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Background: Monitoring the implementation of new interventions, as in this study Non-violent Resistance (NVR) for the use in residential youth care settings, is mandatory in order to evaluate, adjust and refine the implementation process where necessary. Objective: As there is no instrument for such monitoring of NVR available, the authors developed a new questionnaire, named "Reaction to Unacceptable Behavior Inventory", (in short: RUBI). Method: This questionnaire was completed by staff of four different residential settings in the Netherlands, at different stages of the NVR implementation process. The staff members reported on the practice of their colleagues. Results: The results are promising, as they show good reliability, inter-item correlations and other psychometric features for the included items. Furthermore, the results show that the RUBI seems to discriminate between trained and untrained teams, defending its use in future implementation processes and implementation research. Conclusions: The RUBI is the first attempt to create an instrument which can be used for monitoring change during implementation of NVR, and for evaluating the degree of difference or compatibility between NVR and existing practice before implementation. Longitudinal research is needed to strengthen the documentation of validity and reliability of the RUBI in different settings, countries, and cultures. This should also be extended to the final and follow-up stages of implementation. In the future, redundant and insensitive items should be removed and standards for interpreting scale scores should be developed.

Abstract Background The Parental Bonding Instrument, present self-report version, (PBI-PCh) includes three scales, Warmth, Protectiveness and Authoritarianism, which describe three dimensions of current parenting. The purposes of this study were to (1) evaluate the true and observed stability of these parenting dimensions related to older children, (2) explore the distribution of individual-level change across nine months and (3) test potential parental predictors of parenting instability. Methods Questionnaires were distributed to school-based samples of community parents of both genders (n = 150) twice, nine months apart. These questionnaires measured parenting, parental personality and emotional symptoms. Results Based on 1) stability correlations, 2) true stability estimates from structural equation modeling (SEM) and 3) distribution of individual-level change, Warmth appeared rather stable, although not as stable as personality traits. Protectiveness was moderately stable, whereas Authoritarianism was the least stable parenting dimension among community parents. The differences in stability between the three dimensions were consistent in both estimated true stability and observed stability. Most of the instability in Warmth originated from a minority of parents with personality, childhood care characteristics and lower current parenting warmth. For the Protectiveness dimension, instability was associated with higher Protectiveness scores. Conclusions True instability with all three self-reported parenting dimensions can occur across nine months in a community sample related to older children (7-15), but it may occur with varying degrees among dimensions and subpopulations. The highest stability was found for the Warmth parenting dimension, but a subgroup of "unstably cold" parents could be identified. Stability needs to be taken into account when interpreting longitudinal research on parenting and when planning and evaluating parenting interventions in research and clinical practice.

Adults with a history of living in residential youth care (RYC) face elevated risks across various life domains. In this cohort profile paper, we outline the design of a comprehensive follow-up study-the VINGO study-targeting young adults (22-30 years) with a history of living in RYC (T2). We describe the recruitment strategy and present sample characteristics. Data were collected in the baseline study (T1) from 2011 to 2014. At T1, the 400 adolescent participants showed a high prevalence of mental disorders, maltreatment experiences, substance use, and self-reported suicide attempts. Data collection at T2 10 years later (2021-2023) included self-reported sociodemographic information, physical health, childhood maltreatment, dissociation, quality of life, social support, and self-esteem using standardized and validated instruments. A diagnostic psychiatric assessment and subjective evaluation of service utilization were conducted by telephone interviews. Additionally, a qualitative sub-study involved in-depth interviews of fourteen participants. We reached a 52% response rate at T2. Comparing participants (n = 157, 107 females) to non-participants (n = 243, 123 females) based on T1 data revealed that T2 participants had a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, and conduct disorder and a lower prevalence of ADHD at T1. Furthermore, T2 participants reported more suicide attempts, experiences of maltreatment, and problematic substance use at T1. Our results show that we reached a burdened population, positioning the VINGO study as a unique opportunity to examine a vulnerable population of emerging adults.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic's effects on adolescents' physical activity, sports involvement, and feelings of loneliness remain inadequately understood. This study aimed to explore the shifts in leisure-time physical activity, sports participation, and loneliness among adolescents before and during the pandemic, positing that the pandemic has led to decreased physical activity and sports engagement, as well as heightened loneliness, where more active adolescents experience lower loneliness levels. This study included a prior four-year follow-up cohort from the same region two decades earlier to explore the existence of typical longitudinal aging effects in a cohort not affected by the pandemic., Methods: Prospective and longitudinal data from two cohorts of the Young-HUNT Study two decades apart involving adolescents aged 13-19 years were utilized. The controls were as follows: Cohort 1 from the Young-HUNT1 (YH1) Survey included 2399 adolescents with follow-up in the Young-HUNT2 (YH2) Survey four years later. Cohort 2 included the Young-HUNT4 (YH4) Survey (2017-2019) of 8066 adolescents, with a subset of 1565 participants followed up in the Young-HUNT COVID Survey (YHC) (2021) after exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions. Changes over time were assessed using McNemar's tests and dependent sample T -tests, while multinomial logistic regression modeled within-individual changes in loneliness, adjusting for age, gender, and other factors., Results: The findings revealed a significant decline in physical activity and sports participation in both cohorts from early to late adolescence. Additionally, there was a considerable increase in reported loneliness, more after exposure to the pandemic and especially among girls, but without any difference in historical initial levels (between cohorts). Inactive adolescents faced a greater risk of increased loneliness, while those participating in sports had a lower risk of loneliness. Physically inactive boys had a higher risk of loneliness compared with physically active boys at both time points in Cohort 2, which was higher than in the control Cohort 1. There was no historical difference between initial assessments., Conclusion: Adolescents experienced a significant decrease in physical activity and sports participation, along with increased loneliness, from early to late adolescence. Given the protective benefits of physical activity against loneliness and the negative longitudinal trends observed, public health initiatives should focus on increasing physical activity and reducing sports drop-out rates among adolescents to combat rising loneliness.

