Predicting the Trajectories of Parents' Relationship Well-Being During COVID-19 Lockdowns and Beyond: a Vulnerability, Stress and Adaptation Model Perspective.

Strict lockdowns have been employed by many of the world's nations as a public health response to COVID-19. However, concerns have been expressed as to how such public health responses disturb the human ecosystem. In this paper, we report on findings from a longitudinal study of Australian parents in which we investigated how state differences in government-mandated lockdowns affect the relationship well-being (i.e., relationship satisfaction and loneliness) of parents. We situated the study of the relational effects of strict lockdowns within the Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model (VSAM, Karney & Bradbury, 1995) that considers the role of parents' pre-existing vulnerabilities (i.e., psychological distress and attachment insecurity), life stressors (pre-pandemic and COVID-19 stressors), and adaptive relationship processes (constructive communication and perceived partner support). A total of 1942 parents completed 14 waves of assessments of relationship satisfaction and loneliness over a 13.5-month period as well as baseline assessments of personal vulnerabilities, life stressors, and adaptive relationship processes. Parents with high relationship adaptations and low vulnerabilities evidenced the highest relationship well-being (i.e., high satisfaction and low loneliness) during changes in lockdown restrictions, while parents with moderate relationship adaptations and vulnerabilities experienced the poorest well-being. Differences in state lockdown restrictions (i.e., Victoria [long and strict lockdown policy] vs all other states) were associated with differences in relationship well-being for parents with high relationship adaptations. Specifically, Victorian parents experienced significant declines in relationship well-being compared to non-Victorian parents. Our findings provide novel insights into how government-mandated social restrictions can disrupt the relational ecology of parents.

Associations Between Anxiety and Home Learning Difficulties in Children and Adolescents with ADHD During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has markedly impacted functioning for children and adolescents including those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We explored home learning difficulties (HLD) during COVID-19 restrictions in Australian children (aged 5-17) with ADHD, aiming to: (1) describe home learning experiences, and (2) examine associations between child anxiety (i.e., concurrent anxiety symptoms and pre-existing anxiety disorder status) and HLD. Baseline data from the longitudinal ADHD COVID-19 Survey were used (n = 122). Parents reported on school factors and HLD; pre-existing anxiety and co-occurring difficulties; anxiety, ADHD, and oppositional symptoms; demographics; and medications. Parents retrospectively reported more children often looked forward to school pre-pandemic, than during the pandemic. Anxiety symptoms, but not pre-existing anxiety disorder status, were associated with HLD after accounting for covariates. ADHD inattention symptoms were also associated with HLD. Results support recommendations to continue pre-pandemic supports to assist with ADHD symptoms during home learning, and strategies/supports for families are discussed.

Monitoring Australian parents' shifting receptiveness to digital mental health interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Nascent evidence indicates that the mental health of parents and children has markedly declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering disruptions to traditional face-to-face mental health services resultant from stay-at-home orders, the potential value of digital mental health interventions has become extremely apparent. Despite this, uptake of digital interventions remains poor, indicating that a better understanding is needed of factors that determine a willingness to use digital platforms. METHOD: The present multi-wave, longitudinal study of 2365 Australian parents explored between-person and within-person predictors of intentions to use digital interventions during the pandemic. RESULTS: More than one-third of parents reported likely use of a self-guided and therapist-guided digital intervention, with the most endorsed reason for use being to support their child's mental health. Between-person baseline predictors of higher intention ratings were parent's prior mental illness, not living with a partner and recent environmental stressors. Within-person predictors of higher intention ratings were endorsement of mindful parenting strategies, child access to the Internet, better perceived management of child's education, lower social support and financial hardship. CONCLUSION: Findings demonstrate that willingness to engage in digital interventions fluctuates in response to changing circumstances. Identifying novel ways to increase acceptance and uptake of digital interventions based on modifiable predictors established here is needed to realize the full potential of these modes of care in times of need.

