Positive Effects of Digital Technology Use by Adolescents: A Scoping Review of the Literature.

This study examines the research literature published from 2012 to 2022 on the relationship between increases in adolescent consumption of digital technologies and its impact on multiple areas of development, with a focus on how adolescent immersion in an increasingly ubiquitous digital world engenders positive outcomes in terms of brain, cognitive, and social-emotional development. The literature search yielded 131 articles, 53 of which were empirical studies of the relationship between increases in consumption of digital technology and brain development, cognitive development, or social-emotional development among adolescents. Overall, these studies identify positive outcomes for adolescents who use different types of digital tech, including the internet, social media, and video games.

Implementing Group Parent Training in Telepsychology: Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: We recently transitioned from in-person delivery of a brief behavioral parent intervention to telepsychology delivery to meet families' needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this topical review, we describe how we used treatment fidelity as a guiding principle to orient adaptations for telepsychology, as well as preliminary findings and early lessons learned in this implementation. Methods: Using rapid-cycle quality improvement methods, we adapted a brief parent training group (Bootcamp for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; BC-ADHD) to three groups of caregivers (i.e., 5-7 families) of school-aged children with ADHD (n = 20; 85% males). Families were from the following ethnic backgrounds: 75% White non-Hispanic, 15% White Hispanic, and 10% Black. Clinicians completed measures on their implementation experience. Observers completed measures on content/process fidelity and attendance. Caregivers completed measures on demographics, treatment satisfaction, and telepsychology experience. RESULTS: Telepsychology BC-ADHD can be implemented with comparably high levels of content and process fidelity and treatment satisfaction to in-person groups; and it appears to be feasible and acceptable to caregivers. Caregiver and clinician qualitative feedback revealed themes of appreciating the convenience of telepsychology, while experiencing some challenges in relating to others and sharing over video. CONCLUSIONS: When treatment fidelity is used as a guiding tool, telepsychology parent training groups can be delivered with high fidelity and appear to be acceptable and feasible to caregivers and clinicians. Future research using larger and more diverse samples, multimethod and multi-informant measurement approaches, and controlled designs is needed to further assess the generalizability and efficacy of telepsychology parent training groups.

Using Child Protective Services Case Record Data to Quantify Family-Level Severity of Adversity Types, Poly-victimization, and Poly-deprivation.

BACKGROUND: Child protective services (CPS) case records contain a vast amount of narrative information that is underutilized for estimating risk, conceptualizing family needs, and planning for services. OBJECTIVE: The current study applied a novel method for quantifying family-level severity of maltreatment and non-maltreatment-related adversity types to narrative information reflecting a family's full CPS history. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Cases were randomly sampled (N = 100) from two regions of Connecticut that were referred over a specified 6-month period. METHODS: De-identified data were extracted through comprehensive chart review of electronic and paper case records. The Yale-Vermont Adversity in Childhood Scale (Y-VACS; Holbrook et al., 2015) was used to quantify adversity severity across a range of intrafamilial and extrafamilial experiences. RESULTS: Several family-level adversity severity ratings were associated with administrative data on allegations and investigative outcomes. Poly-victimization (ß = .47, p < .001) and poly-deprivation (ß = .25, p = .005) significantly predicted total allegation types and total substantiation types (ß = .30, p = .002; ß = .26, p = .008, respectively) across the case history. Poly-victimization significantly predicted the presence of a new allegation within 12 months of the index report, OR = 1.72, SE = .25, p = .027. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support the feasibility of a novel method that uses narrative case record information to quantify severity of maltreatment and non-maltreatment-related adversity types, as well as cumulative measures of threat- and deprivation-based adversities at the family level. Implications for utilizing case record data to inform CPS intervention are discussed.