This study examined the specificity of relations between parent / caregiver behaviors and childhood internalizing and externalizing problems in a sample of 70 fourth grade children (64% male, mean age = 9.7 years). Specificity was assessed via (a) unique effects, (b) differential effects, and (c) interactive effects. When measured as unique and differential effects, specificity was not found for warmth or psychological control but was found for caregiver's use of behavior control. Higher levels of behavior control were uniquely related to lower levels of externalizing problems and higher levels of internalizing problems; differential effects analyses indicated that higher levels of behavior control were related to decreases in the within-child difference in relative levels of level of internalizing vs. externalizing problems. Interactive relations among the three parenting behavior dimensions also were identified. Although caregivers emphasized different parenting behavior dimensions across two separate caregiver-child interaction tasks, relations between parenting behavior dimensions and child psychopathology did not vary as a function of task. These findings indicate the importance of assessing and simultaneously analyzing multiple parenting behavior dimensions and multiple child psychopathology domains.Forty years of parenting research have produced consensus regarding the importance of several dimensions of parenting behavior, including behavior control, psychological control, and warmth/support (e.g., Gray & Steinberg, 1999). Yet the precise nature of the relation of these parenting dimensions to child psychopathology remains unclear. For example, there is not yet consensus as to whether parenting behavior dimensions are best considered as categorical parenting styles (e.g., authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting; Baumrind, 1991) based on simultaneous consideration of multiple dimensions, or as independent, continuous dimensions (e.g., psychological control; behavior control; Barber, 1996).Underlying the use of parenting style typologies (as opposed to separate dimensions of parenting) are several assumptions about the nature of parenting behaviors, including the belief that (a) parenting behaviors are themselves correlated (e.g., parents who are warm tend to use positive behavior control strategies), and thus parenting behaviors should be NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript considered in clusters rather than separately; and (b) the effects of one type of parenting behavior on children are dependent on the presence or absence of other parenting behaviors (i.e., parenting behaviors have interactive effects on child outcomes), and thus typologies should simultaneously consider multiple parenting behaviors. Although many studies have failed to find interactions among parenting behaviors in the prediction of child psychopathology (e.g., Barber, Olsen, & Shagle, 1994;Garber, Robinson, & Valentiner, 1997), others have found some evidence for interactive rel...

This study used a randomized design to evaluate the effectiveness of child psychotherapy as typically delivered in outpatient settings. Overall results were similar to the results of nonrandomized studies of traditional child psychotherapy: Little support was found for its effectiveness, with treatment producing an overall effect size of -.08. Despite the lack of significant differences between treatment and control groups in regard to changes in child functioning, parents of children who received treatment reported higher levels of satisfaction with services than control group parents whose children received academic tutoring. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of developing, validating, and transporting effective treatments to clinical settings.

This article details the development and preliminary validation of a multidimensional self-report measure of emotion for 8- to 12-year-old children--the How I Feel (HIF). Item generation and selection occurred via 2 pilot administrations (ns = 250 and 378, respectively). Ten experts provided data on content validity. Exploratory factor analysis and subsequent confirmatory factor analysis with samples of 406, 524, 349, and 349 3rd-through 6th-grade children supported a 3-factor model, including the frequency and intensity of (a) positive emotion, (b) negative emotion, and (c) positive and negative emotion control. Results showed moderate longitudinal stability for 120 children over 2 years. Concurrent validity was established. The HIF can be useful in understanding the interplay between arousal and control in social-emotional adjustment in school-age children.

Defining the source of HIV-1 RNA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) will facilitate studies of treatment efficacy in the brain. Four antiretroviral drug-naive adults underwent two 48-hr ultraintensive CSF sampling procedures, once at baseline and again beginning on day 4 after initiating three-drug therapy with stavudine, lamivudine, and nelfinavir. At baseline, constant CSF HIV-1 RNA concentrations were maintained by daily entry of at least 10(4) to 10(6) HIV-1 RNA copies into CSF. Change from baseline to day 5 ranged from -0.38 to -1.18 log(10) HIV-1 RNA copies/ml in CSF, and from -0.80 to -1.33 log(10) HIV-1 RNA copies/ml in plasma, with no correlation between CSF and plasma changes. There was no evidence of genotypic or phenotypic viral resistance in either CSF or plasma. With regard to pharmacokinetics, mean CSF-to-plasma area-under-the-curve (AUC) ratios were 38.9% for stavudine and 15.3% for lamivudine. Nelfinavir and its active M8 metabolite could not be accurately quantified in CSF, although plasma M8 peak level and AUC(0-8hr) correlated with CSF HIV-1 RNA decline. This study supports the utility of ultraintensive CSF sampling for studying HIV-1 pathogenesis and therapy in the CNS, and provides strong evidence that HIV-1 RNA in CSF arises, at least in part, from a source other than plasma.