Parent and child mental health trajectories April 2020 to May 2021: Strict lockdown versus no lockdown in Australia.

OBJECTIVE: To control a second-wave COVID-19 outbreak, the state of Victoria in Australia experienced one of the world's first long and strict lockdowns over July-October 2020, while the rest of Australia experienced 'COVID-normal' with minimal restrictions. We (1) investigate trajectories of parent/child mental health outcomes in Victoria vs non-Victoria and (2) identify baseline demographic, individual and COVID-19-related factors associated with mental health trajectories. METHODS: Online community sample of 2004 Australian parents with rapid repeated assessment over 14 time-points over April 2020 to May 2021. Measures assessed parent mental health (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-21), child depression symptoms (13-item Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) and child anxiety symptoms (four items from Brief Spence Children's Anxiety Scale). RESULTS: Mental health trajectories shadowed COVID-19 infection rates. Victorians reported a peak in mental health symptoms at the time of the second-wave lockdown compared to other states. Key baseline predictors, including parent and child loneliness (standardized regression coefficient [ß] = 0.09-0.46), parent/child diagnoses (ß = 0.07-0.21), couple conflict (ß = 0.07-0.18) and COVID-19 stressors, such as worry/concern about COVID-19, illness and loss of job (ß = 0.12-0.15), predicted elevated trajectories. Effects of predictors on parent and child mental health trajectories are illustrated in an online interactive app for readers (https://lingtax.shinyapps.io/CPAS_trend/). CONCLUSION: Our findings provide evidence of worse trajectories of parent and child mental health symptoms at a time coinciding with a second COVID-19 outbreak involving strict lockdown in Victoria, compared to non-locked states in Australia. We identified several baseline factors that may be useful in detecting high-risk families who are likely to require additional support early on in future lockdowns.

Examining Analytic Practices in Latent Dirichlet Allocation Within Psychological Science: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Topic modeling approaches allow researchers to analyze and represent written texts. One of the commonly used approaches in psychology is latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), which is used for rapidly synthesizing patterns of text within "big data," but outputs can be sensitive to decisions made during the analytic pipeline and may not be suitable for certain scenarios such as short texts, and we highlight resources for alternative approaches. This review focuses on the complex analytical practices specific to LDA, which existing practical guides for training LDA models have not addressed. OBJECTIVE: This scoping review used key analytical steps (data selection, data preprocessing, and data analysis) as a framework to understand the methodological approaches being used in psychology research using LDA. METHODS: A total of 4 psychology and health databases were searched. Studies were included if they used LDA to analyze written words and focused on a psychological construct or issue. The data charting processes were constructed and employed based on common data selection, preprocessing, and data analysis steps. RESULTS: A total of 68 studies were included. These studies explored a range of research areas and mostly sourced their data from social media platforms. Although some studies reported on preprocessing and data analysis steps taken, most studies did not provide sufficient detail for reproducibility. Furthermore, the debate surrounding the necessity of certain preprocessing and data analysis steps is revealed. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight the growing use of LDA in psychological science. However, there is a need to improve analytical reporting standards and identify comprehensive and evidence-based best practice recommendations. To work toward this, we developed an LDA Preferred Reporting Checklist that will allow for consistent documentation of LDA analytic decisions and reproducible research outcomes.

Vocabulary Development and Trajectories of Behavioral and Emotional Difficulties Via Academic Ability and Peer Problems.

This study investigates associations between trajectories of children's vocabulary development and subsequent behavioral and emotional difficulties via two potential mediating mechanisms; literacy and peer problems. Nationally representative data from 4,983 Australian children were used to examine trajectories of receptive vocabulary (4-5, 6-7, and 8-9 years) and hyperactivity-inattention, conduct problems and emotional symptoms (8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15 years), and literacy and peer problems (8-9 years). Lower growth in vocabulary was related to trajectories of hyperactivity-inattention, conduct problems, and emotional symptoms. Literacy was a key mediator explaining these associations. Results were consistent for children below the 50th percentile for vocabulary at 4-5 years compared to the full sample. These findings suggest that early literacy-based interventions may alleviate declining academic, emotional and behavioral functioning in adolescence.

