Teaching Children with Reactive Attachment Disorder: A Review of the Literature

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) has been examined by the psychological community for many years, but only in recent years has it entered the realm of education and recognizing students with RAD has occurred. Disagreements continue to take place over what types of assessments or interventions may work for children with RAD. Often children with RAD are not diagnosis [sic] because the symptoms reflect other dysfunctional behaviors and teachers reject these students as unwilling to accept instruction. This paper is a literature review of professional articles available with bearing on teaching children with RAD. In addition, this article presents behaviors of RAD and describes recommendations in dealing with students with RAD that teachers may use. Lastly, the article briefly summarizes the content of several research articles

Translating Research to Practice for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Part 2: Behavior Management in Home and Health Care Settings

Introduction Managing home and health care for children with autism spectrum disorder can be challenging because of the range of symptoms and behaviors exhibited. Method This article presents an overview of the emerging science related to the methods to foster family self-management of common concerns regarding activities of daily living and behaviors, as well as for the health care provider in primary and acute health care settings. Results Recommendations are provided to enhance the overall delivery of services, including understanding and managing a child\u27s challenging behaviors, and supporting family management of common activities of daily living and behaviors. Discussion Health care providers\u27 knowledge of evidence-based recommendations for providing care, supporting family self-management of common concerns, and referral heighten the likelihood of better outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorder

The Impact of Residential Treatment on Emotionally Disturbed Boys

Within the past four decades, social work has witnessed the development of increasingly specialized servicecs to children, among these a sort of “total impact therapy” generally defined as residential treatment. In conjunction with the basic social work values of the bio-psycho-social nature of human maladjustment, residential centres have attempted to help the child effect a happier adjustment to his life situation by meeting some ungratified basic need. Institutions for dependent children complimented those for custodial care of even isolation; contemporary residential treatment centres are designed to meet a broader range of needs of the child than those of forty years ago through a variety of approaches, often referred to as milieu therapy. Consideration of the common needs of children is basic to questions concerning the place of institutional treatment and the particular type of child for which this social work service is the most appropriate one. The residential treatment centre addresses the whole gamut of a child’s needs from physical care to rehabilitation. Exposure to, and participation in, a group life experience simulating as closely as possible the family or community life experience is the element differentiating residential care from other treatment modes. By involvement in the realities of his daily situation and the working through or resolution of these, the child is helped to cope with his own growth and development—physical, emotional, and social. Problems and questions examined in this paper revolve around the residential treatment centre defined vaguely by the Child Welfare League of America as “A building....maintained and operated by a chartered agency, organization or institution, whose main purpose is to provide shelter and care to a group of unrelated children and youths up to eighteen years of age.” More specifically, the concern for research, the proposal and plans for implementation are focused on Mount St. Joseph, an autonomous, non-profit institution providing care for boys with moderate to severe emotional disturbances

Parental Psychological Control and Autonomy Granting: Distinctions and Associations with Child and Family Functioning

Objective:This study utilized an observational coding scheme to identify parenting behavior reflecting psychological control and autonomy granting, and examined relations between these parenting dimensions and indices of child and family functioning. Design: A community sample of 90 preadolescents (aged 10.5 to 12 years) and both of their parents engaged in a triadic interaction that was coded for parental psychological control and autonomy granting. Participants also completed measures of child adjustment, interparental conflict, and triangulation. Results: Factor analyses indicated that a two-factor model better fit the data than a one-factor model, suggesting that psychological control and autonomy granting are best conceptualized as independent but related constructs. Parental psychological control and autonomy granting exhibited some shared and some unique correlates with indices of child and family functioning. Hierarchical regressions revealed significant interactions between these dimensions, suggesting that the strength of some associations between parents\u27 use of psychological control and youth adjustment problems depends on the level of autonomy granting exhibited by the parent. Conclusions: By examining psychological control and autonomy granting simultaneously as unique constructs, this study identifies patterns of psychological control and autonomy granting that undermine youth adjustment. Findings inform targeted intervention efforts for families of preadolescent youth

Alaska Native attachment: a qualitative study with four Athabascan participants

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2003Attachment between caregiver and child is an affectional, nurturing bond that develops through the provision of sensitive, constantly available, and responsive care for the child. The attachment bond evolves around diverse interactive experiences that encourage the development of cognitive-emotional schemata and the internalization of a cognitive-emotional working model of relationships. Different cultural experiences encourage the development of different cognitive-emotional schemata. Using a semi-structured interview, behavior, values, and the developmental endpoint associated with attachment was collaboratively explored with four Athabascan research participants, and concepts that emerged were compared and contrasted with those articulated by mainstream attachment theory within Western psychology. Attachment domains that emerged from triangulated interview data were (1) caregiver sensitivity, (2) trust development, (3) exploring, and (4) social competence. In mainstream attachment theory, one caregiver is the primary secure base for a child. Athabascan primary caregivers were a component of a larger community-wide secure base that included important secondary caregivers within a large kinship structure. In mainstream attachment theory, Western cultural values guide a social attachment process toward autonomy and self-direction for the individual. Athabascan community encourages values such as sharing of materials and community solidarity; an endpoint to the attachment process is instead social competence

Coparenting Quality in Separated American Parents of Children Ages 1½ to 5: Anxiety, Social Support, Self-efficacy, and the Associations With Coparenting and Child Outcomes

