Preston A. Britner

Child–parent attachment following early institutional deprivation

Child-parent attachment quality with an adoptive caregiver at age 4 years was examined in a sample of 111 children adopted into the United Kingdom following early severe deprivation in Romania and a comparison group of 52 nondeprived within-United Kingdom adoptees. Findings indicated that, compared with nondeprived adoptees, children who experienced early severe deprivation were less likely to be securely attached and more likely to show atypical patterns of attachment behavior; ordinary forms of insecure attachment were not associated with deprivation. Within the sample of deprived adoptees, there was a dose-response association between duration of deprivation and disturbances in attachment behavior. In addition, a minority of children who experienced severe early deprivation were classified as avoidant, secure, or dependent using conventional classification strategies, despite also exhibiting atypical patterns of attachment behaviors, and this was also more likely among children exposed to prolonged deprivation. The results raise both theoretical and methodological implications for attachment research on very deprived children.

Worldwide mental health correlates of parental acceptance-rejection: Review of cross-cultural and intracultural evidence

Cross-cultural and intracultural evidence converges on the conclusion that four classes of mental health issues are possible worldwide correlates of parental acceptance-rejection. Strongest evidence supports parental acceptance-rejection theorys personality subtheory that postulates a universal relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment. Substantial evidence also supports the likelihood of worldwide correlations between parental acceptance-rejection and three other mental health issues: (a) unipolar depression and depressed affect; (b) behavior problems, including conduct disorder, externalizing behaviors, and delinquency; and (c) substance abuse. Finally, limitations in this body of research and implications of the findings for policy and practice are discussed.

Predictors of Placement Outcomes in Treatment Foster Care: Implications for Foster Parent Selection and Service Delivery

Treatment foster care (TFC) is a normalizing environment in which to treat those children whose particular needs are not addressed in traditional foster care and for whom an institutional setting is a restrictive and unnecessary alternative. However, when the foster care placements of these emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children fail, as they often do, the children are shifted from one home to another without the opportunity to experience permanence or emotional attachment, resulting in poor adjustment to foster care. Placement stability, which depends in part upon effective matching of foster children with potential foster families, is critical for achieving positive outcomes in TFC. Yet, there is a dearth of information to guide placement agencies in making decisions about matching foster children with families. Moreover, once a successful match has been made, it is equally vital that service delivery be of high quality so that permanence is maintained. We review research on the predictors of positive outcomes in foster care, focusing on studies involving emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children, and provide recommendations for selecting foster parents and for ensuring high quality foster care services and placement stability.

Professionals’ decision-making about out-of-home placements following instances of child abuse

OBJECTIVEnThe goal of this research was to study how different groups of child welfare professionals prioritize and use information to make placement decisions following instances of child abuse.nnnMETHODnA total of 90 juvenile court judges and guardians ad litem, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), social workers, and mental health professionals responded to a detailed questionnaire describing four case studies of child physical abuse in which a parent was the perpetrator, the child was either 2 years or 6 years of age, and the abuse was either first time or chronic. Participants rated the impact of specific pieces of information regarding child, family, and system-level characteristics on their decision-making process.nnnRESULTSnAnalyses of reactions to these vignettes demonstrate that professional groups use different kinds of information when making decisions about foster care placements. Social workers and mental health providers rely on information about the severity and pattern of abuse and on information about services offered in the past and parental responses to those services. Judges and guardians ad litem rely more heavily on information about the likelihood of a reoccurrence of abuse and the childs ability to recount the abuse, whereas CASA volunteers rely on information about the stability of the family.nnnCONCLUSIONSnProfessional group membership, rather than factors such as age or ethnicity of the child or chronicity of abuse, accounts for different patterns of prioritizing and using information when making decisions about whether a child should remain in the home or be placed in foster care. The implications for community-based training and intervention efforts are discussed.

