Parents on the Same Page:A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Acceptability and Appropriateness of Tuning in to Kids Together

In this study, we examined the acceptability and appropriateness of Tuning in to Kids Together (TIK-Together) from the perspective of program facilitators. TIK-Together is newly a modified version of Tuning in to Kids that specifically focuses on the coparenting relationship (i.e., how parents work together to raise their children) and requires parents to both attend sessions. Through a mixed-method design, Australian facilitators who participated in the TIK-Together pilot study provided their perspectives on the acceptability (i.e., affective attitudes, burden, program benefits) and appropriateness of the program in their communities. It is essential to involve stakeholders, such as program facilitators, in pilot studies as they can provide valuable feedback from their first-hand experience with the program. Facilitators reported that TIK-Together was enjoyable and rewarding, and although delivery was straightforward, additional preparation time was required to manage program materials. Facilitators observed several program benefits, including coparents becoming more aligned and collaborative in their approach to parenting. Certain program components were particularly helpful for parents, including activities that were experiential, interactive, and reflective. Overall, facilitators deemed TIK-Together appropriate for their communities; however, it is not suitable for parents who are uncomfortable or unwilling to work alongside each other in sessions. Given the increased focus on a coparent approach to parenting interventions, the findings provide important insights for researchers and practitioners.</p

Tuning in to Toddlers: Research Protocol and Recruitment for Evaluation of an Emotion Socialization Program for Parents of Toddlers

Background: Parenting a toddler is a challenging experience for many parents with times of emotional dysregulation in both parent and child. Parenting interventions may be useful for parents to improve their ability to regulate emotions and respond to children’s emotions in a way that assists the child to understand and regulate emotions (emotion competence). Tuning in to Toddlers (TOTS) is a new parenting program that aims to improve parents’ emotion regulation, emotional responsiveness, and emotion coaching (aspects of emotion socialization) to promote optimal emotional development in toddlers, and prevent social and behavioral difficulties. This paper outlines the rationale, methodology, intervention, and recruitment used in a trial to establish program efficacy.Methods/Design: Parents of toddlers aged 18–36 months old were recruited through child care centers (CC) and maternal child health (MCH) centers in Melbourne, Australia and were allocated to either intervention or a 15-month wait-list control condition in a cluster-randomized controlled design. Inclusion criteria were a child in the age range at baseline attending one of the CC or MCH centers. Exclusion criteria were if the parent/carer had insufficient English to attend the intervention and complete measures. Parents in the intervention condition participated in the 6-session group TOTS program delivered by two facilitators using a structured manual and measures of program fidelity and acceptability. Participants in the wait-list control condition received the intervention after a 15-month waiting period. Participants completed measures at baseline, post-intervention (intervention participants only) and 15-month follow-up. Primary outcome measures included parent emotion socialization (parent-report and observed). Secondary outcomes included parent-reported parent functioning (emotion regulation and mental health), toddler social, emotional and behavioral functioning, and parent and toddler systemic cortisol stress (using hair samples). The study was designed to comply with the CONSORT statement and intervention reporting outlined using TIDieR.Results: Three hundred and six parents were recruited and completed baseline parent questionnaires, with a further 234 completing parent–child observation assessments, 235 parent cortisol, and 198 child cortisol.Discussion: This paper is a methodological description of the TOTS randomized controlled trial evaluation protocol. It outlines some of the challenges in recruiting parents of toddlers to parenting programs.Clinical Trial Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier ACTRN12615000 962538

The Child and Parent Emotion Study: Protocol for a longitudinal study of parent emotion socialisation and child socioemotional development

