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There are numerous ways to construe positive education in the early years, particularly as it relates to wellbeing and positive emotional outcomes. The teaching of coping skills provides tools for wellbeing within a positivist framework through emphasising the use of productive coping strategies and reducing the use of unhelpful, non-productive strategies. This chapter provides an example of teaching coping skills in early childhood: the Early Years Coping Project. The project helped young children articulate and understand coping constructs and provided tools to help parents and teachers to assess children’s coping. Visual tools facilitated the development of children’s coping skills in classroom activities. Parents were encouraged to develop their parenting skills and their own coping, utilising the emotion and coping language that is common to them and their children. The parent program was subsequently adapted in a format that was readily communicated to a culturally diverse population, using the generic frameworks and constructs of coping. Coping concepts and constructs have subsequently been incorporated into a COPE-Resilience curriculum. We highlight several applications and extensions of the curriculum. Coping skills provide a template for healthy social-emotional development that can be utilised in different contexts throughout life.

Ependymomas are neuroectodermal tumours arising from the ependymal lining of the ventricles and central canal of the spinal cord. Intradural extramedullary (IDEM) ependymomas which are multifocal, and/or anaplastic (WHO grade III) at presentation are exceedingly rare. We present the second case of multifocal anaplastic IDEM ependymoma in the literature. A 47-year old female presented with left gluteal and thigh pain radiating to the groin associated with paraesthesiae. She had a normal neurological examination. Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine and subsequent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the remaining neuroaxis demonstrated >10 lesions throughout cervical, thoracic and lumbosacral levels. There were no intracranial lesions. The patient initially underwent surgery for removal of three symptomatic lesions at S2. She recovered well. One year later she had further surgery for three progressing lesions at T5. Four of six lesions were WHO grade III. Two smaller nodules at T5 were WHO grade II. The patient had mild sensory disturbance over the right side of the trunk which resolved postoperatively. There were no long-term sequelae. The patient subsequently underwent full craniospinal irradiation using proton beam therapy. Due to their rarity, there are no guidelines for the management of multifocal IDEM ependymoma. The only previously published case of multifocal anaplastic IDEM ependymoma by Schuurmans et al. involved surgical resection and 20 cycles of whole-spine radiotherapy. Schuurmans patient unfortunately died two years post-diagnosis with progressive cranial metastases and post-radiation myelopathy. In our case, all remaining lesions are stable and she is neurologically intact at 48-month follow up.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although parenting practices are articulated as underlying mechanisms or protective factors in several theoretical models, their role in the intergenerational transmission of gambling problems has received limited research attention. This study therefore examined the degree to which parenting practices (positive parenting, parental involvement, and inconsistent discipline) moderated the intergenerational transmission of paternal and maternal problem gambling. METHODS: Students aged 12-18 years (N = 612) recruited from 17 Australian secondary schools completed a survey measuring parental problem gambling, problem gambling severity, and parenting practices. RESULTS: Participants endorsing paternal problem gambling (23.3%) were 4.3 times more likely to be classified as at-risk/problem gamblers than their peers (5.4%). Participants endorsing maternal problem gambling (6.9%) were no more likely than their peers (4.0%) to be classified as at-risk/problem gamblers. Paternal problem gambling was a significant predictor of offspring at-risk/problem gambling after controlling for maternal problem gambling and participant demographic characteristics. The relationship between maternal problem gambling and offspring at-risk/problem gambling was buffered by parental involvement. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Paternal problem gambling may be important in the development of adolescent at-risk/problem gambling behaviours and higher levels of parental involvement buffers the influence of maternal problem gambling in the development of offspring gambling problems. Further research is therefore required to identify factors that attenuate the seemingly greater risk of transmission associated with paternal gambling problems. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Parental involvement is a potential candidate for prevention and intervention efforts designed to reduce the intergenerational transmission of gambling problems. (Am J Addict 2017;26:707-712).

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this review was to examine parent education programmes for families with children with special health care needs, to better design interventions focusing on the psychosocial aspects of living with a child's chronic condition. BACKGROUND: Studies of familial coping with children with special health care needs indicate high levels of parenting stress, with families with children with special health care needs at risk of major psychological and social disturbances and financial strain. Despite increased knowledge of the factors affecting children with special health care needs themselves, evidence for the effectiveness of preventative and treatment interventions in the form of parent education programmes remains limited. DESIGN: Systematic review using PRISMA guidelines. METHOD: Multi database Boolean searches in EBSCO Discovery Services using the search terms 'complex/special health care needs children', 'child/pediatric/congenital heart disease', 'chronic illness (including diabetes, cancer and cystic fibrosis)', 'family coping', 'siblings' AND 'parenting/family support programs' were conducted. RESULTS: Analysis of 13 included studies showed evidence for the effectiveness of both mixed-health condition and condition-specific parenting programmes delivered in a variety of modes. Three common core intervention approaches were: use of narrative therapy enabling families to tell their own stories, thus facilitating emotional processing and (co-) construction of meaning; a focus on strengthening protective factors such as enhancing parents' skills in communication, and behavioural management and provision of psycho-education to deepen parents' understanding of their child's condition and associated developmental challenges. CONCLUSION: Irrespective of the type of outcome measures used in the studies, the review showed that there were positive gains and improvements across a range of areas of family functioning such as mental health, parent

The present study investigated the intergenerational transmission of problem gambling and the potential mediating role of parental psychopathology (problem drinking, drug use problems, and mental health issues). The study comprised 3953 participants (1938 males, 2015 females) recruited from a large-scale Australian community telephone survey of adults retrospectively reporting on parental problem gambling and psychopathology during their childhood. Overall, 4.0% [95%CI 3.0, 5.0] (n=157) of participants reported paternal problem gambling and 1.7% [95%CI 1.0, 2.0] (n=68) reported maternal problem gambling. Compared to their peers, participants reporting paternal problem gambling were 5.1 times more likely to be moderate risk gamblers and 10.7 times more likely to be problem gamblers. Participants reporting maternal problem gambling were 1.7 times more likely to be moderate risk gamblers and 10.6 times more likely to be problem gamblers. The results revealed that the relationships between paternal-and-participant and maternal-and-participant problem gambling were significant, but that only the relationship between paternal-and-participant problem gambling remained statistically significant after controlling for maternal problem gambling and sociodemographic factors. Paternal problem drinking and maternal drug use problems partially mediated the relationship between paternal-and-participant problem gambling, and fully mediated the relationship between maternal-and-participant problem gambling. In contrast, parental mental health issues failed to significantly mediate the transmission of gambling problems by either parent. When parental problem gambling was the mediator, there was full mediation of the effect between parental psychopathology and offspring problem gambling for fathers but not mothers. Overall, the study highlights the vulnerability of children from problem gambling households and suggests that it would be of value to target prevention and intervention eff