Sébastien Urben

Maternal Representations and Parenting Style in Children Born With and Without an Orofacial Cleft

Objective: To investigate the evolution of maternal representations (ie, the way parents perceive their child in term of temperament, character, behaviors, etc) of children with a cleft at 3 major milestones: before/after reconstructive surgeries and at school age. Parenting style was also analyzed and compared with parents of children born without a cleft. Design and participants: The sample was composed of 30 mothers of children with an orofacial cleft and 14 mothers of children without a cleft. Maternal representations were assessed when the child was 2 months (before surgery), 12 months (after surgery), and 5 years of age (when starting school) using semistructured interviews that were transcribed and coded according to the subscales of the Working Model of the Child Interview and the Parental Development Interview. At the 5-year appointment, mothers also completed a questionnaire about parenting style. Results: Results showed no difference across groups (cleft/noncleft) in maternal representations at the 2-month, 12-month, and 5-year assessments. In the cleft group, significant differences were shown between 2 and 12 months in caregiving sensitivity, perceived infant difficulty, fear for the infant’s safety, and parental pride, all factors being higher at 12 months. Those differences in parental representations over time were not found in the noncleft group. Additionally, mothers of the cleft group were significantly more authoritarian than mothers of children without a cleft. Conclusion: The absence of differences across cleft and noncleft groups suggests that having a child with a cleft does not affect maternal representations and emotions between 2 months and 5 years of the child’s age. However, parenting style seems to be influenced by the presence of a cleft in the present sample.

Perinatal stress moderates the link between early and later emotional skills in very preterm-born children: An 11-year-long longitudinal study

BACKGROUND Very preterm (VPT) birth refers to an early stressful event putting children at heightened risk for emotional difficulties. However, there is an important individual variability, leaving unexplained why some VPT children do not develop emotional difficulties, while others develop such difficulties in the early years or later in life. AIM In this study, we examined whether perinatal stress is a risk factor explaining heterogeneities in emotional problems in VPT children. METHODS Thirty-six VPT children and 22 full-term born (FT) children participated in an 11 year-long study. Risk for perinatal stress was assessed at birth with the Perinatal Risk Inventory. Mothers reported childrens emotional difficulties at 18 months of child age on the Symptom Checklist and at 11 years on the Child Behavior Checklist. RESULTS Results indicated significant differences in emotional scores at 11 years not only between VPT and FT children but also between the low and high perinatal stress groups. More importantly, emotional scores at 18 months influenced variability in internalizing scores at 11 years only in VPT children with high perinatal stress. CONCLUSION Although prematurity affects the emotional abilities of preadolescents, the link between emotional skills in early and later childhood is moderated by the severity of perinatal stress. In particular, VPT children who are born with more complications, and as such experience a more stressful perinatal environment, are more likely to show emotional difficulties at preadolescence.

Substance-use disorders, personality traits, and sex differences in institutionalized adolescents

ABSTRACT Background: Substance-use disorder (SUD) was found to be an aggravating factor to delinquency and is closely related to personality disorders (PDs). Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate sex differences in the relationship between PD traits and SUD in adolescents institutionalized in child welfare and juvenile justice institutions. Methods: PD traits were measured dimensionally in a sample of 282 boys (69 with an SUD diagnosis) and 143 girls (45 with an SUD diagnosis) from child welfare and juvenile-justice institutions. Results: Logistic regressions showed that antisocial, borderline, and paranoid personality traits were positively associated with SUD, while obsessive compulsive personality traits were negatively related with SUD. Additionally, in institutionalized girls, self-defeating personality traits were associated with less risk of SUD. Conclusion: This study provides a relative evidence for sex specificities in the relation between PD traits and SUD.

Examination of the importance of age of onset, callous-unemotional traits and anger dysregulation in youths with antisocial behaviors

Age of onset, callous-unemotional (CU) traits and anger dysregulation have separately been proposed as relevant factors in explaining the heterogeneity of antisocial behaviour (ASB). Taking a dimensional perspective, this study examined the specific contributions and the mutual influences (i.e., interactions) of these three characteristics on specific dimensions of ASB (i.e., criminal behaviours and externalizing symptoms). Assessments were conducted on 536 youths from institutions with the youth psychopathic traits inventory (CU traits), the Massachusetts youth screening instrument—second version (anger dysregulation), the criminology questionnaire (criminal behaviours) and the child behavior checklist (externalizing symptoms), rated by both the youths and their carers. Using Bayes as estimators, the results revealed that the number and frequency of crimes (and, more specifically, damage to property, property offenses and media crimes) were explained by a specific contribution of each factor (age of onset, CU traits and anger dysregulation). Additionally, the interactions between age of onset and CU traits or anger dysregulation were relevant predictors of some types of crimes (i.e., damage to property, property offences and media crimes). Furthermore, when rated by youths, externalizing symptoms were explained by CU traits and anger dysregulation. However, when rated by the carer, anger dysregulation was more important in explaining externalizing symptoms. This study highlights the importance of considering these factors altogether and the value of using a dimensional perspective when examining the structure of ASB in youths. Consequently, future classifications should take into account the mutual account of these characteristics, which were previously studied separately.

Cognitive Working Memory Training (CWMT) in adolescents suffering from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A controlled trial taking into account concomitant medication effects.

Although, cognitive working memory training (CWMT) has been reported to enhance working memory functioning in youths with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), few studies take into account the concomitant effects of medication. Sixty adolescents aged from 11 to 15 years were randomly assigned to CWMT treatment, whereas medication was either continued or not introduced (no randomization performed). Results revealed beneficial effects of CWMT on the different components of working memory (WM), namely the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the central executive. In particular, CWMT allowed participants to obtain a level of performance similar to the typically-developing adolescents for the phonological loop (i.e., forward digit span) as well as for the visuospatial sketchpad (i.e., board span). For the central executive (i.e., backward digit span) the concomitant effects of CWMT and medication allows participants to obtain the performance level of the typically-developing adolescents. Although, no transfers were observed with respect to other cognitive functions, in medicated patients with ADHD, CWMT reduced hyperactivity / impulsivity symptoms at 2-month follow-up. The present study gives evidence of the efficacy of CWMT to enhance WM performance, as well as, to reduce symptoms. The overall results highlight the usefulness of multimodal interventions.

Differences and Similarities in Predictors of Externalizing Behavior Problems Between Boys and Girls: A 1-Year Follow-Up Study

The aim of this study was to investigate the sex-specific predictive value of age of onset of delinquent behaviors, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and anger–irritability problems for externalizing behavior problems in institutionalized adolescents over the course of 1 year. A total of 118 girls and 240 boys from child welfare and juvenile justice institutions were evaluated twice: At T1, age of onset, CU traits, anger–irritability problems, nonverbal reasoning, and externalizing behavior problems were measured; at T2 (later), externalizing behavior problems were measured a second time. Results showed significant interactions between sex and anger–irritability problems, and between sex and CU traits, in the sense that the relation between these two predictors at T1 and externalizing behavior problems at T2 was stronger in girls than in boys. Results of this study point out sex differences in the validity of predictors of externalizing behavior problems.