Family-based interventions for child and adolescent disorders.

Emotional and behavioral symptoms and disorders are prevalent in children and adolescents. There has been a burgeoning literature supporting evidence-based treatments for these disorders. Increasingly, family-based interventions have been gaining prominence and demonstrating effectiveness for myriad childhood and adolescent disorders. This article presents the current evidence in support of family-based interventions for mood, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity, disruptive behavior, pervasive developmental particularly autism spectrum, and eating disorders. This review details recent data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and promising interventions not yet examined using a randomized controlled methodology. It highlights the evidence base supporting various specific family-based interventions, some of which are disorder dependent. A practitioner perspective is then offered with regard to recommendations for future practice and training. The article closes with a summary and directions for future research.

Maternal depression and child psychopathology: a meta-analytic review.

Although the association between maternal depression and adverse child outcomes is well established, the strength of the association, the breadth or specificity of the outcomes, and the role of moderators are not known. This information is essential to inform not only models of risk but also the design of preventive interventions by helping to identify subgroups at greater risk than others and to elucidate potential mechanisms as targets of interventions. A meta-analysis of 193 studies was conducted to examine the strength of the association between mothers' depression and children's behavioral problems or emotional functioning. Maternal depression was significantly related to higher levels of internalizing, externalizing, and general psychopathology and negative affect/behavior and to lower levels of positive affect/behavior, with all associations small in magnitude. These associations were significantly moderated by theoretically and methodologically relevant variables, with patterns of moderation found to vary somewhat with each child outcome. Results are interpreted in terms of implications for theoretical models that move beyond main effects models in order to more accurately identify which children of depressed mothers are more or less at risk for specific outcomes.