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Background: Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, mental health care has largely transferred its services to online platforms, using videoconferencing (VC) or teletherapy. Within the field of family therapy, however, there is little evidence on the feasibility of using VC, especially when working with whole families at the edge of care. Objective: This study investigated the feasibility of remote Functional Family Therapy (FFT), using a mixed-method approach. Method: Study 1 consisted of semi-structured interviews with 23 FFT professionals (18 female) about their experience of providing remote FFT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 2 included monitoring data of 209 FFT clients (46% female, Mage = 14.00) who participated in FFT during the pandemic. We compared families who received mainly in-person, mainly remote or a mix of remote and in-person on client-reported alliance, drop-out, therapist-rated outcomes, and treatment intensity using MANCOVA's and chi-square tests. Results: In Study 1 two themes emerged around experienced challenges, namely 'Feeling in control' and 'Engagement and alliance'. Two other themes emerged around adaptations, namely 'Being more on top' and 'Connecting in different ways'. In Study 2, we found that the therapeutic alliance was not related to using VC. Also, families had less between-session contact during the Engagement and Motivation Phase when receiving mainly VC, but had more sessions and longer therapy when receiving a mix of in-person and remote therapy. Conclusions: The current study suggests that providing systemic family teletherapy to families on the edge of care is feasible. Further development of systemic family teletherapy is warranted.

To study the role of executive function (EF) in the early development of aggression, the role of cool and hot EF skills at 5 years old, in the development of physical and relational aggression between 5 and 6 years old, was explored. Typically developing children (N = 80) completed tasks assessing their cool (inhibition, working memory, planning) and hot EF (affective decision making, delay of gratification) skills at 5 years old. Longitudinal data were collected from teachers that rated children's aggression when they were 5, 5.5, and 6 years old. Inhibition at 5 years old predicted changes in physical and relational aggression between 5 and 6 years old. Early cool EF, but not hot EF, may therefore be associated with aggression and inhibitory control specifically with changes in aggression during early childhood.

A current shift in intergroup relations research aims to delve deeper into whether, and how, individual differences predict social attitudes. Recent research goes beyond the measurement of typical personality traits and focuses also on the subclinical area of malicious traits. The present studies aimed at exploring the role of one such trait, psychopathy, as a predictor of negative social attitudes. The role of empathy was examined as a key underlying process explaining the relationship between primary and secondary psychopathy and social attitudes. Study 1 (N = 171) and Study 2 (N = 332) demonstrated that when entered as simultaneous predictors of negative attitudes toward immigrants (Study 1) and racism (Study 2), only primary psychopathy emerged as a significant predictor. Study 1 further demonstrated that lower levels of empathy mediated the psychopathy—attitudes path. Study 2 decomposed empathy into cognitive and affective, and tested the explanatory role of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). Primary psychopathy predicted lower cognitive and affective empathy, which sequentially predicted racism via SDO (in the case of cognitive empathy) and RWA (in the case of affective empathy). The results are discussed in the context of an integration between the personality and intergroup relations literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A growing research base demonstrates that adolescents' construction of secure attachment relationships may underlie successful social and personal relationships and healthy behavioral adjustment. Little is known about the early caregiving origins of adolescent attachment security; this study provides some of the first data on this topic. Method: The relative contribution of early and current caregiving quality to attachment security in adolescence was assessed in two longitudinal studies of a clinic‐referred and an at‐risk community sample using identical measures (n = 209). Quality of early parent–child relationships at age 3–7 years of age and parent–adolescent relationship quality at approximately 12 years were assessed using observational methods; psychosocial risk was derived from extensive interview and questionnaire assessments; adolescent attachment quality was assessed using a standard attachment interview. Results: Analyses indicated moderate stability in observed parent–child interaction quality from early childhood to adolescence. Observational ratings of both early childhood and current caregiving quality were significantly associated with adolescent attachment security; however, early caregiver sensitivity was more strongly associated with adolescent attachment security and predicted later attachment security independently from current caregiving quality. Follow‐up analyses indicated that this longitudinal prediction was significantly weaker in the clinic than in the at‐risk community sample. Conclusions: