Faculty Bibliography

A mixed methods study was conducted to examine the implementation process of 26 urban school-based mental health clinics that took part in a training and implementation support program for an evidence-based school trauma intervention. Implementation process was observed using the Stages of Implementation Completion (SIC) measure. Qualitative interviews were conducted with clinic leaders in order to gain insight into clinic processes related to the SIC. Results showed that almost all of the clinics engaged in some activities related to pre-implementation (engagement, feasibility, and readiness), but only 31% of the sites formally started delivering the program to youth. Completing more pre-implementation activities, particularly those related to readiness, predicted program start-up. Qualitative analysis comparing those that implemented the program to those that did not revealed critical differences in decision-making processes, leadership strategies, and the presence of local champions for the program. This study documented the patterns of clinic behavior that occurs as part of large-scale training efforts, suggests some unique challenges that occur in schools, and highlights the importance of engaging in particular implementation activities (i.e., readiness planning, stakeholder consensus and planning meetings) as part of program start-up. Findings indicate that pre-implementation and readiness-related consultation should be employed as part of broad-scale implementation and training efforts.

The emergency department's role in a psychiatric crisis is to assess for safety, provide crisis interventions, reach a diagnosis, make decisions about disposition and treatment, and provide linkage to the next level of care within the hospital or in the community. The evaluation of children and adolescents involved in the child welfare system brings numerous additional challenges to this already-complex environment, including familial and systemic issues and an almost ubiquitous history of trauma. This article endeavors to increase understanding of child welfare-related issues and provides insight toward using a more trauma-informed and comprehensive approach that incorporates all these factors.

Pediatric psychiatric emergency care is delivered in different settings with vastly different resources around the country. Training programs lack guidance on developing optimal curricula for this highly variable but crucial setting. A model curriculum for child and adolescent psychiatry trainees may be helpful to provide such guidance; its components include recommendations for assessing baseline knowledge, identifying and teaching core subject content, encouraging development of essential skills, and building in supervision for learners. Future directions include further study in current pediatric emergency psychiatry education and expanding the scope of curricula to include different learners and delivery models.

OBJECTIVE:Little is known about the extent to which previous weeks' stressful events spill over and influence adolescents' abilities to derive insight from treatment sessions. Even less is known about factors that moderate clients' vulnerabilities to these spillover effects. The current study examined the spillover of negative interpersonal events to postsession insight and the role of difficulties in emotion regulation in this spillover effect. METHOD:Participants were 129 adolescents with moderate to severe depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation (Mage = 14.96, 83% female, 56% African American/Black) participating in a comparative efficacy trial of Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) and Family-Enhanced Nondirective Supportive Therapy (FE-NST). A within-subject mediation model tested presession negative affect as a mediator of spillover of past week's events on postsession insight. We then examined baseline difficulties in emotion regulation (DERS) as a between-subjects moderator of the mediation model. RESULTS:Negative affect partially mediated (44%) the spillover of the past week's negative events on adolescents' ratings of postsession insight (p = .03, 95% confidence interval, CI [-.09., -.002]). Baseline DERS increased adolescents' vulnerabilities to spillover effects (p = .01, 95% CI [-.28, -.03]). Negative interpersonal events from the past week influence presession negative affect and spill over to adolescents' abilities to gain insight from their treatment sessions. Adolescents who began treatment with greater DERS were particularly vulnerable to these spillover effects. Findings indicate the need for therapists to adapt sessions to individual differences in depressed and suicidal adolescents' exposure to negative interpersonal events preceding treatment and in their vulnerabilities to spillover and emotion dysregulation. (PsycINFO Database Record

BACKGROUND:Little is known about the impact of prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) on the developmental trajectory of temperament and few studies have been able to incorporate a natural disaster as a quasi-experimental stressor. The current study investigated PNMS related to Superstorm Sandy ('Sandy'), a hurricane that struck the New York metropolitan area in October 2012, in terms of objective exposure during pregnancy, subjective stress reaction as assessed by maternal symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and their impact on the developmental changes in temperament during early childhood. METHOD:A subsample of 318 mother-child dyads was drawn from the Stress in Pregnancy Study. Temperament was measured at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of age. RESULTS:Objective exposure was associated with greater High-Intensity Pleasure, Approach, Perceptual Sensitivity and Fearfulness, but lower Cuddliness and Duration of Orientation at 6 months. Objective exposure and its interaction with subjective stress reaction predicted developmental changes in temperament. In particular, objective exposure was linked to greater increases in Activity Level but decreases in High-Intensity Pleasure, Approach, and Fearfulness. The combination of objective exposure and subjective stress reaction was also associated with greater increases in Activity Level. LIMITATIONS:Temperament was measured solely via maternal report. Trimester-specific effects of Sandy on temperament were not examined. CONCLUSION:This is the first study to examine the effects of prenatal maternal exposure to a natural disaster on trajectories of early childhood temperament. Findings suggest that both objective stress exposure and subjective stress reaction in-utero predict developmental trajectories of temperament in early childhood.