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Review Paper
Is Psychosis a Neurobiological Syndrome?

Daryl E Fujii, Iqbal Ahmed

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Capgras Syndrome: A Review of the Neurophysiological Correlates and Presenting Clinical Features in Cases Involving Physical Violence
Dominique Bourget, Laurie Whitehurst

(PDF)

Perinatal Risks of Untreated Depression During Pregnancy
Lori Bonari, Natasha Pinto, Eric Ahn, Adrienne Einarson, Meir Steiner, Gideon Koren

(PDF)


Original Research Attempted Suicide: Factors Leading to Hospitalization
Urs Hepp, Hanspeter Moergeli, Stefan N Trier, Gabriella Milos, Ulrich Schnyder

(PDF)

Testing the Goodness-of-Fit of a Multifaceted Preventive Intervention for Children at Risk for Conduct Disorder
George M Realmuto, Gerald J August, Elizabeth A Egan

(PDF)

Characterizing Coronary Heart Disease Risk in Chronic Schizophrenia: High Prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome
Tony Cohn, Denis Prud'homme, David Streiner, Homa Kameh, Gary Remington

(PDF)

Children's Persistence With Methylphenidate Therapy: A Population-Based Study
Anton R Miller, Christopher E Lalonde, Kimberlyn M McGrail

(PDF)

Frequency of Mental Health Disorders in a Sample of Elementary School Students Receiving Special Educational Services for Behavioural Difficulties
Michèle Déry, Jean Toupin, Robert Pauzé, Pierrette Verlaan

(PDF)


Brief Communication
Serum Lipid Concentrations in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Patients With and Without Panic Attacks

Mehmet Yucel Agargun, Haluk Dulger, Rifat Inci, Hayrettin Kara, Omer Akil Ozer, Mehmet Ramazan Sekeroglu, Lutfullah Besiroglu

(PDF)


Book Reviews
(PDF)

Affect Regulation and the Development of Psychopathology
Review by
Mary V Seeman


Psychosocial Treatment for Medical Conditions: Principles and Techniques
Review by
Alex Adsett


Quick Cognitive Screening for Clinicians
Review by
Martin Cole


The Neuropsychiatry of Epilepsy
Review by
Erwin K Koranyi


Annual Progress in Child Psychiatry and Child Development, 2000-2001
Review by
Joseph H Beitchman



Letters to the Editor
(PDF)

Re: From Chlorpromazine to Clozapine - Antipsychotic Adverse Effects and the Clinician's Dilemma

Reply: From Chlorpromazine to Clozapine - Antipsychotic Adverse Effects and the Clinician's Dilemma

Autism: Multiple Genes Acting on a Distributed Neural Target

Recurrent Paroxetine-Induced Hyponatremia

Spontaneous Orgasm Started With Venlafaxine and Continued With Citalopram

Venlafaxine-Induced Mania

Episodic Ataxia vs Somatization Disorder

Mirtazapine for Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Olanzapine Augmentation of Fluoxetine in the Treatment of Pathological Skin Picking

Internet Use in Adolescents: Hobby or Avoidance

Light Therapy, Nonseasonal Depression, and Night Eating Syndrome

Original Research

Testing the Goodness-of-Fit of a Multifaceted Preventive Intervention
for Children at Risk for Conduct Disorder

George M Realmuto, MD1, Gerald J August, PhD2, Elizabeth A Egan, PhD3

 

Objective: To determine the importance of parents’ global adaptive functioning as a predictor of participation rate and subsequent child social competence outcome in 3 program components of an evidence-based, multifaceted, preventive intervention for at-risk children.

Method: Families of program children (n = 124, mean age 6.6 years at recruitment) were offered 3 program components that continued for 3 years: a 6-week summer program, a biweekly family program that included concurrent parent and child education and skills training groups, and a flexibly tailored home visitation family support program. We used structural equation modelling to test hypotheses about the effects of parental characteristics on program attendance in each of the program components over 3 years, as well as their relation to children’s social competence.