Parental sensitive responding in childhood has enduring effects on attachment representation in adolescence, independent of current parenting relationship quality. These findings provide important new evidence supporting early parenting interventions for promoting youth well‐being and adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and adolescents with callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been distinguished as a subset of individuals with disruptive behavioral disorders who may be less sensitive to parenting influence; we test this hypothesis using multiple methods and assessment paradigms. Two hundred seventy-one adolescents (mean age = 12.6 years) from 3 samples at elevated risk for disruptive behavior disorders were studied. Symptoms of CU behavior were derived from standard questionnaire; assessments of behavioral adjustment were derived from clinical interview with parent, and parent-report, teacher-report, and self-report questionnaire. Parent-child relationship quality was based on observational assessments in which adolescent and parent behaviors were rated in 3 interaction tasks: (a) low conflict planning task; (b) problem-solving conflict task; (c) puzzle challenge task; parent interview and parent-report and child-report questionnaires of parenting were also assessed. Results indicated that the associations between parent-child relationship quality and behavioral adjustment were comparable in adolescents with and without CU traits. More notably, observational data indicated that adolescents with elevated CU traits showed comparatively greater within-individual variability in observed angry/irritable behavior across interaction tasks, suggesting greater sensitivity to and emotional dysregulation in challenging interpersonal contexts. The findings suggest that adolescents with CU are not less sensitive to parental influence and may in contrast show greater context-sensitive disturbances in emotional regulation. The results have implications for family-based assessment and treatment for adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In forensic samples of adults and adolescents, there is evidence to suggest that there may be distinct variants of psychopathy marked by the presence/absence of significant levels of anxiety. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits can be used to characterize children who share behavioural and neurocognitive features with adult psychopaths. The aims of this paper are to (a) investigate the genetic and environmental influences on CU traits with/without anxiety and (b) explore differences in terms of concurrent and early parenting and adjustment. Discrete groups were formed on the basis of scores in the top 10% of the sample on CU and anxiety scales at age 7. Estimates of group heritability were calculated using a Defries-Fulker (DF) extremes regression model. Follow back analyses of early parenting and adjustment were conducted using multivariate analyses of covariance. There was high group heritability for CU traits with/without anxiety. Children with both high CU and anxiety showed greater levels of adjustment problems than those with CU only at age 7. The two groups did not differ in parenting characteristics. In this general population sample, evidence did not support differences in etiology for the two groups high on CU traits differing in level of anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Youth offending and antisocial behavior (ASB) are associated with low quality mental health and relationships and usually lead to poor adult functioning; they are very costly for society. Family interventions are effective in children but there are few reliably effective and inexpensive interventions for adolescents. Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an evidence-based intervention but seldom tested outside the United States., Methods: One hundred and eleven adolescents (10-17 years of age, M = 15.0, SD = 1.63) and their families were randomized to FFT + Management As Usual (MAU) (n = 65) or to MAU (n = 46). Assessments were made at baseline 6, and 18 months after randomization and included interviews and questionnaires of parenting behaviors, conduct disorders (CDs) and offending. Parent-child interaction was directly observed and police records obtained., Trial Registration: ISRCTN27650478., Results: Eighty-nine (80%) were followed-up. In both groups, there were large reductions over time in all measures of offending and antisocial behavior (e.g. primary outcome p < 0.001), but no significant changes over time in parenting behavior or the parent-child relationship. However, there were no differences between intervention and control groups at 6 or 18 months on self-reported delinquency, police records of offending, symptoms or diagnoses of CDs, parental monitoring or supervision, directly observed child negative behavior, or parental positive or negative behavior. Against predictions, the intervention group showed lower levels of directly observed child positive behavior at 18 months compared to controls., Conclusions: In contrast to most previous trials of FFT, FFT+MAU did not lead to greater reductions in youth ASB and offending compared to MAU alone, and did not lead to improvements in parenting or the parent-child relationship. This may be because the trial was more rigorously conducted than prior studies; equally, the possibility that MAU was effective requires further research., (© 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)