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Research on emotional development and emotion socialization emphasize the importance of supportive parent-child emotion communication, yet most empirically supported parenting interventions omit guidance on emotion communication skills. The primary goal of this paper is to introduce the Let's Connect emotion-focused parenting intervention as an innovative treatment modality for increasing supportive emotion socialization in families, drawing on developmental theory as a guiding framework. We provide an overview of the background for and development of Let's Connect. Results of a pilot study with 34 caregivers of school-age children (Mage = 8.45) in a community sample demonstrated significant increases in supportive emotion communication practices (e.g., listening and connection, labeling feelings, emotion support) as well as significant reductions in unsupportive emotion communication practices (e.g., invalidating or critical responses) from pre- to post-intervention, with gains maintained over a three-month period. Future directions and clinical applications of this intervention module are discussed.

A significant number of youth in the United States experience traumatic events that substantially increase the risk of physical and behavioral health problems across the life span. This public health concern warrants concerted efforts to promote trauma-informed, evidence-based practices that facilitate recovery. Although youth-focused trauma-specific treatments exist, determining effective ways to disseminate and implement these services-so that they are available, accessible, and sustainable-poses an ongoing challenge. This paper describes a comprehensive model for such implementation, the community-based learning collaborative (CBLC), developed as part of Project BEST, a four-phase statewide initiative to promote trauma-focused practices. The CBLC augments the learning collaborative model by including clinical and nonclinical (i.e., broker) professionals from multiple service organizations within a targeted community. CBLCs aim to build capacity for sustained implementation of trauma-focused practices by promoting interprofessional collaboration among those involved in the coordination and provision of these services. This paper describes the iterative development of the CBLC by examining participant completion data across the three completed phases of Project BEST (N = 13 CBLCs; 1,190 participants). Additionally, data from Project BEST's third phase (N = 6 CBLCs; 639 participants) were used to evaluate changes in the frequency of specific practices, pre- to post-CBLC, and post-CBLC perceived utility of CBLC components. High participant completion rates, significant increases in reported trauma-focused practices, and positive ratings of the CBLC's utility provisionally support the feasibility and efficacy of the model's final iteration. Implications for implementation and CBLC improvements are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Educator mental health and well-being have received increased attention in response to the additional stress experienced during the coronavirus pandemic. Cultivating mental health and well-being can be facilitated by enhancing adult social emotional competencies. However, relatively limited research has explored how prevention programs promoting social emotional competencies have enhanced educator well-being and related attributes of self-care, efficacy, and skillful interactions with students. In this pilot study, we implemented and evaluated an innovative prevention program called Resilience in Schools and Educators (RISE) in eight Colorado schools with 53 educators. RISE builds knowledge and skills that promote educator social-emotional competencies, trauma responsivity, cultural responsivity, resilience, and well-being. The first study aim was to explore the fidelity and feasibility of the RISE program implemented in a school-based context. The second study aim was to explore whether RISE is associated with increases in educators' self-reported social emotional competencies, well-being, self-care practices, self-efficacy, and quality of interactions with students. As compared to field standards, facilitators reported high levels of fidelity and feasibility of RISE. Educators' pre- and post- self-report measures indicate significant improvements in social emotional competencies (emotional awareness, emotional clarity, non-reactivity, nonjudging), self-care practices, well-being, and student-educator conflict, with effect sizes indicating small to medium impacts. No findings emerged for self-efficacy or perceived closeness of student-teacher relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This article presents the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Task Force report on the evidence-based service planning (EBSP) approach to child welfare services (CWS) plans and recommendations for practice. The focus of the policy report is on formal psychosocial services. CWS plans prescribe services to promote core child welfare objectives and to benefit children and families. The goal of EBSP is to construct service plans based on the general principles of evidence-based practice and prefer services with empirical support for clinical problems or needs associated with the causes or consequences of child abuse and neglect (CAN). EBSP aims to facilitate an overarching service approach that is collaborative, respectful, and includes services that are most likely to lead to outcomes on both family identified and child welfare mission goals. EBSP emphasizes a focused, assessment-driven, and science-informed approach that both favors plans that are sufficient and avoids overburdening families with compulsory services that address problems which are not directly related to the child welfare CAN referral.

The authors examined longitudinally the mental health status of women as a function of different types and combinations of exposure to interpersonal violence. A structured telephone interview was administered to a household probability sample of 4,008 women (18-89 years of age), who were then recontacted for 1- and 2-year follow-up interviews. Interviews assessed lifetime violence history (i.e., sexual assault, physical assault, witnessed serious injury or violent death), past-year mental health functioning (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], depression, and substance use problems), and new instances of violence occurring after the baseline interview. Results indicate that (a) lifetime violence exposure was associated with increased risk of PTSD, depression, and substance use problems; (b) odds of PTSD, depression, and substance use problems increased incrementally with the number of different types of violence experienced; (c) relations were fairly stable over a 2-year period; and (d) new incidents of violence between the baseline and follow-up interviews were associated with heightened risk of PTSD and substance use problems. Greater understanding of the cumulative impact of violence exposure will inform service provision for individuals at high risk.

