Carole Hooven

Parental meta-emotion structure predicts family and child outcomes

Abstract Fifty-six families with a preschool child whose parents varied widely in parental marital satisfaction were studied at two time points: at time-I when the children were 5 years old and again at time-2 when the children were 8 years old. At time-1 each parent was separately interviewed about their “meta-emotion structure”, that is, their feelings about their own emotions, and their attitudes, and responses to their childrens anger and sadness. Their behaviour during this interview was coded with a meta-emotion coding system. Two meta-emotion variables were studied for each parent, awareness of the parents own sadness, and parental “coaching” of the childs anger. We termed the high end of these variables an “emotion coaching” (EC) meta-emotion structure. Meta-emotion structure was found to relate to time-1 marital and parent-child interaction. EC-type parents had marriages that were less hostile and they were less negative and more positive during parent-child interaction. Their children showed ...

Meta-Emotion Philosophy and Family Functioning: Reply to Cowan (1996) and Eisenberg (1996)

P. A. Cowans (1996) and N. Eisenbergs (1996) comments (a) raise important questions about the conceptualization and measurement of parental meta-emotion philosophy and child affect regulation, (b) highlight individual characteristics of the child that may affect parental meta-emotion philosophy, and (c) suggest directions for future research. This reply uses qualitative descriptions from meta-emotion transcripts and additional quantitative analyses to address major issues raised by these comments.

Long-term outcomes for the promoting CARE suicide prevention program.

OBJECTIVES To provide a long-term look at suicide risk from adolescence to young adulthood for former participants in Promoting CARE, an indicated suicide prevention program. METHODS Five hundred ninety-three suicide-vulnerable high school youth were involved in a long-term follow-up study. Latent class growth models identify patterns of change in suicide risk over this period. RESULTS Three distinct trajectories are determined, all showing a maintenance of decreased suicide risk from postintervention in adolescence into young adulthood for direct suicide-risk behaviors, depression and anger. Intervention conditions as well as key risk/protective factors are identified that predict to the long-term trajectories. CONCLUSION Early intervention is successful in promoting and maintaining lower-risk status from adolescence to young adulthood, with the caveat that some high-risk behaviors may indicate a need for additional intervention to establish earlier effects.

Multi-domain risk and protective factor predictors of violent behavior among at-risk youth

This study extends prior examination of adolescent violence etiology, drawing on an ethnically diverse, community accessed, yet emotionally vulnerable sample (N=849) of adolescents at-risk for school dropout. A balanced risk and protective factor framework captured theorized dimensions of strain, coping, and support resources. We tested the combined and unique contribution of risk and protective components spanning individual, peer/school, and family predictor domains, including victimization histories. Hierarchical regressions yielded significant overall explanation of violent behaviors as well as unique predictors within each of the three domains. Tests for sex differences and moderating effects suggested that levels of risk and protective factors differed for males and females, although the functional relationships to violence were the same for both sexes. Results are discussed relative to prevention and early intervention programs; particularly the importance of understanding adolescent violent behaviors within a context that addresses stress and distress.

Promoting CARE: including parents in youth suicide prevention.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of augmenting a youth suicide-preventive intervention with a brief, home-based parent program. A total of 615 high school youth and their parents participated. Three suicide prevention protocols, a youth intervention, a parent intervention, and a combination of youth and parent intervention, were compared with an “intervention as usual” (IAU) group. All groups experienced a decline in risk factors and an increase in protective factors during the intervention period, and sustained these improvements over 15 months. Results reveal that the youth intervention and combined youth and parent intervention produced significantly greater reductions in suicide risk factors and increases in protective factors than IAU comparison group.

Suicide Risk at Young Adulthood: Continuities and Discontinuities From Adolescence.

Young adult suicide is an important social problem, yet little is known about how risk for young adult suicide develops from earlier life stages. In this study the authors report on 759 young adults who were potential high school dropouts as youth. At both adolescence and young adulthood, measures of suicide risk status and related suicide risk factors are collected. With a two-by-two classification on the basis of suicide risk status at both adolescence and young adulthood, the authors distinguish four mutually exclusive groups reflecting suicide risk at two life stages. Using ANOVA and logistic regression, both adolescent and young adult suicide risk factors are identified, with evidence of similarity between risk factors at adolescence and at young adulthood, for both individual-level and social-context factors. There is also support for both continuity and discontinuity of adolescent suicide risk. Implications for social policy are discussed.

