The parent-child programme at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital was developed in 1991 to assist families in coping with young children who were at risk of or had been diagnosed with communication difficulties. The programme attempts to move away from the traditional medical model of service delivery towards a more family-focused approach. Children…

A model of parental monitoring behaviors, comprising rule setting and supervision, was proposed. The hypothesized relationship between rules, supervision, conflict, and adolescent problem behavior was tested using structured equation modeling on self-report data from 1,285 adolescents aged 14 to 15 years. The model was an adequate fit of the data,…

The potential role of social support for the adolescent offspring of psychiatric patients has hitherto not been examined. We examined whether the adolescent's level of psychiatric symptoms is dependent on the content and the function of social support (whether direct or moderating), controlling for perceived stress. In a cross-sectional design, 40…

The current longitudinal study examined the protective effects of parenting processes on measures of adolescent adjustment (health-compromising and violent behaviors) in a sample of high-risk, inner-city, poor African American youth N = 2,867). Parenting processes played an important role in this dangerous developmental milieu. For male…

Objectives: Physical punishment, as a means of disciplining children, may be considered a mild form of childhood adversity. Although many outcomes of physical punishment have been investigated, little attention has been given to the impact of physical punishment on later adult psychopathology. Also, it has been stated that physical punishment by a…

Adolescent mothers were recruited from a local hospital and from a local social service agency to participate with their newborn infants in a home visitation program intended to increase maternal sensitivity and to support the developing mother-infant relationship. The mother-infant pairs (n=46) were randomly assigned to either a control group or…

High risk parenting and child abuse are the consequences of multiple and interactive factors. The occurrence of major life events such as death, divorce, marriage, and pregnancy frequently presents stressors that may ignite an already volatile family situation. This study was conducted to examine the incidence of reported major life events in…

The estimated 1.5 million children in the United States with parents who are incarcerated have experienced disrupted and multiple placements, decreased quality of care, financial hardship, and lack of contact with the parents. Consequently, these children are at risk for poor academic achievement, substance abuse, delinquency, and future…

Examines the effectiveness of a psychoeducational parenting program with at-risk parents of young children. Results showed that compared with the control group, parents participating in the program significantly decreased their levels of verbal and corporal punishment, anger, stress, and reported child behavior problems; results were maintained at…

This study examined the construct validity of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory by comparing 41 maltreating and high-risk parents' CAP Inventory abuse scores to their behavior during observed interactions with their children. Correlational analyses revealed that CAP Inventory scores and observed parenting style yielded highly related findings…

Explores the usefulness of the attachment relationship between children and parents for explaining differences in parent-preschooler reading in high- and low-socioeconomic-status families. Finds that less secure dyads read less frequently. Proposes a developmental model of interactive reading. Concludes that programs must create a safe base from…

This editorial comments on a study showing an association between low parental empathy and high risk for child abuse behaviors in mothers, and urges studies that link maternal emotionality and empathic responsiveness with treatment programs. (DB)

Used data from National Survey of Families and Households to examine heterogeneity of caregiving experience for female family caregivers. Found caregiving to have negative associations for caregivers in number of domains, with women who cared for their husbands reporting most negative outcomes. Both longer duration of caregiving and coresidence…

Examined the relation between contextual risk factors and IQ in children at risk for mental disorder. Maternal teaching style and children's performance on a Luria bulb-squeeze procedure and delayed-match-to-sample task added variance to the risk-IQ equation. Contextual risk was related to children's preschool IQ. (BC)

Development of 315 children and quality of their parents' marital relationship were evaluated when children were 3 and 24 months of age. Found marital discord at 3 months did not affect children's emotional well-being at 3 months or 24 months. Behavior problems increased and cognitive performance decreased for children whose parents' marital…