In this study, the authors examined the role of parentification (children assuming adult-like roles in the family) as it relates to family risk (parental psychopathology, parental illness, and domestic violence), child sexual abuse (CSA), and psychosocial adjustment in 499 college women. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of direct, indirect, and mediational pathways through which CSA, family risk, and parentification contributed to later psychosocial maladjustment. Results indicate that CSA and family risk independently and directly predicted higher levels of maladjustment, but only family risk positively predicted parentification in childhood. Parentification was unexpectedly related to less maladjustment. Parentification failed to mediate the relation between early family risk and maladjustment. Findings suggest that family risk factors may contribute to parentification and that parentification is not always related to poorer psychosocial outcomes. Future research should examine the impact of parentification on other aspects of functioning and should assess how individual, familial, and cultural variables (e.g., age, gender, duration, perceived fairness, ethnicity, and family support) moderate the impact of parentification on long-term adjustment.

The present study offered an initial investigation into parent–child communication about interparental conflict and its relation to children’s psychological functioning. Seventy-five predominantly African-American children ages 6–12 and their mothers were interviewed. Children listened to an unresolved interparental conflict and answered questions regarding the frequency and content of mother–child communication as if the conflict had occurred in their home. Descriptives of mother-and child-initiated discussions were provided in detail. Children who expected mothers to initiate discussions about interparental conflict with them were in turn more likely to initiate discussions with their mothers. Surprisingly, less than half of mothers were reported by children to communicate in a validating manner, and an equal number of children expected their mothers to communicate in an invalidating manner. Findings demonstrated significant relations between the content of mother–child communication (i.e., validation, invalidation) and children’s adjustment (e.g., externalizing problems, depression). Future directions are discussed with an emphasis on the importance of further “process-oriented” research.

This study investigated the socialization of children's emotion regulation in physically maltreating and non-maltreating mother–child dyads (N = 80 dyads). Mother–child dyads participated in the parent–child emotion interaction task (Shipman & Zeman, 1999) in which they talked about emotionally-arousing situations. The PCEIT was coded for maternal validation and invalidation in response to children's emotion. Mothers were also interviewed about their approach to emotion socialization using the meta-emotion interview-parent version (Katz & Gottman, 1999). The meta-emotion interview-parent version was coded for maternal emotion coaching. Mothers also completed measures that assessed their child abuse potential and abuse-related behaviors as well as children's emotion regulation. Findings indicated that maltreated children demonstrated fewer adaptive emotion regulation skills and more emotion dysregulation than non-maltreated children. In addition, maltreating mothers engaged in less validation and emotion coaching and more invalidation in response to children's emotion than non-maltreating mothers. Finally, maternal emotion socialization behaviors mediated the relation between maltreatment status and children's adaptive emotion regulation skills.

This study examined emotion regulation skills in 22 sexually maltreated girls and 22 nonmaltreated girls between 6 and 12 years of age to determine how the experience of sexual maltreatment might interfere with normative emotional development. Findings indicated that sexually maltreated girls, compared to nonmaltreated peers, reported different goals (i.e., inhibiting emotion to avoid conflict vs. displaying emotion to rectify a situation) for managing their emotional expressivity with their parents. They also reported expecting less support and more conflict from parents in response to emotional displays. Finally, maltreated girls expected less practical assistance from all social partners (i.e., mother, father, best friend) following their emotional displays. Surprisingly, however, there were no group differences in girls' ability to generate effective strategies for coping with emotionally arousing situations. Findings are discussed from the functionalist approach to emotional development, emphasizing the importance of social context (i.e., maltreating, nonmaltreating) in the development of children's emotion regulation skills.

Characteristics of children's memory for a trauma and for a positive event were compared and relationships of memory characteristics to trauma symptoms examined in 30 children who experienced a traumatic event. Results revealed that memories for trauma tended to have less sensory detail and coherence, yet have more meaning and impact than did memories for positive experiences. Sexual traumas, offender relationship, and perceived life threat were associated with memory characteristics. Few relationships between memory characteristics and trauma symptoms were found. Therapist ratings of child memory characteristics were correlated with some child trauma memory characteristic reports. These results are consistent with other studies. Possible explanations include divided attention during the traumatic event and cognitive avoidance occurring after the event.

This study examined the influence of expressive strategies (i.e., verbal, facial, crying, sulking, and aggressive), emotion type (i.e., anger, sadness), social context (i.e., mother, father, best friend), age (i.e., 7, 10 years), and gender on 144 children's expectancies regarding interpersonal responses to their emotional expression. Participants included 72 boys and 72 girls, with an average age of 8 years and 10 months. Results indicate that children expect others to respond more positively to certain expressive strategies (e.g., verbal, facial) as compared to others (e.g., aggression) and that these expectancies vary as a function of the type of emotion experienced, the social context, age, and gender. Consistent with the functionalist approach to emotion, findings suggest that, through social interaction, children learn culturally appropriate strategies for emotional expression that facilitate their ability to elicit a desired response from social partners.

