Michael Cassano

The inclusion of fathers in the empirical investigation of child psychopathology: an update.

This investigation provides an update on the inclusion of fathers in child psychopathology research. Articles published from January 1992 to January 2005 that examined parental contributions to child psychological maladjustment were identified. Each article was coded for child age, parental race, how parent gender was analyzed, type of journal, and year of publication. Overall, results replicated previous reviews (Phares & Compas, 1992), suggesting that fathers continue to be neglected in child psychopathology research. Further analyses revealed (a) higher rates of paternal research involvement as child age increased, (b) studies with a predominantly Caucasian sample included separate analyses for mothers and fathers more frequently than those with predominantly African American samples, (c) paternal research inclusion was higher in clinical compared to developmental psychology journals, and (d) over the past 6 years, more research has included fathers as participants than from the previous 7-year period (1992–1998).

Comparing Active Pediatric Obesity Treatments Using Meta-Analysis

The current meta-analysis reviews research on the treatment of pediatric obesity focusing on studies that have been published since 1994. Eleven studies (22 comparisons, 115 effect sizes, N = 447) were included in the present meta-analysis. Results indicated that comprehensive behavioral interventions may be improved in at least two ways: increasing the “dose” of behavioral components and increasing parental involvement. Although limited to just one investigation, support for the use of medication was also found. The addition of cognitive therapy techniques did not appear to increase, and possibly detracted from, the efficacy of established treatments.

Defining Competence and Identifying Target Skills

It is fitting that we begin this volume with an attempt to define social competence. A definition should bring us further toward operationalization and the identification of critical skills to be targeted in assessment and intervention. As it stands, however, there is no agreed upon definition of social competence. Though understandable given the overarching and complex nature of such competence, this lack of agreement has caused problems for both assessment and intervention and has limited the overall utility of the construct. Proposed requisite skills for socially competent responding range from cognitive (e.g., fund of information, skills for processing/acquisition, perspective taking), emotional (e.g., affect regulation), and behavioral (e.g., conversation skills, prosocial behavior) skills and abilities, as well as motivational and expectancy sets (e.g., moral development, self-efficacy; Dubois & Felner, 1996).