This study was a randomized control trial (RCT) of Parent Management Training--The Oregon Model (PMTO) in Norway. A sample representing all health regions of Norway and consisting of 112 children with conduct problems and their families participated in the study. Families were randomly assigned to either PMTO or a regular services comparison group. PMTO was delivered via existing children's services, and families were recruited using the agencies' regular referral procedures, making this the first effectiveness study of PMTO and the first RCT of PMTO conducted outside of the United States. Using a multiagent-multimethod approach, results showed that PMTO was effective in reducing parent-reported child externalizing problems, improving teacher-reported social competence, and enhancing parental discipline. Age level and gender modified the effects of PMTO treatment on other outcomes. In a path model, participation in PMTO was associated with improved parental discipline, and effective discipline predicted greater child compliance, fewer child-initiated negative chains, and lower levels of child externalizing problems. Findings are presented along with a discussion of the implications for practice and research and the challenges accompanying effectiveness trials.

Background: Multisystemic Treatment (MST) is an intensive home-and community based intervention for youths with serious behaviour problems. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of MST compared to 'regular services' (RS) two years after intake to treatment. In particular, our goals were to investigate whether MST was successful at preventing placement out of home, and to examine reductions in behaviour problems in multi-informant assessments. Method: Participants were 75 adolescents who were randomly assigned to MST or Regular Child Welfare Services (RS) at 3 sites across Norway. Data were gathered from youths, caregivers and teachers. Results: MST was more effective than RS in reducing out of home placement and behavioural problems. Discussion: The sustainability of treatment effects was evident, supporting the MST approach to the treatment of serious behavioural problems in youth. Site differences and the moderating effects of age and gender are discussed.

This study investigated the effects of hope, social support, and stress on behavioral problems in a high-risk group of 65 children of incarcerated mothers. Children with low levels of hope had more externalizing and internalizing problems. Children who perceived less social support had more externalizing problems, and children who had experienced more life stressors reported more internalizing problems. Regression analyses indicated that hope contributed unique variance to both internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems after social support and stress were controlled. These findings suggest that being confident in one's ability to overcome challenges and having a positive outlook function as protective factors, whereas being less hopeful may place a child at risk for developing adjustment problems. Whether it is possible to foster agency and teach pathways to children with lower levels of hope is discussed.

The degree of continuity and distinctiveness in social competence and antisocial behavior was examined in a longitudinal structural equation model. Participants were 391 typically developing Norwegian middle school students (51% boys), their parents, and teachers and were assessed when they were approximately 13 years of age (a school cohort in 8th grade) and again 17 months later, when they were about 15 years old (in 10th grade). Social competence showed considerable stability across middle school, more than did antisocial behavior. Low social competence at age 13 predicted antisocial behavior at age 15, over and above the variance explained by the earlier assessment of antisocial behavior. While social competence and antisocial behavior both showed a relatively strong negative association concurrently and demonstrated considerable overlap, results suggested that the two constructs should be considered separate dimensions. Findings are presented within a transactional framework and implications for prevention efforts and directions for future research are discussed.Social competence and antisocial behavior have received a great deal of attention in the literature on peer relations and adjustment in children and youth (

This effectiveness study presents the results of a 1-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of Parent Management Training. Families of 112 Norwegian girls and boys with clinic-level conduct problems participated, and 75 (67%) families were retained at follow-up. Children ranged in age from 4 to 12 at intake (M = 8.44). Families randomized to the control group received an active treatment alternative as would be normally offered by participating agencies. Multi-informant, multisetting outcome measures were collected and results from both intention-to-treat and treatment-on-the-treated analyses are presented. In two separate indirect effects models, assignment to Parent Management Training-the Oregon model predicted greater effective discipline and family cohesion at postassessment, which in turn predicted improvements in several child domains at follow-up.

Implementing and evaluating evidence-based treatments of conduct problems in children and youth in Norway.

Bullying victimization and trauma research traditions operate quite separately. Hence, it is unclear from the literature whether bullying victimization should be considered as a form of interpersonal trauma. We review studies that connect bullying victimization with symptoms of PTSD, and in doing so, demonstrate that a conceptual understanding of the consequences of childhood bullying needs to be framed within a developmental perspective. We discuss two potential diagnoses that ought to be considered in the context of bullying victimization: (1) developmental trauma disorder, which was suggested but not accepted as a new diagnosis in the DSM-5 and (2) complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which has been included in the ICD-11. Our conclusion is that these frameworks capture the complexity of the symptoms associated with bullying victimization better than PTSD. We encourage practitioners to understand how exposure to bullying interacts with development at different ages when addressing the consequences for targets and when designing interventions that account for the duration, intensity, and sequelae of this type of interpersonal trauma.

This study examined the development of social skills across five measurement points from 4 th through 7 th grade, and the influence of child gender and school-related factors on the level and growth of social skills, in a large sample of normally developing children in Norway (N = 2,076). On average, children's social skills scores increased slightly, girls received higher scores than boys, and individual order stability was fairly high over time. Growth mixture modeling (GMM) identified three distinct trajectory classes, one with stable average scores over time (72%), and two (14% each) with high initial and declining scores and low initial and increasing scores, respectively. The school-related factors (e.g., student-teacher relationships) predicted social skills development differently within the trajectory classes.