Youth in the child welfare system (CWS) have substantially higher rates of mental health needs compared to the general population, yet they rarely receive targeted, evidence-based practices (EBPs). Caseworkers play the critically important role of “service broker” for CWS youth and families. This study examines preliminary caseworker-level outcomes of Project Focus Colorado (PF-C), a training and consultation program designed to improve access to EBPs for CWS youth. PF-C evaluation occurred in four child welfare offices (two intervention [ n = 16 caseworkers] vs. two practice-as-usual, wait-list control [WLC; n = 12 caseworkers]). Receipt of PF-C was associated with significantly increased caseworker knowledge of (a) EBPs, (b) child mental health problems, (c) evidence-based treatment components targeting mental health problem areas, and (d) mental health screening instruments, compared to WLC. Dose of training and consultation was associated with greater ability to correctly classify mental health problems and match them to EBPs. These preliminary results suggest that targeted training and consultation help to improve caseworker knowledge of children’s mental health needs, EBPs for mental health, and mental health screening instruments.

Research shows that child abuse and neglect and exposure to trauma in childhood is highly prevalent and can result in developmental disruption, significant psychosocial, behavioral, and physical health problems, as well as cognitive deficits in children. Abused children have higher levels of involvement in the child welfare system and many of the children in need of mental health services do not receive services. When mental health services are received, the majority of children do not receive high-quality, effective mental health treatment that is matched to their specific needs. Fortunately, effective treatments exist for abused and trauma-exposed children that address both the consequences of abuse and trauma and the causes of abuse and neglect. Evidence-based treatments (EBT) are now recommended standard of care. EBTs are intervention programs specific to the clinical target for which they have been shown to work, proven to have overall better results compared to non-specific or alternative interventions. This chapter will discuss evidence-based mental health intervention approaches for the primary targets of externalizing and internalizing problems focusing on treatments for child behavior problems (e.g., child oppositionality, defiance, and aggression, parenting behaviors (e.g., emotionally and physically harsh, coercive, abusive, and/or neglectful), and child psychological distress(i.e., posttraumatic stress, anxiety and depression). Increasing availability of these interventions within the child welfare system through proactive brokering for access to these interventions is emphasized. An “evidence-based service planning” (EBSP) approach is described to promote connecting families with relevant services, tracking their response and outcomes, and optimally prescribing a service or set of services designed to benefit children and families.

The current study examined the cumulative risk associated with children's exposure to multiple types of parent-inflicted victimization. The sample was comprised of 195 children who were 7 to 17 years old (64.1% female and 48.2% non-White) at the time of referral to the United States Navy's Family Advocacy Program due to allegations of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or parental intimate partner violence. We conducted an exploratory latent class analysis to identify distinct subgroups of children based on lifetime victimization. We hypothesized that at least 2 classes or subgroups would be identified, with 1 characterized by greater victimization and poorer outcomes. Results indicated that 3 classes of children best fit the data: (a) high victimization across all 3 categories, (b) high rates of physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence, and (c) high rates of physical abuse only. Findings indicated that the high victimization class was at greatest risk for alcohol and substance use, delinquent behavior, and meeting criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression 1 year later (odds ratio = 4.53). These findings highlight the serious mental health needs of a small but significantly high-risk portion of multiply victimized children entering the child welfare system.

The present study examined latent class trajectories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and associations between demographics, prior trauma, and reason for referral on class membership. Children ages 7–18 (n=201) were recruited for participation in the Navy Family Study following reports to the U.S. Navy's Family Advocacy Program (FAP). Initial interviews were conducted 2–6 weeks following FAP referral, with follow-ups conducted at 9–12, 18–24, and 36–40 months. Growth mixture modeling revealed two latent class trajectories: a resilient class and a persistent symptom class. Relative to youth in the resilient class, participants in the persistent symptom class were more likely to be older and to report exposure to a greater number of trauma experiences at Time 1.

Objectives: Although women with histories of child sexual abuse (CSA) perceive themselves as less competent mothers and report greater parenting difficulties than nonabused women, few investigators have actually observed the parenting behaviors of CSA survivors. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether incest history was related to maternal perceptions of parenting efficacy and interactional patterns with their children. The secondary aim of this study was to explore the constructs of internal working models of relationships and maternal psychological adjustment as potential mediators of the relation between incest history and parenting. Methods: A community sample of 17 incest survivors, 18 nonabused women and their 3–6 year-old children participated. Mothers completed self-report measures of parenting efficacy, parental bonding (i.e., internal working models of relationships), and psychological adjustment. In addition, mothers interacted with their children in a problem-solving task. Results: Although incest survivors reported less parenting self-efficacy than did nonabused mothers, their interactional styles with their children were positive overall and comparable to those of nonabused mothers. Specifically, survivors displayed moderate to high levels of support, assistance, and confidence, and their children showed high levels of affection towards their mothers. Incest survivors reported less bonding with their own mothers in childhood and poorer current psychological adjustment. Conclusions: Findings suggest that incest survivors’ perceptions of their parenting abilities may be more negative than their actual parenting behaviors.