Considerations for minority ethnic young people in multisystemic therapy.

Research has indicated that multisystemic therapy (MST) is an effective treatment for youth with antisocial behaviours (Painter & Scannapieco, 2009). This qualitative study explored minority ethnic young peoples' experiences of MST, focusing on their understanding of their presenting difficulties and aspects of the intervention which facilitated or hindered engagement and change. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with London-based young people who had taken part in MST. A constructivist version of grounded theory analysis was employed. Culture-specific theoretical codes emerged; understanding the family culture and the practitioner acting as a cultural broker, consideration of acculturation differences within the family, exploring the young person's cultural identity and reflecting on cultural differences in the therapeutic relationship. Findings suggest potential advances to MST practice to meet the needs of minority ethnic young people, including the importance of appropriate training and supervision, sensitively working with salient cultural issues such as the impact of acculturation, and consideration of the role of therapist ethnicity and culture.

Anger and Paranoia in Mentally Disordered Offenders.

Previous studies have identified a positive relationship between aggression and paranoia, yet the relationship between the emotion of anger and paranoia in forensic populations has not been examined. Possible confounding variables, such as social desirability and mood, should also be considered. Sixty-six participants who had a violent conviction and mental disorder completed self-report questionnaires that measured anger, paranoid ideation, socially desirable responding, anxiety, and depression. The findings indicated that increased anger was associated with increased paranoia. Partial correlations showed that anger remained significantly associated with paranoia after socially desirable responding, anxiety, depression, gender, and violence history were controlled, suggesting anger and paranoia were not associated due to indirect relationships with these constructs. This could suggest that integrative psychological interventions that consider experiences of both anger and paranoia may be beneficial with forensic populations.

Understanding conduct disorder: The ways in which mothers attempt to make sense of their children's behaviour.

'Disruptive behaviour disorders' are the most common reason for referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Current treatment guidelines focus on parent-training programmes. Difficulties are often reported when engaging families, with parental attributions and attitudes towards help-seeking proposed as influential factors. Previous research has tended to privilege pre-existing frameworks; this study utilised qualitative methods to add to the current understanding of the ways in which parents make sense of their children's behaviour. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six mothers, recruited through CAMHS. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) revealed four master themes: 'Understanding the Emotional Child', 'The Emotional Parent', 'Getting Help' and 'The Journey'. Participants used a variety of explanations in order to make sense of their children's behaviour, including the impact of loss and trauma. Help-seeking was associated with feelings of shame, and services were often viewed as inconsistent and stigmatising. In contrast, positive experiences were those which were characterised as being non-judgemental, normalising and took into account the wider family context, including mothers' own emotional needs. These findings were discussed in relation to existing research and implications for clinical practice.

Gestalt processing in autism: failure to process perceptual relationships and the implications for contextual understanding.

BACKGROUND: Deficits in autism have been characterised as a bias towards local over global processing. This paper examines whether there is a deficit in gestalt grouping in autism. METHOD: Twenty-five low-functioning children with autism and 25 controls who were matched for chronological age and verbal mental age took part in the study. RESULTS: The autism group utilised gestalt grouping principles (proximity, similarity, closure) significantly less than the controls. Calculating an overall index of gestalt grouping, the autism group performed at chance level. There was also a deficit in identifying certain impossible figures. This pattern was not reflected in a drawing task, in which the autism sample conformed more to gestalt grouping principles than controls (non-significantly). CONCLUSIONS: The results are discussed in terms of a failure in autism to process inter-element relationships that would allow for the appreciation of larger perceptually coherent units that comprise of multiple elements and, consequently, context. The processes are argued to be preattentive.