School-Wide Staff and Faculty Training in Suicide Risk Awareness: Successes and Challenges

PROBLEM Rates of youth suicide and suicidal behavior remain high despite prevention efforts. Training high school personnel as gatekeepers is an important strategy. METHODS Training was implemented in a school districts five comprehensive high schools. Surveys were conducted before and after training sessions, which targeted all adults working at the high school. Two hundred thirty-seven individuals completed the pretest and/or posttest. FINDINGS Participants reported gains in knowledge, confidence, and feelings of competence in recognizing, approaching, and connecting distressed youth to school-based resources. Training was well received. CONCLUSION Training is acceptable and appropriate for school personnel. Increasing the number of school personnel who participate in the training is challenging.

Risk and Protective Profiles Among Never Exposed, Single Form, and Multiple Form Violence Exposed Youth

This investigation integrated violence exposure with critical risk and protective factors linked to healthy adolescent adaptation and transition into early adulthood. A racially diverse sample of 848 adolescents identified as at-risk for school drop-out were assessed for no, single, or multiple forms of violence exposure. MANOVA tests revealed that youth with single form victimization fared more poorly than neverexposed youth, and that multiple-form victimization held the greatest jeopardy to development. Youth with multiple-form victimization reported significantly elevated risk factors (emotional distress, life stress, suicide risk, risky behaviors) and lower protective factors (social support, school engagement, family structure) than both single-form and never-exposed youth. Implications are discussed for preventive and early intervention programming and for examining the transition of at-risk youth into young adulthood.

Parents‐CARE: A Suicide Prevention Program for Parents of At‐Risk Youth

TOPIC Families play an important role in youth suicide prevention, as both a source of protection and a source of risk, and thus are an important target for adolescent suicide prevention programs. PURPOSE This article describes in detail Parents-CARE, a brief youth suicide prevention program for parents, for which effectiveness has been demonstrated. Engaging parents in preventive intervention can be challenging; therefore, the feasibility, acceptability, and relevance of the program to parents are examined. SOURCES USED A total of 289 households participated in Parents-CARE. Parent attendance data and parent and interventionist process data are utilized to demonstrate the positive response by parents to the program. CONCLUSION The Parents-CARE program was highly attended, and ratings demonstrate that parents were engaged in the program. Ratings show parents found the program both acceptable and relevant. Hence, the program described is promising for clinicians working with at-risk youth as they seek brief, accessible, and effective interventions that include parents in order to amplify the effects of an individual intervention approach.

Neighborhood Perceptions and Emotional Well-Being in Young Adulthood

PROBLEM While mounting research suggests that neighborhood environment impacts mental health outcomes, for adolescents and adults, there is scant research on how perceived neighborhood context affects young adults. In this article, we explore the role of perceived neighborhood characteristics, specifically indicators of perceived neighborhood stressors, on emotional well-being among young adults. METHOD Using a regional sample of young adults, we estimate regression models to examine the relationship of perceived neighborhood stressors on three mental health outcomes (depressed affect, hopelessness, and anger), reflective of a general emotional well-being, while controlling for key individual characteristics related to mental health outcomes. FINDINGS Results show perceived neighborhood effects for emotional well-being consistent with a stress process model where the scale of perceived neighborhood stressors is associated with poor emotional well-being for depressed affect and hopelessness. Specific perceived neighborhood measures were significant for each of the mental health outcomes whereby greater perceptions of unsafe conditions and economic hardship are positively associated with poor emotional well-being and greater social intervention and more social attachments are associated with better emotional well-being. CONCLUSION For young adults, perceptions of neighborhood stressors are related to indicators of mental health. We discuss the implications of our findings for ongoing research on neighborhood contextual effects and mental health during the transition to adulthood.