Peer victimization is a serious national concern affecting as many as 54% of typically developing children and adolescents. Although an extensive body of literature on peer victimization in typically developing youth exists, few studies have focused on how this problem affects youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who may be at a higher risk to experience peer victimization due to ASD symptomology and other common comorbid characteristics (e.g., anxiety and depressive symptoms) that may invite peer aggression. In this study, 81 school-aged youth between the ages of 9 and 17 years (M= 11.91, SD= 2.32) who were diagnosed with ASD and had a full scale intelligence quotient (IQ) equal to or greater than 70 (M= 104.10, SD= 14.24) and their parents completed questionnaires examining the frequency of peer victimization and clinical characteristics of the youth. Parents (n= 81) and their children (n= 78) reported that peer victimization occurred on average a few times in the past year, and frequency did not significantly differ across gender. Parent and child reports of victimization had a significant positive relationship with child’s report of loneliness (r(78)= .46, p< .001; r(78)= .61, p< .001, respectively), anxiety and depressive symptoms (r(78)= .22, p< 0.05; r(78)= .61, p< .001, respectively), and a significant negative relationship with social skills (r(78)= -.38, p= .001; r(78)= -.30, p< .01, respectively). The relationship between child’s and parent’s report of peer victimization and child’s anxiety/depressive symptoms (b= -.01, SE= .01, p= .55; b= .01, SE= .01, p= .34, respectively) and loneliness (b= .001, SE= .01, p= .88; b= .01, SE= .01, p= .48, respectively) did not significantly vary as a function of the overall amount of social support received. Parent and child report of peer victimization did not significantly predict parent reported parental stress above and beyond ASD symptom severity (p= .37, R2 change= .01 and p= .09, R2 change= .03, respectively). Lastly, the relationship between the child’s and parent’s report of peer victimization and parent reported social avoidance was not mediated by a fear of negative evaluation. The results indicate significant predictors of peer victimizations that may assist school staff, parents and healthcare providers identify youth with ASD who may be at risk for peer victimization and may help to shape treatment protocols by targeting the associated factors of peer victimization (e.g., anxiety and depressive symptoms, social skill deficits).

BakgrundAtt få barn är en händelse i livet som kan medföra föräldrastress. Föräldrastress beskrivs som enpsykologisk reaktion på de krav som ställs på att vara förälder. Barnhälsovårdssköterskan(BHV-sköterskan) som möter nyblivna pappor kan med hjälp av en mellanmänsklig relationstödja pappor att anpassa sig till den nya situationen.SyfteAtt undersöka föräldrastress och influerande faktorer hos pappor två månader efterförlossningen.MetodStudien är en kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie baserad på en enkätundersökning. Totalt deltog 38pappor i studien. Papporna fick besvara två enkäter om bakgrundsdata samt ett formulär omföräldrastress, Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ), vilket mäter totalföräldrastress och i fem olika dimensioner. Data har analyserats med deskriptiv och jämförandestatistik.HuvudfyndSPSQ:s totalpoäng visade ett medelvärde på 2,49 (standard avvikelse, SD ± 0,55). Högst nivåav föräldrastress, medelvärde 3,20 (SD ± 0,69), fanns i dimensionen ”Rollbegränsning” ochlägst nivå av föräldrastress, medelvärde 2,05 (SD ± 0,82), fanns i dimensionen ”Problem irelationen”. Pappor med hög utbildning, barn sedan tidigare eller med barn som ammadesdelvis eller inte alls, upplevde mer föräldrastress i dimensionen ”Rollbegränsning”. Vidarepåvisade resultatet att flerbarnspappor upplevde att de hade mer hälsoproblem änförstagångspappor.SlutsatserHög utbildningsnivå, barn sedan tidigare samt om barnet ammades delvis eller inte allsinfluerande till föräldrastress hos pappor tidigt i föräldraskapet. Ökad kunskap om att dessafaktorer influerar till föräldrastress hos pappor, kan bidra till att BHV-sköterskan lättare kanidentifiera pappor med högre risk för föräldrastress. Genom att BHV-sköterskan ger dessapappor ett ökat stöd kan deras välbefinnande och hälsa stärkas. / BackgroundHaving a child is a big event in life that may lead to parental stress. Parental stress is describedas a psychological reaction to the demands placed on being a parent. The primary care nursewho works with child health care and meets newly become fathers can help them adapt to thenew situation.AimTo investigate parental stress and influencing factors in fathers two months after delivery.MethodThe study is a quantitative cross-sectional study based on a survey. In total, 38 fathersparticipated in the study. Fathers were asked to answer questionnaires on demographics and theSwedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ), which measures parental stress. Data havebeen analyzed with descriptive and comparative statistics.Main findingsSPSQ´s total scores showed a mean of 2.49 (standard deviation, SD ± 0.55). The highest meanof parental stress, 3.20 (SD ± 0.69), was found in the dimension “Role limitation” and thelowest mean of parental stress, 2.05 (SD ± 0.82), was found in the dimension “Problems in therelationship”. Fathers with a higher education, child from before or with child who partiallybreastfed or not, experienced more parental stress in the dimension of "Role limitation".Furthermore, the fathers who had children from before experienced that they had more healthproblems.ConclusionsHigh level of education, children from before and whether the child was breastfed partially ornot influenced to parental stress in father´s early parenthood. Increased knowledge that thesefactors influence parental stress in fathers can contribute to the child health care nurse beingable to more easily identify fathers with a higher risk of parental stress. By giving these fathersincreased support the child health care nurse can strengthen their well-being and health.

