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Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Parents Plus Special Needs (PPSN) programme, a seven-week parenting group intervention for parents of adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Method: In a cluster randomised controlled trial, 24 intellectual disability services supporting families of adolescents with an intellectual disability were assigned to PPSN (12 services; 141 parents) or waitlist control group (12 services; 136 parents). Primary outcomes were parent-reported parenting practices, family adjustment, problem behaviours, emotional problems, and prosocial behaviours. Secondary outcomes were parental satisfaction, parental self-efficacy, and goal attainment. Results: Compared to the waitlist group, participants in the PPSN group reported improvements in parenting practices, problem behaviours, parental satisfaction, parental self-efficacy and goal attainment, which were retained at 3-month follow-up. There were additional gains for family adjustment at follow-up. Conclusion: The PPSN is effective in improving parenting behaviour, family relationships, and problem behaviours in adolescents, but not in improving emotional difficulties.

Background: Assessment of mental health in schools has garnered increased interest in recent years. Children spend a large proportion of their waking hours in schools. Teachers can act as gatekeepers by playing a key role in identifying children with mental health difficulties in the classroom and making the necessary onward referrals to external services. The prevalence of mental health difficulties, their impact on schooling (and beyond) and the importance of early intervention means that it is incumbent on schools to identify and support potentially affected children. Aims: Previous reviews focused on mental health interventions in schools; however, this review focuses on the assessment of mental health in schools and on teachers' perceptions of this, as such a review is still lacking. Therefore, the study fills a gap in the existing literature while also providing new, highly relevant evidence that may inform policy making in this area. Composition of studies included in this review: This review included 19 studies. Five studied teachers exclusively at primary/elementary level, and seven focused on secondary level, while six included both primary and secondary teachers. Three studies employed mixed methods, ten were primarily qualitative studies, and five were primarily quantitative. Methods: Bronfenbrenner's (The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design, Harvard University Press, 1979) framework, adapted by Harvest (How can EPs best support secondary school staff to work effectively with children and young people who experience social, emotional and mental health difficulties? 2018), which includes the mature version of the theory (Tudge et al., 2009, J. Fam. Theory Rev., 1, 198), was used to analyse the literature. Results: Results found that lack of training in assessment of mental health and 'role conflict' were key barriers; some teachers attributed this to their lack of knowledge, skills and confidence in the area. Conclusion: Implications for practice and research are discussed in relation to the importance of sustained training both pre-service and in-service.

Background: Parents of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities have unique challenges in navigating the developmental period of adolescence. The present study explored the experiences of parents connected with disability services throughout the island of Ireland of parenting their child during adolescence. Method: Five focus groups were conducted with twenty-five parents of adolescents and young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Parents were asked open-ended questions about their experiences of raising their adolescent child. Transcripts of the focus groups were coded using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: On the journey from childhood to adolescence parents have to manage a number of different stressors with and for their child. These occur at societal, service provision, familial, and personal levels, with each stressor interacting with others to create vicious circles of struggle. Conclusions: Parents' struggles are multi-fold, and are not discreet entities that can be separated. The struggle is dynamic and continuous.

Individual differences in children's social communication have been shown to mediate the relationship between poor vocabulary or grammar and behavioural difficulties. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that social communication skills predict difficulties with peers over and above vocabulary and grammar scores. The essential social communicative skills needed to maintain positive peer relationships revolve around conversation. Children with weaker conversation skills are less likely to make and maintain friendships. While helping all children to participate actively in collaborative conversations is part of school curricula, evidence-based training on how to achieve this is rarely provided for teachers. In this review, we first provide an overview of the key components of conversation skills and the cognitive abilities required to maintain them. We then present a narrative review of randomised controlled trials and experimental studies that either trained child conversation skills or included conversation skills in both training and outcome measures. Most of the studies focussed on training conversational ability in autistic children. The general finding was that verbally fluent autistic children improve following conversation training on blind-assessed reciprocal conversational ability. Only two studies were found that trained conversation skills in typically developing children with adequate controls and outcome measures, which directly assessed conversational proficiency. Both studies focussed on typically developing children who, at baseline, were in the weaker third of the mainstream classroom. Importantly, training not only improved the conversational ability of these children, it also improved their rates of lunchtime interaction with peers and their peer popularity ratings. We argue that there is considerable potential for supporting conversation skills in the classroom as a universal or Tier 1 intervention. Future research should explore whether conversation skills training would benefit the whole classroom.

Background: Supporting an adult with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be associated with family stress but also with personal growth and resilience. Research providing insight into how typically developing siblings make sense of their unique sibling relationships in adulthood remains limited. Method: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study explored subjective experiences of eight siblings of adults with ASD and co-occurring intellectual disability. Results: Analysis of interview transcripts revealed a complex lived experience explained by the overarching theme "engaging with and navigating limbo," which was characterized by commitment to the sibling relationship, power tensions in the family, uncertainty about the future and negotiating the tension between relational closeness and distance. Conclusion: Using family systems theory, overregulation and closed communication emerged as processes relevant to families living with ASD. Clinical opportunities to support family communication, change tolerance and belonging are discussed.

