Parents' use of harsh punishment and young children's behaviour and achievement: a longitudinal study of Jamaican children with conduct problems

Early Adverse Childhood Experiences and Social Skills Among Youth in Fragile Families

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative health and behavioral outcomes across the life course, yet little is known about the association between early ACEs and social skills among youth. As social skills are often shaped by home environments, and social skills developed in adolescence often persist into adulthood, understanding the processes that drive inequalities in developmental outcomes, such as social skills, is imperative. The present study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW; n = 3245) and ordinary least squares regression analyses to explore the associations between early ACEs by age 5 (i.e., cumulative, timing, duration) and youth social skills (components include: emotional maturity, communication skills, intentionality, and social competence). The weighted sample consisted of urban-born youth (44% female) with a mean age of 15. Racial/ethnic breakdown of the sample is 37% non-Hispanic White, 25% non-Hispanic Black, 28% Hispanic, and 10% 'Other'. Overall, estimates suggest that nearly 79% of these youth experienced at least one ACE by age 5. Furthermore, the results indicated that as the number of early ACEs increased, deficits in social skills also increased. Moreover, the timing of exposure to early ACEs (i.e., high early, intermittent, chronic high) decreased social skills. The findings underscore the unique and robust links between early ACEs and youth social skills, underlining the importance of ACE exposure in social skill development.

Punitive Violence against Children: A Psychoeducational Parenting Program to Reduce Harsh Disciplining Practices and Child Beating in the Home

While parental harsh disciplining of children is a global concern, children living in Nigeria often experience particularly high levels of harsh discipline. Constrained by the lack of parenting skills to effectively manage children, most Nigerian parents rely too heavily on the use of violent methods in the disciplining of their children, which poses a huge threat to their well-being and development. Given the high levels of harsh parenting and the lack of understanding of its harms, we set out to develop a program of intervention called Psychoeducational parenting program to prevent violence against children (PEPVAC), guided by psychological principles of social learning theory, to help parents reverse the trend. We tested the effectiveness of the program using a quasi-experimental design with questionnaire and observation as data collection tools. Participants were 300 parents of children age 3-12 years, who endorsed using harsh discipline. Parents (n = 150) who received the 8-week intervention were compared with parents in the control group (n = 150). A mixed-model ANOVA revealed that the PEPVAC parents demonstrated a reduced use of harsh disciplinary tactics and a decreased incidence of parents beating their children compared to parents in the control group who continued with business-as-usual. Findings suggest that PEPVAC can be a useful intervention tool in the prevention of punitive violence against children, especially in a culturally-oriented country like Nigeria with over 91 million population of children who are at risk of disciplinary violence in the home.

Interpersonal violence and mental health: a social justice framework to advance research and practice

This editorial paper accompanies a special series in the journal Global Mental Health focused on the topic of interpersonal violence and mental health. This series included 24 papers reporting on data from 31 countries, published between 2017 and 2019. This accompanying paper provides a short summary of findings in the special series and reflects on next steps in research and practice. Collectively, the series' 24 papers suggest intricate bi-directional relationships between interpersonal violence and mental health, situated in particular contexts and varying across the life course. In order to study this complexity, an overarching theoretical framework is critical. This paper takes the social justice theory developed by Powers and Faden (2006, 2019) as a starting point. It is argued that application of this social justice framework will be helpful to: strengthen conceptual clarity; provide a sense of direction for research and practice in the area of interpersonal violence and mental health; assist in conducting more fine grained analyses of contextually determined processes of disadvantage; and help situate disciplinary specific research and practice questions in their broader context, thereby strengthening multi-disciplinary research and multi-sectoral policy and programming efforts.

Prevalence and patterns of mental disorders among primary school age children in Ghana: correlates with academic achievement

Background: There is limited data on the prevalence of child and adolescent mental health disorders (CAMHD) in Ghana. Recent reports suggest a decline in academic achievement in basic education. This paper sought to determine the prevalence of CAMHD in Ghanaian primary school children and to draw correlates with academic achievement.Methods: We conducted a pilot cross-sectional survey of 303 grade 3 pupils aged 7-15 years in the city of Kumasi. The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS-PL) were used to assess for CAMHD in 2016, and data on performance in examinations over the prior academic year were analysed.Results: Overall, current prevalence of CAMHD was 7.25%, with depressive disorder = 1.31%, anxiety disorders = 1%, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) = 1.64%, conduct disorder = 1.97%, and intellectual disability = 1%. Co-morbid disorders, such as seizure disorder (1%), were also noted. There was a greater prevalence of CAMHD in public schools (11.6%) compared to private schools (0.7%), with p < 0.001. Even when adjusted for other factors, children with CAMHD had a lower average academic score by 10.5 units (p < 0.001). Thus, having a dual diagnosis was most predictive of academic underachievement.Conclusions: The results of this study document the prevalence of CAMHD in Ghana for the first time and shows correlates with academic underachievement.

Evaluation of a Violence-Prevention Programme with Jamaican Primary School Teachers: A Cluster Randomised Trial

This study investigated the effect of a school-based violence prevention programme implemented in Grade 1 classrooms in Jamaican primary schools. Fourteen primary schools were randomly assigned to receive training in classroom behaviour management (n = 7 schools, 27 teachers/classrooms) or to a control group (n = 7 schools, 28 teachers/classrooms). Four children from each class were randomly selected to participate in the evaluation (n = 220 children). Teachers were trained through a combination of workshop and in-class support sessions, and received a mean of 11.5 h of training (range = 3–20) over 8 months. The primary outcomes were observations of (1) teachers’ use of violence against children and (2) class-wide child aggression. Teachers in intervention schools used significantly less violence against children (effect size (ES) = −0.73); benefits to class-wide child aggression were not significant (ES = −0.20). Intervention teachers also provided a more emotionally supportive classroom environment (ES = 1.22). No benefits were found to class-wide prosocial behaviour, teacher wellbeing, or child mental health. The intervention benefited children’s early learning skills, especially oral language and self-regulation skills (ES = 0.25), although no benefits were found to achievement in maths calculation, reading and spelling. A relatively brief teacher-training programme reduced violence against children by teachers and increased the quality of the classroom environment.