Autism is one of the fastest growing childhood disorders in the world, and the families that have children with autism experience frustration and stress due to many practical problems. with the increase in the prevalence of autism, it is urgent to raise awareness of autism and to provide services and support for children with autism and their parents to improve the parent-child relationship and moderate the parental stress. with regard to families with children diagnosed as autistic, the purposes of this study are to: (a) examine the group differences in parental stress and parent-child relationship between Taiwan and the United States based on racial and cultural differences; (b) identify factors, if any, that influence the parental stress and parent-children relationship; (c) investigate if there are differences in the results of child development when children are diagnosed with autism in these two countries; (d) establish the Battelle Development Inventory-II in Mandarin Chinese version for use of evaluation with development delays in Taiwan. Findings revealed that: (a) the Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II), is highly reliable with a great value of internal consistency in the use with parents and children with autism in Taiwan; (b) there is no significant difference in child development and parent-child relationship based on geographic region (Taiwan and the United States); (c) parents of children with autism in the United States overall have a more positive parent-child relationship and parenting attitude than parents of children with autism in Taiwan; (d) Children with autism who have a positive relationship with their parents have a higher pass rate on the evaluation of child development; (e) fathers reported higher pass rate on BDI-II than mothers in one of the standard deviations of over BDI-II performance; (f) parent-child relationships are positively correlated with parental stress; (g) parents who received services and support from a government agency or school in Taiwan have significantly lower scores on the parent-child relationship inventory; (h) fathers of children with autism have higher stress level than mothers; (i) parents who received services and support from parent groups (such as PTA or parent association) and from a government agency or school feel less stress than parents that did not receive those supports in Taiwan.

For the past 40 years, one southwestern US university counseling program has sponsored two mental health training clinics in which master's and doctoral level students have learned to provide child parent relationship therapy (CPRT) services to community parents. In their training, students learn about the positive effects of CPRT, particularly on parental stress. To date, however, no program evaluation has been conducted at these clinics focusing specifically on parental stress outcomes after the completion of CPRT or to determine the demographics and characteristics of parents who pursue CPRT. The purpose of this study was to conduct such an evaluation of archival data spanning 7 years. Participants were 129 parents (70% female, 30% male; 80% Caucasian, 35% Hispanic/ Latino, 6% African American, and 4% Asian; 62% married, 9% separated, 16% divorced). Results from a t-test indicated a statistically significant decrease in self-reported parental stress, with a moderate effect size. Multiple regression revealed that women and those who attended with a co-parent reported greater stress reduction. This study confirmed the benefit of CPRT, provided by counselors-in-training, on reducing parental stress and indicated clientele for which and conditions in which those benefits might be optimized.

