Systemic (family) therapy is a widely used psychotherapy approach. However, most systematic efficacy reviews have focused solely on "family-based treatment" rather than on the theoretic orientation "systemic therapy." We systematically review trials on the efficacy of systemic therapy for the treatment of childhood and adolescent externalizing disorders. All randomized (or matched) controlled t...

OBJECTIVE Maltreatment, family violence, and disruption in primary caregiver attachment in childhood may constitute a developmental form of trauma that places children at risk for multiple psychiatric and medical diagnoses that often are refractory to well-established evidence-based mental health treatments. No integrative diagnosis exists to guide assessment and treatment for these children an...

BACKGROUND Individuals at high risk to develop alcoholism often manifest neurocognitive deficits as well as increased impulsivity. Event-related oscillations (EROs) have been used to effectively measure brain (dys)function during cognitive tasks in individuals with alcoholism and related disorders and in those at risk to develop these disorders. The current study examines ERO theta power during...

OBJECTIVE To validate the 17-item version of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17) as a screen for common pediatric mental disorders in primary care. METHOD Patients were 269 children and adolescents (8-15 years old) whose parents completed the PSC-17 in primary care waiting rooms. Children were later assessed using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Chil...

CONTEXT Although children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at elevated risk for comorbid psychopathology, the clinical correlates of ADHD in girls are far less understood relative to boys, despite ADHD being one of the most common childhood disorders in girls. OBJECTIVE To meta-analytically summarize rates of comorbid internalizing (anxiety, depression) and externalizi...

Objective: To clarify the roles of genetic and environmental factors in the development of Conduct Disorder (CD) among offspring at high genetic and/or environmental risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Method: Alcohol-related behaviors and psychiatric status were assessed in 1213 male twin members of the Vietnam Era Twin Registry (VETR), 1270 offspring, and 862 mothers of offspring. Through ...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the stability of behavioural and developmental problems as children develop from infants to toddlers in the general population. Therefore, we investigated behavioural profiles at two time points and determined whether behaviours are stable during early development. METHODS Parents of 4,237 children completed questionnaires with 62 items about externalizing, in...

Institutional rearing of young children has been demonstrated to increase risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders and other impairments. This has led many countries to consider or to invest in foster care. However, no study to date has explored potential differences in psychiatric symptoms in children placed in different types of foster care. We assessed internalizing disorders, externa...

BACKGROUND Suicidal behavior is frequently associated with a history of childhood abuse yet it remains unclear precisely how early life adversity may increase suicide risk later in life. As such, our aim was to examine whether lifetime trajectories of disruptiveness and anxiousness trait dysregulation explain the association between childhood adversity and suicidal behavior; and moreover, to te...

We examined hope as a potential resiliency factor for the daily strains of raising childrenwith disruptive behavior disorders. In light of the motivational component of hope theory, initiating and sustaining effort toward goals (i.e., agency) , we were interested in hope’s relation to constructs addressing self-esteem, familial functioning, and stress. Two hundred, fifty-two parents of children...