American Journal of Orthopsychiatry This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Political violence exposure, adolescent school violence, and drug use: The mediating role of school support and posttraumatic stress.
Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors to cope with the negative psychological impacts resulting from exposure to political violence. Guided by the Deterioration Deterrence Model and General Strain Theory, the present study assessed the mediating role of school support and posttraumatic stress (PTS) on two adolescent risk behaviors (i.e., school violence and drug use) among Arab and Jewish Israeli adolescents. We analyzed data from a nationally representative survey that consisted of 4,733 Israeli high school students (54.5% females; 63.2% Jewish) following the Second Lebanon War. Structural equation modeling using weigh...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Fang, Lin; Schiff, Miriam; Benbenishty, Rami Source Type: research

Parenting self-efficacy beliefs in parents of children with autism: Perspectives from Singapore.
Substantial empirical evidence has highlighted the psychological stress and negative well-being of parents whose children are diagnosed with autism. It has further indicated a need for understanding the mechanisms through which these parents come to successfully meet the challenges of caregiving for these children whose condition are often characterized by persistent behavioral, social, and communication problems. This qualitative study aims to bridge the research gap in 3 ways. First, we sought to understand the ways in which mothers of children having autism foster their parenting self-efficacy (PSE) when caring for thei...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Chong, Wan Har; Kua, Shu Mei Source Type: research

Sources of heterogeneity in developmental outcomes of children with past and current experiences of institutionalization in Russia: A four-group comparison.
The present study sought to compare 4 groups of age- and gender-matched children —(a) those reared in institutions for children without parental care in Russia; (b) those raised by their biological parents in Russia; (c) those adopted to the United States from Russian institutions; and (d) those born in the United States and raised by their biological parents—on indicators o f cognition, language, and early learning. In addition, we aimed to compare the effects of the length of time spent in an institution, the age of initial placement in an institution, the age at adoption, and pre-institutional risk factors (i.e., pr...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 14, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Rakhlin, Natalia; Hein, Sascha; Doyle, Niamh; Hart, Lesley; Koposov, Roman; Macomber, Donna; Ruchkin, Vladislav; Strelina, Anastasia; Tan, Mei; Grigorenko, Elena L. Source Type: research

Linking typologies of childhood adversity to adult incarceration: Findings from a nationally representative sample.
Ecologically valid typologies of adverse child experiences (ACEs) were identified to investigate the link between ACEs and adult incarceration. In a nationally representative sample (N = 34,653, age 20+), latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted with childhood maltreatment (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, interpersonal violence [IPV] exposure, physical neglect) and caregiver maladjustment (substance use, incarceration, mental illness, and suicidal behavior) indicators. LCA identified a 5-typology model (1. Low Adversity Risk; 2. Caregiver Substance Use, and Maltreatment Acts of Omission; 3. Physical and Emotional M...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Roos, Leslie E.; Afifi, Tracie O.; Martin, Christina Gamache; Pietrzak, Robert H.; Tsai, Jack; Sareen, Jitender Source Type: research

Prevalence of < em > DSM-IV < /em > intermittent explosive disorder in Black adolescents: Findings from the National Survey of American Life, Adolescent Supplement.
Little is known about the epidemiology of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM –IV) intermittent explosive disorder (IED) in adolescents, and no information is currently available regarding the relationship between race/ethnicity and IED among Black youth in the United States. Using the World Health Organization World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Intervie w (Adolescent Version), we estimated the prevalence, severity, and disability of IED in a national, probability sample of African American and Caribbean Black youth (ages 13–17) from the National Survey of American Li...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Oliver, Diane Graves; Caldwell, Cleopatra H.; Faison, Nakesha; Sweetman, Julie A.; Abelson, Jamie M.; Jackson, James S. Source Type: research

Ethnic socialization, perceived discrimination, and psychological adjustment among transracially adopted and nonadopted ethnic minority adults.
Little is known on how transracial adoptees (TRA) navigate issues of race and ethnicity. Using Shared Fate Theory as a framework, this study was interested in the moderating role of adoption status among a group of ethnic minority adults in explaining the relationship between ethnic socialization, perceived discrimination, and mental health outcomes. Nonadopted (NA; n = 83) and TRA (n = 87) ethnic minorities responded to measures on ethnic socialization, perceived discrimination, and psychological outcomes administered online. TRA and NA ethnic minorities reported similar levels of ethnic socialization, perceived discrimin...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Arnold, Tara; Braje, Sopagna Eap; Kawahara, Debra; Shuman, Tara Source Type: research

Parents ’ early life stressful experiences, their present well-being, and that of their children.
Parents ’ early life stressful experiences have lifelong consequences, not only for themselves but also for their children. The current study utilized a sample of military families (n = 266) including data from both active-duty and civilian parents and their adolescent children. Hypotheses reflecting prin ciples of persistence, transmission, and proximity as pertaining to parents and their children were examined. The impact of parents’ childhood experiences on their functioning later in life and, consequently, their adolescent children’s well-being were examined. Adults who encountered more stres sful childhood exper...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: O ’Neal, Catherine Walker; Richardson, Evin W.; Mancini, Jay A.; Grimsley, Rebecca Neilann Source Type: research