The restructuring of roles, responsibilities, and relationships that occurs during the transition to parenthood brings both rewards and challenges to first-time mothers (Bartholomew, Schoppe-Sullivan, Glassman, Dush, & Sullivan, 2012; Horowitz & Damato, 1999) and is often characterized as a time of parental stress (Crnic & Low, 2002; Deater-Deckard, 1998; Leigh & Milgrom, 2008). To effectively manage this stress, first-time mothers must feel a sense of social support (Crnic, Greenberg, Ragozin, Robinson, & Basham, 1983; Cutrona, 1984; Gao, Chan, & Mao, 2009; McDaniel, Coyne, Holmes, 2012; Nakagawa, Teti, & Lamb, 1992). In today's technology-driven era, this essential sense of support may be conveniently achieved through social media.Currently, research on the ability for social media platforms to increase perceptions of social support and, therefore, decrease parental stress among first-time mothers presents varied conclusions (see Bartholomew et al, 2012; McDaniel et al., 2012). The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to propose variables that may explain these results. Specifically, it analyzes how both active production and passive consumption of social media influence perceptions of social support and parental stress in first-time mothers. The results reveal that for first-time mothers, production on social media can lead to increased social media–based feedback, which can then lead to increased perceptions of appraisal support. Passive consumption of social media content neither increases nor decreases perceptions of social support.

No description available.

Parents of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been shown to experience increases in stress, depression, and anxiety, which are also associated with child behavior problems related to ASD, such as aggressive behaviors and tantrums. Literature examining potential mechanisms that underlie the relationship of child behavior problems and parental anxiety/depression are scarce. The current study seeks to examine the roles of parental stress, parent self-efficacy, and emotion coaching as mediators between child behavior problems and parental anxiety/depression. Using a sample of 134 mothers who completed an online survey, these potential mediators were tested with regression analyses. Parental self-efficacy was found to mediate parental stress and parental depression/anxiety. Parental self-efficacy was also found to moderate child conduct problems and parental emotion coaching. There was a positive relationship between conduct problems and emotion coaching for mothers with high self-efficacy. Implications and future research will be discussed. / Master of Science

The present doctoral thesis focuses mainly on the experiences of 20 women and men of becoming and being parents of a prematurely born child and on their perceptions of their contacts with health and medical care services. An additional aim was to investigate the utilisation of health care during the first year of life and its relation to high-risk diagnoses in the neonatal period. Data were obtained by interviews of the 20 sets of parents to infants born at a gestational age of &lt;34 weeks with no serious congenital defects. These parents were interviewed 1-2 weeks after the infant’s birth and at 2, 6 and 18 months of age. The interview texts were subjected to phenomenological and content analysis. Data was also obtained from the records of 36 infants born at a gestational age of &lt;31 weeks and with a birth weight of &lt;1500 g and 36 full-term infants. The records included information regarding contact with health care services including the child health centres (CHCs) and the outpatient clinics of the paediatric and ophthalmic clinics. Finally data from the other two quantitative studies were obtained from three questionnaires: Quality of Care from The Patient’s Perspective, The Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire and The Toddler Behaviour Questionnaire. The result of the studies showed that the utilisation of health care by the very low birth weight infants was higher than that by the fullterm infants in paediatric and ophthalmic outpatient clinics. High-risk diagnoses in the neonatal period did not correlate with utilisation of care except for visits to the paediatric outpatient clinic, especially planned visits. The internalisation of parenthood was described by the parents as a time-dependent process, with four syntheses of experiences – alienation, responsibility, confidence and familiarity. The development and construction of the mothers’ and fathers’ parental identity followed a pattern that could be summarised into three themes: Unexpected start of parenthood, integration of parenthood into the sense of identity and recognition of parental identity. Important turning points in experiences of parenthood often occurred when the infant could be removed from the incubator, when it was discharged from the ward, and when the infant appeared normal compared to full-term infants. The quality of care was judged, from the parents’ and nurses’ perspective. In general the subjective importance of the given care was rated higher than the care actual given in both neonatal care and care at the CHCs. Higher ratings were given to neonatal care compared with the care at CHSs for medico-technical competence. It was also of importance, of both parents, to receive an optimal identity-oriented approach and socio-cultural atmosphere in the neonatal care and the care at the CHSs. High-risk diagnoses in the newborn did not affect the answers. Parental stress of very preterm children, at 18 months of age, did not differ notably from those parents of children born somewhat less premature, but they assessed their children as being rather later in the development of social behaviours. Parents of children who had had a difficult neonatal period were not more stressed when the child was 18 months old than those who had no problems in the neonatal period. In sum, this research project showed that the parents’ expectations and experiences of becoming mothers and fathers in preterm birth was a process of integrating the unexpected start of parenthood into the parents’ sense of identity and their way of being. When the parents developed a relationship with the infant, actively participated in its care on the basis of their own preferences, and received recognition as parents, this process was strengthened. It is therefore important that the professional caring of the staff should meet and involve the natural caring of the parents.