This study aimed to understand the process of change within Wilderness Therapy. It used grounded theory to explore development and change during the programme and relate this to theories of adolescence and engagement, particularly for adolescents in the care system. Data collected from interviews with 11 adolescents were analysed using constructionist grounded theory. The wilderness environment, the staff, and the activities were identified as interactive factors that facilitated personal development. The analysis demonstrated the influence of early engagement in overall change. Relational factors interacted with an appropriate level of support and encouragement during activities which led to the adolescents experiencing success and increases in self-worth, self-esteem and efficacy. Improvements in self-efficacy, social skills, and anger management, as well as increasingly more positive views about the world were demonstrated in all participants who completed the programme.

Background: Family life is disrupted when a child experiences mental health difficulties. This can have long‐standing effects on sibling relationships. This study explores the lived experiences of young people who have an adolescent sibling hospitalised for treatment of a mental health difficulty. Method: Semi‐structured interviews of 45–60 min were conducted to explore the experiences of 10 siblings (6 sisters/4 brothers aged 13–22) of nine patients (5 sisters/4 brothers aged 15–17) receiving treatment for a mental health difficulty in a child and adolescent inpatient unit (IPU). Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Two superordinate themes were identified: 'Who am I if I'm not supporting them?' and 'On the fringes: actively involved but from the outside'. The interplay of these two super‐ordinate themes was found to influence the five sub‐ordinate themes: 'Confusion and disbelief', 'Don't worry about me, focus on them.', 'Powerless when I need to be powerful.', 'Helping or hindering‐ what is this place??' and 'Knowledge is power.' Conclusion: Siblings described experiencing conflicting and confusing emotions which may impact their attendance in IPU and engagement in siblings' treatment. Siblings of adolescents in inpatient treatment for mental health difficulties may be at increased risk of experiencing psychological distress. The mental well‐being of siblings must be borne in mind by child and adolescent inpatient services supporting families in crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to explore how clinical psychologists respond to child safeguarding dilemmas, with special attention to the role of psychology in child welfare. Transcripts from 20 semi‐structured interviews with clinical psychologists working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in England were analysed using a qualitative framework approach. In these interviews, two family case vignettes were used to examine how psychologists respond to child safeguarding dilemmas. We identified three overarching themes: operating within a system of stretched resources; characterising who is considered 'supportable' by psychological services; and challenges around conceptualising and responding to risk. Clinical psychologists viewed social services as responsible for family cases with safeguarding concerns and were reluctant to engage in high‐risk cases where stability in the home was not yet established. They saw their role in child welfare primarily as sense‐makers for families, by offering a contextualised explanation/formulation for the presenting difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual differences in children's social communication have been shown to mediate the relationship between poor vocabulary or grammar and behavioural difficulties. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that social communication skills predict difficulties with peers over and above vocabulary and grammar scores. The essential social communicative skills needed to maintain positive peer relationships revolve around conversation. Children with weaker conversation skills are less likely to make and maintain friendships. While helping all children to participate actively in collaborative conversations is part of school curricula, evidence-based training on how to achieve this is rarely provided for teachers. In this review, we first provide an overview of the key components of conversation skills and the cognitive abilities required to maintain them. We then present a narrative review of randomised controlled trials and experimental studies that either trained child conversation skills or included conversation skills in both training and outcome measures. Most of the studies focussed on training conversational ability in autistic children. The general finding was that verbally fluent autistic children improve following conversation training on blind-assessed reciprocal conversational ability. Only two studies were found that trained conversation skills in typically developing children with adequate controls and outcome measures, which directly assessed conversational proficiency. Both studies focussed on typically developing children who, at baseline, were in the weaker third of the mainstream classroom. Importantly, training not only improved the conversational ability of these children, it also improved their rates of lunchtime interaction with peers and their peer popularity ratings. We argue that there is considerable potential for supporting conversation skills in the classroom as a universal or Tier 1 intervention. Future research should explore whether conversation skills training would benefit the whole classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Irish Defense Forces (DF) responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and national public health crisis by deploying personnel to aid domestic civil authorities in medical and care settings, contact tracing, logistics, and operations. Current research on COVID-19 reveals increased psychological distress among frontline workers and the general public. Resilience has previously been associated with lower levels of psychological distress. This study sets out to test these associations, and to examine mental health differences between DF personnel deployed in Ireland on pandemic-related duties (DIPD) and non-DIPD. Participants were 231 DF members who completed the: Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Perceived Coronavirus Threat Questionnaire, Brief Trauma Questionnaire, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5, and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test. Independent t-tests revealed no differences between DIPD and non-DIPD on measures of psychological distress or on self-rated mental health prior to COVID-19 (PC19) and during COVID-19 (DC19). Results of multiple hierarchical regression analyses revealed that depression predicted lower levels of resilience, while multiple traumatic events predicted higher levels of resilience. The total adjusted variance explained by the model was 25%. Clinical and policy implications for improving access to psychological support within the DF and military populations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]