Summary Structured observation can be valuable to complement self or parent reports used for diagnostic information or risk assessment, although this method is hardly used and understudied in residential forensic settings. To fill this void an observation checklist for residential social workers working in juvenile justice institutions was developed, along with an instruction manual and a training program. Findings In the first two sections, this paper describes how an intensive collaboration between residential social workers, clinicians, researchers, and educators resulted in the development (1) and implementation (2) of an observation checklist for residential social workers. The observation checklist captures six concepts: Proactive and Reactive aggression, Hyperactivity, Impulsivity, Signs of depressed mood, and Lack of reciprocity. In a third, final section, this paper provides a preliminary evaluation of the inter-rater reliability of the six observation checklist concepts (3). Acceptable completion rates of the observation checklist by residential social workers were obtained and the training program resulted in reported improved professional expertise of residential social workers. Moreover, preliminary psychometric evaluation demonstrated acceptable to excellent inter-rater reliability, when expressed as percentage of agreement. Applications In conclusion, this novel observation checklist offers a promising opportunity to collect information that can be used for diagnostic purposes. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.
In: Child abuse & neglect: the international journal ; official journal of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, Band 62, S. 142-150
Introduction: We investigated the value of systematic client feedback in youth mental health and addiction care. In the present study, we examined whether a client feedback intervention would result in improved therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes. Methods: Two hundred and four adolescents participated in the study using a – non-randomized – between-group A/B design. In the first study group, 127 patients were offered 4 months of treatment as usual (TAU), and in the second study group, 77 patients received the client feedback intervention as an add-on to TAU during 4 months. Results: Youths who received systematic client feedback in addition to TAU did not show better treatment outcomes or better alliance ratings after 4 months than youths receiving TAU only. Sensitivity analyses, in which we compared the more adherent patients of the second study group with patients receiving TAU, did not show significant beneficial effects of client feedback either. Also, the client feedback intervention did not result in lower rates of early treatment drop-out. Discussion/Conclusion: Our results cautiously suggest that client feedback does not have incremental effects on alliance and the treatment outcome for youth in mental health and addiction treatment. Moreover, our study highlights the challenges of implementing client feedback in clinical practice and the need for additional research addressing these challenges.
AbstractThis study assessed if staff members of two juvenile justice institutions in the Netherlands were able to motivate parents to participate in a programme of Family‐centred Care. For research purposes, parents were considered to participate if they (a) attended the family meeting, (b) visited their son during regular visiting hours, and (c) participated in measurements. Study participants were the parents of 139 short‐term detained male adolescents. The family meeting was attended by 47% of the parents, most adolescents (74.1%) were visited at least once by their parents, and 42% of the parents participated in measurements. Several factors influenced the parental participation rate variables, although effect sizes were small. The more parenting problems parents faced, the less likely they were to attend the family meeting. Parents with a job visited their son more often than unemployed parents. Finally, a longer stay of the adolescent and Dutch ethnicity predicted more parental participation in measurements. Our study showed that parental participation is feasible. However, the participation rates in the two years after the first steps of implementation were eligible for improvement. More implementation experience where staff could fully benefit from training and coaching in family‐centred work could substantially increase parental participation rates.
Only a limited number of studies have compared the psychosocial characteristics of juvenile sex offenders and nonsex offenders. The results of these studies have often been contradictory. Furthermore, studies in normal population groups are rare and most of those studies have been conducted in specific populations. This paper reports on the findings of a prospective, longitudinal study, the Pittsburgh Youth Study, in which violent male sex offenders (n = 39) were compared with violent nonsex offenders (n = 430) based on 66 demographic and psychosocial characteristics. The findings show that the sex offenders resembled the nonsex violent offenders with respect to nearly all child, family, peer and demographic risk factors. Some suggestions are made with regard to future research.