Introduction:&nbsp;Parents shape child emotional competence and mental health via their beliefs about children&rsquo;s emotions, emotion-related parenting, the emotional climate of the family and by modelling emotion regulation skills. However, much of the research evidence to date has been based on small samples with mothers of primary school-aged children. Further research is needed to elucidate the direction and timing of associations for mothers and fathers/partners across different stages of child development. The Child and Parent Emotion Study (CAPES) aims to examine longitudinal associations between parent emotion socialisation, child emotion regulation and socioemotional adjustment at four time points from pregnancy to age 12 years. CAPES will investigate the moderating role of parent gender, child temperament and gender, and family background.Methods and analysis:&nbsp;CAPES recruited 2063 current parents from six English-speaking countries of a child 0&ndash;9 years and 273 prospective parents (ie, women/their partners pregnant with their first child) in 2018&ndash;2019. Participants will complete a 20&ndash;30 min online survey at four time points 12 months apart, to be completed in December 2022. Measures include validated parent-report tools assessing parent emotion socialisation (ie, parent beliefs, the family emotional climate, supportive parenting and parent emotion regulation) and age-sensitive measures of child outcomes (ie, emotion regulation and socioemotional adjustment). Analyses will use mixed-effects regression to simultaneously assess associations over three time-point transitions (ie, T1 to T2; T2 to T3; T3 to T4), with exposure variables lagged to estimate how past factors predict outcomes 12 months later.Ethics and dissemination:&nbsp;Ethics approval was granted by the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee and the Deakin University Faculty of Health Human Research Ethics Committee. We will disseminate results through conferences and open access publications. We will invite parent end users to co-develop our dissemination strategy, and discuss the interpretation of key findings prior to publication.Trial registeration:&nbsp;Protocol pre-registration: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/NGWUY.</jats:sec

Successful ageing : perceptions of adults aged between 70 and 101 years

In this research, content analysis was employed to investigate older adults\u27 perceptions of successful aging and the relationship of these perceptions to definitions given in the literature to date. Participants were 18 males and 42 females between the ages of 70 and 101 years. Analyses revealed older adults mentioned only 1 or 2 criteria of successful aging if asked for a definition; however, when prompted, they rated almost all the criteria emerging from the literature as highly important. Participants reported adjusting to the situations they were in by compensating for losses that occurred and selecting activities that best suited their capabilities. Overall, older adults\u27 perceptions of successful aging were similar to aspects identified in the literature. Not all aspects, however, were seen as important by all participants, and only low to moderate correlations were found between some aspects of successful aging. (Contains 3 figures and 4 tables.)<br /

Health maintenance insurance: Toward an optimal HMO

The financial incentive structure of today's health maintenance organizations addresses certain problems attributed to fee-for-service medical care, but at a theoretical level it does not induce optimal provider behavior. Health maintenance insurance—a combined package of medical, morbidity/disability, and life insurance—encourages providers to compete for the health dollar, and not simply the medical care dollar, thereby remedying deficiencies in prepayment and promoting true health maintenance. The principle underlying health maintenance insurance emphasizes the need to search for effective means of preventing disability, morbidity, and premature death.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45439/1/11077_2004_Article_BF00136030.pd

The retirement experiences of elite female gymnasts: Self identity and the physical self

This study explored experiences of retirement from elite sport among a sample of retired female gymnasts. Given the young age at which female gymnasts begin and end their sport careers, particular attention was afforded to the role of identity and the physical self in the process of adaptation. Retrospective, semi-structured interviews were conducted and interview transcripts analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis indicated that retirement from gymnastics engendered adjustment difficulties for six of the seven participants. Identity loss was particularly salient, and for two gymnasts, physical changes associated with retirement were a further source of distress. The challenge of athletic retirement was intensified because the gymnasts had heavily invested in sport during adolescence, a period demarcated for the pursuit of an identity. Furthermore, their retirement coincided with a time when adolescents typically undergo profound changes physiologically. Practical suggestions to facilitate athletes' disengagement from sport are discussed

“I don’t want to live too long!”: Successful ageing and the failure of longevity in Japan

This chapter examines ‘successful aging’ through its impacts on formal care workers in Japan. It is based on one year of fieldwork conducted in urban Japan and examines the affective, ethical, and cultural forces that result at times in resilience, compassion, and intimacy between carers and elderly clients, and at other times, in violence, abuse, and abandonment. I argue that locating the source of this divergence in individuals (i.e., adverse coping strategy) reproduces the same neoliberal model of success for care workers as it does for the elderly. Instead, care and abuse in formal care settings can be seen as symptoms of broader political and economic transformations that have been occurring in Japan since the 1990s