Study protocol for a non-randomized controlled trial of the effects of internet-based parent training as a booster to the preschool edition of PATHS®: Universal edition of the Parent Web.

Well implemented, universal parental support is often effective in families with younger children, but research on their effects on families with adolescent children is scarce. In this study, a trial of the universal parent training intervention "Parent Web" in early adolescence is added to the social emotional learning intervention Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS®), completed in early childhood. The Parent Web is a universal online parenting intervention based on social learning theory. The intervention aims to promote positive parenting and family interaction through five weekly modules completed over 6-8 weeks. The main hypothesis is that participants in the intervention group will exhibit significant pre- to post- intervention-related benefits relative participants in the comparison group. The aims of this study are: 1) provide Parent Web as a booster aimed at improving parenting support and practices at the transition into adolescence to a cohort of parents whose children have previously participated in preschool PATHS, and 2) examine the effects of the universal edition of Parent Web. The study has a quasi-experimental design with pre- and post-testing. The incremental effects of this internet-delivered parent training intervention are tested in parents of early adolescents (11-13 years) who participated in PATHS when 4-5 years old compared to a matched sample of adolescents with no prior experience of PATHS. The primary outcomes are parent reported child behavior and family relationships. Secondary outcomes include self-reported parent health and stress. The proposed study is one of the few trials to test the effects of universal parental support in families of early adolescents and will therefore contribute to the understanding of how mental health in children and young people can be promoted across developmental periods through a continuum of universal measures. Trial registration: Clinical trials.gov (NCT05172297), prospectively registered on December 29, 2021.

Neighborhood conditions in a Swedish context-Two studies of reliability and validity of virtual systematic social observation using Google Street View.

Introduction: The goal of these studies was to investigate the reliability and validity of virtual systematic social observation (virtual SSO) using Google Street View in a Swedish neighborhood context. Methods: This was accomplished in two studies. Study 1 focused on interrater reliability and construct validity, comparing ratings conducted in-person to those done using Google Street View, across 24 study sites within four postal code areas. Study 2 focused on criterion validity of virtual SSO in terms of neighborhoods with low versus high income levels, including 133 study sites within 22 postal code areas in a large Swedish city. In both studies, assessment of the neighborhood context was conducted at each study site, using a protocol adapted to a Swedish context. Results: Scales for Physical Decay, Neighborhood Dangerousness, and Physical Disorder were found to be reliable, with adequate interrater reliability, high consistency across methods, and high internal consistency. In Study 2, significantly higher levels of observed Physical Decay, Neighborhood Dangerousness, and signs of garbage or litter were observed in postal codes areas (site data was aggregated to postal code level) with lower as compared to higher income levels. Discussion: We concluded that the scales within the virtual SSO with Google Street View protocol that were developed in this series of studies represents a reliable and valid measure of several key neighborhood contextual features. Implications for understanding the complex person-context interactions central to many theories of positive development among youth were discussed in relation to the study findings.

Children's social emotional competence in Pakistan and Sweden: Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Social Competence Scale (teacher edition).

Introduction: Social emotional competence is fundamental to the positive development of children and youth. Accurately understanding and assessing children's social emotional competencies, using psychometrically sound instruments, are essential to global efforts to support children's social emotional learning, academic achievements, and health. This study examined the psychometric properties of a teacher-reported measure of young children's social emotional competence, the Social Competence Scale - Teacher edition (SCS-T), in two samples of children growing up with varied economic resources/conditions, cultural norms, and educational experiences, namely Pakistan (N = 396) and Sweden (N = 309). Methods: Participants were aged 4-6 years old. The study design was cross-sectional. Results and Discussion: Using structural equation modelling, bi-factor confirmatory factor analysis models implying shared variance, among all items and domain-specific shared variance, among the prosocial items, emotion regulation items, and academic skills items resulted in good fitting models in each respective sample. Invariance testing across samples revealed a subset of items from each factor structure with partial scalar invariance, whereby five items had equal thresholds and could be comparable across the two samples. Thus, results provided partial support for hypotheses 1, 2, and 3, in that the posited three factor model (H1) was not clearly supported and a bi-factor model evidenced the best fit, among tested models, for both samples. Further, partial scalar invariance (H3) was found for five items out of 25 items, concerning social competence and academic skills. In regards, to the posited research question, the results of Z-tests showed significant (p < 0.001) latent mean differences between the samples. Compared to the Swedish sample, the Pakistani sample was 1.80 units lower on social competence (z = -6.41, p < 0.001) and 1.86 units lower on academic skills (z = -7.87, p < 0.001). The implications of these findings in light of efforts to promote positive child development in diverse parts of the world are considered.

