Parenting Stress Index-Short Form: Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version in Mothers of Children Aged 0 to 8 Years

The Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) is one of the most commonly used measures of parenting stress both in clinical and research contexts. The PSI-SF is a 36-item, self-report measure with three subscales: Parental Distress (PD). Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (PCDI), and Difficult Child (DC). The objective of this study was to analyse the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of PSI-SF. Two different samples (N = 309) of mothers with children under 8 years old participated in the study. The first sample comprised 203 mothers with difficulties managing their children's behaviour. The second sample comprised 106 mothers from the general population. Factor structure of the PSI-SF, convergent validity, and differences between groups were analysed. The expected three-factor structure was confirmed for both samples. Findings suggested that the total PSI-SF scale and the three subscales had adequate internal consistency and convergent validity. Differences between both samples, and between age and economic subgroups in the first sample were tested. The Spanish version of the PSI-SF can be considered an adequate measure of parenting stress in mothers of children under 8 years old with difficulties to manage their children's behaviour. Further studies with extended samples from the general population are needed.This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain (PSI2013-46272-P) and by a grant from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) (PIF2016/188)

The Incredible Years Parenting and Child Treatment Programs: A Randomized Controlled Trial in a Child Welfare Setting in Spain

[EN] Incredible Years (IY) is a well-established multicomponent group-based program designed to promote young children's emotional and social competence, to prevent and treat child behavioral and emotional problems, and to improve parenting practices and the parent-child relationship. This study presents the first randomized controlled trial carried out in Spain to test the effectiveness of the Incredible Years Basic Parenting and Small Group Dinosaur Programs in a sample of families involved in child welfare due to substantiated or risk for child maltreatment. One hundred and eleven families with 4- to 8-year-old children were randomly allocated to IY or to a control group who received standard services. Baseline, post-intervention, and 12-month follow-up assessments were compared. Results showed that compared to the control group, the IY intervention made a significant positive difference in parents' observed and reported use of praise, and a significant reduction in reported use of inconsistent discipline, parenting stress, depressive symptomatology, and perception of child behavior problems. A full serial mediation effect was found between participation in IY, changes in parenting practices, subsequent parenting stress reduction, and both final child abuse potential reduction and perception of child behavior problems. No moderating influence on IY effects was found. Findings provide evidence that transporting the IY Basic Parenting and the Small Group Dinosaur Programs with fidelity is feasible in Child Welfare Services in Spain.This study was financially supported by a grant from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of Spain [Reference: PSI2013-46272-P], by a grant from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) [PIF2016/188] and by a grant from the Basque Government Research Personnel Education and Training Program [PRE_2017_2_050]

Child Psychological Maltreatment in the Family: Definition and Severity Assessment

Psychological maltreatment is one of the main and potentially more destructive forms of child maltreatment. It is difficult to identify, assess and treat. Compared to other forms of child maltreatment such as sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect, attention received from researchers, child protection service managers and practitioners has been scarce. A review of available knowledge about psychological maltreatment reveals challenges to define the concept in ways useful to policy makers and practitioners. This paper presents a review of definitions of child psychological maltreatment and several measures available for assessing its severity. The review has been used in the Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (Spain) to develop more specific criteria for the identification and severity assessment of child psychological maltreatment in Spanish children services. This paper develops these criteria

El maltrato infantil : un estudio experimental

Conocer en qué medida y en qué manera los caracteres de personalidad del niño y la percepción que la madre tiene de éste puede ser usado de manera conjunta e independiente como predicciones de maltrato. Hipótesis 1: el hecho de que una madre perciba negativamente a su hijo y el hecho de ser un niño problemático, aumenta la posibilidad de maltrato. Hipótesis 2: la percepción materna tiene más peso que la personalidad del niño a la hora de predecir un acto de maltrato. 43 parejas madre-hijo. Los niños tienen entre 8 y 11 años. 26 varones y 17 hembras. Las madres tienen entre 26 y 52 años y con un nivel cultural medio-bajo. Se trata de un muestreo al azar. El método de investigación es de tipo predictivo. Variable dependiente: potencial de maltrato. Variables independientes: percepción materna del niño. Características de la personalidad del niño. Variables intervinientes: status socioeconómico y sexo. 'Child abuse potential inventory' de J. S. Milner (1981) para evaluar la variable 'potencial de maltrato'. 10 ítems del '1960 Rilp van Winkle hcil-reading questionnaire' de Eron Etal (1971) que componen la 'Rejection Scale' (Mlefkowitz y E.P. Tesyny, 1984) para evaluar la variable 'percepción materna del niño'. 'Eysenck personality questionnaire junior' de H.J. Eysenck y Sybil B.G. Eysenck en 1975 para medir las características de personalidad del niño. Coeficientes de correlación de Pearson para ver si hay relación entre variables, así como la dirección y el grado de relación. Análisis de varianza para verificar hipótesis estadísticas. Análisis múltiple o factorial de varianza, prueba T y prueba F como prueba de significación. Análisis de regresión múltiple. Análisis factorial. A medida que la percepción materna del niño es más positiva, el riesgo de maltrato va disminuyendo. A medida que el niño es mas problemático, el potencial de maltrato va incrementándose y cuando este riesgo potencial disminuye, el niño tiende a demostrar unos rasgos de personalidad menos problemáticos. Cuanto menores son los problemas de conducta del niño, la percepción materna es más positiva y viceversa. Solamente la variable 'percepción materna del niño' es significativa para predecir un posible maltrato. El riesgo de maltrato se incrementa a medida que el status socioeconómico es más bajo. A medida que la madre percibe que está sometida a situaciones de stress, soledad e infelicidad, o con más problemas familiares de otro tipo, que es más rígida y su autoestima más baja, el riesgo de potencial de maltrato es mayor. Las variables aquí usadas como personalidad del niño y percepción materna se pueden usar como indicador de la relación madre-hijo y por tanto del riesgo de un posible maltrato. Prospectiva: necesidad de determinar los factores para medir la calidad de la relación madre-hijo.País VascoES