Cumulative contextual risk and behavior problems among children with substance using mothers: The mediating role of mothers’ and children’s coping strategies.
Substance using mothers vary in their exposure to an accumulation of contextual risks associated with their drug-using lifestyles, likely leading to variability in their children’s behavioral outcomes. The present study examined a mediation model interrelating mothers’ cumulative risk exposure, children’s behavior problems, and coping strategies of both mothers and children. Findings showed that mothers’ greater exposure to cumulative risk was associated with lower utilization of task-oriented coping and higher utilization of emotion-oriented coping. Further, mothers’ emotion-oriented coping mediated the associat...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Zhang, Jing; Slesnick, Natasha Source Type: research

Parents’ early life stressful experiences, their present well-being, and that of their children.
Parents’ early life stressful experiences have lifelong consequences, not only for themselves but also for their children. The current study utilized a sample of military families (n = 266) including data from both active-duty and civilian parents and their adolescent children. Hypotheses reflecting principles of persistence, transmission, and proximity as pertaining to parents and their children were examined. The impact of parents’ childhood experiences on their functioning later in life and, consequently, their adolescent children’s well-being were examined. Adults who encountered more stressful childhood experien...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 13, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: O’Neal, Catherine Walker; Richardson, Evin W.; Mancini, Jay A.; Grimsley, Rebecca Neilann Source Type: research

Active war in Sri Lanka: Children ’s war exposure, coping, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in response to active war is understudied among Sinhalese children in Sri Lanka. We investigated PTSD symptom severity in children using child (n = 60) and mother (n = 60) reports; child-reported war exposure and coping; as well as self-reported maternal PTSD symptom severity. The study addressed active war in 2 rural locations (acute and chronic community war exposure). Child-reports were significantly greater than mother-reports of child PTSD symptom severity. Furthermore, children ’s war exposure, child-reported and mother-reported child PTSD symptom severity, and maternal PTSD sym...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Soysa, Champika K.; Azar, Sandra T. Source Type: research

How subjective well-being is associated with material deprivation and social exclusion in Israeli 12-year-olds.
The literature examining the relations between economic situation and happiness has focused almost exclusively on a household ’s income as a proxy for economic situation and, accordingly, also focused chiefly on the adult population, excluding children and adolescents. To fill this gap, this study examines the relation between economic deprivation and happiness by using 2 alternative proxies: material deprivation and soc ial exclusion. The study tests the relation of these measures to the most common measure for happiness—subjective well-being (SWB)—in a sample of Israeli 12-year-olds (N = 1,081). The study also exam...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 17, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Gross-Manos, Daphna; Ben-Arieh, Asher Source Type: research

Mandated reporters ’ perceptions of and encounters with domestic minor sex trafficking of adolescent females in the United States.
This is the first study to explore whether mandated reporters who work with adolescent females, ages 10 to 17, recognize domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) and associated risk factors. Because mandated reporters are required by law to report child abuse, neglect, and child exploitation, lack of specific DMST training or not believing DMST exists in communities continues to place young females at risk for revictimization. Results indicate that 60% of mandated reporters in the sample (N = 577) had no specific training on DMST. Furthermore, almost 25% of respondents did not believe DMST existed in their communities. Implic...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 17, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Hartinger-Saunders, Robin M.; Trouteaud, Alex R.; Matos Johnson, Jodien Source Type: research

Reducing primary and secondary traumatic stress symptoms among educators by training them to deliver a resiliency program (ERASE-Stress) following the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand.
The current investigation evaluated the impact of a universal school-based resiliency intervention (ERASE-Stress) on educators who were working with elementary schoolchildren exposed to the Canterbury earthquake in New Zealand. In the context of major disasters, educators may suffer from “dual trauma”; they can experience symptoms of both primary trauma (as a result of the disaster itself) and secondary trauma (as a result of working with traumatized students). Sixty-three educators were randomly assigned to either the ERASE-Stress intervention or an alternative Managing Emergencies and Traumatic Incidents (METI) progr...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Berger, Rony; Abu-Raiya, Hisham; Benatov, Joy Source Type: research

Can behavioral health drive its own reformation? The challenges of shifting direction.
This paper is designed to provide a broad-view perspective on at least some of the implications of the Affordable Care Act for children’s behavioral health. Historical trends in behavioral health have tended to isolate both consumers of services (including children, youth and families) and practitioners from the larger world of healthcare, with decidedly mixed results. This paper uses the concept of path dependence to highlight the multiple challenges facing child behavioral health as it moves forward. The paper builds its recommendations on the 4 pillars of sustainable change: politics, practice, economics, and science....
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Morris, John A. Source Type: research

Using public health strategies to shape early childhood policy.
There is clear evidence that ensuring safe, stimulating, and nurturing caregiving environments for young children may be one of the most impactful health promotion strategies available, with lifelong and intergenerational benefits. Supports and interventions in the early years of life may in fact be the most effective way to improve school performance, increase high school graduation rates, job performance, and adult productivity. A public health approach to early childhood well-being, as opposed to the needs of children being addressed in multiple siloes, may be a more effective strategy that will lead to smarter investme...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Nagle, Geoffrey A.; Usry, Lindsay R. Source Type: research