Background: The aim of this study was to investigate suicidal ideations and associated psychopathology in two groups of adolescents, a sample of detained youth and a general population sample. In both groups the comparisons of mental health characteristics between suicidal ideators and non-suicidal youth were conducted separately for girls and boys. Methods: The study sample consisted of 290 delinquent adolescents [228 boys and 62 girls] from three Flemish juvenile detention centers and 1,548 adolescents [811 boys and 737 girls] from an age-matched school-based sample. Both groups were administered the Social and Health Assessment [SAHA], a self-report survey investigating levels of psychopathology [internalizing and externalizing] and risk-taking behavior. Results: Suicidal ideations during the past year were reported by 21.5% of detained males, compared to 6.7% in the general population. In females, 58.1% of detained individuals reported suicidal thoughts during the past year, compared to 14.4% of the general population. In girls and boys from the general population, both internalizing and externalizing problems were higher in suicidal ideators than in non-suicidal youth, while in the detention group mainly internalizing problems were higher in suicidal ideators. When comparing detention suicidal ideators with those from the general population, male suicidal ideators scored higher on delinquency, while detained female suicidal ideators also scored higher on posttraumatic stress, but lower on prosocial beliefs. Limitations: Information used in this study was solely based on self-report measures only and limited to Flemish adolescents. Conclusion: Since suicidal ideation is a frequent problem in detained youth, adequate recognition and treatment seems clinically relevant. While both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology may be an indicator of suicidal ideation in the general population, internalizing problems may be the main clinical predictor in detained youth.
AbstractBackgroundAn open group climate is essential in successful residential care for juveniles with mild intellectual disability (MID). This study examined whether non‐violent resistance, adapted for MID (NVR‐MID), stimulates an open group climate in time.MethodNVR‐MID was implemented in three residential settings in The Netherlands, in a quasi‐experimental stepped wedge design. In total, 124 clients with MID (Mage = 16.39 [SD = 4.95], 49.9% male) participated. Group climate was assessed seven times with the Group Climate Inventory for Children or the Group Climate Inventory‐Revisited (GCI‐R), during a total of 20 months.ResultsOpen group climate scores increased in all three institutions; effect size was medium. Clients with lower IQs experienced group climate as more positive compared to clients with higher IQs. Effects were similar for both groups.ConclusionsAs NVR‐MID appeared to contribute to a positive experienced group climate, it might be advisable to implement NVR‐MID on larger scale.
A large proportion of treatments in youth mental health care are prematurely terminated by the patient. Treatment dropout can have severe consequences. Since ethnic minority youth are treated less often for mental disorders than other youth, it is important to analyse their risk for dropout and to determine if there are ethnicity-specific determinants. This review aimed to provide an overview of the findings from empirical studies on child and adolescent therapy dropout by ethnic minority and to determine if there were ethnicity-specific dropout determinants. An extensive literature search was performed to locate relevant journal articles. Identified articles were inspected for relevant references and these articles were then included in the meta-analysis. A total of 27 studies were accepted for analysis. The results showed that ethnic minority patients have a higher risk of treatment dropout than ethnic majority patients and that dropout rates are ethnically specific. Several differences in dropout predictors among the ethnic groups were found. In spite of diverse results, review limitations, and the lack of several key variables in the available research, some clinical recommendations are made. The review indicates that to prevent dropout, therapists should pay attention to variables such as ethnic background, therapist–patient ethnic match, and the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
A key objective in the field of translational psychiatry over the past few decades has been to identify the brain correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD). Identifying measurable indicators of brain processes associated with MDD could facilitate the detection of individuals at risk, and the development of novel treatments, the monitoring of treatment effects, and predicting who might benefit most from treatments that target specific brain mechanisms. However, despite intensive neuroimaging research towards this effort, underpowered studies and a lack of reproducible findings have hindered progress. Here, we discuss the work of the ENIGMA Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) Consortium, which was established to address issues of poor replication, unreliable results, and overestimation of effect sizes in previous studies. The ENIGMA MDD Consortium currently includes data from 45 MDD study cohorts from 14 countries across six continents. The primary aim of ENIGMA MDD is to identify structural and functional brain alterations associated with MDD that can be reliably detected and replicated across cohorts worldwide. A secondary goal is to investigate how demographic, genetic, clinical, psychological, and