This paper describes "Turning back the clock" (TBC)-an innovative strategy addressing unacceptable or coercive youth behavior based on nonviolent principles, inspired by the nonviolent resistance movement (NVR)-also called connecting authority or caring authority (CA) approaches to guidance and supervision of parents and other adults. Variants of NVR/CA have been evaluated as effective in RCT and pre-post designs. TBC has not been evaluated regarding its effectiveness but shows promising usability in case studies. The aim of this description of the TBC strategy is to encourage development and testing of its usability on large scale to improve it and pave the way for effectiveness evaluations. The core of TBC is to create possibilities for improving behavior without delay by negotiating the social timeline narrative. This allows improvement through reenactment of events immediately after having said or done something unfortunate or unacceptable instead of waiting for the next comparable situation. Adults introduce the strategy by modeling it before youths are encouraged to improve their own misbehavior immediately without waiting for a later opportunity. Finally, adults declare that a set of unacceptable behaviors will be considered disqualifying to any request or demand, but that attempting again as if it had not happened can be a possibility: Using the TBC strategy. This declaration is intended to increase youth's interest in using TBC themselves, and with successful use reduce escalation of conflicts into coercion and threats., (© 2023 The Authors. Family Process published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Family Process Institute.)

Mental health problems and lower Quality of Life (QoL) are more common in deaf and hard-of-hearing - (D)HH - children than in typically hearing (TH) children. Communication has been repeatedly linked to both mental health and QoL. The aims of this study were to compare mental health and QoL between signing deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), hard-of-hearing (HH) and TH children and to study associations between mental health/QoL and severity of hearing loss and communication. 106 children and adolescents (mean age 11;8; SD = 3.42), 59 of them DHH and 47 HH, and their parents reported child mental health and QoL outcomes. Parents also provided information about their children's communication, hearing loss and education while their children's cognitive ability was assessed. Although (D)HH and their parents rated their mental health similar to their TH peers, about twice as many (D)HH children rated themselves in the clinical range. However, (D)HH children rated their QoL as similar to their TH peers, while their parents rated it significantly lower. Associations between communicative competence, parent-reported mental health and QoL were found, whereas severity of hearing loss based on parent-report had no significant association with either mental health or QoL. These results are in line with other studies and emphasise the need to follow up on (D)HH children's mental health, QoL and communication., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: The association between language and mental health may be connected to several aspects of language. Based on the known associations, emotional vocabulary could be an important contribution to mental health and act as a risk, protective or resilience factor for mental health in general. As a preliminary test of this hypothesis, an assessment of emotional vocabulary was constructed and used among youths in school age. Cross-sectional associations and prediction models with parent-reported youth mental health as outcome were examined for emotional vocabulary as well as general vocabulary, non-verbal problem solving and social communication, controlled for age, gender and subsamples., Results: Emotional vocabulary, general vocabulary and non-verbal problem solving were directly associated with each other and similarly associated with age and gender. However, they were not significantly associated with social communication skills or mental health in the expected direction. Only social communication skills showed significant negative associations with behavioral mental health problems, suggesting these skills to be potential resources related to mental health., Implication: Future research should investigate whether behavioral problems may be prevented or improved by developing better social communication skills among community school-age youths. However, our results suggest that merely expanding emotional vocabulary is not likely to produce such effects unless this is integrated with improving social communication., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Rimehaug and Kårstad.)