The Importance of Developmental Assets to Mental Health in Norwegian Youth.

In the present study, we examined the importance of developmental assets to prolonged sadness (i.e., being sad most of the time or all the time for no reason in the last month) and suicide attempt. Cross-sectional data on items measuring developmental assets as well as prolonged sadness and suicide attempt were collected from high school students in Norway (N = 591, 55% girls). The findings from independent t-tests indicated that youth with poor mental health reported less developmental assets relative to their peers who did not report such problems. In logistic regression, asset categories, such as Positive identity and Personal assets, were significantly associated with poor mental health (especially prolonged sadness) after adjusting for other asset categories and demographic factors, such as age, sex, and parents' educational background. The influence of Empowerment and Family assets, which was significant when only the assets were assessed, was no longer significant when demographic variables were also considered. While more research on factors that can promote youth mental health is needed, our findings suggest that policies and programmes that ensure that youth have access to the necessary developmental resources and opportunities may also be empowering youth, enhancing their mental health, and consequently, facilitating their active involvement in their community.

The Importance of Positive Psychological Strengths in Well-Being and Adjustment of Romanian Emerging Adults: A Pattern and Variable-Oriented Approach.

Transition to adulthood in countries that have seen recent historical structural changes in society as well as changes in what it means to be an adult represents important contexts for investigations of ways in which positive development and transition to adulthood are experienced. Situated in such context, this cross-sectional study aimed to (1) describe profiles of positive psychological strengths, as measured by the Five Cs of positive youth development (PYD) and (2) document how identified profiles might differ in relation to other aspects of positive and problematic development. Participants were 272 Romanian emerging adults attending university (76% female; aged 19-29 years old, M age = 21 years old). Latent class analysis was performed to identify patterns of psychological strengths using the Five Cs theory of positive youth development. Pairwise Wald chi square difference tests were then conducted to determine if the identified Five Cs profiles were associated with significant differences in other key outcomes. Findings indicated that, a two-class model emerged as the best fitting model, and in this model, Class 1 was similar to Class 2 on strengths of competence, confidence, and connection. However, the two classes were distinguishable by caring and character, with Class 2, the numerically more common profile (89%), being elevated on character and caring relative to Class 1 (which was a less frequently occurring profile, 11%). This finding highlights the importance of examining the diversity of positive development, even within the same theoretical framework. Further results indicated that the two identified classes showed similarities in problematic behaviors as well as in purpose in life and psychological complaints. Other group difference tests by profile/class indicated that Class 2 was higher in general and social well-being relative to Class 1, with a trend in the same direction for hope. However, an unexpected finding was that Class 2 was also elevated in somatic complaints relative to Class 1. These are important findings not only because of the contribution to the generalizability of the Five Cs theory and measure but also because of the implications of the findings to research, policy, and practice in the Romanian context and beyond.

A Cluster Randomized Trial of Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS®) With Swedish Preschool Children.