The purpose of this research was to examine the mechanisms determining coparenting processes in parents following divorce or separation and the implications for the emotional and behavioral outcomes for their young children. The complex associations between parental anxiety, parental self-efficacy, social support, coparent relationship quality, and child problem behaviors were examined. Participants were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed a survey regarding their coparenting dynamics. The sample consisted of 322 residents of the United States who had a child between 18 months and 5 years of age and who were no longer living with the child\u27s other parent. Results from this study identified distinct factors derived from the measure of coparenting quality, called coparenting quality interpersonal and coparenting quality instrumental. Coparenting quality instrumental reflected observable, instrumental coparenting behaviors, while coparenting quality interpersonal reflected emotional and interpersonal motivators of coparenting behavior. The results indicated that parents who reported higher levels of self-efficacy also reported higher levels of coparenting quality instrumental, but not interpersonal. The results also indicated that the instrumental factor of coparenting quality mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and child problem behavior while the interpersonal factor of coparenting quality did not mediate that relationship. The results of this research have important implications for future research into the mechanisms linking parenting beliefs, coparental behavior, and the emotional and behavioral outcomes of children of divorced or separated parents

The Role Body-Esteem Plays in Impairment Associated with Hair-Pulling and Skin Picking in Adolescents

Trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder, HPD) and pathological skin picking (PSP) are associated with significant rates of psychosocial impairment and distress. Little research has addressed the physical consequences and associated impairment in youth (e.g., poor body-esteem). The present study explores the relationship between body-esteem, skin picking (SP), and pulling-related impairment in a sample of adolescents with primary HPD. Ninety four adolescents who pull their hair, 40 of whom also pick their skin, were recruited via internet-sampling as part of the Child and Adolescent Trichotillomania Impact Study (CA-TIP). All youth and a parent completed anonymous questionnaires online assessing psychiatric symptoms, repetitive behaviors, and psychosocial impairment, among other variables. Appearance-based body-esteem was not found to be predictive of more severe psychosocial impairment in these youth. However, SP, in combination with HPD, contributed to worse appearance-based body-esteem above and beyond symptoms of HPD alone. The current study suggests that psychosocial functioning in youth with HPD is less impacted by body-esteem or pulling than other factors (e.g., depression and anxiety), and that SP contributes to lowered body-esteem. These findings suggest the importance of addressing body-esteem in case conceptualization for youth with both HPD and SP. Further research is required to confirm these suggestions

MS

thesisA primary mental health coal is helping children to develop self-esteem and the ability to cop with stress and anxiety. A preventive approach could foster an awareness of children at risk for chronic anxiety and in need of assistance, particularly in situations perceived to be unusually stressful. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the dimensions of manifest anxiety and latency-aged children's perceptions of their own illness behaviors. On the assumption that the intensity of the anxiety is proportionate to the meaning the individual ascribes to a given situation, it was proposed that subjective perceptions of illness might be more threatening to children who are chronically anxious than to those who are not, and would be less able to cope effectively. Three hypotheses were developed based on a review of the literature. The first stated that the more anxious the children were, the more likely they would be to perceive themselves displaying either very many of very few illness behaviors. The second hypothesis stated that the less anxious latency-aged children were, the more likely they would be to perceive themselves displaying a moderate amount of illness behaviors. The third hypothesis stated that there would be no significant difference between the perceived illness behaviors of healthy children and those of children with a significant history of illness. Fifty-four children age eight to 11 were administered a questionnaire containing a manifest anxiety scale which consisted of physical, worry and fear dimensions, and an illness behavior scale which contained emotionality, acceptance and communication dimensions. Through the use of Pearson Product-Monment Correlation Coefficients (r), the dimensions of each of these scales were correlated to determine whether or not significant relationships existed. There was no significant relationship between the total illness behavior score and the total manifest anxiety score. Therefore, neither the first nor second hypotheses was supported. However, a scattergram was used to illustrate that children with the highest anxiety scores had high illness behavior scores while children with lower manifest anxiety scores had moderately-ranged illness behavior scores. This indicates that children with moderately high anxiety scores were more likely to perceive themselves displaying many illness behaviors, while children who had low anxiety scores were apt to perceive themselves displaying a moderate amount of illness behaviors. A t-test for independent measures demonstrated no significant difference between the responses of healthy children with a recent hasty of illness. Therefore, the third hypothesis was supported. An additional finding of the study was that of all the aspects of illness behavior, emotionality was most related to manifest anxiety and was significantly correlated with physical aspects, worry aspects, and total manifest anxiety score

FATHERING STYLES OF MOSLEM FAMILIES PERCEIVED FROM PERSONALITY TYPES IN NORTH SUMATERA

Fathering styles are highly influenced by cultural background from which the father are raised. These styles will be observed by children and eventually become an imitated model for children in shaping their attitude and behavior as well as their ethnic identity representing their cultural values. The objectives of this research is to know the difference of fathering styles between fathers in Minangkabau families and Batak families perceived from their personality types. The subjects of this research were 90 fathers in Medan, North Sumatera which consist of 45 fathers of Minangkabau ethnicity and 45 fathers of Batak ethnicity. The data of the study were collected by using two scales, which are personality types scale and fathering style scale. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied to analyze the data. The result of the analysis shows that personality types and ethnicity interact each other in affecting fathering styles ( F : 5.872; p = 0.004 < 0.05),so there is a difference of fathering styles between Minangkabau fathers and Batak fathers perceived from introvert and extrovert personality types. A final contribution of this study is the effort to save young generation who live fatherless and support well function families through fathers’ role in transmitting good cultural values of fathers’ ethnicity, so it is suggested that fathers’ involvement should be existed in raising children’s development any condition even divorce can not be avoided. Paternal figure should always be present in children’s life both by father’s direct involvement and by involvement of other paternal figures. Good paternal figure will help children to avoid social problems they face in life