Previous research has shown that social climate (SC) is important for the daily life of youths living in therapeutic residential youth care (TRC). However, little is known on how SC can promote a positive quality of life (QoL) for the heterogeneous TRC population. This study, therefore, investigates how TRC and youth characteristics are associated with SC and QoL. We employed a combination of person-centered and variable-centered approaches in a cross-sectional design using a sample of 400 Norwegian youths. We used previously established TRC and youth classes in a structural equation model, where these classes were regressed on latent SC and QoL. Both direct and indirect effects were analyzed. All youth classes were associated with SC and QoL, such that youth with family problems, incidental problems, and the migrant background class scored higher on SC and QoL compared to the severe problems class. In addition, SC mediated the association of the incidental problems and migrant background classes on QoL. TRC staff should acknowledge that a positive SC can strengthen the QoL of youths with severe problems. Future research should longitudinally investigate these associations to establish long-term effects on QoL during stay in TRC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Several studies have assessed the Quality of Life (QoL) in Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children and adolescents. The findings from these studies, however, vary from DHH children reporting lower QoL than their typically hearing (TH) peers to similar QoL and even higher QoL. These differences have been attributed to contextual and individual factors such as degree of access to communication, the participants' age as well as measurement error. Using written instead of sign language measures has been shown to underestimate mental health symptoms in DHH children and adolescents. It is expected that translating generic QoL measures into sign language will help gain more accurate reports from DHH children and adolescents, thus eliminating one of the sources for the observed differences in research conclusions. Hence, the aim of the current study is to translate the Inventory of Life Quality in Children and Adolescents into Norwegian Sign Language (ILC-NSL) and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the self-report of the ILC-NSL and the written Norwegian version (ILC-NOR) for DHH children and adolescents. The parent report was included for comparison. Associations between child self-report and parent-report are also provided., Methods: Fifty-six DHH children completed the ILC-NSL and ILC-NOR in randomized order while their parents completed the parent-report of the ILC-NOR and a questionnaire on hearing- and language-related information. Internal consistency was examined using Dillon-Goldstein's rho and Cronbach's alpha, ILC-NSL and ILC-NOR were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients. Construct validity was examined by partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM)., Results: Regarding reliability, the internal consistency was established as acceptable to good, whereas the comparison of the ILC-NSL with the ILC-NOR demonstrated closer correspondence for the adolescent version of the ILC than for the child version. The construct validity, as evaluated by PLS-SEM, resulted in an acceptable fit for the proposed one-factor model for both language versions for adolescents as well as the complete sample., Conclusion: The reliability and validity of the ILC-NSL seem promising, especially for the adolescent version, even though the validation was based on a small sample of DHH children and adolescents.

