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Externalizing behavior problems in children reflect negative actions toward the external environment and can have detrimental consequences for their academic, social, and mental well-being. These actions range from breaking the rules to exhibiting extremely disruptive and aggressive behaviors, and they frequently come with issues with social behavior and emotional control. Socioemotional competencies, such as empathy and emotion regulation, serve as protective factors against behavior problems, enabling children to effectively manage their emotions and behaviors. This study focuses on examining the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy (CCPT) in reducing externalizing problems and enhancing socioemotional competencies in children aged 3 to 12. CCPT utilizes play as a natural language to establish a therapeutic relationship between play therapists and children. This relationship provides a safe and accepting environment for children to express themselves and develop self-regulation skills. By accepting responsibility for their actions, children can progress toward self-actualization and improved behavior management. To investigate the effectiveness of CCPT in reducing externalizing behavior problems and increasing socioemotional competencies in children, a systematic literature review was conducted, considering studies published over the last decade. Four databases were analyzed, and six articles met the predetermined inclusion criteria. While the data extracted from the included articles demonstrated promising results regarding the effectiveness of CCPT in reducing externalizing problems, the impact of CCPT on enhancing socioemotional competencies was not clear. It is important to acknowledge the limitations of this study, including the scarcity of research in this field and small sample sizes, which impede the generalization of the results to all populations. However, this study identified a research gap concerning the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy in addressing externalizing problems and children's social and emotional functioning. Future research is required to have a more comprehensive picture of how CCPT reduces externalizing problems and what abilities it gives children to cope with their problems; otherwise, it is not possible to consider CCPT as an evidence-based intervention for externalizing problems and widely use it for all children based on current data in the literature.

Stress impacts all individuals during each developmental period of their lives. Stress has been linked to various physical and mental health outcomes across the lifespan. However, adolescence may prove to be a unique time to examine stress and its potential effects on various health outcomes, as well as possible mediating or moderating factors. The purpose of this study is to examine the link between stress and body mass index (BMI) percentile while incorporating the potential mediators of anxiety, depression, and externalizing behaviors as well as the moderators of social support and self-regulation. Using a sample of 500 adolescents living in the Pacific Northwest, moderated mediation SEM models were estimated to test for these relationships. The full mediation model was selected, which included only indirect paths from predictors to the outcome through the mediators. Daily hassles was a significant positive predictor of depression and externalizing behavior, while family chaos was a significant positive predictor only for externalizing behavior. None of the three mediators significantly predicted BMI. When the moderators were added, two significant interactions were found between family chaos and parent social support for anxiety and externalizing behavior with another significant interaction found between family chaos and peer social support for depression. Specifically, the positive link between family chaos and these three mediators was weaker at higher levels of parent and peer social support. Thus, parent and peer social support may buffer the effect of familial stress on mental health. Future research can examine these relationships, as well as other potential moderators between stress and health outcomes during adolescence.

This study examined the relationship between executive function and externalizing behaviors within a student population that was assessed for special education services. Executive function was measured by using the Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory (CEFI). Externalizing behaviors and school problems was measured using the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition (BASC-3). Four separate structural equation models were produced and analyzed to examine this relationship. The results from this study indicate that there is a significant direct effect from executive function on externalizing behaviors and school problems, such that higher scores in executive function yielded lower externalizing behavior and school problems scores. Differences in average full scale CEFI scores were noted between types of special education placements and between various groupings of students in regards to what category they qualified in. The data indicates programs that facilitated more environmental supports and services had students with lower full scale CEFI scores, while students that qualified under Other Health Impairment and Emotional Disturbance shared comorbid features with other distinct processing deficits.

The current study examined the role that parent-child attachment plays in the relationship between marital conflict and the development of behavior problems in adolescents. To evaluate the hypothesis that attachment moderates this relationship, 57 families were recruited via e-mail invitation sent to families that participated in local church youth groups, school organizations, and a treatment program designed for adolescents with behavior problems. One custodial parent and his/her adolescent child completed an online or paper version of a survey consisting of the Achenbach’s Behavior Checklists, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, and the Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale. Hypotheses were evaluated using Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedures to test moderating effects with multiple regression analyses. Mother attachment demonstrated a significant moderation effect between the intensity of interparental conflict and the parent’s report of externalizing behavior problems. Specifically, at low conflict intensity levels, relative to low attachment security, high attachment security was associated with fewer externalizing behavior problems, whereas at high intensities of interparental conflict high attachment security was associated with more externalizing behavior problems.

No description available.

<p dir="ltr">Military families are a unique context as they experience separation from the service member who is away from the family for a considerable duration of time for a job that puts them at risk of serious injury or death. Service members returning from deployments may display a variety of mental health difficulties including post-traumatic stress disorder, especially when they have combat experiences. Applying a family systems framework, this thesis examined the associations between both service members’ and significant others’ PTSD symptoms, their ineffective arguing, and their reports of their children’s externalizing behaviors across three time points during reintegration, or the stage in the deployment cycle when the service member returns to the family. The study tested hypotheses that these would decline over time, and that initial levels and the rate of change in ineffective arguing would mediate the effect of parental PTSD at Time 1 on children’s externalizing behaviors at Time 3. Using data from service members and significant others in 71 families (142 individuals), I estimated multilevel models using both mixed and the structural equation frameworks. I found that parental PTSD and ineffective arguing were stable across reintegration, with considerable inter-individual variation in these at baseline. There was a decrease in children’s externalizing behaviors across time. There were also significant differences in parents’ rating of children’s externalizing behaviors. I did not find evidence for mediation but did find an association between parental PTSD and baseline levels of ineffective arguing. Results suggest that while parental stress is linked with the couple’s functioning, there may be protective factors within families that act as sources of resilience for the children.</p><p><br></p>