The preschool edition of Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS®) is a school-based, teacher implemented universal intervention developed in the United States designed to promote social emotional competence (SEC) in children as a foundation for improved mental health. PATHS is delivered as a curriculum and it is based on theories and research regarding SEC, brain development, and optimal school environments. A majority of children in Sweden attend preschool, which is government-subsidized and follows a national curriculum focusing on both academic and social emotional learning. However, there is not so much focus on formal instruction nor manual-based lessons. The purpose of this study was to assess the short-term (pre- to post-test) effects of PATHS in the Swedish preschool setting. Using a two-wave cluster randomized trial with multi-method and informant assessment (N = 285 4 and 5-year-old Swedish children; n = 145 wait-list control; n = 140 intervention; K = 26 preschools; k = 13 intervention; k = 13 control) we assessed changes in child emotional knowledge, emotional awareness, social problem solving, prosocial play, inhibitory control, and working memory using structural equation modeling (SEM). We included schools with at least one classroom of 4-5-year-old children from three municipalities. We excluded open preschools, parent cooperative preschools, and family day homes. After random assignment, schools were informed of condition assignment. Research team members were not blind to assignment. We hypothesized that relative to children in control schools, children in intervention schools would evidence improvements in social emotional competence as well as other outcomes. Children in PATHS, relative to children in the control, evidenced improvements in working memory and prosocial play, but also showed an increase in hyperactive behaviors. Girls in PATHS, relative to girls in the control, showed improvement in emotional knowledge and reduced anxiety. These results are considered in light of efforts to promote positive development and mental health. The trial registration number at ClinicalTrials.gov is NCT04512157. Main funding was from Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, the Swedish Research Council, Formas, and VINNOVA (dnr: 259-2012-71).

The Importance of Pedagogical and Social School Climate to Bullying: A Cross-Sectional Multilevel Study of 94 Swedish Schools.

BACKGROUND: Bullying is a public health issue with long-term effects for victims. This study investigated if there was an association between pedagogical and social school climate and student-reported bullying victimization, which dimensions of pedagogical and social school climate were associated with bullying, and if these associations were modified by individual-level social factors. METHODS: The study had a cross-sectional multilevel design with individual-level data on bullying from 3311 students nested in 94 schools over 3 consecutive school years. School climate was measured with student and teacher questionnaires, aggregated at the school level. The association between school climate and bullying victimization was estimated with multilevel mixed-model logistic regression. RESULTS: In schools with the most favorable school climate, fewer students reported being bullied. This was especially evident when school climate was measured with the student instrument. Students in schools with favorable climate had an adjusted odds ratio of bullying of 0.74 (95% CI: 0.55-1.00) compared to students in schools with the worst climate. Results from the teacher instrument were in the same direction, but less consistent. CONCLUSIONS: Improvement in school climate has the potential to affect students both academically, and socially, as well as decrease the prevalence of bullying.

Reliability and construct validity of five life domains in the adolescent drug abuse diagnosis instrument in a sample of Swedish adolescent girls in special residential care.

Aim: This cross-sectional study investigates the psychometric properties of the Swedish edition of the Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis (ADAD), and specifically examines the internal consistency and construct validity of five life domains reported by female adolescents in special residential care in Sweden (N = 780; M age = 16 years old). Methods: Principal component analysis and entropy-based analysis were used to test construct validity. Conclusion: Results indicate that ADAD may be able to reliably distinguish between areas that are important targets for intervention.

Stability and Change in Patterns of Adolescent Antisocial Behavior.

Research examining relations between various types of antisocial behavior (ASB) have generally been based on cross-sectional data. Although there is a strong correlation between types of ASB, it has been less common to examine how patterns of adolescents' problems vary over time. This study used a person-oriented approach to examine patterns of ASB in adolescents longitudinally and also investigated how these patterns were associated with three outcomes. The sample consisted of 778 Swedish adolescents in grade 7 (13 years old) followed over time to grade 9. Patterns of ASB were identified based on adolescent-reported tobacco and alcohol use, truancy, bullying in school, and delinquency. The outcomes were drug use, depressive symptoms, and missing grades in grade 9. Results revealed an escalation in the frequency and seriousness of ASB over time, although the largest single cluster over time evidenced no ASB. One cluster in particular increased the risk of drug use, depression, and missing grades at grade 9. Results are discussed in relation to school-based prevention efforts.

School Climate, Academic Achievement and Educational Aspirations in Roma Minority and Bulgarian Majority Adolescents.