The majority of studies on mental health in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children report a higher level of mental health problems. Inconsistencies in reports of prevalence of mental health problems have been found to be related to a number of factors such as language skills, cognitive ability, heterogeneous samples as well as validity problems caused by using written measures designed for typically hearing children. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Norwegian Sign Language (NSL; SDQ-NSL) and in written Norwegian (SDQ-NOR). Forty-nine DHH children completed the SDQ-NSL as well as the SDQ-NOR in randomized order and their parents completed the parent version of the SDQ-NOR and a questionnaire on hearing and language-related information. Internal consistency was examined using Dillon-Goldstein's rho, test-retest reliability using intraclass correlations, construct validity by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and partial least squares structural equation modeling. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were established as acceptable to good. CFA resulted in a best fit for the proposed five-factor model for both versions, although not all fit indices reached acceptable levels. The reliability and validity of the SDQ-NSL seem promising even though the validation was based on a small sample size., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Backgrounds: In 2009, the prevention service "Familieambulatoriet" (FA) was established in three pilot hospital areas offering psychosocial support and health monitoring to parents in high risk regarding mental health and substance use, for the purpose of preventing child mental health and developmental problems through preschool years. This study selected new-born health as a preliminary endpoint for evaluation of population effects in three pilot areas, utilizing national statistics for birth cohorts from 2005 to 2013. The aim of the study is to evaluate changes in population new born health incidences associated with the establishment of new supportive and preventive FA-services at three pilot sites from 2009 in contrast to previous years and the remaining country. This quasi-experimental design evaluated changes in populations with new services available not those receiving the services, and controlled for national historical changes, variation between hospital districts, and random variation across the years before or years after the pilot services were introduced. Our hypothesis was to expect reduced frequencies of preterm births, SGA births, low APGAR scores, pediatric transfer, and new born abstinence symptoms in the pilot areas., Methods: The baseline was established through 4 years preceding 2009, contrasting changes at pilot sites the following 4 years 2009-2013 using the remaining hospital area populations in Norway 2005-2008 and 2009-2013 as contrasts., Results: Related to the introduction of FA services, we found three significant improvements in new born health using mixed effects logistic regression. 1) In the population rate of babies born prematurely with small for gestational age (SGA), using the 10th percentile criteria as the definition; odds ratio (OR) = 0.73 (95% Cl: 0.60 to 0.88). 2) A similar reduction using the 2.5th percentile criteria, although with wider confidence limits; OR = 0.73 (95% Cl: 0.54 to 0.99). 3) A decrease in the frequency of low APGAR scores (0-6) 5 min. after birth; OR = 0.80 (95% Cl: 0.68 to 0.95). Thus, the FA-areas remained significantly lowered on SGA rates or Low APGAR rates across the years after FA establishment, despite considerable variation, in contrast to the baseline years and to the remaining country. No significant effect was found for the outcomes frequency of premature births (unrelated to SGA), SGA among full-term babies, child abstinence symptoms or pediatric transfer of the baby. False negative findings may result from low-rate outcomes or studying the population rather than users., Conclusions: Population rates suggest that introducing FA services offering support and monitoring in high-risk families may contribute to improving aspects of new born infant health. Intervention components and strategies should be studied more closely using individual data.

Background: The results of several international studies indicate a high prevalence of language and communication impairments among children who are referred to child psychiatric services. However, these impairments are likely to remain undetected unless language and communication impairments are evaluated during the psychiatric assessment., Aims: The aim of the present study is to investigate the specific association between general and specific mental health problems, as expressed by the problem scales of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Teachers Report Form (TRF), and pragmatic skills and pragmatic language impairments (PLI) as defined the Pragmatic Composite of the Child Communication Checklist (CCC-PC)., Methods: Children aged from 8 to 13 years (n = 73) were recruited in sequence following referral to a child and adolescent psychiatry (CAMHS) outpatient clinic within 12 months. Children with possible or established autism or intellectual disability were excluded. Standardized instruments measuring language, communication and mental health symptoms were distributed to parents and teachers, an intelligence test administered for clinical purposes, and demographic information was included., Results: The parent reports showed PLI among 38% of the children and revealed strong associations with the CBCL scales for emotional problems, thought problems and, especially, social and withdrawal symptoms, which mean more associations to internalized and non-externalized problems. PC-scores were at similar levels and PLI was reported by teachers at similar rates (compared to parent reports) with moderate agreement. Teacher PC-scores showed associations to only one TRF-scale, social problems. The CCC-PC subscale with the strongest associations to mental health symptoms was «Use of Context» («Social Relationships» do not contribute to the CCC-PC scores)., Conclusion: There was a general increase in PC-scores and increased prevalence of PLI in this clinical sample. PC-scores correlated with symptom scores for internalizing and non-externalizing problems scales. The strongest common factors appear to be related to the social aspects of mental health. Pragmatic skills should be considered as a protective factor for mental health rather than investigating pragmatic impairment as a risk or vulnerability factor.

Aims:: To examine changes in child mental health symptoms following inpatient family unit treatment after long-term unsuccessful treatment in community and child psychiatry outpatient services. Follow-up from referral and admission to 3 and 12 months., Methods:: Standardized questionnaires measuring the child mental health symptoms and parental anxiety and depression converted to standardized scores and compared to each child's clinical diagnosis., Results:: Significant group mean improvement on almost all problem scales at the 3-month follow-up (T2) remaining through 12-month follow-up (T3) relative to admission (T1). Aggression showed the highest levels and largest improvements. Statistically significant improvements were widespread, whereas clinically significant improvements were found for some diagnostic groups on diagnosis-related problems and secondary problems. Improvement in child symptoms were partly correlated with improvement in parental anxiety symptoms., Implications:: Even previously nonresponding children may benefit from broad tailored interventions including parents and the wider system. Development of systematic component approaches is needed.