The present study examined the role of emotion and emotion control in children's externalizing problems. Third- to sixth-grade children were administered a self-report measure of positive emotion, negative emotion, and emotion control. Peer- and teacher-reported adjustment problems were assessed. Structural equations modeling revealed that negative emotion, especially anger, was important in externalizing problems. Less positive emotion was associated with more externalizing problems. However, when negative emotion was examined in a more differentiated manner (anger, sadness and fear), the effect of positive emotion was diminished. Anger consistently emerged as a significant predictor of behavior problems. No interaction between either positive emotion and emotion control or negative emotion and emotion control was significant. Results showed main effects of each emotion component, with small interaction effects. Methodological and conceptual implications of the findings from the present study are discussed.

The authors evaluated the efficacy of RECAP, a psychosocial intervention developed to treat concurrent internalizing and externalizing problems in children. Participants included 93 4th-grade children assigned to the treatment group or a no-treatment control group. The school-based program, which lasts the 9-month academic year, provides individual, group, classroom, teacher, and parent training in the RECAP skills-development curriculum, which was derived from empirically supported treatment programs for nonconcurrent internalizing and externalizing problems. Outcome assessments included parent-, teacher-, self-, and peer reports. A mixed hierarchical linear models analysis indicated that, overall, treatment children's rate of improvement in both internalizing and externalizing problems was significantly greater than that for control participants.

BackgroundDepression and anxiety in Parkinson's disease are common and frequently co-morbid, with significant impact on health outcome. Nevertheless, management is complex and often suboptimal. The existence of clinical subtypes would support stratified approaches in both research and treatment.MethodFive hundred and thirteen patients with Parkinson's disease were assessed annually for up to 4 years. Latent transition analysis (LTA) was used to identify classes that may conform to clinically meaningful subgroups, transitions between those classes over time, and baseline clinical and demographic features that predict common trajectories.ResultsIn total, 64.1% of the sample remained in the study at year 4. LTA identified four classes, a ‘Psychologically healthy’ class (approximately 50%), and three classes associated with psychological distress: one with moderate anxiety alone (approximately 20%), and two with moderate levels of depression plus moderate or severe anxiety. Class membership tended to be stable across years, with only about 15% of individuals transitioning between the healthy class and one of the distress classes. Stable distress was predicted by higher baseline depression and psychiatric history and younger age of onset of Parkinson's disease. Those with younger age of onset were also more likely to become distressed over the course of the study.ConclusionsPsychopathology was characterized by relatively stable anxiety or anxious-depression over the 4-year period. Anxiety, with or without depression, appears to be the prominent psychopathological phenotype in Parkinson's disease suggesting a pressing need to understanding its mechanisms and improve management.

Objective Adolescent conduct problems exact serious social as well as personal costs, and effective treatments are essential. One of the most widely disseminated and effective programs for the treatment of serious conduct problems in adolescents is Multisystemic Therapy (MST). However, most evaluations of MST have involved the developers of MST. The purpose of the present study was to conduct an independent evaluation of MST, with non-court-referred adolescents with conduct problems. Method Participants were 164 adolescents aged 11 to 18 years who were recruited from self-contained behavior intervention classrooms in public schools. Adolescents and their families were randomly assigned to receive MST or services as usual. Outcome measures assessed conduct problems, school functioning, and court records of criminal behavior. Participants were followed for 18 months after baseline using parent, adolescent, and teacher reports; arrest data were collected for 2.5 years post-baseline. Results Two of four primary outcome measures focused on externalizing problems showed significant treatment effects favoring MST. Several secondary and intervention targets pertaining to family functioning and parent psychopathology showed positive effects of MST, and no negative effects were identified. Conclusions Results provide some further support for the effectiveness of MST, although smaller effect sizes than previous studies also suggest the complexity of successful dissemination, particularly to non-court-referred populations.