Repeated early-life exposure to inter-parental conflict increases risk of preadolescent mental health problems.

This study investigated the association between inter-parental conflict at a single occasion, or repeated over early childhood, and children's internalizing and externalizing problems at 10-11 years; and examined potential mechanisms via social risk, maternal mental health, and parenting. Data were five time points from the Baby cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (N = 3696, recruited in 2004). Verbal or physical inter-parental conflict was measured at 0-1, 2-3, 4-5, and 6-7 years. Internalizing and externalizing problems (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) were measured via mother-, father-, teacher-, and child-report at 10-11 years. A series of regression models accounted for social risk at 0-1 years, parenting, and maternal psychological distress at 8-9 years. Physical and verbal inter-parental conflict (reported by 16 and 33% of mothers, respectively) consistently predicted mother-, father-, and child-reported externalizing and internalizing problems, and teacher-reported externalizing (but not internalizing) problems (adjusted regression coefficients [ß] = 0.4-1.1). Repeated compared to single report of verbal conflict was associated with more behavior problems (adjusted mean = 0.8-1.1 compared to 0.4-0.6). CONCLUSION: Children are sensitive to inter-parental conflict, with long-term negative effects for child mental health even when reported at one time point within the first 6 years of life. What is Known: • Studies of children born prior to 1990 show that children exposed to verbal conflict or severe forms of family violence are at greater risk of mental health problems. What is New: • Physical and verbal inter-parental conflict reported once or at multiple time points over the first 6 years of life was associated with externalizing and internalizing problems reported by mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. • Associations between inter-parental conflict and child problems were not explained by family social risk, maternal mental health, or parenting.

EHLS at School: school-age follow-up of the Early Home Learning Study cluster randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Targeted interventions during early childhood can assist families in providing strong foundations that promote children's health and wellbeing across the life course. There is growing recognition that longer follow-up times are necessary to assess intervention outcomes, as effects may change as children develop. The Early Home Learning Study, or 'EHLS', comprised two cluster randomized controlled superiority trials of a brief parenting intervention, smalltalk, aimed at supporting parents to strengthen the early childhood home learning environment of infants (6-12 months) or toddlers (12-36 months). Results showed sustained improvements in parent-child interactions and the home environment at the 32 week follow-up for the toddler but not the infant trial. The current study will therefore follow up the EHLS toddler cohort to primary school age, with the aim of addressing a gap in literature concerning long-term effects of early childhood interventions focused on improving school readiness and later developmental outcomes. METHODS: 'EHLS at School' is a school-aged follow-up study of the toddler cluster randomized controlled trial (n = 1226). Data will be collected by parent-, child- and teacher-report questionnaires, recorded observations of parent-child interactions, and direct child assessment when children are aged 7.5 years old. Data linkage will provide additional data on child health and academic functioning at ages 5, 8 and 10 years. Child outcomes will be compared for families allocated to standard/usual care (control) versus those allocated to the smalltalk program (group program only or group program with additional home coaching). DISCUSSION: Findings from The Early Home Learning Study provided evidence of the benefits of the smalltalk intervention delivered via facilitated playgroups for parents of toddlers. The EHLS at School Study aims to examine the long-term outcomes of this initiative to determine whether improvements in the quality of the parent-child relationship persist over time and translate into benefits for children's social, academic and behavioral skills that last into the school years. TRIAL REGISTRATION: 8 September 2011; ACTRN12611000965909 (for the original EHLS).

What Influences Parental Engagement in Early Intervention? Parent, Program and Community Predictors of Enrolment, Retention and Involvement.