Background: Previous studies have shown that social climate in therapeutic residential youth care (TRC) is important to the welfare of residents, staff, and assessing treatment outcomes. The most influential theory on social climate in residential settings is the theory of Moos. The measurement of the concepts and aspects of this theory using the Community Oriented Programs Environment Scale (COPES) has repeatedly been criticized regarding usability, validity, and reliability, especially for TRC., Objective: To improve the usability and psychometric quality of the COPES by shortening and refining the original subscale structure for usage in TRC., Methods: Four-hundred adolescents living in Norwegian TRC participated. We supplemented confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with item response theory (IRT) to evaluate model fit, investigate factor loadings, and shorten scales to improve their psychometric qualities and usability in describing social climate in TRC., Results: The original subscales were not acceptable as evaluated by the criteria for CFA and IRT. By removing psychometrically weak items, the instrument was shortened to 40 items within the original ten subscales. This short version showed acceptable psychometric qualities based on both CFA and IRT criteria and the instrument retained its content validity. Finally, the original three higher-order dimensions was not supported., Conclusions: Compared to the original instrument, the refined 40-item version of the COPES represents a more usable instrument for measuring social climate in TRC. Future studies are needed to confirm the multifaceted refined short version in comparable samples of youth and staff to further investigate predictive value and construct validity., Competing Interests: Compliance with Ethical StandardsThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.Informed consent was obtained from all participants as well as from legal parents when participants were younger than 16 years of age. This study was approved by the Norwegian Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics.

Most adolescents are placed in residential youth care (RYC) because of severe psychosocial strains and child maltreatment, which represent risk factors for developing mental disorders. To plan RYC units and ensure that residents receive evidence-based psychiatric interventions, it is necessary to obtain reliable and valid prevalence estimates of mental disorders in this population. However, there is a lacuna of research on diagnoses derived from standardized clinical interviews. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and comorbidity of mental disorders applying diagnostic interviews in an entire population of adolescents living in RYC in Norway. All young people in RYC were invited to participate in the study. Eighty-six RYC institutions with 601 eligible adolescents were included and 400 adolescents, 12-20 years old, participated in the study, yielding a response rate of 67 %. Anonymous Child Behaviour Checklist scores for 141 (70 %) of the declining residents were also available, allowing diagnoses according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) for 541 youths to be estimated. Diagnoses were assessed by trained interviewers with the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment interview (CAPA). Seventy-six point two per cent (71.5-80.8 CI 95 %) of adolescents received at least one 3-month DSM-IV diagnosis. Prevalence rates for internalizing psychiatric disorders were higher than for behavioural disorders. Comorbidity was high between these two groups. Mental disorders were prevalent among children and youth in RYC. Our results create major concerns and challenge the existing organization of the RYC system.

The primary aim of this paper is to illustrate the strategic and ecological nature of implementation. The ultimate aim of implementation is not dissemination but sustainability beyond the implementation effort. A case study is utilized to illustrate these broad and long-term perspectives of sustainable implementation based on qualitative analyses of a 10-year implementation effort. The purveyors aimed to develop selective community prevention services for children in families burdened by parental psychiatric or addictive problems. Services were gradually disseminated to 23 sites serving 40 municipalities by 2013. Up to 2013, only one site terminated services after initial implementation. Although many sites suspended services for shorter periods, services are still offered at 22 sites. This case analysis is based on project reports, user evaluations, practitioner interviews, and service statistics. The paper focuses on the analyses and strategies utilized to cope with quality decay and setbacks as well as progress and success in disseminating and sustaining the services and their quality. Low-cost multilevel strategies to implement services at the community level were organized by a prevention unit in child psychiatry, supervised by a university department (purveyors). The purveyors were also involved in national and international collaboration and development. Multilevel strategies included manualized intervention, in-practice training methods, organizational responsibility, media strategies, service evaluation, staff motivation maintenance, quality assurance, and proposals for new law regulations. These case history aspects will be discussed in relation to the implementation literature, focusing on possible applicability across settings.

