[Voluntariness in Outpatient Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents]. / Über die Freiwilligkeit in der ambulanten Kinder- und Jugendlichenpsychotherapie.

Voluntariness in Outpatient Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents Voluntariness is no selective construct in psychotherapy with children and adolescents. Generally psychotherapy is utilized under external pressure, at least partially. At any rate it is crucial to painstakingly analyze the motivation for change and possible obstacles to motivation. On that basis different strategies to foster motivation for change can be applied. Problems regarding the efficiency of voluntary or involuntary utilization of outpatient psychotherapy for children and adolescents should be subjects to further research.

[Relevance and experience of surveillance and brief contact intervention systems in preventing reattempts of suicide among children and adolescents]. / Pertinence et expérience des dispositifs de veille et de recontact dans la prévention suicidaire auprès des enfants et des adolescents.

In France, one adolescent out of ten has already attempted suicide. In this population, suicide reattempts are frequent and significantly impact the vital, morbid and functional long-term prognosis. For about fifteen years, surveillance and brief contact intervention systems (SBCIS) have been used to complete the French suicide reattempt prevention arsenal for youth. The relevance of such strategy appears once the mental health service gap observed at this period of life is considered. In addition to prompting better coordination between the different professional stakeholders, the SBCIS help to alleviate the adolescent's help-seeking barriers, especially the ambivalence between conquest of autonomy and need for help. The first results from the French SBCIS dedicated to children and adolescents are encouraging. Although they have to deal with specific challenges, we argue that they relevantly complement and potentiate the already available prevention resources, thus optimizing the whole prevention system for suffering youth.

Psychosocial functioning in adolescents: results according to Amiel-Tison neurological assessment in a group of preterm infants.

OBJECTIVE: This prospective study investigated the relationship between Amiel-Tison neurological assessment (ATNA) in preterm children and their psychosocial functioning in adolescence. METHODS: From the initial group of 45 children regularly assessed by the ATNA from term until the age of 2 years, 27 participated in the follow-up at 13 years. RESULTS: Of the three groups categorized by neurological signs as normal, intermediate or abnormal, parents of adolescents with normal ATNA reported the lowest number of executive function problems (p = 0.019) and behavioral symptoms (p = 0.011), while the adolescents themselves reported the lowest number of behavioral symptoms (p = 0.005) and the highest quality of life (p = 0.012). The number of problems reported increased with the number of abnormal neurological signs. CONCLUSION: Standardized neurological assessment may be a helpful clinical tool for the identification of children at risk for later psychosocial problems who could benefit from prevention and early intervention programs.

Evidence Base Update of Psychosocial Treatments for Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evaluating, Improving, and Transporting What Works.

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder is a chronic and impairing condition that often persists into adulthood. This review refreshes the state of support for psychosocial treatments and the predictors or moderators that relate to their efficacy and evaluates how the literature has improved since the last update in 2014. A secondary goal is to propose an additional framework for the categorization of studies based on central research questions rather than treatment format. Psychosocial treatment studies conducted since the last review are described and evaluated according to methodological rigor and evidence-based classification using the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology evidence-based treatment evaluation criteria. Findings again converge in support of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) as an effective and appropriate first-line treatment for youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Family-focused CBT is now well-established. A number of other treatments including CBT+ D-Cycloserine, CBT+ Sertraline, CBT+ positive family interaction therapy, and technology-based CBT are now probably efficacious. Demographic, clinical, and family factors are consistent predictors of CBT outcome with conflicting findings for neurocognitive predictors. The field has advanced significantly since the last review, but there is still room for improvement. Some of the conclusions that can be drawn may be limited by our evaluation criteria. Future directions are proposed to advance treatment outcome research beyond a focus on which treatments work to exploring factors that account for how and why they work.

Assessment and the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology's Evidence Base Updates Series: Evaluating the Tools for Gathering Evidence.

In 2014, Michael Southam-Gerow and Mitch Prinstein launched the Evidence Base Updates series. As invited contributors, authors of Evidence Base Updates articles offer the field an invaluable resource: regular evaluations of the latest data on tools for addressing the mental health needs of children and adolescents. Until now, authors of Evidence Base Updates articles have focused exclusively on evaluating treatment techniques. In this article, we outline how the Evidence Base Updates series will evolve to also include evaluations of assessment techniques. In our treatment-focused updates, contributors follow strict criteria when evaluating the evidence. Following these criteria allows authors of Evidence Base Updates articles to provide mental health professionals with clear "take-home messages" about the evidence underlying the treatments evaluated. Similarly, we outline the criteria that authors will follow when preparing Evidence Base Updates articles that evaluate assessments. We also highlight the formats of these articles, which will include evaluations of condition-focused measures (e.g., anxiety, conduct problems); transdiagnostic constructs (e.g., parenting, rumination); specific, widely used measures that cut across conditions; and updates on field-wide considerations regarding measurement (e.g., clinical utility, incremental validity).

