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This article advocates for system-level change in prenatal health services. Specifically, the authors describe how they "discovered" the idea of father-inclusive prenatal health care (FIPH), which involves providing an array of services to help young expectant fathers prepare for the challenges of parenthood. Over the course of 25 years, research with young parents led to a series of "aha moments," inspiring the authors to advocate for the transformation of prenatal care to include services for fathers, guided by a well-defined, strategic approach. They include lessons learned from their work with young fathers, including two young men--Darnel and Victor--whose personal journeys informed the development of these ideas and convictions. Prenatal care is an often underutilized opportunity for helping young parents provide their children with a stable family life at a time when family stability is a vital public health challenge.

Purpose: Milwaukee has very high rates of risky sexual behavior and low rates of academic achievement among adolescents. Milwaukee school representatives partnered with researchers to create and implement an innovative project-based learning (PBL) high school health curriculum to engage students in school. This health education program, Project Health (PH), aimed to engage Milwaukee Public Schools high school students, by PBL, into the urban health classroom. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the curriculum on student engagement and document the process of implementing this program, in order to identify strengths, weaknesses and areas of needed improvement. Design/methodology/approach: Student engagement was measured with an 18-item scale at three time points in intervention and control schools. Attendance data were collected by tracking the number of days students were absent from school the semester the curriculum was implemented. Analysis of covariance was used to test whether students in PH classes were more engaged and if they had fewer absences than students in the control classes. The process evaluation included interviews with teachers, focus groups with high school students, and focus groups with teaching assistants. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis to extract key themes and categories across all data. Findings: Students in the intervention health class were significantly less absent from school than control students. However, they were not more engaged than their peers in control schools as measured by a student engagement scale. Various components of the PBL teaching approach used in the Project Health high school curriculum were viewed as positive by health educators, students, and teaching assistants. Results indicate that PBL used in health education may increase school attendance. Originality/value: This study was original in that it documented how a novel health education program that incorporated PBL can positively impact urban students' school attendance. It also highlighted the process of implementing this program from the vantage point of students, assistants, and health education. (Contains 1 table.)

The transition to parenthood (TP) interview and coparenting capacity (CC) coding scheme is a mixed method approach to evaluating readiness for the interpersonal challenges of parenthood. This paper focuses on the validation of the TP–CC system with a diverse sample of 140 young expectant father/mother pairs. The TP interview is designed to assist expectant parents in expressing their thoughts and feelings about parenthood and coparenting and the CC coding scheme is designed to assess a new parent's capacity for expressing fondness, acceptance, growth, cohesion, and commitment in their relationship with their coparenting partner. Convergent validation of the TP–CC system involved measuring self‐ and partner‐reported relationship quality, relationship security, and observed warmth and hostility during the pregnancy. Predictive validation focused on the same set of variables, measured at the 6‐month postbirth follow‐up. Results supported the convergent validity of the TP–CC system for mothers and fathers, with higher‐specific CC scores correlating with higher relationship quality, relationship security and warmth scores, as well as lower hostility scores. Results partially supported predictive validity, with fathers' total CC scores predicting fathers' interpersonal hostility and mothers' relationship quality, relationship security, hostility, and warmth at follow‐up. Consistently positive and significant correlations between both mothers and fathers prebirth and postbirth CC scores provide evidence for the test–retest reliability of the TP–CC system. Generally, findings demonstrate the potential utility of the TP–CC system for evaluating coparenting readiness across the transition to parenthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on adolescent romantic relationships has been largely based on self-reports and interview data; as a result, relatively little is known about the interpersonal-behavioral dynamics of adolescent couples. In an attempt to address this gap in the previous literature on young couples, the present study used observational methods to differentiate between healthy and dysfunctional adolescent romantic relationships. Two groups of adolescent couples were recruited to participate in this study: (1) a high-risk group (n=18 couples) in which one or both partners had a substance use disorder (SUD) and (2) a low-risk group (n=12 couples) in which neither partner had a history of psychopathology. Self-report and observational data on couples' relationships were collected from both groups. Couples' observed conflict interactions were coded using the structural analysis of social behavior [Florsheim, P., & Benjamin, L. S. (2001). The structural analysis of social behavior observational coding scheme. In P. K. Kerig, & M. Lindahl (Eds.), "Family observational coding schemes: Resources for systemic research" (pp. 127-150). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates]. Findings indicated that, compared to couples with no psychopathology, couples in the SUD group engaged in significantly more hostile and less warm behavior, as well as more complex communication involving a mix of hostility and warmth. Self-reported relational quality did not differentiate the two groups, highlighting the unique contributions of observational data for understanding the clinically relevant dynamics of adolescent romantic relationships. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

This paper describes an experiment designed to test an imagery-based craving management technique with a sample of adolescents diagnosed with substance-use disorders. Seventy adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 (41 males) were recruited through two substance-abuse treatment programs. The experimental procedure involved stimulating craving using a previously tested imagery technique and then administering a newly developed procedure for reducing craving. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an "interpersonal help" craving reduction condition; an "interpersonal distracter" craving reduction condition; and a control condition in which craving was stimulated and allowed to attenuate naturally, without intervention. Results indicated that following exposure to imagery-based drug cues, the "interpersonal distracter" condition effectively interrupted craving, compared to the control condition. The "interpersonal help condition" did not attenuate participant's craving response relative to the control condition. This study illustrates how experimental methods can be used to test and refine the efficacy of clinical interventions.