Poor participant engagement undermines individual and public health benefits of early intervention programs. This study assessed the extent to which three types of engagement (participant enrolment, retention and involvement) were influenced by individual, program and contextual factors. Data were from a cluster randomised controlled trial (N = 1447) of a community-based parenting program, delivered at two levels of intensity (group sessions with and without individualised home coaching) conducted in Victoria, Australia. Individual (parent and family) factors and program factors were assessed by parent report and administrative records, and contextual factors by area-level population statistics. Data were analysed using multilevel logistic or linear regression models. Individual and contextual factors predicted enrolment, while family and program factors were more influential on program retention and parents' active involvement. Provision of individualised support was important to all forms of engagement, particularly for families experiencing the greatest barriers to participation. These findings indicate that different strategies are required to effectively support families in the processes of enrolling, continuing to attend and actively participating in early intervention programs.

Exposure to Inter-Parental Conflict Across 10 Years of Childhood: Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Rates of child exposure to inter-parental conflict are high and appear to be increasing, with at least one million Australian children affected annually. To-date, there is no established prevalence for inter-parental conflict that includes the more common but less severe forms for young families in the wider Australian community. The current study aims were to examine the prevalence, persistence, and the individual, family and socio-economic context of inter-parental conflict. Data were from four waves of the Baby (n = 4,898) and Kindergarten (n = 4,182) cohorts of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Verbal and physical inter-parental conflict was measured using the Argumentative Relationship Scale. More than 1 in 3 mothers (35-36%) reported any verbal and/or physical conflict. Prevalence of verbal conflict at each wave (10-13%) was higher than physical conflict (4-10%), with low co-occurrence (1-3%). Report of inter-parental conflict at one wave only was most common (19%); although 13% of mothers reported conflict at two waves; and 5-6% reported persistent conflict across three or more waves. Social disadvantage was consistently associated with report at one-wave only and persistent inter-parental conflict. Extrapolated to the Australian population, an estimated 1.9 million children are likely to be affected by inter-parental conflict within any 6 years of the early-to-middle childhood period. Establishing accurate prevalence and understanding the social context of the less severe but most common forms of inter-parental conflict will allow family and child support services to allocate finite resources more effectively and develop targeted interventions to promote children's positive development.

The cost of healthcare for children with mental health difficulties.

OBJECTIVE: Childhood mental health difficulties affect one in every seven children in Australia, posing a potential financial burden to society. This paper reports on the early lifetime individual and population non-hospital healthcare costs to the Australian Federal Government for children experiencing mental health difficulties. It also reports on the use and cost of particular categories of service use, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) mental health items introduced in 2006. METHOD: Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) were used to calculate total Medicare costs (government subsidised healthcare attendances and prescription medications) from birth to the 8th birthday associated with childhood mental health difficulties measured to 8-9 years of age. RESULTS: Costs were higher among children with mental health difficulties than those without difficulties. While individual costs increased with the persistence of difficulties, population-level costs were highest for those with transient mental health difficulties. Although attenuated, these patterns persisted after child, parent and family characteristics were taken into account. Use of the MBS-reimbursed mental health services among children with a mental health difficulty was very low (around 2%). CONCLUSIONS: Australian healthcare costs for young children with mental health difficulties are substantial and provide further justification for early intervention and prevention. The current provision of Medicare-rebated mental health services does not appear to be reaching young children with mental health difficulties.

Social and emotional determinants of parental reflective functioning in a multinational sample.

