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

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.

Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS): Factorial Structure and Concurrent Validity

BACKGROUND

Comprehensive family assessments in Child Protection Services should include instruments with suitable psychometric characteristics. The present study aims to provide initial evidence of the factorial structure and other psychometric properties of the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS).

METHOD

Participants were 80 mother-child dyads with children aged 4-8 who received family support from Child Protection Services in Spain.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis showed good fit for a four-factor solution (Praise, Questions, Clear commands and Negative talk) with 15 items. Inter-rater reliability indices were optimal. Evidence of concurrent validity found that DPICS factors were related to self-reported parenting and teacher-informed child behavior problems.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides preliminary evidence of the DPICS's psychometric properties for assessing mother-child interaction within Child Protection Services. Further research with larger samples of mother-child and father-child dyads is still needed to confirm the four-factor solution.

Promising observational instruments of parent-child (0-12 years) interaction within the child protection system: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Parent-child interaction (PCI) is considered a critical environmental factor that affects child development. In the field of child and family intervention, assessment of caregiver-child interaction has great relevance for decision-making.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to report the results of a systematic review of the best observational instruments to assess the quality of PCI, taking into account the most advanced protocols.

METHODS

Firstly, one search was conducted to identify eligible observational instruments, and a second search was conducted to identify studies reporting on the psychometric properties of the instruments previously identified. To assess and rate the quality of the psychometric properties of the tools, the COSMIN (Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments) checklist was applied.

RESULTS

The nine PCI observational tools selected (with category B - promising) are widely used by researchers and clinicians across different stages of childhood. The Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale (2-71 months) obtained the highest rating.

CONCLUSIONS

The most reported and robust psychometric property was inter-rater reliability, but validity evidence is understudied. This systematic review can help clinicians keep up-to-date, provide evidence for policymakers to judge risks and benefits of health care behaviors, as well as assess the evaluation programs in child abuse and neglect context.

Adaptation of the Evidence-Based Practices Attitude Scale in Spanish child welfare professionals

BACKGROUND

Implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) into real-world settings represents an organizational change that may be limited or facilitated by provider attitudes towards the adoption of new interventions and practices. The objective of the present study was to analyze psychometric properties of the Evidence Based Practices Attitude Scale (EBPAS) Spanish version in Child Welfare professionals.

METHOD

The EBPAS 50-item version was administered to a sample of professionals (N = 240) providing services to children/adolescents and their families in Child Welfare Services from three Spanish regions.

RESULTS

Most of the dimensions measured by the EBPAS (50 items) were confirmed in the Spanish version administrated to Child Welfare professionals. Internal consistency reliabilities were fair to excellent. Provider attitudes varied by professional discipline and organizational context.

CONCLUSIONS

The EBPAS Spanish version is an adequate instrument to be used as a measure of attitudes toward implementation of evidence-based practices.

Psychologists and child psychological maltreatment severity assessment

BACKGROUND

Psychological maltreatment (PM) is probably the most difficult child maltreatment form to detect and evaluate. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of an instrument developed to improve accuracy in the assessment of PM severity in Child Protection Services (CPS).

METHOD

Case vignettes representing different severity levels of PM situations were used. 146 CPS psychologists participated in the study. A first group was made up of 115 psychologists who had been trained in the use of the instrument for 4 hours. The second group was made up of 31 psychologists who had been using the instrument for more than 12 months at the time of the study. Psychologists from the first group rated the severity of the vignettes in two ways: applying their own daily work criteria and applying the instrument after the training.

RESULTS

Accurate ratings clearly improved when psychologists used the instrument criteria. However, only psychologists who had used the instrument for more than 12 months at the time of the study obtained more than 80% of accurate ratings.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support the importance for CPS psychologists to use psychological maltreatment severity assessment instruments and show the conditions under which they could be effective.

Impact of stress and mitigating information on evaluations, attributions, affect, disciplinary choices, and expectations of compliance in mothers at high and low risk for child physical abuse

The objective is to know if high-risk mothers for child physical abuse differ in their evaluations, attributions, negative affect, disciplinary choices for children's behavior, and expectations of compliance. The effect of a stressor and the introduction of mitigating information are analyzed. Forty-seven high-risk and 48 matched low-risk mothers participated in the study. Mothers' information processing and disciplinary choices were examined using six vignettes depicting a child engaging in different transgressions. A four-factor design with repeated measures on the last two factors was used. High-risk mothers reported more hostile intent, global and internal attributions, more use of power assertion discipline, and less induction. A risk group by child transgression interaction and a risk group by mitigating information interaction were found. Results support the social information-processing model of child physical abuse, which suggests that high-risk mothers process child-related information differently and use more power assertive and less inductive disciplinary techniques.