Sharlene A. Wolchik

The family bereavement program: efficacy evaluation of a theory-based prevention program for parentally bereaved children and adolescents.

This article presents an experimental evaluation of the Family Bereavement Program (FBP), a 2-component group intervention for parentally bereaved children ages 8-16. The program involved separate groups for caregivers, adolescents, and children, which were designed to change potentially modifiable risk and protective factors for bereaved children. The evaluation involved random assignment of 156 families (244 children and adolescents) to the FBP or a self-study condition. Families participated in assessments at pretest, posttest, and 11-month follow-up. Results indicated that the FBP led to improved parenting, coping, and caregiver mental health and to reductions in stressful events at posttest. At follow-up, the FBP led to reduced internalizing and externalizing problems, but only for girls and those who had higher problem scores at baseline.

Long-Term Impact of Prevention Programs to Promote Effective Parenting: Lasting Effects but Uncertain Processes

This article reviews findings from 46 randomized experimental trials of preventive parenting interventions. The findings of these trials provide evidence of effects to prevent a wide range of problem outcomes and to promote competencies from one to 20 years later. However, there is a paucity of evidence concerning the processes that account for program effects. Three alternative pathways are proposed as a framework for future research on the long-term effects of preventive parenting programs: (a) through program effects on parenting skills, perceptions of parental efficacy, and reduction in barriers to effective parenting; (b) through program-induced reductions in short-term problems of youth that persist over time, improvements in youth adaptation to stress, and improvements in youth belief systems concerning the self and their relationships with others; and (c) through effects on contexts in which youth become involved and on youth-environment transactions.

An experimental evaluation of theory-based mother and mother–child programs for children of divorce.

This study evaluated the efficacy of 2 theory-based preventive interventions for divorced families: a program for mothers and a dual component mother-child program. The mother program targeted mother-child relationship quality, discipline, interparental conflict, and the father-child relationship. The child program targeted active coping, avoidant coping, appraisals of divorce stressors, and mother-child relationship quality. Families with a 9- to 12-year-old child (N = 240) were randomly assigned to the mother, dual-component, or self-study program. Postintervention comparisons showed significant positive program effects of the mother program versus self-study condition on relationship quality, discipline, attitude toward father-child contact, and adjustment problems. For several outcomes, more positive effects occurred in families with poorer initial functioning. Program effects on externalizing problems were maintained at 6-month follow-up. A few additive effects of the dual-component program occurred for the putative mediators; none occurred for adjustment problems.

Coping Efficacy and Psychological Problems of Children of Divorce

Three models of the relations of coping efficacy, coping, and psychological problems of children of divorce were investigated. A structural equation model using cross-sectional data of 356 nine- to twelve-year-old children of divorce yielded results that supported coping efficacy as a mediator of the relations between both active coping and avoiding coping and psychological problems. In a prospective longitudinal model with a subsample of 162 of these children, support was found for Time 2 coping efficacy as a mediator of the relations between Time 1 active coping and Time 2 internalizing of problems. Individual growth curve models over four waves also found support for coping efficacy as a mediator of the relations between active coping and psychological problems. No support was found for alternative models of coping as a mediator of the relations between efficacy and symptoms or for coping efficacy as a moderator of the relations between coping and symptoms.

How Did It Work? Who Did It Work for? Mediation in the Context of a Moderated Prevention Effect for Children of Divorce.

This study presents a reanalysis of data from an effective preventive intervention for children from divorced families to test mediation of program effects. The study involved 157 children, age 9-12 years, who were randomly assigned to a parenting program or a literature control condition. Program effects to reduce posttest internalizing problems were mediated through improvement in mother-child relationship quality. Program effects to reduce externalizing problems at posttest and 6 months were mediated through improvement in posttest parental methods of discipline and mother-child relationship quality. The study also describes a new methodology to test mediation of Program x Baseline Status interactions. Analyses demonstrate mediation effects primarily for children who began the program with poorer scores on discipline, mother-child relationship quality, and externalizing problems.

Developing Linkages between Theory and Intervention in Stress and Coping Processes

The constructs of stress and coping have held an important role in theories about the development of problems of childhood and adolescents and in intervention models about how to prevent the occurrence of such problems (Haggerty, Sherrod, Garmezy, & Rutter, 1994; Rolf, Masten, Cicchetti, Nuechterlein, & Weintraub, 1990; Cowen, 1980; Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994; Hetherington & Blechman, 1996). Stress has been implicated in the development of a wide range of problems, and a rich literature has developed on factors that enable children to be resilient against the negative effects of stress (Gore & Eckenrode, 1994). In a parallel fashion, improving child and adolescent adaptation to stress has been identified as one of the most promising approaches to preventing the development of problems of childhood and adolescence (Compas, Phares, & Ledoux, 1989; Cowen, 1985; Bloom, 1990). For example, in their comprehensive annotated bibliography of primary prevention programs between 1983 and 1991, Trickett, Dahiyal, and Selby (1994) identified 169 citations concerning prevention programs under the headings of stressful life events, social support, and crisis intervention. Many of these stress-based preventive interventions have been empirically evaluated and found to have beneficial effects (Mrazek & Haggerty, 1994; Price, Cowen, Lorion, & Ramos-McKay, 1988). Unfortunately, however, the links between the theoretical and intervention research literatures are not strong.

