Family instability has negative consequences, on average, for child and adolescent behavior, cognitive scores, and educational attainment. Beyond changes involving parents, many children experience household changes involving extended family and nonrelatives. These children are less likely to graduate from high school and complete some college…

Boys Town has created a program called In-Home Family Services to deliver help to families in stress. In-home family intervention programs have become widely used to help more families who are at risk and experiencing difficulties with a wide range of problems including domestic violence, child behavior problems, parent-child and family…

The impacts of violence for young children and their caregivers are multidimensional. The story of 2-year-old Tyronne, his mother, Josephine, and his father, James, illustrates the use of a relationship-focused treatment, child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), in addressing the traumatic consequences of exposure to violence. This family's story…

Relations among parental depressive symptoms, overt and covert marital conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined in a community sample of 235 couples and their children. Families were assessed once yearly for three years, starting when children were in kindergarten. Parents completed measures of depressive symptoms…

Objective: To examine the association of psychiatric symptoms with migraine and tension-type headache in children. Method: A questionnaire completed by 1,135 Finnish children in the sixth grade identified 154 children with migraine, 138 with tension-type headache, and 407 children who were headache-free. Seventy children were randomly selected…

The main aim of this article is to explore the association between mental health problems in children placed out-of-home and family risk factors reported as reasons for placement. The sample consisted of 109 Norwegian children aged 6-12 years. Mental health problems were assessed by the Revised Rutter scales reported by the parents and the…

Presents staff tools for dealing with upset campers whose parents are divorced or separating, such as acknowledging and listening. Gives tips and sample legal language on how to determine marital status and parenting arrangements; whom to call with questions; and which parent can enroll, visit, authorize medical treatment for, and pay the bill for…

This study investigated the association between family instability and children's problem behavior during the transition to first grade. In a sample (n = 1,015) drawn from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we found that a quarter of sample members experienced at least one family transition between birth and age 6.…

Tested a process model for the impact of children's exposure to marital conflict on their behavior adjustment with a sample of 28 couples and their 6-year-old children. Found that maternal conflict behavior and children's negative emotional reactions to fathers independently predicted children's behavioral adjustment. (MDM)

Used national longitudinal data to examine parent-child relationships before and after divorce. Parental reports of relationship problems with children were significantly elevated as early as 12 years prior to divorce. Findings suggest that the quality of the parents' marriage has both direct and indirect long-term consequences for parent-child…

Applies the evaluative methodology of F. Le Poultier to an observational, longitudinal study of children who lived in a residential community because of their multiproblem families. Confirms the correlation of the children's displayed behavior and educational practices, showing that the children's behavior determined the intensity of practices…

Hypothesizes that marital conflict contributes unique variance of child functioning only when it occurs in front of children. Subjects were 146 mother/adolescent pairs. Results indicated that general family conflict was more predictive of child adjustment problems than marital satisfaction, and marital conflict occurring in front of children was…

Presents four articles on children's anger in preschool, chronic parental anger, and the teacher's role in identifying and defusing anger: (1) "'I'm bery, bery cwoss!' Understanding Children's Anger" (Marie D. Hammer); (2) "Parental Anger: Causes, Triggers, and Strategies To Help" (Roberta J. Wilburn); (3) "The Language of Anger: The Words that…

This study examined the long-term treatment outcomes for 13 families who had participated in the two phases of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy by examining the effects of treatment phase sequence one and two years earlier. Results suggest this treatment may be successful in achieving long-term gains for most families of conduct-disordered…

This book reports a study of the outcomes of home-based family preservation services for abusive and neglectful families in Los Angeles County. Using the Family Assessment Form, the research project evaluated services provided by two voluntary agencies, and focused on changes in family functioning between the opening and closing of services during…