Background: Previous studies from Nordic countries suggest that parent ratings of children's emotional and behavioural problems using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) are among the lowest in the world. However, there has been no Norwegian population study with acceptable response rates to provide valid Norwegian reference data., Aims: Firstly, to compare CBCL Internalizing, Externalizing, Total Problems and Competence scores of Norwegian children and adolescents with those from 1) previous Norwegian studies, 2) other Nordic countries, and 3) international data. Secondly, to present Norwegian reference data in order to perform these comparisons. Thirdly, to investigate the effects of age, gender, socio-economic and urban/rural status on the CBCL., Methods: A stratified cluster sample of 2582 school children (1302 girls and 1280 boys) was identified from the general Norwegian population and their parents were asked to complete the CBCL., Results: The response rate was 65.5%. The mean Total Problems score for the whole sample was 14.2 (standard deviation, s = 14.1). Girls were rated as having greater Competence and fewer Total Problems than boys. Younger children had more Total Problems than adolescents. Parents with low education reported more child Total Problems and lower Competence than those with high education. All effect sizes were small, except for the effect of parental education on child Competence, which was moderate., Conclusions: Total Problems scores were lower than in other societies. The data from this study obtained from one county in central Norway provide an important reference for clinical practice and treatment outcome research.

Aims: Our aim was to examine changes in distress symptoms and parenting dimensions among parents in child psychiatry services (clinic parents) (n = 102). Parents were followed from referral and admission to 3-month and 12-month follow-ups of "treatment-as-usual" at inpatient family clinics. These measurements were compared with a sample of community parent (n = 439) standards., Methods: Standardized questionnaires measuring the child's problems, parental anxiety and depression symptoms (distress), and warmth protectiveness and authoritarianism (parenting dimensions), were distributed to parents four times (T0-T1-T2-T3). The family clinics received families whose children had long-term problems and unsatisfactory previous treatment outcomes., Results: Clinic mothers, but not fathers, showed an improvement in distress symptoms at the 3-month (T2) and 12-month (T3) follow-ups relative to at admission (T1). Nevertheless, clinic mothers displayed distress symptoms at all measurement points compared with community parents. Parents of children with learning/developmental problems and attention disorders showed significantly higher warmth scores at the 3-month and 12-month follow-up compared with at admission, although the levels remained lower than those of community parents. In contrast, parents of children with emotional problems showed the same level of warmth as community parents and lower levels of protectiveness, but no change in these parenting dimensions T1-T2., Implications: Parental emotional distress symptoms and parenting characteristics should be addressed systematically in child psychiatry to inform evaluations of the context of the child's problems and the family's treatment needs. Systematic and effective treatment components related to parenting should be implemented.

Introduction: The study compared anxiety and depression prevalence between parents and non-parents in a society with family- and parenthood-friendly social politics, controlling for family status and family history, age, gender, education and social class., Methods: All participants aged 30-49 (N = 24,040) in the large, non-sampled Norwegian HUNT2 community health study completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales., Results: The slightly elevated anxiety and depression among non-parents compared to parents in the complete sample was not confirmed as statistically significant within any subgroups. Married parents and (previously unmarried) cohabiting parents did not differ in portraying low anxiety and depression prevalence. Anxiety was associated with single parenthood, living alone or being divorced, while elevated depression was found only among those living alone., Discussion: Burdening selection and cultural/political context are suggested as interpretative perspectives on the contextual and personal influences on the complex relationship between parenthood and mental health.

Nineteen subjects volunteered to represent a stratified recruitment of serious-minded (goal-directed) and playful (impulsive) individuals balanced for gender. They all performed a perceptual-cognitive task under a neutral condition and with the contingency of monetary reward for good performance (counterbalanced order). Integrated electromyographic (IEMG) recordings were made from the biceps and triceps muscles of both upper arms, and from prebaseline, task performance and postbaseline periods. Verbal reports on motivational state during task performance (serious-minded/playful) and hedonic tone were also recorded. Results verified and extended earlier findings that IEMG activity increases over the course of task performance when a task is performed in the serious-minded state and even more so when a negative hedonic tone coincides with this motivational state. The increased IEMG occurred in all 4 recording sites under both incentive contingencies, although it was particularly marked in the right triceps muscle. These findings should be viewed in the light of the fact that both arms were allowed to remain in a passive resting condition during performance periods.