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In early recovery for substance use disorders (SUDs), fathers may experience a desire to become more active in their role as a parent but may need support in using effective parenting strategies. Parent management training programs may be effective for fathers in recovery from SUD as they have been shown to improve parenting knowledge, self-efficacy, parenting practices, and child behavior, as well as decrease parent substance use. Using the Parent Management Training-Oregon model, we adapted a video-based program for text delivery to fathers in their first year of recovery from SUD, the fathering in recovery (FIR) intervention. In this pilot study, we randomized 41 fathers to control or 6 weeks of video content and three brief coaching calls and assessed outcomes in the parenting, child, and substance domains at baseline, 6-week, and 4-month follow-ups. We found FIR was effective for improving parenting knowledge, fathering efficacy, and in reducing fathers' ineffective parenting. The intervention showed promise for reducing child behavior problems. While larger studies are needed to replicate and build on these FIR findings, our data suggest that FIR holds promise for improving the lives of fathers and their families affected by SUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the role of negative emotionality in the development of executive functioning (EF) and language skills can help identify developmental windows that may provide promising opportunities for intervention. In addition, because EF and language skills are, in part, genetically influenced, intergenerational transmission patterns are important to consider. The prospective parent–offspring adoption design used in this study provides a unique opportunity to examine the intergenerational transmission of EF and language skills. Participants were 561 children adopted around the time of birth. Accounting for birth mother EF and language contributions, we examined the role of child negative emotionality in toddlerhood (age 9 to 27 months) and childhood (age 4.5 to 7 years) on child EF and language skills in first grade (age 7 years). There was continuity in EF from age 27 months to 7 years, and in language ability from age 27 months to 7 years, with no cross-lagged effects between child EF and language ability. Negative emotionality at age 9 months predicted lower EF and lower language abilities at age 7 years, and growth in negative emotionality from age 4.5 to 7 years predicted lower child EF at age 7 years. Overall, findings suggested that lower negative emotionality at age 9 months was associated with higher toddler and child EF and language skills and that preventing growth in negative emotionality from age 4.5 to 7 years may lead to improvements in child EF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]