Early Intervention Programs for Children and Families: Theoretical and Empirical Bases Supporting their Social and Economic Efficiency

The prenatal period and the early years of life have an extraordinary importance on the physical and psychological well-being not only in the infancy, but throughout the life cycle. There is strong empirical evidence that early life is highly vulnerable to the negative effects of adverse experiences or toxic stress as maternal prenatal anxiety or child maltreatment. Research in the field of developmental neurobiology provides important keys about the mechanisms across these experiences affect the process of child development provoking alterations and dysfunctions in brain architecture. Such alterations tend to be persistent and increase the risk of physical, cognitive, social and emotional problems along infancy, adolescence and adulthood. The evidences clearly support the need and social relevancy of implementing early intervention preventive programs for children and families who are at risk for experiencing toxic stress. Such policies and programs should begin as early as possible in order to reduce or avoid the need of most costly and less effective remediation programs

Pilot Implementation of two evidence based programs (SafeCare and IncredibleYears) in Child Protection Services in Gipuzkoa (Spain)

This paper describes the implementation process of two evidence-based programs in Gipuzko as Child Protection System (Spain): SafeCare and Incredible Years. SafeCare is a home visiting program for high-riskand neglectful families with children under 5 years. Incredible Years is a parenting skills training program for families with children between 4 to 8 years with behavior problems whose parents have significantdifficulties to manage. The paper describes the process by which public institutions responsible for child protection in Gipuzkoa decided to shift from current intervention programs towards more structured, focused, and short-term programs that have shown positive results in previous applications in other countries. Issues related to programs adaptation, selection, and training of professionals and pre- and postresults obtained in the preliminary application of SafeCare and Incredible Years to a limited set of families are presented. Finally, the next step of the implementation process (pilot implementation with a randomized control trial design) is described. The paper discusses a significant number of issues that have been important throughout this process and that may be useful for administrations and institutions that wish to undertake a similar process

Instrumento BALORA para la valoración de la gravedad de las situaciones de riesgo y desamparo infantil: elaboración, implantación, fundamentos conceptuales y contenido

BALORA tresna 3/2005 Legea, otsailaren 18koa, Haurrak eta Nerabeak zaintzeko eta babestekoa, zeinak Eusko Jaurlaritzari, foru-aldundiei eta udaletxeei arrisku- eta babesgabetasun-egoeren larritasuna ebaluatzeko tresna tekniko baten lanketa eta onarpena eskatzen baitzien. Artikulu honetan tresna horren lanketa-prozesua azaltzen da, haren onarpena 2011ko azaroan, autonomia-erkidegoan orokortu den ezarpena, eta 2017ko maiatzean eguneratu eta onartutako dekretu berria. Haren eragina neurtzeko ikerketetako emaitzak azaltzen dira, haren oinarri kontzeptualak, irizpide teknikoak eta edukia deskribatu, eta erabilera zuzena egiteko ohar batzuk nabarmentzen diraEl instrumento BALORA se diseñó con el objetivo de responder al mandato de la Ley 3/2005, de 18 de febrero, de Atención y Protección a la Infancia y la Adolescencia, que encomendaba al Gobierno Vasco, diputaciones forales y ayuntamientos la elaboración y aprobación de un instrumento técnico para la valoración de la gravedad de las situaciones de riesgo y desamparo. Este artículo describe el proceso llevado a cabo para la elaboración de dicho instrumento, su aprobación como decreto en noviembre 2011, su implantación generalizada en la comunidad autónoma, y su revisión, actualización y aprobación en un nuevo decreto en mayo 2017. Se presentan los resultados de los estudios realizados para analizar su impacto, se describen sus fundamentos conceptuales, criterios técnicos, contenido, y se apuntan algunas indicaciones para su correcta utilización