Results: Predictors of attendance included child IQ, socioeconomic status (SES), and single-parent status for some components but not others, depending on parents’ global adaptive functioning. Predictors of child social competence outcome were mediated by attendance in specific program components and were dependent on parent global adaptive functioning. Some components contributed decisively to social competence outcomes, and others did not, despite subjects’ participation.

Conclusions: Common family characteristics (that is, child IQ, SES, and single-parent status) predict program attendance differently, depending on parents’ global adaptive functioning. Parents’ global adaptive functioning determined whether attendance in specific program components mediated children’s social competence. In this preventive intervention, as in clinical practice, only knowledge of the goodness-of-fit between participant characteristics and program attributes can ensure optimum benefit.

(Can J Psychiatry 2004;49:743-752)

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Clinical Implications

  • As in clinical work, each component of a multicomponent prevention intervention plan must be evaluated for participant interest level and its contribution to overall outcome.

  • To achieve the largest benefit, tailoring interventions to the needs of prevention clients may require matching by socioeconomic status and families’ adaptive functioning.

  • Child social functioning outcomes may respond to the direct effects of prevention programming that brings about changes in parenting behaviours to improve parent nurturance.

Limitations

  • Since this study did not use a dismantling design to determine the independent effects of the components, the results cannot accurately estimate the positive and negative influence of participation in one component upon participation in other components.

  • The study measured rates of attendance; however, it could not examine a more important measure of exposure to an intervention, namely, engagement of children and parents.

  • Only one outcome, social competence, was examined in relation to participation. Other outcomes such as child academic competence or behavioural self-regulation may have benefited from a different profile of participation by component and family characteristics, which needs further study.

Key Words: at-risk children, aggressive children, disruptive children, prevention, conduct disorder, participation, outcome, parent functioning

Résumé : Test de validité de l’ajustement d’une intervention préventive polyvalente pour les enfants à risque de trouble des conduites

Several interventions designed to prevent conduct disorder (CD) are currently at various stages of empirical validation. One genre of intervention—early-age programs—targets children with early-onset aggressive behaviour during the early elementary school grades. Such programs typically use a multifaceted intervention model that includes components for children, parents, peers, and schools. Studies testing the efficacy of multifaceted prevention interventions among aggressive children have produced small-to-medium effect sizes (1,2). These studies have used an intent-to-intervene analytical approach that includes all randomized subjects, regardless of client attrition and participation levels; they provide information on the average effect of the intervention. This analytical approach has several limitations that act to conceal a rich body of information about how a program works for different subgroups of the sample. These limitations include the failure to distinguish program impact for participants who elect high vs low rates of participation (that is, dosage effects), the failure to identify the active ingredients of the program (that is, dismantling effects), and the failure to identify how specific participant characteristics interact with various intervention components (that is, moderator effects).

The notion that a particular intervention model can work with any child or family has given way to questions about tailoring the intervention to the perceived and expressed needs of individual families (3). In particular, families recruited for prevention programs may behave differently from families seeking treatment services. These differences may reflect differential rates of participation and varying degrees of benefit across available program components. Identification of specific participant characteristics that affect participation in intervention components can facilitate program tailoring and fit. This may lead to program benefits that maximize acceptability and improvement in client outcomes while preserving scarce community prevention resources.

This study examined the goodness-of-fit of the Early Risers “Skills for Success” program. This program is an example of a theory-based, multifaceted prevention model that targets children with heightened risks for developing serious conduct problems as a consequence of early-onset aggressive behaviour and exposure to harmful contextual factors. The intervention model features 2 complementary components: CORE and FLEX. Providers deliver the program components in tandem over several years. The CORE component includes an annual 6-week summer program, a biweekly family program consisting of concurrent child and parent education and skills training groups, and a monitoring and mentoring school engagement program. The FLEX component is a risk-adjusted intervention that offers a menu of support, brief interventions, and community mental health options. FLEX individually tailors service delivery in response to an ongoing assessment of each family’s unique profile of strengths, needs, and barriers to participation.

