Receptive Vocabulary Development of Children Placed in Foster Care and Children Who Remained With Birth Parents After Involvement With Child Protective Services

Management of Psychiatric Emergencies Among Migrant Youth in Institutional and Community Settings

Migrant youth commonly access mental health care for the first time during emergencies, rather than through ambulatory means. Suicidal behaviors may occur more often among migrants than nonmigrant youth, and they may suffer from post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and display disruptive behaviors more frequently than their nonmigrant counterparts. Brief emergency interventions include safety planning, psychoeducation, parent training on communication and establishing routines, and behavioral therapies like activity scheduling and sleep hygiene.

Methodological inconsistencies confound understanding of language measurement in the child maltreatment population: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

While researchers have found a link between childhood maltreatment and language difficulties, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear and replication across the literature is inconsistent.

OBJECTIVE

To conduct a systematic review examining the methodological inconsistencies related to studies' samples construction, maltreatment measurement, and language outcomes using a language acquisition theory-based approach.

METHODS

Using the PRISMA framework, a literature search was conducted across five databases to identify studies that have investigated the effects of maltreatment on the language dimensions of vocabulary and grammar. Data were extracted for participant and maltreatment characteristics.

RESULTS

Fifty articles were reviewed. The results revealed: 1) maltreated children performed consistently below peers on grammar but not vocabulary assessments, 2) disproportionate use of vocabulary assessments, 3) considerable variability on participant characteristics and limited multidimensional measurement of maltreatment exposure, and 4) only nine studies analyzed the relationship between a maltreatment dimension (e.g., type, severity) and language.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of this review, we propose three calls to action: 1) more language acquisition research in the child maltreatment field, 2) specificity when constructing samples with maltreated children, and 3) comprehensive and multidimensional maltreatment measurement. Implications for education were examined.

Effect of home environment on academic achievement in child protective service-involved children: Results from the second national survey of child and adolescent well-being study

BACKGROUND

Children involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) have been shown to have lower academic achievement. It is unclear whether certain qualities of the home environment can optimize academic achievement in this vulnerable population.

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to determine whether home environments with higher levels of emotional support and cognitive stimulation predict later academic achievement and whether this relationship is moderated by placement type (i.e. biological/adoptive parent care, kinship care, or non-kinship foster care).

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

This study included 1,206 children from the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW-II) who were involved with CPS between 2-7 years of age.

METHODS

Multivariate analyses were completed to examine the effect of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) score on later Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-ACH) scores. Moderation analyses were conducted to determine the effect of placement type on this relationship.

RESULTS

Although these relationships between HOME scores and WJ-ACH scores were significant in bivariate analyses, they were not statistically significant in multivariate analyses, primarily due to the variable of household income. Although children placed primarily in non-kinship foster care demonstrated higher WJ-ACH scores for Passage Comprehension and Letter-Word Identification subscales, placement type did not appear to moderate the relationship between HOME scores and academic achievement.

CONCLUSION

Child- and caregiver-level factors, as well as financial resources available in the environment, may account for the relationship between home environment and academic achievement.

Emotion Regulation among Children in Foster Care Versus Birth Parent Care: Differential Effects of an Early Home-Visiting Intervention

Children involved with Child Protective Services (CPS) often show worse emotion regulation than non-involved children, with downstream effects on adaptive functioning. The current study uses two randomized control trials, one conducted with foster caregivers and one conducted with birth parents, to investigate the longitudinal effects of caregiver type (foster versus birth parent) and a home-visiting parenting intervention on emotion regulation among young children referred to CPS. Participants were 211 children referred to CPS during infancy or toddlerhood, of whom 120 remained with their birth parents and 91 were placed in foster care. Caregivers were randomly assigned to receive Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC), a 10-session intervention designed to promote nurturing, sensitive, and non-intrusive caregiving, or a control intervention. Caregiver type moderated the effects of ABC on young children's observed anger dysregulation during a frustrating task at age 2 to 3 years. Among children remaining with their birth parents, children whose caregivers received ABC showed lower anger dysregulation than children whose caregivers received the control intervention. Children placed in foster care showed lower anger dysregulation than children with birth parents regardless of parenting intervention, and additionally showed higher adaptive regulation than children remaining with their birth parents. Adaptive regulation was not significantly associated with parenting intervention or the caregiver by intervention interaction. Results suggest that foster care placement may be protective for emerging emotion regulation skills among young children referred to CPS, and an attachment-based parenting intervention buffers risks of remaining in the home for young children's emotion dysregulation.