A brief parenting intervention to enhance the parent-child relationship in Hong Kong: Harmony@Home

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An impact and feasibility evaluation of a 6 week (9 hour) active play intervention on fathers' engagement with their preschool children: A feasibility study

Research has demonstrated the benefits of father involvement with their children and a link between uninvolved fatherhood and societal problems. Children’s Centres (n=15) received 6 x 90 minute active play sessions designed to foster six aspects of parental engagement. Fathers’ engagement and attitudes to child PA were measured pre- and post-intervention via questionnaire. Acceptability of the intervention was explored through participant and staff focus groups. Results showed no effect on overall time fathers spent with their child during the week (t (36) = 0.178, p = 0.860) and the weekend (t (36) =1.166, p = 0.252). Qualitative results demonstrated the sessions provided opportunities for fathers to spend quality time with their children. Parenting self-efficacy increased across the subscale control, t (36) = -2.97, p = 0.04. Fathers increased awareness of their role in motivating their child to play (z = -2.46, p = 0.01). Further longitudinal research is recommended. Key Words: fathers’ engagement; childcare settings; parenting programmes; active play; parenting self-efficac

Hepatitis C infection: eligibility for antiviral therapies

peer reviewedBackground Current treatments of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) are effective, but expensive and susceptible to induce significant side effects. Objectives To evaluate the proportion of HCV patients who are eligible for a treatment. Methods In a database comprising 1726 viraemic HCV patients, the files of 299 patients who presented to the same hepatologist for an initial appointment between 1996 and 2003 were reviewed. Results Patients' characteristics were age 43.1 +/- 15.6 years, 53% male and 92% Caucasian. The main risk factors were transfusion (43%) and drug use (22%). Genotypes were mostly genotype 1 (66%), genotype 3 (12%) and genotype 2 (10%). These characteristics were not different from those of the whole series of 1726 patients. A total of 176 patients (59%) were not treated, the reasons for non-treatment being medical contraindications (34%), non-compliance (25%) and normal transaminases (24%). In addition, 17% of patients declined therapy despite being considered as eligible, mainly due to fear of adverse events. Medical contraindications were psychiatric (27%), age (22%), end-stage liver disease (15%), willingness for pregnancy (13%), cardiac contraindication (7%) and others (16%). Only 123 patients (41%) were treated. A sustained viral response was observed in 41%. The treatment was interrupted in 16% for adverse events. Conclusions The majority of HCV patients are not eligible for treatment. This implies that, with current therapies, only 17% of patients referred for chronic HCV become sustained responders. Some modifications of guidelines could extend the rate of treatment (patients with normal transaminases), but an important barrier remains the patients' and the doctors' fear of adverse events

Effects of a parental program for preventing underage drinking - The NGO program strong and clear

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The present study is an evaluation of a 3-year parental program aiming to prevent underage drinking. The intervention was implemented by a non-governmental organization and targeted parents with children aged 13-16 years old and included recurrent activities during the entire period of secondary school. The program consisted of four different types of group and self-administered activities: parent meetings, family dialogues, friend meetings, and family meetings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quasi-experimental design was used following parents and children with questionnaires during the three years of secondary school. The analytic sample consisted of 509 dyads of parents and children. Measures of parental attitudes and behaviour concerning underage drinking and adolescents' lifetime alcohol consumption and drunkenness were used. Three socio-demographic factors were included: parental education, school, and gender of the child. A Latent Growth Modelling (LGM) approach was used to examine changes in parental behaviour regarding youth drinking and in young people's drinking behaviour. To test for the pre-post test differences in parental attitudes repeated measures ANOVA were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed that parents in the program maintained their restrictive attitude toward underage drinking to a higher degree than non-participating parents. Adolescents of participants were on average one year older than adolescents with non-participating parents when they made their alcohol debut. They were also less likely to have ever been drunk in school year 9.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of the study suggested that Strong and Clear contributed to maintaining parents' restrictive attitude toward underage drinking during secondary school, postponing alcohol debut among the adolescents, and significantly reducing their drunkenness.</p

Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sociopolitical Control Scale

The Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) is a widely used measure of the intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted with data from two samples to test the hypothesized structure of the SPCS, the potential effects of method bias on the measure's psychometric properties, and whether a revised version of the scale (SPCS‐R) yielded improved model fit. Sample 1 included 316 randomly selected community residents of the Midwestern United States. Sample 2 included 750 community residents of the Northeastern U.S. Results indicated that method bias from the use of negatively worded items had a significant effect on the factor structure of the SPCS. CFA of the SPCS‐R, in which negatively worded items were rephrased so that all statements were positively worded, supported the measure's hypothesized two‐factor structure (i.e., leadership competence and policy control). Subscales of the SPCS‐R were found reliable and related in expected ways with measures of community involvement. Implications of the study for empowerment‐based research and practice are described, and strategies to further develop the SPCS are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117223/1/ajcp9070.pd

A randomised controlled trial of the efficacy of the ABCD Parenting Young Adolescents Program: rationale and methodology

Background: The transition to adolescence is a time of increased vulnerability for risk taking and poor health, social and academic outcomes. Parents have an important role in protecting their children from these potential harms. While the effectiveness of parenting programs in reducing problem behavior has been demonstrated, it is not known if parenting programs that target families prior to the onset of significant behavioral difficulties in early adolescence (9-14 years) improve the wellbeing of adolescents and their parents. This paper describes the rationale and methodology of a randomised controlled trial testing the efficacy of a parenting program for the promotion of factors known to be associated with positive adolescent outcomes, such as positive parenting practices, parent-adolescent relationships and adolescent behavior.Methods/Design: One hundred and eighty parents were randomly allocated to an intervention or wait list control group. Parents in the intervention group participated in the ABCD Parenting Young Adolescents Program, a 6-session behavioral family intervention program which also incorporates acceptance-based strategies. Participants in the Wait List control group did not receive the intervention during a six month waiting period. The study was designed to comply with recommendations of the CONSORT statement. The primary outcome measures were reduction in parent-adolescent conflict and improvements in parent-adolescent relationships. Secondary outcomes included improvements in parent psychosocial wellbeing, parenting self-efficacy and perceived effectiveness, parent-adolescent communication and adolescent behavior.Conclusions: Despite the effectiveness of parenting programs in reducing child behavioral difficulties, very few parenting programs for preventing problems in adolescents have been described in the peer reviewed literature. This study will provide data which can be used to examine the efficacy of a universal parenting interventions for the promotion of protective factors associated with adolescent wellbeing and will add to the literature regarding the relationships between parent, parenting and adolescent factors

A Model of Mindful Parenting: Implications for Parent–Child Relationships and Prevention Research

This paper introduces a model of “mindful parenting” as a framework whereby parents intentionally bring moment-to-moment awareness to the parent–child relationship. This is done by developing the qualities of listening with full attention when interacting with their children, cultivating emotional awareness and self-regulation in parenting, and bringing compassion and nonjudgmental acceptance to their parenting interactions. First, we briefly outline the theoretical and empirical literature on mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions. Next, we present an operational definition of mindful parenting as an extension of mindfulness to the social context of parent–child relationships. We discuss the implications of mindful parenting for the quality of parent–child relationships, particularly across the transition to adolescence, and we review the literature on the application of mindfulness in parenting interventions. We close with a synopsis of our own efforts to integrate mindfulness-based intervention techniques and mindful parenting into a well-established, evidence-based family prevention program and our recommendations for future research on mindful parenting interventions

Photoswitching Using Visible Light: A New Class of Organic Photochromic Molecules

A versatile new class of organic photochromic molecules that offers an unprecedented combination of physical properties including tunable photoswitching using visible light, excellent fatigue resistance, and large polarity changes is described. These unique features offer significant opportunities in diverse fields ranging from biosensors to targeted delivery systems while also allowing non-experts ready synthetic access to these materials