The idea which has initiated this research came firstly from being a mother of an autistic child and secondly, being an experienced Applied Behaviour Analysis/Applied Verbal Behaviour “ABA/AVB” therapist working with children with autism and related disorders. It has been the researcher ambition for some time to study the effects of implementing an ABA/AVB programme on children with autism, and to report on their performance. The previous and current research has shown the importance of an early intervention in teaching children with autism. However, finding an appropriate intervention for an individual with autism is still debated among parents and professionals. Previous research has highlighted the importance of an ABA programme using the Lovaas model programme in teaching children with autism. No wider research on the AVB model has been conducted. This has led the researcher to investigate this issue further. This research has taken place at “The Autistic Centre” in Beirut. This research is the author’s attempt to study the effects and the impacts of implementing an AVB programme on children with autism. Children’s performance on specific skills will be assessed, evaluated and reported by four parties: 1. The researcher. 2. The independent psychologists. 3. The teachers. 4. The parents. The research used a combination of quantitative and some qualitative methods. The AVB Intervention used for this study was based on multiple baseline design across behaviour, participants and settings. The different use of methods for this research has contributed to the methodology, by using different methods to collect data and involving many parties who can evaluate the children’s performance and report their progress from their own perspectives. The present study demonstrated the efficiency of the AVB programme with ten children with autism. Its effects have been clear on the emergence of speech, collateral gains in social communicative behaviours and decrease of problems behaviours and the decrease of parental level stress. This research also proposed several key suggestions based on the literature review and the research undertaken. It has also contributed to knowledge of the current research regarding the implementation of an AVB Programme as an educational provision and its effects on the child and the parents.

Raising a child with a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), particularly that of Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), is challenging, as it comes with parental stressors for both mothers and fathers. Research on these stressors has been limited to only the stressors that mothers of children with a PDD experience and has failed to thoroughly examine the experiences and stressors of fathers of children with a PDD, particularly that of FXS. Using Hill's ABC-X family stress theory, this quantitative research study investigated the effects of marital satisfaction due to the amount of shared childcare responsibilities and parental stress among the mothers and fathers of children diagnosed with FXS. This study also examined whether significant differences exist among these parents, who were recruited through the use of flyers, notices, and handouts that were randomly passed out to parents at the FXS Alliance of Texas located in the southwest region of Texas. Participants for this study were 128 parents of children with FXS, each of whom completed a demographic questionnaire, the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, and The Sharing of Childcare Responsibilities Scale and Parental Stress Level Scale. An independent samples t test and multiple linear regression statistical analysis was employed. The results of the study indicated that parental stress associated with the amount of shared childcare responsibilities accounted for a significant degree of the variance in marital satisfaction. Yet the study did not find a significant mean difference in the level of parental stress that was experienced uniquely across gender. Potential social changes may include future development and improvements in treatment, therapeutic approaches, and predicted outcomes in efforts to enhance parental stress interventions so as to improve stress-related outcomes for parents of children with FXS.