environmental factors affect these associations. In this review, we summarize findings of the ENIGMA MDD disease working group to date and discuss future directions. We also highlight the challenges and benefits of large-scale data sharing for mental health research. ; ENIGMA MDD work is supported by NIH grants U54 EB020403 (Thompson), R01 MH116147 (Thompson), and R01 MH117601 (Jahanshad & Schmaal). LS was supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (1140764). AFFDIS cohort: this study was funded by the University Medical Center Goettingen (UMG Startfoerderung) and the research team is supported by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung, BMBF: 01 ZX 1507, "PreNeSt - e:Med"). Barcelona cohort: MJP is funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of the Spanish Government and by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III through a 'Miguel Servet' research contract (CP16–0020); National Research Plan (Plan Estatal de I + D + I 2016–2019); and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). BRC DeCC cohort: CHYF is supported by NIHR BRC. Calgary cohort: supported by Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Branch Out Neurological Foundation. Cardiff cohort: supported by the Medical Research Council (grant G 1100629) and the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH), funded by Health Research Wales (HS/14/20). CLING cohort: this study was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) via grants to OG (GR1950/5–1 and GR1950/10–1). CODE cohort: Henrik Walter is supported by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (WA 1539/4–1). The CODE cohort was collected from studies funded by Lundbeck and the German Research Foundation (WA 1539/4–1, SCHN 1205/3–1, SCHR443/11–1). DIP-Groningen cohort: this study was supported by the Gratama Foundation, the Netherlands (2012/35 to NG). Edinburgh cohort: The research leading to these results was supported by IMAGEMEND, which received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 602450. This paper reflects only the author's views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. This work was also supported by a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award 104036/Z/14/Z. FOR2107-Marburg cohort: funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, grant FOR2107 KR 3822/7–2 to AK; FOR2107 KI 588/14–2 to TK and FOR2107 JA 1890/7–2 to AJ). Houston cohorts: supported in part by NIMH grant R01 085667 and the Dunn Research Foundation. JCS is supported by the Pat Rutherford, Jr. Endowed Chair in Psychiatry. IMH Study cohort: supported by funding from NHG (SIG/15012) and NMRC CISSP (2018). Melbourne cohort: funded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Project Grants 1064643 (Principal Investigator BJH) and 1024570 (Principal Investigator CGD). Minnesota cohort: the study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH090421; Dr. Cullen) and Biotechnology Research Center (P41 RR008079; Center for Magnetic Resonance Research), the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the University of Minnesota Graduate School, and the Minnesota Medical Foundation. This work was carried out in part using computing resources at the University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute. Münster cohort: funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, grant FOR2107 DA1151/5–1 and DA1151/5–2 to UD; SFB-TRR58, Projects C09 and Z02 to UD) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) of the medical faculty of Münster (grant Dan3/012/17 to UD). NESDA cohort: The infrastructure for the NESDA study (www.nesda.nl) is funded through the Geestkracht program of the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (Zon-Mw, grant number 10–000–1002) and is supported by participating universities (VU University Medical Center, GGZ inGeest, Arkin, Leiden University Medical Center, GGZ Rivierduinen, University Medical Center Groningen) and mental health care organizations, see www.nesda.nl. Pharmo cohort: supported by ERA-NET PRIOMEDCHILD FP 6 (EU) grant 11.32050.26. PSYABM-NORMENT: supported by the Research Council of Norway (project number 229135). The South East Norway Health Authority Research Funding (project number 2015052). The Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway. San Francisco cohort: supported by NIH/NCCIH 1R61AT009864–01A1. NIMH R01MH085734. SHIP and SHIP-trend cohorts: SHIP is part of the Community Medicine Research net of the University of Greifswald, Germany, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grants no. 01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, and 01ZZ0403), the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and the Social Ministry of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. MRI scans in SHIP and SHIP-TREND have been supported by a joint grant from Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen, Germany and the Federal State of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Stanford cohorts: this work was supported by NIH grant R37 MH101495. The BiDirect Study was supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; grants FKZ-01ER0816 and FKZ-01ER1506). MDS is partially supported by an award funded by the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation. TCH is supported by NIMH grant 5K01MH117442. EJWVS, JL, and TFB are supported by European Research Council grant no. ERC-ADG-2014–671084 INSOMNIA. TFB is supported by a VU University Amsterdam University Research Fellowship 2016–2017. JL is supported by a VU University Amsterdam University Research Fellowship 2017–2018. ; publishedVersion