Parental reflective functioning refers to parents' capacity to consider their child's internal experiences and is associated with secure parent-child attachment, sensitive parenting behavior, and positive child socioemotional development. However, research into determinants of parental reflective functioning in large diverse samples has been scarce. Therefore, using a large multinational sample and longitudinal design, we aimed to: (a) identify sociodemographic determinants of parental reflective functioning; (b) investigate whether parental emotion regulation is a psychological determinant of parental reflective functioning; and (c) assess whether child negative affect, parent stress, and child age moderate longitudinal associations between parent emotion regulation and parental reflective functioning. Data were two time points of the Child and Parent Emotion Study following 2,208 parents (68% female) of a child aged 0-10 years residing in English-speaking countries. Parent emotion dysregulation, parent male cisgender status, speaking a language other than English, younger parent age, and older child age were associated with lower parental reflective functioning 12 months later, as indicated by higher levels of prementalizing. Child negative affect moderated the association between parent emotion dysregulation and parental reflective functioning, whereas child age and parent stress did not. Specifically, parent difficulty controlling impulses when distressed was associated with higher levels of prementalizing modes of reflective functioning only when child negative affect was moderate-to-high. The interplay between parent emotion dysregulation and child negative affect highlights the importance of considering both parent and child characteristics in intervention planning and suggests that personalizing parenting support according to these characteristics may be beneficial. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Creation of a Short-Form and Brief Short-Form Version of the Coping With Children's Negative Emotions Scale.

The Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) is a widely used measure of parent emotion socialization; however, it is a lengthy measure and it is unclear whether all items are appropriately aligned with, and fully capture, the underlying constructs. We aimed to examine content validity of the CCNES, evaluate the theoretical alignment between the CCNES and Gottman, Katz and Hooven's meta-emotion theory, and develop two short-forms. Participants were parents of children aged 4 to 10 years (N = 937) from the longitudinal study the Child and Parent Emotion Study (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e038124). Content experts qualitatively evaluated parent-report items of the CCNES and additional items that measured empathy. Nineteen of the 84 items were found to not align with the meta-emotion theory. The latent structures of the CCNES and empathy subscales were quantitatively evaluated via confirmatory factor analysis. Items with poor psychometric properties were subsequently removed. An 18-item short-form (three emotion coaching subscales, three emotion dismissing subscales) and 6-item brief short-form (one emotion coaching subscale, one emotion dismissing subscale) with strong psychometric properties were created using a calibration sample (n = 468, that is, 50% of N = 937) and cross-validated with a validation sample. The short-form CCNES measures provide viable, theoretically consistent alternatives to the original CCNES measure.

Profiles of parents' emotion socialization within a multinational sample of parents.

Introduction: Seminal emotion socialization theories classify parents according to two patterns of parent emotion socialization processes: 'emotion coaching' (i.e., parents validate and teach children about emotions) versus 'emotion dismissing' parenting (i.e., parents minimize and dismiss their children's emotions). However, empirical evidence supporting this binary distinction of parents remains limited. Our objective was to investigate whether parents can be differentiated by distinct patterns in their (1) beliefs about children's emotions, (2) emotion regulation, and (3) emotion-related parenting practices. Method: Participants were parents of children aged 4-10 years from the Child and Parent Emotion Study (N = 869) (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e038124). Parents completed self-reported measures of emotion socialization processes via an online survey, which took 20-30 min to complete. Data included in the current study were collected May-August 2019. We conducted a latent profile analysis of parents' emotion socialization (13 indicators). To assess reliability of the profiles, we examined stability of the profiles across (1) parents of children in early versus middle childhood, and (2) fathers versus mothers, via measurement invariance testing. Further, to assess for construct validity of the profiles, we examined concurrent associations between six criterion constructs and parents' emotion socialization profiles. Results: A three-profile model emerged characterizing parents by: (1) emotion coaching; (2) emotion dismissing; (3) emotion disengaged. There was strong support for construct validity and reliability. Discussion: Our study provides empirical support for distinct differentiated classifications of emotion coaching and emotion dismissing parenting, aligned with emotion socialization theories. We further extend on extant theory and suggest a third 'emotion disengaged' classification, describing parents with moderate levels of emotion dismissing parenting and low levels of emotion coaching parenting. It should be noted that the profiles were derived with self-report data, therefore, data may have been biased by contextual factors. Furthermore, the study sample consisted of Western families from affluent backgrounds. The field should focus efforts on conducting person-centered studies with more diverse samples in future.