Stress and Coping: A Comparison of Self-Report Measures of Functioning in Families of Young Children with Cerebral Palsy or No Medical Diagnosis

We analyzed data from 87 mothers of children ages 15 to 44 months with cerebral palsy (CP) or no diagnosis, who completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Parenting Stress Index, Support Functions Scale, and Inventory of Social Support. Principal components analysis of the 15 subscales from the 5 measures revealed few cross-measure loadings. Mothers of children with CP (severe or mild) reported higher levels of parenting stress than did mothers of controls. However, cluster analysis of self-report measures yielded a 5-cluster solution, with no diagnostic group differences across clusters. That is, there were no overall differences in self-reported family functioning according to presence or severity of the childs disability. The results are discussed in terms of the organization of family systems and their relationship to child diagnosis. Clinical implications for assessing and working with families are noted.

Prevention of Child Maltreatment: Evaluation of a Parent Education Program for Teen Mothers

We conducted an evaluation of a parent education program for the prevention of child maltreatment that served urban teen, unmarried mothers at risk for child maltreatment. Three to five years after the birth of their children, program graduates (n = 125) were significantly less likely than controls (n = 410) to have founded reports of maltreatment in the state database. On the basis of a follow-up phone call to a subset of 80 program graduates and 40 controls, mothers who enrolled in the 12-week parent education/support program showed trends toward being more likely to have completed high school, taken some college courses, and delayed subsequent pregnancies until after age 21.

Development and preliminary validation of the caregiving behavior system: Association with child attachment classification in the preschool Strange Situation

The Marvin and Britner system for classifying caregiver behavior patterns in the preschool Strange Situation is presented to complement the Cassidy and Marvin (1992) preschool childu200a–u200aparent attachment classification system. Participants were 110 mothers and their preschool children (aged 2 to 4 years) with medical risks (epilepsy or mild cerebral palsy) or no diagnosis (i.e., healthy). As coded by reliable, independent raters, there was a highly significant level of concordance between the 5-category caregiver and child classifications in the preschool Strange Situation across the medical risk levels. In comparison to other caregivers, mothers classified as secure in their caregiving behavior pattern were rated as more sensitive; they also showed greater delight and were more supportive of their childrens exploration. Combinations of the ten, 9-point caregiver rating scales were useful in discriminating among the insecure caregiver patterns.

The Juvenile Death Penalty and the Eighth Amendment

The present study investigated the Eighth Amendment tests of societal consensus and proportionality as applied to juvenile death penalties. A sample of former jurors (N=179) voted on whether to execute the defendant in a hypothetical case. Defendants age (10, 15, 16, or 19) and level of remorse were varied. A large percentage of participants voted to execute the defendant in each condition, but the defendants age and the participants attitude toward juvenile culpability significantly predicted the likelihood of execution. Implications for the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty and future research directions are discussed.

Mothers’ Resolution of Their Young Children’s Psychiatric Diagnoses: Associations with Child, Parent, and Relationship Characteristics

Maternal resolution of a child’s diagnosis relates to sensitive caregiving and healthy attachment. Failure to resolve is associated with maternal distress, high caregiving burden, and the quality of marital and social support. This study examined maternal resolution of diagnosis in a child psychiatric population utilizing the Reaction to Diagnosis paradigm. Thirty-three mothers of children ages 2–7xa0years with psychiatric disorders were interviewed using the Reaction to Diagnosis Interview. Slightly over half of the sample was classified as resolved. Associations between maternal resolution status, maternal depression, childrearing stress, and child functioning were examined and a predictive model for maternal resolution status was tested. Specific findings included a significant association between childrearing stress and maternal resolution status with support for some additional predictive power for maternal depression on resolution status. Child functioning was not significantly associated with resolution status, and may exert influence indirectly through its association with childrearing stress. There were no significant associations between maternal or child demographic characteristics and maternal resolution status. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Parent Adaptation and Family Functioning in Relation to Narratives of Children With Chronic Illness

BACKGROUNDnThis study assessed the experience of parents who have a child diagnosed with chronic illness and whether childrens narratives mirror these experiences.nnnMETHODnA total of 66 parents completed assessments about adaptation and family functioning. Children with type 1 diabetes or asthma participated in a story-stem narrative task.nnnRESULTSnForty-one percent of parents were unresolved about their childs diagnosis, regardless of time since diagnosis. Unresolved parents reported lower family functioning, and children in these families had more family conflict themes.nnnCONCLUSIONSnParental/Child narratives may provide unique insights into family adjustment. Future work may consider interventions related to family communication and expression of emotion.