Parent training skills and methadone maintenance: clinical opportunities and challenges.

Children raised in substance abusing families show high rates of behavioural and emotional problems, in particular oppositional, defiant and non-compliant behaviours. While a range of social and individual factors correlate with poor parenting, it is often the quality of the parent-child relationship that mediates the effects of most other risk factors on child development. By addressing this relationship using behavioural family interventions, child behaviour problems have been reduced in multiple problem families. However, there has been little attempt to systematically evaluate such programs in substance abusing families. It is argued that methadone replacement programs provide a window of opportunity to deliver well-validated parent training programs that enhance the quality of parent-child relations. However, it is likely that such programs would need to be medium to long term and address issues beyond parent child relationships. How such interventions may be delivered and evaluated is discussed.

The attitudes of female and male residential care-workers to the perpetrators of sexual and physical assault.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate the attitudes of male and female care-workers to perpetrators of sexual and physical assaults. Hypotheses were: (1) that care-workers would rate sexual assaults to be more serious than physical assaults, rate the perpetrators of sexual assaults to be more dangerous and express less sympathy towards them; and (2) that female care-workers would rate both types of assault to be more serious, perceive the perpetrators to be more dangerous, and express less sympathy, compared to their male counterparts. METHOD: Male and female residential care-workers were asked to rate their response to vignettes describing either a physical or sexual assault. Vignettes and accompanying questionnaires were distributed to 60 care-workers divided into four groups according to Gender and Type of Assault. RESULTS: Results supported the hypothesis that sexual assaults are perceived to be more serious than physical assaults and the perpetrators of sexual assaults to be more dangerous. Gender differences in attitudes were also found, with female care-workers perceiving a greater difference between the seriousness of sexual and physical assaults than male care-workers. Female care-workers also rated the perpetrators of either type of assault to be more dangerous than did male care-workers. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that professionals hold different attitudes towards sexual and physical assaults and that gender is an important factor influencing attitudes towards perpetrators of violent assaults. It is of interest and practical importance for future studies to understand the emotional impact and attitudes elicited when working with perpetrators of violence, both in terms of their influence on clinical case work and in determining the personal needs, training, and supervision that should be offered to support professionals engaged in this difficult activity.

Developmental issues in the assessment and treatment of adolescent perpetrators of sexual abuse.

Sexual abuse perpetrated by adolescents is not recognized as a major problem. While there may be similarities between adults and adolescents who perpetrate sexual abuse, adolescent sexual abusers face developmental issues which are different from those of adults. It is argued that the specific needs of the adolescent sexual abuser cannot be fully understood by simply extrapolating knowledge derived from work with adult perpetrators. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the importance of the developmental issues facing the adolescent perpetrator of sexual abuse and their implications for the assessment and treatment of this group of sexual abusers.

The efficacy of a universal school-based program to prevent adolescent depression.

Evaluated whether a universal school-based program, designed to prevent depression in adolescents, could be effectively implemented within the constraints of the school environment. Participants were 260 Year 9 secondary school students. Students completed measures of depressive symptoms and hopelessness and were then assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (a) Resourceful Adolescent Program-Adolescents (RAP-A), an 11-session school-based resilience building program, as part of the school curriculum; (b) Resourceful Adolescent Program-Family (RAP-F), the same program as in RAP-A, but in which each student's parents were also invited to participate in a 3-session parent program; and (c) Adolescent Watch, a comparison group in which adolescents simply completed the measures. The program was implemented with a high recruitment (88%), low attrition rate (5.8%), and satisfactory adherence to program protocol. Adolescents in either of the RAP programs reported significantly lower levels of depressive symptomatology and hopelessness at post-intervention and 10-month follow-up, compared with those in the comparison group. Adolescents also reported high satisfaction with the program. The study provides evidence for the efficacy of a school-based universal program designed to prevent depression in adolescence.