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The Classic Edition of Promoting Positive Parenting illuminates the widespread success of the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD), now used in many countries, offering thousands of families the support they need to thrive

"The Classic Edition of Promoting Positive Parenting illuminates the widespread success of the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD), now used in many countries, offering thousands of families the support they need to thrive. A new preface from the authors reflects on the original research and development of the program, considers its effectiveness, and outlines future aims to broaden implementation and test new modalities. The original volume offers a new generation of students and professionals an introduction to the brief and focused parenting intervention program that has been successful in a variety of clinical and non-clinical groups and cultures. It offers detailed descriptions and case reports of several intervention studies of the program, describes the implementation and testing of a variety of VIPP based interventions highlighting different families in a variety of childcare settings, and in various countries including the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It details the successful implementation of the program in samples of insecure mothers, mothers with eating disorders, preterm infants, adopted children, children suffering from dermatitis, and children with early externalizing behavior problems. The Classic Edition of Promoting Positive Parenting is for all those with concerned with family support and parenting interventions in the fields of developmental and clinical psychology, human development and family studies, psychiatry, social work, public health and nursing and early childhood education"--

In the present meta-analysis 627 Strange Situation Procedures (SSP; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978 ) from 17 Italian infant attachment studies and 2,258 Adult Attachment Interviews (AAI; Main, Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985 ) from 50 Italian adult attachment studies were included. All studies were published between 1990 and 2009. Our aim was to test the universality hypothesis of attachment theory in this Italian database. Results indicated that the majority of nonclinical Italian infants were classified as securely attached (53%); similarly, the majority of nonclinical Italian adults were secure (60%). Although cross-cultural similarities provide evidence for the universality hypothesis of attachment theory, our meta-analysis revealed also interesting cultural specificities. First, nonclinical Italian infants' distribution showed an overrepresentation of avoidant attachments compared to the normative distribution. Second, the underrepresentation of unresolved loss among Italian nonclinical adults was noteworthy.

AbstractThe neuropeptide oxytocin plays an important role in mother–infant bonding. However, recent studies indicate that the effects of oxytocin on prosociality are dependent on perceived social context. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined differential effects of intranasally administered oxytocin on neural responding to 500 and 700 Hz crying that was indicated as emanating from a sick infant and 500 and 700 Hz crying emanating from a bored infant. We found that oxytocin significantly increased insula and inferior frontal gyrus responding to sick infant crying, but decreased activation in these brain regions during exposure to crying of an infant that was labeled as bored. In addition, oxytocin decreased amygdala responding to 500 Hz crying, but increased amygdala responding to 700 Hz crying. These findings indicate that labeling the same infant crying as 'sick' or as 'bored' drastically changes neural activity in response to intranasal oxytocin administration. Oxytocin increases empathic reactions to sick infants' crying, but lowers the perceived urgency of crying of an infant perceived as bored, thus flexibly adapting adult responses to infant crying labeled in various ways.

Physiological reactivity to repeated infant crying was examined as a predictor of risk for harsh discipline use with 12-month-olds in a longitudinal study with 48 low-income mother–infant dyads. Physiological reactivity was measured while mothers listened to three blocks of infant cry sounds in a standard cry paradigm when their infants were 3 months old. Signs of harsh discipline use were observed during two tasks during a home visit when the infants were 12 months old. Mothers showing signs of harsh discipline ( n = 10) with their 12-month-olds were compared to mothers who did not ( n = 38) on their sympathetic (skin conductance levels [SCL]) and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) reactivity to the cry sounds. Results showed a significant interaction effect for sympathetic reactivity only. Mean SCL of harsh-risk mothers showed a significant different response pattern from baseline to crying and onward into the recovery, suggesting that mean SCL of mothers who showed signs of harsh discipline continued to rise across the repeated bouts of cry sounds while, after an initial increase, mean SCL level of the other mothers showed a steady decline. We suggest that harsh parenting is reflected in physiological overreactivity to negative infant signals and discuss our findings from a polyvagal perspective.

Our comprehensive meta-analysis combined prevalence figures of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) reported in 217 publications published between 1980 and 2008, including 331 independent samples with a total of 9,911,748 participants. The overall estimated CSA prevalence was 127/1000 in self-report studies and 4/1000 in informant studies. Self-reported CSA was more common among female (180/1000) than among male participants (76/1000). Lowest rates for both girls (113/1000) and boys (41/1000) were found in Asia, and highest rates were found for girls in Australia (215/1000) and for boys in Africa (193/1000). The results of our meta-analysis confirm that CSA is a global problem of considerable extent, but also show that methodological issues drastically influence the self-reported prevalence of CSA.

Are immigrant families at elevated risk for child maltreatment, and if so, what role do socioeconomic and family composition factors play? In a national prevalence study on child maltreatment in the Netherlands, child maltreatment cases were reported by 1,121 professionals from various occupational branches. Maltreating families were compared to a national representative family sample on immigrant status and parental educational level and family composition factors. The authors differentiated between traditional immigrant families who immigrated as labor migrants from Turkey, Morocco, Suriname, and the Antillean Islands, and nontraditional immigrant families who more recently immigrated from countries with severe economic hardships or political turmoil (refugees). Traditional immigrant and nontraditional immigrant families were both significantly overrepresented among maltreating families, but this overrepresentation disappeared for the traditional immigrants after correction for educational level of the parents. Nontraditional immigrant families, however, remained at increased risk for child maltreatment even after correction for educational level. It is proposed that interventions to prevent child maltreatment in immigrant families should focus on decreasing socioeconomic risks associated with low levels of education.

The first nationwide prevalence study of child maltreatment in the Netherlands (NPM-2005) was designed as a replication of the National Incidence Studies (NISs) conducted in the United States. Child maltreatment cases were reported by 1,121 professionals from various occupational branches, trained in a detailed registration system of six types of abuse and neglect. In addition, cases registered by the Dutch Child Protection Services (CPS) were analyzed. For 2005, the overall prevalence rate was estimated to be 107,200 (95% CI 102,054-112,882) maltreated children aged 0-18 years, or 30 cases per 1,000 children. Neglect was the most prevalent type (56% of all cases) and sexual abuse had the lowest rate (4%). Of the maltreated children, 47% experienced more than one type of maltreatment. Major risk factors were very low parental education and unemployment. It is worrisome that CPS agencies only see the tip of the iceberg as only 12.6% of all maltreatment cases were reported to the CPS. Training of professionals in observing and reporting child maltreatment is badly needed. The absence of a legal obligation to report in the Netherlands needs reconsideration.