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Les qualités métrologiques d'une version française du Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1983 ; Loyd et Abidin, 1985) sont examinées à partir d'un échantillon de 122 mères québécoises ayant un enfant d'âge préscolaire. Les résultats indiquent que l'inventaire de stress parental possède des indices de consistance interne équivalant à ceux obtenus avec l'échantillon américain. Cependant, les échantillons québécois et américain diffèrent pour 7 sous-échelles sur 13 ainsi qu'au niveau du score du domaine de l'enfant et du score de stress total. Les mères québécoises rapportent des scores plus élevés. L'analyse factorielle des sous-échelles supporte la présence d'une structure hiérarchique constituée d'un facteur général de stress parental et de deux facteurs spécifiques : le domaine de l'enfant et le domaine du parent. Le score du domaine du parent varie selon le niveau socio-économique et le statut conjugal de la mère. L'âge de la mère est négativement corrélé au score du domaine de l'enfant. Le niveau d'agressivité/hyperactivité de l'enfant, tel que perçu par l'éducatrice en classe, est positivement corrélé au score de la sous-échelle Difficulté à accepter les caractéristiques de l'enfant et de la sous-échelle Distraction et hyperactivité de l'enfant. Des normes sont présentées afin de tenir compte des différences observées entre l'échantillon québécois et l'échantillon américain., The authors examine the metrological qualities of a French version of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1983; Loyd and Abidin, 1985) based on a sampling of 122 Québec mothers with a preschool child. Results show that the Parental Stress Inventory presents internal consistency indices that are equivalent to those obtained in the U.S. sampling. However, the samplings differ on seven out of 13 subscales, as well as concerning the scores obtained for the child's realm and the overall stress, Québec mothers show higher scores. The factorial analysis of the subscales supports the existence of a hierarchical structure composed of a general factor of parental stress and two specific factors: the realm of the child and the realm of the parent. The score relative to the realm of the parent varies according to the socioeconomic level and the marital status of the mother. The mother's age is negatively correlated with the score of the child's realm. The child's aggressiveness/hyperactivity level, as perceived by the teacher in a class situation, is positively correlated with the score of the subscale Difficulty to accept the child's characteristics and the subscale Distraction and hyperactivity of the child. The authors present benchmarks that were developed in order to take into account the noted differences between the Québec and U.S. samplings.

The present study attempted to identify individual and contextual factors associated with outcomes in a group of 63 latency-aged children disclosing sexual abuse (SA). Children reporting SA were found to display greater internalizing and externalizing behavioral difficulties as well as more sexualized behaviors relative to same-age non-abused peers. Mothers also reported these children as less socially competent than their peers. Family contextual factors appeared to be associated with behavioral difficulties and made a unique contribution to the prediction of externalizing and sexualized behaviors. Of the personal variables, avoidance coping was found to be linked to poorer outcomes. In examining possible factors linked to ‘resilient’ outcomes in a 6-month time-frame, family conflict and avoidance coping were found to be associated to clinical status in children reporting SA.

Cet article vise à démontrer l'intérêt sans cesse grandissant de la psychologie génétique pour l'analyse multi-variée des nombreux facteurs de développement psychologique. Au-delà de la relation mère-enfant, les chercheurs se tournent de plus en plus vers les facteurs physiques et sociaux du milieu familial, les facteurs directement liés à l'enfant et les formes d'ajustement famille-enfant et ce, dans le cadre tant du développement socio-affectif que du développement cognitif. Il ne s'agit pas d'un relevé exhaustif de la documentation mais une introduction à de nouvelles avenues de recherche particulièrement prometteuses., The aim of the article is to demonstrate the ever-increasing interest of genetic psychology in the multi-variate analysis of the numerous factors in psychological development. Going beyond the mother-child relation, researchers are turning, more and more, towards physical and family milieu social factors, factors directly linked to the child and forms of family-child adjustment, and this, as much within the context of socio-affective development as that of cognitive development. What is presented is not an exhaustive survey of documentation, but rather an introduction to new, particularly promising, avenues of research.

