of health-related beliefs for parents of AYA cancer survivors was developed. Exploratory factor analysis based on the mothers' data was used to identify four factors among 23 items: Social Competence, Satisfaction with Healthcare, Health Perceptions, and Health Apprehension. The scales are associated with psychological distress, quality of life, and posttraumatic stress symptoms but unrelated to age of the child at diagnosis and cancer treatment intensity. The beliefs identified in this study are consistent with clinical observations of families of young adult survivors and provide indications for the importance of ongoing attention to the families of childhood cancer survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychology has much to contribute in terms of understanding and influencing the impact of the global coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To disseminate articles on key issues related to the pandemic in a time-sensitive manner, American Psychologist opened its Call for Papers in spring 2020. The journal applied a rapid review mechanism in order to publish articles on important aspects of the pandemic quickly. The response from around the world has been striking. The editors are pleased to publish the first articles in this ongoing series in the current issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the use of Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT) as screening instrument for identifying high risk families in pediatric oncology. Predictors of family distress; Administration of PAT to families of cancer patients; Identification of potential high-risk responses.

Presents a study on posttraumatic stress, family functioning, and social support in survivors of childhood leukemia and their mothers and fathers. Sample recruitment; Participants; Study procedure; Measures; Data analyses; Group comparisons on anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms; Comparisons on family functioning and social support; Exploratory analyses.

Methodology influences every facet of scientific inquiry including the processes of framing questions, operationalizing constructs, sampling individuals within populations and observations within persons, analyzing data, and bringing meaning to the results. This introduction to the special issue on methodology emphasizes the recursive interaction of research methodology and theories underlying family science. Because the science of family psychology is richly complex, so too must the methods for examining couple and family phenomena be equally diverse. Articles comprising this special issue vary in their emphasis on research design versus data-analytic techniques and on confirmatory versus discovery-oriented strategies. The special issue is intended to advance not only the conduct of family science but also the understanding and integration of an increasingly complex research literature by those engaged in education and clinical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this editorial, the author notes that this issue of American Psychologist features a pair of important articles related to newly updated standards for reporting research in psychology in scientific journals, covering both quantitative (Appelbaum et al., 2018) and qualitative (Levitt et al., 2018) research. The increasing breadth and complexity of research, and the importance of communicating it effectively, requires user-friendly resources that can be applied widely to scientific studies. These two articles are intended to serve that purpose, and to encourage thoroughness and accuracy in research reporting, for psychologists and other scientists in broader academic communities. The articles, known as the Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) reports, are based on the work of a task force appointed by the American Psychological Association (APA) Publications and Communications Board in 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family psychology, at its heart, is about context and the importance of relationships as the nexus for growth and development. Families are complex and diverse, they encompass the life span and interface with multiple systems that reciprocally influence well-being. The well-being of individuals is rooted in families. There is a large literature across the life span that pertains to the mental and physical health and well-being of family members, along with a more specific literature that evaluates the impact of mental and physical health concerns in a more targeted fashion. The society is ethnically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse. It is crucial for family psychology to reflect this diversity and promote an understanding of the heterogeneity of families. An ongoing emphasis on major normative and unexpected contextual transitions across the life span, including marriage, couplehood, separation, divorce, remarriage, children, death, relocation, and employment, among others, is critical to comprehensively reflect the concerns of family psychology.