[Suicide, mental health and substance uses among French adolescents in 2014]. / Suicide, santé mentale et usages de substances psychoactives chez les adolescents français en 2014.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to describe potential associations between suicidal behaviors and psychoactive substance uses among adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional, national survey representative of adolescents aged 17, living in continental France, was conducted in 2014. A total of 22,023 adolescents answered an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire about their health and their use of psychoactive substances. Suicidal risk was assessed by means of a 4-level indicator [1. No depression, as stipulated by the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS); 2. Depression, no suicidal ideation, no suicidal attempts; 3. Depression with suicidal ideation; 4. Depression with suicidal attempts]. Multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to identify the factors significantly related to frequent substance uses. RESULTS: Three percent of adolescents (1.8% of boys vs. 3.7% of girls) were labeled as suffering from severe depression, 10% stated they had suicidal thoughts during the last year and 3% attempted to commit suicide at least once in their lifetime. The results support the view of a gradient between suicidal risk severity and regular use of tobacco and cannabis. The association with regular alcohol use appears somewhat weaker. CONCLUSION: Suicidal behaviors and regular substance uses are significantly related but also mediated by adolescents' mental health.

Why adolescents need their parents during admission to hospital for elective surgery.

The literature about adolescence and healthcare tends to focus on the quest for independence and the importance of peer support. This article discusses the continuing importance of parental support during adolescence, especially when young people are admitted to hospital for surgery. It discusses why adolescents who are admitted to hospital for elective surgery will have different needs to young people who are admitted regularly for long-term conditions or those who are admitted due to risk-taking behaviour or mental health problems. It is suggested that elective admissions for surgery in otherwise fit and well young people may create a temporary change in developmental level, resulting in the need for parental support, rather than independence and peer support as recommended in the literature.

Clinical decision support system for the diagnosis of adolescence health.

It is common that children confront psychological problems when they reach puberty. These problems could easily be overcome, but in many cases they could be severe, leading to social estrangement or worse in madness or death. According to information collected we designed a questionnaire about the psychology of adolescents in order to help people in that age or their elders find out if they have health issues. We used already published researches and material concerning all the psychological problems a child can confront in order to make a reliable questionnaire and to develop the clinical decision support system. Our main objective is to publish and administrate a web-based free tool for sharing medical knowledge about any psychological disease a child can already have or develop during puberty.

A theoretical model of health-related outcomes of resilience in middle adolescents.

There is a dearth of knowledge about the health outcomes of resilience during adolescence, making the study of health-related outcomes of resilience important. The purpose of this study was to develop a theory-based just-identified model and to test the direct and indirect effects of resilience on hope, well-being, and health-promoting lifestyle in middle adolescents. The study used a correlational design. The final sample consisted of 311 middle adolescents, aged 15 to 17, who were recruited from a public high school. Participants responded to instrument packets in classroom settings. The structural equation model was tested with the LISREL 8.80 software program. All seven hypotheses were supported at a statistically significant level (p < .001). The results supported the theoretical propositions and the previous empirical findings that were used to create the theoretical model of health-related outcomes of resilience. Alternate models of outcomes of resilience need to be tested on adolescents.

Networks of professional supervision.

An ecological analysis of the supervisory activity of 31 New Zealand school psychologists examined simultaneously the theories of school psychology, supervision practices, and the contextual qualities that mediated participants' supervisory actions. The findings indicated that the school psychologists worked to achieve the supervision goals of support, knowledge, and accountability through reciprocal interaction in multiple relationships within and outside of their professional community. With the notion of supervision broadened to include all activity undertaken to meet the supervisory goals, greater levels of participation and satisfaction with supervisory provision were shown than in many previous studies. The school psychologists utilized various opportunities for supervision support in their day-to-day practice rather than relying solely on traditional dyadic or fixed-group forms. Supervision practices of the school psychologists were situated within the activity of a networked community of supervision practice. Implications for conceptualizing supervision as a broad, situated activity are discussed.

Reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A).