Objective: The goal of this study was to identify links between observed conflict interactions and risk for child abuse and harsh parenting among a multiethnic sample of adolescent mothers (14-19 years) and young fathers (14-24 years). Methods: Prior to childbirth (T1), observation-based relationship data were collected from 154 expectant adolescent couples as well as information about physical aggression between partners. Two years after childbirth (T2), data relevant to harsh disciplinary practices and child abuse-prone attitudes were collected from both young mothers and fathers. Multiple regression analyses were run to examine the correspondence between (a) couples' relationship quality prior to childbirth and (b) subsequent risk for harsh and potentially abusive parenting practices. Results: Findings indicated that interpartner violence prior to childbirth predicted physically punitive parenting behavior for fathers, but not for mothers. Young mothers and fathers observed to be more warmly engaged with each other during their pre-birth couple interactions (T1) reported lower rates of physically punitive parenting behavior with their children at T2. Couples' hostility at T1 predicted fathers' level of observed hostility toward his child during a structured play activity at T2. Conclusions: Results underscore the importance of addressing the quality of couples' relations as means of preventing dysfunctional parenting practices among adolescent mothers and their partners. Adolescent mothers and their partners are at heightened risk for engaging in dysfunctional parenting, including child abuse. Focusing on pregnant adolescents and their partners, this study sought to identify interpersonal predictors of child abuse risk. Although this study did not involve administering prevention or intervention services, the goal was to test hypotheses that would inform the development of programs for young at-risk couples. Practice implications: The decision to recruit young couples prior to childbirth was based on the presumption that this period of time could provide a window of opportunity to administer couple-based child abuse prevention programs. Consistent with previous research on marital relations and parenting, results of this study support the idea that efforts to develop and administer preventive-intervention programs targeting at-risk couples could help reduce the occurrence of harsh parenting behavior and abuse.

The phenomenon of drug craving among adolescents with substance use disorders has been largely overlooked by addiction researchers. This study was designed to: (1) assess craving among adolescents with polysubstance use disorders (SUDs); and (2) examine the association between personality traits and craving among adolescents with SUDs. Craving was found to be a multidimensional phenomenon that demonstrated some degree of consistency across substances (in this case, marijuana and alcohol). Selected personality traits were associated with distinct components of craving; for example, adolescent substance users who obtained high sensation-seeking scores tended to crave the excitement associated with drug use. Adolescents who obtained high anxious-neuroticism scores tended to crave the experience of distress relief associated with drug use.

This study was designed to identify predictors of relationship outcomes among 179 young (ages 14-24) coparenting couples during the transition to parenthood, with a particular focus on interpersonal process and psychopathology. Findings indicated that couples identified as hostile during the prenatal assessment were more likely to report relationship violence at follow-up (2 years postbirth). Couples identified as warm were more likely to remain together as coparents even if their romantic relationship dissolved. Couples in which the female partner was highly controlling were less likely to be cohabiting at follow-up. Mothers with a history of substance abuse and fathers with a history of conduct disorder were also more likely to engage in interpartner violence. Latino couples were more likely than Caucasian and African American couples to be warmly engaged and to remain romantically involved across the transition to parenthood. (Contains 5 tables and 1 footnote.)

Studied the relation between urban psychosocial stressors and intimacy achievement in a sample of 59 African American, Hispanic American, and White adolescent fathers-to-be. Those with higher cumulative psychosocial stressors had lower levels of intimacy, and low interpersonal empathy was significantly associated with intimacy levels. African Americans had lower levels of intimacy than Hispanic or White participants. (SLD)

Examined if and how differences in functioning of single-mother and two-parent families relate to occurrence of behavioral problems among inner-city boys ages 10-15. Findings included (1) multiple family risk factors contribute to occurrence of behavior problems; (2) most family risk factors were generalizable to both single-mother and two-parent families; (3) risks associated with single motherhood can be offset. (EV)

The contributions of financial, parenting, and global stress to the relationship between parenting and ethnicity and the moderating effects of social support and employment status were studied for 50 Caucasian and 49 Mexican-American teenage mothers. Findings indicate a mediating effect of the combined influences of these stresses on the ethnicity/parenting relationship. (SLD)

Factors related to psychosocial adjustment of 113 adolescent immigrants to the United States from the People's Republic of China were studied. Levels of psychosocial functioning were lower for adolescents with higher family conflict, lower family organization, and higher family authoritarianism. Value orientation mediated the relationship between language preference and adjustment. (SLD)

This study examined the relationship between family processes and risk for externalizing behavior problems among urban African American and Hispanic youth. The structural analysis of social behavior was used to code family interactions. Results indicate that high-risk boys were more submissive and less warm than low-risk boys. When they did assert themselves, high-risk boys tended to do so in a hostile manner. Parents of high-risk boys were more punitive and less nurturant than parents of low-risk boys. Regardless of risk status, African American boys were more assertive than Hispanic boys and African American parents were less controlling than Hispanic parents. These findings complement previous research on the development of antisocial behavior by highlighting the role of the adolescent in family processes.