Objective: The effects of the sexual child abuse prevention program ESPACE were evaluated by means of a Solomon-type design with first and third grade children. ESPACE is an adaptation of the American Child Assault Prevention Program (CAP). Possible side effects of the program were also examined. Method: A total of 133 children (64 first-graders and 69 third-graders) participated in the study. Children completed a knowledge questionnaire and a video vignette measure designed to evaluate preventive skills towards abusive and potentially abusive situations. A follow-up measure (2 months) was administered to verify whether knowledge and skills were maintained. Results: Results indicated that children participating in the prevention program showed greater preventive knowledge and skills relative to children not participating. Follow-up data showed that knowledge gains were maintained while the preventive skill gains may attenuate. However, while global skill scores decreased between post-test and follow-up, children still showed greater preventive skills at follow-up than before the program. In terms of unanticipated side effects, results revealed that almost half of the parents noted positive reactions following children’s participation in the ESPACE program. Furthermore, the majority of parents did not identify negative reactions in their children following their participation in the workshop. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the Quebec adaptation of the CAP program was effective intraining children in abuse prevention concepts and skills.

Empirical studies on child sexual abuse have shown that victims exhibit a wide range of adjustment difficulties. Among those consequences, researchers have highlighted the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. In order to refine the classical PTSD model to explain the sequelae associated with CSA, Wolfe (1999) and Wolfe and Birt (1995) have proposed a revised type I and type II PTSD model. The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the adjustment of a group of sexually abused children according to the revised PTSD model at two times (following the disclosure and six months later). Three groups of 50 children aged between seven and twelve participated in the study: a sexual abuse (SA) group, an orthopedic sample and a group of children from the community. The PTSD type I symptoms were measured by a subscale composed of 20 items of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach, 1991). PTSD type II symptoms were assessed by three CBCL standard sub-scales and by th...

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the mediator role of coping strategies and social support on the adaptation of children following CSA. Empirical studies indicate that short-term consequences of child sexual abuse (CSA) are multiple and varied Kendall-Tackett et al 1993 , Wolfe and Birt 1995 . While abuse-related characteristics were first studied to explain the variability of CSA outcome, more recently, the influence of other variables such as coping strategies and social support have been considered. Method: Fifty sexually abused children aged between 7 and 12 participated in this study. The Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991) and the Perceived Competence Scale for Children (Harter, 1985) were used to measure victims’ adjustment. Coping strategies were evaluated by the Self-Report Coping Scale (Causey & Dubow, 1992) and the children completed the Perceived Social Support (Harter, 1985) . A French version of the History of Victimization (Wolfe, Gentile, & Bourdeau, 1987) was used to gather abuse-related characteristics from medical records. Results: Results indicate that sexually abused children exhibit internalizing and externalizing behavior problems following CSA. Coping strategies and social support exert direct effects on victims’ adjustment instead of the mediator influences originally expected. Among abuse-related variables, only the perpetrator’s identity is directly related to internalizing symptoms. Conclusions: The absence of mediational effects of coping and social support is discussed in light of the measures used and the cross-sectional nature of the study. Results highlight the importance of parental implication and the consideration of coping strategies in designing therapeutic interventions with this population.

Dating violence prevention programs have been implemented since the 1980s but there is still a shortage of studies evaluating these programs. There are even fewer studies for programs targeting teens. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary prevention program on dating violence for teens and to compare two different program formats while carefully observing whether particular individuals such as boys or students with negative attitudes at pretest showed any deterioration in their attitudes. The program's effectiveness was demonstrated with boys (N = 222) and with girls (N = 295) from two different schools.

The purpose of this study is to identify, through a retrospective methodology, stressor and coping resource variables which are involved in mothers' experience of stress one month after the birth of a first child. The variables were identified on the basis of previous work in this field, and were categorized as stressor or coping resource variables according to the writings of authors in the larger domain of stress and coping. The influence of interactive and additive combinations of stressors and coping resources, as described by Wheaton (1985), were also examined in a multiple regression model. A five-variable model, accounting for 58.74% of the variance of a measure of the experience of stress, was obtained. Discussion focuses around the predictive possibilities of such a model, the impact of coping resources, and on the potential for utilizing this model for describing the process of adaptation following this event over time.

The literature suggests that in school setting, particularly in the primary grades, the boy well-adapted and being the object of a positive attitude from the teacher, is the one displaying expressive or femininetype behaviors. To verify the existence of this relationship, three instruments were administered to 38 teachers who evaluated 181 boys aged between six and seven years-old. The results indicate that boys perceived as being masculine are evaluated as being more aggressive than boys perceived as feminine, whereas boys perceived as being feminine obtain higher scores on the anxiety and prosocial scales. Boys classified as androgynous and feminine and evaluated as prosocial are the object of more positive attitudes from the teachers’ part whereas the opposite is true for masculine and externalizing boys. These results support, to a certain extent, the existence of a conflict between the masculine sexrole and the student role, at least such as defined by certain school settings.