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The present study examined the relationship between stigma and parental help-seeking after controlling for demographics, child behavior, and barriers to treatment. One hundred fifteen parents of children ages 4 to 8 years were surveyed during well-child visits in a rural pediatric primary care practice. Parental perceptions of stigma toward parents and children were both assessed. Parents believe that children are more likely to be stigmatized by the public and personally impacted by stigma. In linear regression analyses, parents rated themselves as more likely to attend parenting classes with lower levels of self-stigma and greater levels of personal impact of stigma. Stigma toward the child was not associated with help-seeking. Child behavior moderated the relationship between stigma and parental help-seeking. When referring parents to treatment, providers should address potential stigma concerns. Future research should assess both the impact of the stigma of attending treatment and the stigma of having a child with behavior problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The medical needs of individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) are complex. Patients with SCD experience complications such as recurrent pain episodes and increased hospitalizations. Over 70% of AYA and their parents seek medical information from the Internet; 83% inquire on sites that have interactive/social features, such as Facebook or Twitter, yet accuracy remains unclear. Our objective was to assess the accuracy of the SCD-information posted on social media. We hypothesized that most of the posted information is inaccurate. We coded one month of threads from two common SCD Facebook groups (Sickle Cell Warriors Unity and Sickle Cell Anemia) to identify the purpose of each post and the accuracy of medical information posted. Amongst both social media sites, there were 487 posts. Most of the posts were directed toward socializations (n = 311, 63.8%), while other posts mainly focused mainly on SCD and its management (n = 173, 35.5%). When looking at the medical posts, 44.9% were accurate, whereas 55.1% of the posts included inaccurate information. We found that less than half of the medical information posted on interactive social media is inaccurate. Our findings raise potentially serious implications for individuals with SCD and/or their caregivers who may rely on social media to gather more information about their or their child's disease. Our data highlight the importance of health care providers encouraging patients and parents to ask any questions they may have about SCD, given they may consult social media and Internet site that provide inaccurate information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Given the associations between externalizing behaviors and childhood unintentional injuries (CUI), this pilot study evaluated whether an empirically supported behavioral parent training program, Group Triple P, decreased risk for CUI. Methods: Parents of 19 children ages 2-8 referred by their child’s primary care physician for child externalizing behavior problems completed measures of child injury risk pre- and post-Triple P. Results: Child injury risk and disruptive behavior problems decreased significantly. Conclusions: Overall, our findings indicate that teaching behavior management and parenting skills to parents has the potential to decrease injury risk in their children, despite this not being an explicit target of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]