Erik Sorensen

Judicial Decision-Making in Contested Custody Cases: The Influence of Reported Child Abuse, Spouse Abuse, and Parental Substance Abuse.

This study examined the relationship between allegations of maltreatment and substance abuse, and custody awards in Florida. Information concerning the presence, or absence, of these reports was collected on 60 contested initial disposition, or disposition modification cases, and was used to model judicial decision-making. Substantiated reports of child and spouse abuse occurred very infrequently in our sample. Conversely, substance abuse allegations occurred much more frequently. Judges appeared responsive to allegations of abuse with regard to awards of primary physical residence, despite the lack of substantiated evidence. Maltreatment allegations had no apparent impact, however, on awards of shared, versus sole, custody. Additionally, reports of parental substance abuse also had no apparent impact on judicial decision-making. Implications of these results are discussed.

Brief child assessment battery to assist with treatment planning and program evaluation

A brief battery of self-report measures was constructed to discriminate effectively 45 matched clinic versus nonclinic subjects, ages 8 to 15. The battery consisted of measures from six domains, including externalizing problems, child and parent report of internalizing problems, peer relations, school functioning, and family relationships. Data on subjects and their families were provided by various sources, including parents, teachers, and the children. In an effort to facilitate interpretation and use of this information by unsophisticated staff, within domain scores were converted to bivariate risk scores. Results indicated effective classification (82%) of groups using the bivariate risk scores alone. This constituted only a small loss of information when the risk scores replaced t-scores. Implications for the use of the risk scores to facilitate treatment planning and program evaluation are discussed.

Mom-net: Evaluation of an internet-facilitated cognitive behavioral intervention for low-income depressed mothers.

Objective: Evaluate an Internet-facilitated cognitive–behavioral treatment intervention for depression, tailored to economically disadvantaged mothers of young children. Method: Economically disadvantaged mothers (N = 266) of preschool aged children, who reported elevated levels of depressive symptoms, were randomized to either the 8-session, Internet-facilitated intervention (Mom-Net) or to Motivational Interviewing and Referral to Services (MIRS). Outcomes were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9; Spitzer et al., 1999), the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revised (DSM–IV–TR) Axis I Disorders (SCID; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 2002), and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS; Hamilton, 1960). Results: Relative to participants in the MIRS condition, participants in Mom-Net demonstrated significantly greater reduction in depression as indexed by self-report questionnaire (primary outcome), interviewer-rated symptoms, and diagnostic outcomes. Conclusions: Results suggest that the Mom-Net intervention is effective as a remotely delivered intervention for economically disadvantaged mothers.

Self-Report of Guardians Ad Litem: Provision of Information to Judges in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases.

Reporting patterns of Guardians Ad Litem to judges in cases on child abuse and neglect were studied. Guardians indicated which information they had included in reports to judges in recently adjudicated cases of child abuse and neglect. Information reported in child abuse cases was compared with information reported in neglect cases, and the pattern of reporting was found to be the same in both types of cases. Guardians most frequently included information concerning the childs physical safety, the interaction between the parent(s) and the child, and personality characteristics of the parent(s). Less frequently reported was information regarding conflict in the home and family enmeshment.

Mediation analyses of Internet-facilitated cognitive behavioral intervention for maternal depression

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the putative mediating mechanisms of an Internet-facilitated cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention for depression tailored to economically disadvantaged mothers of preschool-age children. The CBT mediators were tested across two previously published randomized controlled trials which included the same measures of behavioral activation, negative thinking, and savoring of positive events. Trial 1 included 70 mothers with elevated depressive symptoms who were randomized to either the eight-session, Internet-facilitated intervention (Mom-Net) or to treatment as usual. Trial 2 included 266 mothers with elevated depressive symptoms who were randomized to either Mom-Net or to a motivational interviewing and referral to services condition. Simple mediation models tested each putative mediator independently followed by tests of multiple mediation that simultaneously included all three mediators in the model to assess the salient contributions of each mediator. The pattern of results for the mediating effects were systematically replicated across the two trials and suggest that behavioral activation and negative thinking are salient mediators of the Mom-Net intervention; significant mediating effects for savoring were obtained only in the simple mediation models and were not obtained in the multiple mediation models.