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Second Step is a social-emotional, skill-based, violence-prevention programme, which has been adapted for several European countries. The various versions of the programme (for kindergarten/preschool, elementary school, middle school) have been evaluated in a series of research studies. The outcomes and study designs of these studies are reported in this overview, proving that Second Step is effective in reducing aggressive behaviour and promoting social-emotional skills in children and adolescents. As examination of the European programme versions show, the effectiveness of the programme is upheld when the original programme is adapted.

As a proposed risk factor for infant and child development, maternal history of abuse has been a frequent target of investigation. However, there have been no controlled studies about the impact of maternal history of abuse on the medical course of pregnancy, the peri- and postnatal period.All women with a newborn child were contacted by mail and presented with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). The index group (n = 58) was formed by women who scored above the cutoff for moderate or severe abuse and compared to a control group (n = 60) with regard to pre,- peri-, and postnatal complications as documented in the patient charts.The results show that women with a history of abuse have significantly more prenatal medical complications and infant medical complications in the post- but not perinatal period.Maternal history of abuse significantly impacts the medical course of delivery and the puerperium. Given the prevalence of abusive experiences, this finding is highly relevant from a preventive point of view.

In this study the mental representations of interpersonal relations in depressive patients were assessed using the axis relationships of the operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics (OPD) system. The data were obtained at the beginning and at the end of inpatient psychotherapy. Although a link was assumed to exist between the severity of the symptoms and the variability of the mental representation of relational behavior, this was not proven. Also, contrary to expectations, an increase in the variability of the mental representations of the patients’ own relational behavior was not observed on completion of therapy. However, patients’ mental representation of their social partners’ relational behavior tends to become more variable. A shift in the focus of relationships was also observed.

Research material from a study relating to a central concept of inpatient psychotherapy is presented. The purpose of the research program was to investigate the extent to which patients reenact their experience and behavior from relationships outside of psychotherapy during inpatient treatment. Toward this end, the concordance of patients' relationship and behavior experiences was measured at 2 separate stages of treatment. Patients' subjective relationship structures, as diagnosed at the beginning of treatment, were compared with the consensus rating of the team of therapists, who then assessed patients' interpersonal experience and behavior during the first 3 weeks of treatment. Axis II (relationships) of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics System was used as a measuring instrument. The similarity of the assessments was illustrated and checked for chance hits by means of the weighted kappa coefficient, κw (J. Cohen, 1968). All similarity comparisons showed clear kappa concordance (κw = 0.55, v...

The paper describes the case of a girl of 8 weeks, referred by her mother because of 'intolerable hysterical attacks' triggering maternal impulses of abuse. Maternal perception of her infant was distorted to the extent that the mother was re-experiencing encounters with her own intrusive and traumatizing mother in the face of her screaming child. She also perceived the infant's motor impulses as physical attacks on herself and expressed intense anxieties about her daughter's future aggressive potential. The infant was viewed by her mother as extraordinarily and dangerously greedy. Even neutral infantile vocalizations were perceived as manipulating and sadistic. She tried to ward off these anxieties by employing a rigid scheme of rules and obsessively controlling the father's and grandmother's interaction with the child. The mother feared being overwhelmed by the infant's needs if she were to yield to them in a flexible way. The mother's background of early neglect and trauma is described, in the light of ...

(1998). Identity conflicts in bulimia nervosa: Psychodynamic patterns and psychoanalytic treatment. Psychoanalytic Inquiry: Vol. 18, Psychoanalytic psychosomatics: A view from Germany, pp. 383-402.

In a reliability test of the German edition of the CCRT method, the amount of agreement for the coded contents of transcripts is compared with that from video tapes. The results show only a moderat...

The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method is one of the most thoroughly elaborated instruments in the field of quantifying relationship diagnosis. Its development not only fills a gap for clinicians and researchers, but it also represents an important innovative process for putting psychodynamic formulations into operation (cf. Schauenburg & Cierpka, 1994). The purpose of our two studies has been to contribute toward promoting the use of the CCRT method by simplifying the preparation of the material (video rating).