BACKGROUND: School climate can promote students' academic achievement and high educational aspirations. School climate refers to the quality and character of school life, norms, values, social interactions and organizational processes within a school. OBJECTIVE: We examined for the present sample whether (a) school climate relates to academic achievement and educational aspirations and (b) such relations vary for Roma minority compared to their majority peers. METHOD: Participants in this cross-sectional study were 356 adolescents aged 11-19 years old (159 Roma, 197 Bulgarian majority), 332 mothers (149 Roma, 183 majority), 231 fathers (104 Roma, 127 majority) and 221 majority teachers who completed self-report surveys to address the study goals. Adolescents provided data on educational aspirations and academic achievement, parents on their children's educational aspirations and teachers reported on school climate. We employed linear mixed models to explore associations of school climate, academic achievement and educational aspirations among Roma and Bulgarian majority youth. RESULTS: There were negative associations between teacher-reported school climate and students' academic achievement, as well as adolescent and parental educational aspirations for Roma adolescents only. Roma adolescents and parents reported lower academic achievement and educational aspirations than their majority counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the relevance of school climate in relation to academic achievement and aspirations of disadvantaged minority students. Interventions should pay close attention to perceptions and attitudes in a school to successfully promote positive outcomes among students.

Introduction to a special section on Explaining Positive Adaptation of Immigrant and Minority Youth across Cultures.

This special section on "Explaining Positive Adaptation of Immigrant and Minority Youth across Cultures" is the result of an expert meeting organized by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), the European Association of Developmental Psychology (EADP), and the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA). The aim of this special section was to bring together empirical studies and expert commentaries on a pressing topic of global importance, and to explore intersections between the fields of acculturation and positive youth development. From these contributions, several major challenges were identified. These included the need for greater attention to the strengths and adaptation of immigrant adolescents (i.e., to include a positive youth development framework in acculturation research and theory), the differentiation and intersections between acculturative processes and normative developmental challenges, the evolution acculturation theory, the need to better understand contact between multiple groups, the consideration of context-dependency and dynamic nature of acculturative processes.

School environment and mental health in early adolescence - a longitudinal study in Sweden (KUPOL).

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal studies indicate strong associations between school proficiency and indicators of mental health throughout adulthood, but the mechanisms of such associations are not fully elucidated. The Kupol study is a prospective cohort study in Sweden set up in order to: (i) describe the association of school pedagogic and social environment and its specific dimensions with the risk of mental ill-health and psychiatric disorders in adolescence; (ii) evaluate the direct effects of school pedagogic and social environment on mental health and the effects mediated by the individual's academic achievements; and (iii) assess if school pedagogic and social environment are associated with mental ill-health through epigenetic mechanisms, in particular those involving genes regulating the response to stress. METHODS: The Kupol cohort at baseline consists of 3959 children attending the 7th grade of compulsory school (13-14 years old) in 8 regions of central Sweden in the school years 2013-2014 or 2014-2015. Three follow-up surveys in subsequent years are planned. Teachers' and students' perceptions of the culture, climate and ethos of their schools, and students' mental ill-health are assessed at the whole school level by annual questionnaire surveys. In order to conduct epigenetic analyses saliva specimens are collected from a nested sample of students at inception and two years later. Further, class-, family- and child-level information is collected at baseline and during each year of follow-up. Self-reported information is being complemented with register data via record-linkages to national and regional health and administrative registers. DISCUSSION: The topic being investigated is new, and the sample constitutes the largest adolescent cohort in Sweden involved in an ad hoc study. Epigenetic analyses centered on environmental cues to stress response are a thoroughly new approach. Finally a notable feature is the multi-informant and multi-method data collection, with surveys at the school, class, family, and student level. Collaboration and data access: interested investigators should contact the coordinating centre. Additional information is available on the study's website, http://kupolstudien.se/ .

Intergenerational transmission of ethnic identity and life satisfaction of Roma minority adolescents and their parents.