Longitudinal Associations Between COVID-19 Stress and the Mental Health of Children With ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the longitudinal associations between COVID-19 induced stress (related to COVID-19 restrictions/changes), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, oppositional symptoms, and mental health outcomes (negative affect, anxiety, depression, and irritability) in children with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: Parents of 140 Australian children with ADHD (aged 5-17 years) completed an online survey in May 2020 during stay-at-home restrictions and 12-months later. RESULTS: Baseline COVID-19 stress was associated with increased total ADHD symptom severity (ß = .21, p = .007) and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms (ß = .23, p = .002) at 12-months, after accounting for covariates (i.e., child age, gender, ADHD medication, socio-economic status, and baseline symptoms). Despite some indication of associations between baseline COVID-19 stress and 12-month oppositional symptoms and negative affect, these were attenuated when adjusting for baseline symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides initial evidence of the medium-term impacts of pandemic-related stress for children with ADHD.

Developmental gains and losses during parenthood.

The onset of parenthood irrevocably changes the landscape of adults' functioning, amplifying the potential for parents' experiences of both developmental losses and gains/growth, in context of increased responsibilities and more limited access to environmental resources/supports. In this article, we draw on dual theoretical lenses to integrate the frameworks of Baltes' lifespan development theory of gains and loss and Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model. We summarize empirical evidence in relation to a normative transition, exemplified by the transition to parenthood, and a non-normative event, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and show that parents' experiences of developmental loss and gains/growth are inextricably linked. Our findings illustrate how parents' losses/gains are influenced by a broad range of individual and environmental factors, with implications for parent prevention/intervention programs.

Text mining of Reddit posts: Using latent Dirichlet allocation to identify common parenting issues.

Parenting interventions offer an evidence-based method for the prevention and early intervention of child mental health problems, but to-date their population-level effectiveness has been limited by poor reach and engagement, particularly for fathers, working mothers, and disadvantaged families. Tailoring intervention content to parents' context offers the potential to enhance parent engagement and learning by increasing relevance of content to parents' daily experiences. However, this approach requires a detailed understanding of the common parenting situations and issues that parents face day-to-day, which is currently lacking. We sought to identify the most common parenting situations discussed by parents on parenting-specific forums of the free online discussion forum, Reddit. We aimed to understand perspectives from both mothers and fathers, and thus retrieved publicly available data from r/Daddit and r/Mommit. We used latent Dirichlet allocation to identify the 10 most common topics discussed in the Reddit posts, and completed a manual text analysis to summarize the parenting situations (defined as involving a parent and their child aged 0-18 years, and describing a potential/actual issue). We retrieved 340 (r/Daddit) and 578 (r/Mommit) original posts. A model with 31 latent Dirichlet allocation topics was best fitting, and 24 topics included posts that met our inclusion criteria for manual review. We identified 45 unique but broadly defined parenting situations. The majority of parenting situations were focused on basic childcare situations relating to eating, sleeping, routines, sickness, and toilet training; or related to how to respond to child negative emotions or difficult behavior. Most situations were discussed in relation to infant or toddler aged children, and there was high consistency in the themes raised in r/Daddit and r/Mommit. Our results offer potential to tailor parenting interventions in a meaningful way, creating opportunities to develop content and resources that are directly relevant to parents' lived experiences.

Adult psychiatric outcomes of very low birth weight survivors.