Resilience in Parentally Bereaved Children and Adolescents Seeking Preventive Services

This study examined environmental stress, family, and child variables that differentiate resilient children and adolescents from those with mental health problems following the death of a primary caregiver. The community-based sample included 179 bereaved children ages 8 to 16 years and their surviving caregivers who completed a test battery of measures before participating in a prevention program. Forty-four percent of bereaved children were classified as resilient and 56% as affected based on the absence of clinically significant mental health problems on at least 1 measure as reported by either the child, surviving caregiver, or teacher on standardized measures of mental health problems. Results of multivariate analyses indicated that bereaved resilient versus affected status was a function of both family and child variables. Higher levels of caregiver warmth and discipline and lower levels of caregiver mental health problems were family-level variables that significantly differentiated resilient children from affected children. Bereaved childrens perceptions of less threat in response to negative events and greater personal efficacy in coping with stress were child-level variables that differentiated resilient from affected status. Family and child variables were entered into a discriminant function analysis that correctly classified 72% of the sample. The findings are consistent with a model of resilience in which multilevel variables account for childrens positive adaptation following exposure to adversity.

Volunteer bias in erotica research: Effects of intrusiveness of measure and sexual background

Volunteer characteristics and volunteer rates across several laboratory experiments of sexual arousal were compared. Conditions were created to assess which component of the experimental setting was responsible for low volunteer rates in experiments using genital measurement. Subjects were 324 male and 424 female undergraduate students who had volunteered for an experiment on sexuality and personality. After completing several measures of sexual experience and attitude, subjects received a written description of one of the following conditions and were asked if they wished to volunteer: (1) sexual film, (2) sexual film and subjective rating of arousal, (3) sexual film and assessment through forehead temperature, (4) sexual film and assessment with a device that was placed over the clothes and measured genital heat flow, (5) sexual film and assessment with the heat flow device while partially undressed, or (6) sexual film and assessment with the vaginal photoplethysmograph or penile strain gauge while partially undressed. Men were significantly more likely to volunteer than women, and volunteer rates for both men and women decreased significantly when and only when subjects were required to undress. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that both male and female volunteers were more sexually experienced, reported more exposure to erotic materials, and worried less about their sexual performance than nonvolunteers. No differences in volunteer characteristics occurred across the increasingly intrusive conditions for women while a few differences occurred for men. The present findings suggest that researchers should be cautious about discussing the generality of findings of studies involving exposure to a sexually explicit film alone as well as of experiments that involve self-report or physiological measures of sexual arousal.

Emotionality and self-regulation, threat appraisal, and coping in children of divorce

A model of the effects of childrens temperament (negative and positive emotionality, impulsivity and attention focusing) on post-divorce threat appraisals, coping (active and avoidant), and psychological symptoms (depression and conduct problems) was investigated. The study utilized a sample of 223 mothers and children (ages 9 to 12 years) who had experienced divorce within the last two years. Evidence was found of direct effects of child-report negative emotionality on childrens threat perceptions and of child-report positive emotionality and impulsivity on childrens coping. Indirect effects of negative emotionality on active and avoidant coping through threat appraisal were found. Direct effects of the temperament variables on symptoms were also found. Cross group analyses indicated that the models were robust to age differences, but gender differences were found in the relation between negative emotionality and depression. The results of this study indicate that temperament and threat appraisals are important predictors of childrens post-divorce symptoms, and that temperament is a predictor of childrens appraisal and coping process.

Maternal Acceptance and Consistency of Discipline as Buffers of Divorce Stressors on Children's Psychological Adjustment Problems

This study examines whether two aspects of mothering—acceptance and consistency of discipline—buffer the effect of divorce stressors on adjustment problems in 678 children, ages 8 to 15, whose families had divorced within the past 2 years. Children reported on divorce stressors; both mothers and children reported on mothering and internalizing and externalizing problems. Multiple regressions indicate that for maternal report of mothering, acceptance interacted with divorce stressors in predicting both dimensions of adjustment problems, with the pattern of findings supporting a stress-buffering effect. For child report of mothering, acceptance, consistency of discipline, and divorce stressors interacted in predicting adjustment problems. The relation between divorce stressors and internalizing and externalizing problems is stronger for children who report low acceptance and low consistency of discipline than for children who report either low acceptance and high consistency of discipline or high acceptance and low consistency of discipline. Children reporting high acceptance and high consistency of discipline have the lowest levels of adjustment problems. Implications of these results for understanding variability in childrens postdivorce adjustment and interventions for divorced families are discussed.