This study investigates intergeneration transmission of ethnic identity as a resource for life satisfaction of Roma adolescents and their parents. Historically, Roma represent the largest ethnic minority in Europe. They have been exposed to severe discrimination, social exclusion, and poverty. Therefore, identifying resources for their life satisfaction is theoretically and practically important. The present study included 1093 participants, of which there were 171 Roma adolescents (age: M = 14.96 years, SD = 1.85), 155 mothers (age: M = 36.16 years, SD = 5.77) and 123 fathers (age: M = 39.68 years, SD = 6.06). Further, a comparison group of 248 mainstream adolescents with their mothers (n = 221) and fathers (n = 175) was also included in the study. Adolescents and their parents provided data on ethnic identity (MEIM; Phinney, 1992) and life satisfaction (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Results indicated that Roma youth were lower on endorsement of ethnic identity and average on life satisfaction compared to their mainstream peers. A structural equation model showed that ethnic identity was a positive predictor of life satisfaction for both adolescents and their Roma parents. Furthermore, parents' ethnic identity was a predictor of adolescent life satisfaction. We concluded that for Roma youth and their parents, ethnic identity represents a salient source for life satisfaction and an intergenerational continuity of identity and life satisfaction exists.

Advancing school-based interventions through economic analysis.

Commentators interested in school-based prevention programs point to the importance of economic issues for the future of prevention efforts. Many of the processes and aims of prevention science are dependent upon prevention resources. Although economic analysis is an essential tool for assessing resource use, the attention given economic analysis within school-based prevention remains cursory. Largely, economic analyses of school-based prevention efforts are undertaken as secondary research. This limits these efforts to data that have been collected previously as part of epidemiological and outcomes research. Therefore, economic analyses suffer from gaps in the knowledge generated by these studies. This chapter addresses the importance of economic analysis for the future of school-based substance abuse prevention programs and highlights the role of prevention research in the development of knowledge that can be used for economic analysis.

Going Global: A Model for Evaluating Empirically Supported Family-Based Interventions in New Contexts.

The spread of evidence-based practice throughout the world has resulted in the wide adoption of empirically supported interventions (ESIs) and a growing number of controlled trials of imported and culturally adapted ESIs. This article is informed by outcome research on family-based interventions including programs listed in the American Blueprints Model and Promising Programs. Evidence from these controlled trials is mixed and, because it is comprised of both successful and unsuccessful replications of ESIs, it provides clues for the translation of promising programs in the future. At least four explanations appear plausible for the mixed results in replication trials. One has to do with methodological differences across trials. A second deals with ambiguities in the cultural adaptation process. A third explanation is that ESIs in failed replications have not been adequately implemented. A fourth source of variation derives from unanticipated contextual influences that might affect the effects of ESIs when transported to other cultures and countries. This article describes a model that allows for the differential examination of adaptations of interventions in new cultural contexts.

Personal and ethnic identity in Swedish adolescents and emerging adults.

The chapter describes empirical evidence about identity development in Swedish adolescents and emerging adults and highlights cultural and contextual influences that may be specific to coming of age in Sweden. Broad trends in identity options are evident in the lives of many youth living in Sweden. Although research on identity and diversity is in its infancy in Sweden, due at least in part to its tradition of longitudinal research, its contribution to understanding advances in adolescent-parent and peer relations, and its contributions to developmental interactionist metatheories of human development, the country has the potential to forge a new generation of identity research that takes into account the ongoing process of person-environment interactions.

Is more better? Outcome and dose of a universal drug prevention effectiveness trial.

Two evidence-based interventions, Life Skills Training and TimeWise, were combined in an effectiveness trial. Participants were predominately African American youth (N = 715; M (age) = 12). The study authors provide an empirical demonstration of the implications of incorporating dosage information in intervention outcome analyses. Study results showed no program-related benefits for drug use. Results indicated intervention-related benefits for assertiveness and anxiety management skills and drug use intentions as well as a reduction in detrimental leisure motivations. High program exposure and lesson coverage tended to be connected to intervention benefits. Study findings also documented ways that dosage information provides insight into interventions and their effects.