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Objective: Few studies have assessed factors which may influence an individual's risk of acting on their suicidal thoughts. The current study explores whether affective, behavioural or interpersonal factors are effective in discriminating between adolescents who only think about suicide, and those who attempt suicide. Method: From a sample of 2,655 families randomly selected across Australia, several putative risk factors were compared between adolescents aged 12–17 years who had only thought about suicide, (N = 146; female = 69.4%, average age = 15.3) and those who attempted suicide (N = 74; female = 68.7%, average age = 15.6) using multivariate logistic regression. Results: Poor family functioning (OR = 10.1), weekly cigarette smoking (OR = 4.5) and the number of mental health disorders (β = 1.7) were all associated with an increased risk of acting on suicidal thoughts. The model performed adequately in differentiating those who think about suicide and those who attempt (AUC = 85.1, PPV = 60.1%, sensitivity = 51.5%, specificity = 83.3%). Detection of suicide attempts among the full sample was lower (AUC = 0.94, PPV = 60.0%, sensitivity = 30.9%, specificity = 99.4%). Conclusions: Risk assessments and interventions for suicide may benefit from taking into account interpersonal and behavioural difficulties an adolescent may have. Future research is needed to further understand what drives the transition from suicidal thoughts to suicide attempts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examined the relative efficacy of an online versus face-to-face (FTF) parenting intervention for reducing the severity of child conduct problems and related parent and child outcomes in 2 randomized controlled trials. Method: In Study 1, rural families (n = 133) with a child 3-9 years of age with a full or subclinical primary diagnosis of oppositional defiant or conduct disorder traveled to Sydney, Australia for a comprehensive assessment and randomization to receive either AccessEI, a 6-10 week online therapist-assisted parenting program, or FTF treatment, whereby they received the same program presented FTF during a 1-week treatment. To control for unavoidable treatment dosage differences in the first study, Study 2 was conducted in which urban families (n = 73) with a child aged 3 to 14 years meeting similar criteria as Study 1 were randomized to receive AccessEI versus FTF treatment. Results: In both studies, improvements in severity of child diagnoses and maternal measures of child behavior showed very large effect sizes for both treatments at posttreatment and 3-month follow-up and did not differ across treatment conditions. There were moderate effect sizes for improvements in parent mental health and no differences across treatment conditions. Conclusions: It is concluded that the effects of the therapist-assisted online parenting interventions for the treatment of child conduct problems were similar to a FTF intervention, providing evidence for the effectiveness of an accessible treatment for rural and remote families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Parental personality traits are predicted to influence offspring outcomes through parenting behavior and offspring personality traits. This study explored whether mother and father personality traits relate to offspring behavior problems in mid-late adolescence METHOD: In total, 3089 Australian adolescents (1576 boys, 1513 girls; M age  = 16.46 ± 0.50 years) and their parents completed questionnaires assessing personality, conduct problems, emotional and social functioning, antisocial and criminal behavior, cigarette smoking and drug use, at a single time-point., Results: After controlling for sociodemographic factors, results showed that problem behaviors in adolescence were most consistently related to mothers' scores on neuroticism and conscientiousness, and fathers' scores on neuroticism. Father personality traits were most important for antisocial and criminal behavior, whereas mother personality traits were most important for social and emotional functioning. Moderation analysis showed that associations between fathers' personality traits and some adolescent outcomes (cigarette smoking and drug use) were stronger for adolescent boys than for adolescent girls. Mediation models further demonstrated that adolescent personality traits mediated associations between parent personality and adolescent outcomes in almost all cases. Indirect effects expressed as a percentage showed that between 1.4% and 33.3% of the variance in the association between parent personality and adolescent outcomes was shared with the corresponding adolescent personality trait., Conclusions: Overall, the findings of this study provide evidence that traits inherited (directly or indirectly) from parents might have an important role in shaping problem behavior in adolescence., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Adolescence published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Foundation for Professionals in Services to Adolescents.)

Background: Research suggests that parenting has little influence on the development of antisocial behavior in children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits. We aimed to extend and improve on prior studies examining the moderating role of CU traits on associations between parenting and conduct problems, by using independent observations of two key dimensions of parenting: coercion and warmth. Methods: The participants included clinic-referred conduct-disordered boys (4-12 years; N = 95) and their families. Coercive parenting was coded from observations of family interaction and parental warmth was coded from Five-Minute Speech Samples. CU traits and conduct problems were rated by multiple informants. Results: In both mothers and fathers, CU traits moderated links between observed parenting and conduct problems. Specifically, coercive parenting was more strongly positively associated with conduct problems in boys with lower levels of CU traits, whereas parental warmth was more strongly negatively associated with conduct problems in boys with higher levels of CU traits. Conclusions: These findings suggest that different dimensions of parenting may need to be targeted in the treatment of early onset conduct problems in children high and low on CU traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Mechanisms by which neighborhood socio-economic status influenced children''s conduct problems and pro-social behavior were investigated using data from a nationally representative study of 4983 four-to-five-year old children growing up in 257 neighborhoods in Australia. Children''s conduct problems were found to be associated with neighborhood socio-economic status, neighborhood safety and neighborhood belonging after accounting for family demographic variables. Further analyses demonstrated that perceptions of neighborhood safety and neighborhood belonging mediated the relationships between neighborhood socio-economic status and children''s conduct problems. Furthermore, the associations of neighborhood safety with conduct problems were mediated by neighborhood belonging. A different pattern of results was evident for pro-social behavior. Neighborhood cleanliness and neighborhood belonging had a direct association with pro-social behavior and no mediated associations were evident. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]