Denna studie syftade till att undersöka sambandet mellan internaliserat ochexternaliserat beteende och utsatthet för brott. En kvantitativ ansats användesdär data samlades in i form av en webenkät som skickades ut till enstudentpopulation vilket resulterade i ett urval på 267 respondenter i åldrarna18 – 42 (M = 23,06 SD = 3,80). En logistisk regression utfördes för attundersöka sambandet mellan externaliserat och internaliserat beteende ochutsatthet för brott, när beteendena kontrollerades mot varandra. Resultatenvisade att endast externaliserat beteende var statistiskt signifikant med egenkraft och hade en oddskvot på 1,03 vilket innebär att för varje ökat värde påexternaliserat-skalan var det 1,03 gånger så troligt att respondenterna skullesvara att de hade utsatts för någon av de 11 brott som kontrolleras förinternaliserat beteende. Resultaten visade även statistisk signifikans mellanexternaliserat beteende och utsatthet för brott hos män, men inte hos kvinnor,samt statistisk signifikans mellan internaliserat beteende och utsatthet förbrott för kvinnor men inte för män. Dessa resultat lyfter fram viktiga fyndmellan dessa beteenden och utsattheten för brott. Författarna argumenterar föratt dessa resultat bör användas inom framtida brottsprevention för attprioritera var resurser skall läggas baserat på kön och typ av beteende, för attuppnå de mest adekvata insatserna. / The present study aimed to examine the relationship between internalizingand externalizing behaviors and criminal victimization. A quantitativeapproach was used and a web survey was sent out to a student population. Atotal of 267 respondents participated with an age range between 18 and 42years (M = 23.06; SD = 3.80). A logistic regression was used to investigatethe relationship between externalizing and internalizing behaviors andvictimization of crime while controlling independently for each of the twobehaviors. The results showed that externalizing behavior was significant,while controlling for internalizing behavior, with an odds ratio of 1.03. Thus,for each increased value on the externalizing scale a participant was 1.03times more likely to have responded that they had been exposed to a crime.The results were also significant between externalizing behavior and criminalvictimization for men, but not for women; and significant betweeninternalizing behavior and criminal victimization for women but not for men.These results highlights the association between internalizing andexternalizing behaviors and criminal victimization. The authors argue thatthese results should be used in future crime prevention strategies to prioritizewhere resources should be placed on the basis of gender and type of behavior,in order to achieve effective intervention outcomes.

The link between interparental conflict and adolescents’ maladjustment has been well established among European Americans; however, relatively few studies examine these relationships in Chinese societies. This study used longitudinal data from the Taiwan Youth Project (TYP), an on-going longitudinal panel research project focused on adolescent development, in order to examine the relationship between interparental conflict and depressive symptoms and externalizing problem behaviors of adolescents. In addition, this study examined parental warmth as a mediating variable for the relationship between interparental conflict and adolescents’ maladjustment. The results showed that interparental conflict predicted depressive symptoms among adolescents two years later. Mediation analysis indicated that parental warmth partially mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and depressive symptoms. However, findings indicated that there was no direct effect between interparental conflict and adolescent externalizing behaviors two years later; rather, the association was indirect through the mediating variable of overall parental warmth. Thus, overall parental warmth fully mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and subsequent externalizing behaviors. These results yield valuable information for clinical intervention and further research.

Syftet med examensarbetet var att mot pedagogers praktiska erfarenheter och professionella praktik pröva olika teorier kring risk- och skyddsfaktorer vid utagerande och internaliserande beteendeproblem hos barn och unga samt beteendeproblemens koppling till läsförmåga för att se hur teorierna fungerar i relation till praktiken. Studien är kvalitativ och datainsamlingsmetoder har varit semistrukturerade intervjuer och kompletterande enkäter med sammanlagt tio informanter. Dataanalysen har inspirerats av en fenomenografisk metodansats i de första analysstegen. Resultatet visar bland annat att informanterna har erfarenheter och uppfattningar av att barns/elevers beteendeproblem dels kan handla om förmågor och färdigheter hos individen själv, exempelvis bristande kommunikativ förmåga eller svag självkänsla, dels att faktorer i hemmiljön och/eller förskolan/skolan verkar hindrande för barnets/elevens utveckling och lärande. Framför allt visar materialet att lärarens relation till barnet/eleven och föräldrarna har stor betydelse för utgången av beteendet. Denna studie bidrar bland annat till forskningen på så sätt att slutsatser dras att det bland informanterna finns en osäkerhet i bemötandet och hanterandet av framför allt barn och unga med internaliserande beteende samt att förskolan/skolan har behov av dels mer kunskap om beteendeproblem, dels bättre tid och forum för reflektionsarbete och relationsskapande. Insatser bör vidare sättas in tidigt och gärna fokusera på att lära barnen läsa. Sammantaget finns det på flera punkter en överensstämmelse mellan denna studies resultat och med den empiriska forskning som tidigare gjorts i ämnet beteendeproblem hos barn och unga.