The aim of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the scales of the Spanish version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A; Butcher et al., 1992). Two samples of 939 and 109 Spanish adolescents ages 14 to 18 years were assessed with the MMPI-A in their school environment. The first sample responded to the inventory once, whereas the second sample responded to it on 2 occasions with a 2-week interval between sessions. Results showed no significant differences in means or variances between the first and the second test administration for most MMPI-A scales. Test-retest reliability ranged between .62 (Amorality, Ma(1)) and .92 (Immaturity, IMM); most correlations exceeded .70. Internal consistency values for the MMPI-A scales in the pretest and posttest were very similar overall. External validity of the MMPI-A was demonstrated through several significant correlations between its scales and YSR/11-18 syndromes and social interaction measures. The highest correlations were established between the Anxious/Depressed YSR/11-18 scale and other MMPI-A scales such as Schizophrenia (Sc), Welsh's Anxiety (A), Adolescent-Anxiety (A-anx) and Adolescent-Alienation (A-aln), and between the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale and the MMPI-A Adolescent-Social Discomfort (A-sod) scale.

School psychologists' perceived competence and training needs for student substance abuse*.

BACKGROUND: School psychologists are some of the most likely personnel to deliver mental health services, including substance abuse, in school settings, but there is limited research on the perceived competence of school psychologists to address student substance abuse concerns. The 3 aims of this study were to determine how school psychologists perceive their training in 9 competence areas related to student substance abuse and to identify which training areas they indicate as being most needed to address student substance and which substances they perceive as being the most common in their schools. METHODS: A descriptive survey study was conducted with a national sample of 210 school psychologists working in high schools. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance to test for differences between competency areas; descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were employed to determine key training areas for school psychologists. RESULTS: Findings indicated that school psychologists varied in their ratings of perceived competence to address student substance abuse concerns. Participants identified screening and assessment, consultation, and individual interventions as the most important areas for future training. CONCLUSIONS: School psychologists need and want more training for working with students who use or abuse substances. Implications for pre-service and in-service training are discussed and directions for future research are provided.

Measurement of victimization in adolescence: development and validation of the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: This study presents evaluative data on the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire (CEVQ), a brief, self-report measure of youth victimization. METHODS: Literature reviews, expert consultations and qualitative interviews informed the development of the CEVQ. Test-retest reliability of the preliminary and final versions of the CEVQ was examined. Child welfare workers (n=11) assessed content validity. Construct validity was assessed by comparing levels of emotional and behavioral problems of youth with self-reports (n=177) of victimization. Criterion validity was tested by comparing clinicians' judgment of child physical abuse (PA) and child sexual abuse (SA) with youths' self-reports (n=93). RESULTS: In general, test-retest intra-class correlations (ICCs) for the preliminary version of the questionnaire were good to excellent. Reliability estimates for the stem questions in the final version of the CEVQ were excellent, except for peer violence items which showed fair to good agreement. ICCs for PA, severe PA, SA, and severe SA of the CEVQ were .85, .77, .92, and .87, respectively. Youth with self-reported victimization had significantly higher scores for most categories of emotional and behavioral disorders. Experts classified victimization items as relevant. Kappa coefficients comparing clinician's judgments and youth's self-reports for PA, severe PA, SA, and severe SA were .67, .64, .70, and .50, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings provide preliminary evidence that the CEVQ is a brief, reliable, valid and informative instrument for assessing exposure to victimization and maltreatment among youth. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Although this instrument is not appropriate for clinical use at this time, its psychometric properties will make it useful in conducting further epidemiological research and studies evaluating interventions aimed at reducing victimization.

Qualitative evaluation of the project P.A.T.H.S. based on the perceptions of the program participants.

Qualitative evaluation was carried out to understand the perceptions of the students participating in the Tier 1 Program of the P.A.T.H.S. Project. Five focus groups based on 43 students recruited from four schools were conducted to generate qualitative data to evaluate the program. With specific focus on how the informants described the program, results showed that the descriptors used were mainly positive in nature. When the informants were invited to name three metaphors that could stand for the program, the related metaphors were basically positive in nature. Finally, the program participants perceived many beneficial effects of the program in different psychosocial domains. Intra- and inter-rater reliability analyses revealed that the coding of the positive or negative nature of the responses was reliable. The present study provides qualitative support for the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in promoting holistic development in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong.

Process evaluation of the Tier 1 Program of the project P.A.T.H.S.

To understand the implementation quality of the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S., two observers carried out process evaluation in six schools randomly selected from the participating schools in the form of systematic observations of 12 units. Results showed that the overall level of program adherence was generally high, ranging from 50% to 95%, with an average of 84.5%. High implementation quality of the program in the areas of student interest, student participation and involvement, classroom control, use of interactive delivery method, use of strategies to enhance student motivation, instructors' familiarity with the students, opportunity for reflection, degree of achievement of the objectives, quality of preparation, overall implementation quality, and success of implementation was also observed. The findings provide support for the implementation quality of the program.