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The article describes a pilot study at the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg that validates a new selection process for assessing the social-communicative skills of medical students. The procedure is based on Multiple Mini-Interviews and is intended to be used as a supplementary criterion to cognitive selection criteria. The importance of social-communicative skills in the medical profession is emphasized, as they are associated with better doctor-patient relationships, patient satisfaction, and treatment adherence. The study aims to find instruments to measure these competencies validly and reliably. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Parents' mental illness (MI) and parental history of early life maltreatment (ELM) are known to be significant risk factors for poor parenting while poor parenting is a crucial mediator of the intergenerational continuity of child maltreatment. Hence, maltreatment prevention programs for families with an MI parent, which pay particular attention to experiences of ELM in the parent, are urgently needed. Parental mentalizing was previously found to mediate successful parenting. Interventions aimed at improving the parental mentalizing capacity reduced maltreatment risk in parents. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effectiveness of a mentalization-based parenting-counseling in acutely mentally ill parents currently treated at a psychiatric hospital.Methods: Mentalization-based parenting-counseling (MB-PC) vs. enhanced standard clinical care (SCC+) will be administered in a cluster-randomized-controlled trial (RCT). Patients treated at psychiatric hospitals with children between 1.5 and 15 years will be included in the trial. MB-PC will be administered as a 12-h combined individual and group program enriched by social counseling (over a course of 5 weeks) as add-on to standard clinical care, while the control condition will be standard clinical care plus a 90-min psychoeducation workshop on positive parenting. Primary efficacy endpoint is self-reported parenting practices at follow-up. Embedded within the RCT will be two sub-studies investigating social cognition and dyadic synchrony as biobehavioral mechanisms of change.Discussion: The main goal of the present study is to investigate ways to break the intergenerational continuity of maltreatment by assessing the benefits of a prevention program which aims at improving parenting in vulnerable mothers and fathers. MB-PC is a short, low-cost intervention which can be delivered by nurses and social workers and is applicable to MI patients with children with a broad range of diagnoses. If it is shown to be effective, it can be directly implemented into standard psychiatric hospital care thereby providing help to prevent child maltreatment.Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00017398 . Registered on 5 July 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: The field of public mental health is evolving to tackle the profound impact of global challenges such as climate change, migration, and health crises. These issues accentuate health and social inequities, necessitating a focus on how to achieve interventions that are equitable and enhance mental health across all societal strata., Observations: Population-based interventions can inadvertently exacerbate mental health inequities if they are primarily assessed by, and beneficial to, the most advantaged. Dimensional approaches such as the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology offer a more nuanced understanding of mental health, capturing the whole spectrum of symptom severity in a culturally sensitive and less stigmatizing way. In addition, adopting intersectional, participatory, and settings-based approaches can help tailor interventions to the unique needs of marginalized groups., Conclusions and Relevance: In moving toward more equitable interventions in public mental health, it is imperative to adopt an approach that integrates multiple frameworks to address the complexity of mental health inequities. At the core of this integrated approach is the recognition that mental health exists on a continuum. Intersectionality theory can help to identify the root (fundamental) causes of mental health while participatory and settings-based approaches ensure that interventions are relevant, culturally sensitive, and accessible to all. By adopting these approaches, interventions that are not only effective in "shifting the curve" toward better mental health, but are also equitable in their reach and impact, can be developed.

Research has established the diagnostic validity of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescence. The roots of BPD often lie in childhood; however, significantly less is known about the presence and correlates of BPD traits in school-age children and whether these are comparable with those observed in adolescents. Trained psychologists administered the Childhood Interview for Borderline Personality Disorder in a cohort of 14-year-old adolescents ( n = 76) and a cohort of 9-year-old children ( n = 70). We compared the prevalence of BPD traits in both cohorts and investigated common psychosocial correlates (comorbidity, impaired quality of life, emotional/behavioral problems, maternal distress, and observed mother-child interaction). Children and adolescents showed no significant differences regarding the type and frequency of BPD traits. In both cohorts, BPD traits were associated with comorbidity, emotional and behavioral problems, and lower quality of life. In contrast to adolescents, children's BPD traits were not significantly related to maternal distress and showed less relations to interaction patterns. Negative maternal and dyadic behavior were associated with more BPD traits in adolescents during a conflict discussion but not during fun day planning . Our study suggests that BPD traits in children are similarly frequent as in adolescents and accompanied by psychosocial impairment. However, age-related differences were revealed, mostly indicating weaker associations with the mother-child relationship. Mother-child interaction patterns in youth seem to be especially relevant during conflict discussion and provide a target for intervention. Our study provides preliminary support for potential early detection of BPD pathology among children and encourages further study of its life span perspective. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).