BACKGROUND: Childhood studies have identified relationships between low birth weight and a variety of psychological disorders. However, very few studies have prospectively followed VLBW survivors into adulthood and none have examined adult psychiatric disorders in this population. OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study sought to determine the rates and nature of psychiatric disorders in very low birth weight (VLBW, birth weight < 1500 g) adults. METHOD: 117 VLBW participants and 32 normal birth weight (NBW, birth weight > 2499 g) controls, born 1977-1982, were assessed in early adulthood (24-29 years). Participants were first screened for psychopathology using the Symptoms Checklist (SCL-90-R). Participants who were elevated on this measure were eligible for a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR (SCID-I/NP) to determine a formal psychiatric diagnosis. RESULTS: VLBW adults were more likely than controls to be elevated on the Global Severity Index (odds ratio (OR) = 4.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96, 19.14) and the depression (OR = 5.17, 95%CI = 1.17, 23.00), paranoid ideation (OR = 4.08, 95%CI = 0.91, 18.23), hostility (relative risk (RR) = 1.34, 95%CI = 1.21, 1.49), and interpersonal sensitivity (OR = 3.80, 95%CI = 1.08, 13.32) subscales of the SCL-90-R. VLBW adults were also more likely to be diagnosed with a current mood disorder than NBW adults (RR = 1.36, 95%CI = 1.22, 1.51). CONCLUSIONS: VLBW adults are at greater risk of psychopathology than NBW peers.

Strategies to Increase Uptake of Parent Education Programs in Preschool and School Settings to Improve Child Outcomes: A Delphi Study.

Parent education programs, offered via family-school partnerships, offer an effective means for promoting the mental health and educational functioning of children and adolescents at a whole-school level. However, these programs often have a low uptake. This study aimed to identify strategies for increasing the uptake of parent education programs within preschool and school settings. A three-round Delphi procedure was employed to obtain expert consensus on strategies that are important and feasible in educational settings. First, thirty experts rated statements identified from the literature and a stakeholder forum. Next, experts re-appraised statements, including new statements generated from the first round. Ninety statements were endorsed by ≥80% of the experts. Primary themes include strategies for program selection; strategies for increasing the accessibility of programs and the understanding of educational staff on parent engagement and child mental health; strategies for program development, promotion and delivery; as well as strategies for increasing parent and community engagement. This study offers a set of consensus strategies for improving the uptake of parent education programs within family-school partnership.

Subjective wellbeing in parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

OBJECTIVES: To examine (1) the subjective wellbeing of Australian parents raising children and adolescents (0-18 years) during April 2020 'stage three' COVID-19 restrictions, in comparison with parents assessed over 18-years prior to the pandemic; and (2) socio-demographic and COVID-19 predictors of subjective wellbeing during the pandemic. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were from the COVID-19 Pandemic Adjustment Survey (CPAS, N = 2365 parents of a child 0-18 years, 8-28th April 2020); and a pre-pandemic national database containing 18 years of annual surveys collected in 2002-2019 (N = 17,529 parents). RESULTS: Levels of subjective wellbeing during the pandemic were considerably lower than ratings prior to the pandemic (Personal Wellbeing Index, mean[SD] = 65.3 [17.0]; compared to [SD] = 75.8 [11.9], p < 0.001). During the pandemic, lower subjective wellbeing was associated with low education (adjusted regression coefficient, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = -5.19, -0.93), language other-than-English (95% CI = -7.22, -1.30), government benefit (95% CI = -6.99, -0.96), single parents (95% CI = -8.84, -4.59), child neurodevelopmental condition (95% CI = -3.44, -0.76), parent physical/mental health problems (95% CI = -3.23, -0.67), COVID-environmental stressors (95% CI = -3.48, -2.44), and fear/worry about COVID-19 (95% CI = -8.13, -5.96). Unexpectedly, parent engagement with news media about the pandemic was associated with higher subjective wellbeing (95% CI = 0.35, 1.61). CONCLUSION: Subjective wellbeing in parents raising children aged 0-18 years appears to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions in Australia. Specific at-risk groups, for which government intervention may be warranted, include parents in socially disadvantaged contexts, parents with pre-existing mental health difficulties, and parents facing significant COVID-19-related work changes.