The efficacy of the Early Risers program was demonstrated with a well-characterized sample of aggressive children in a randomized control group design (4–6). Interestingly, a component analysis showed that the intervention’s individual components worked differently for children who showed high vs low aggression (7). Our study sought to elucidate further the goodness-of-fit between client and component. The treatment literature has shown that characteristics which define a parent’s level of global adaptive functioning in terms of high levels of stress or adverse life events, marital discord, family conflict, parental mental health problems, and social insularity are associated with low rates of participation, premature termination, and poor outcomes in clinic-based treatment for children with disruptive disorders (8–11). In the present study, we examined the hypothesis that parents’ level of psychosocial adaptive functioning would moderate their participation in various Early Risers component programs. Participation rate would in turn mediate subsequent benefits from component programs. We anticipated differences between parents with high adaptive functioning and parents with low adaptive functioning and children’s outcomes across the program’s individual components. Social competence was selected as the primary outcome because of its pivotal position in the CD developmental pathway (12–14), its primary focus across all Early Risers intervention components, and the magnitude of program–control differences that were observed on this construct at the 3-year assessment point.

Method

Participants
We conducted the study in a semirural midwestern geographical area characterized by predominantly white families of low to low-middle socioeconomic status (SES). Teachers screened kindergarten children enrolled in 20 elementary schools (n = 1840) for aggressive behaviour (a detailed description of the screening procedure is provided in August and others, 4). Schools were randomly assigned to program vs control groups. Of the 1840 students screened, 341 (18.5%) met criteria for selection based on either a T-Score > 58 on the Aggression Scale of the Child Behavior Checklist–Teacher Report Form (CBCL–TRF) (15) or a T-Score at or above the 85th percentile relative to all kindergartners in a particular school. Of the 341 children who qualified for the study, 124 were recruited into the intervention group and 121 into the assessment-only control group.

We examined only intervention families and eliminated from this group those whose participation was censored because they had moved out of the area (n = 17), reducing the sample to 107 children (65% boys, mean age 6.6 years at baseline, mean Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test [K-BIT] composite IQ 97.4, and mean baseline aggression T-Score 63.5 on the CBCL–TRF). Retained participants did not differ significantly from those who were dropped from the analysis.

Interventions
The conceptual foundations, empirical bases, program content, and operational procedures of the Early Risers program are provided in August and others (16). Space limitations preclude detailed delineation of program components here.

CORE Intervention Component
Summer Program. In the summer following the kindergarten year and for 3 consecutive summers, children attended a 6-week, full-day summer school program. The program was adapted from the Pelham Summer Treatment Program (STP) for children with disruptive behavioural disorders (17,18).

Family Program. In each of the 3 years, parents and their children were invited to attend concurrent education and skills training sessions from October through May. These sessions took place during the evening or on Saturday morning at a local school site. Twelve 2-hour sessions were offered in year 1, eleven 2-hour sessions were offered in year 2, and six 2-hour sessions were offered in year 3 (for a total of 29 sessions and 58 hours). In years 1 and 2, the content of parent-group sessions followed Webster-Stratton’s The Incredible Years Parenting Series (19). Child-group sessions followed interactive play with the life-size puppets of Webster-Stratton’s Incredible Years Dinosaur Curriculum (19), a program designed to dovetail with content presented in the parenting sessions. The curriculum emphasized educating and training children in skills such as emotional regulation, conflict resolution, friend making, and understanding school rules and how to succeed at school.

FLEX Intervention Component
The structure, objectives, and delivery system of FLEX were modelled after home-based, wraparound mental health service programs (see Multisystemic Therapy, 20) adapted to accommodate a prevention approach in which families were not necessarily seeking help. FLEX is implemented in 4 iterative phases: assets appraisal and needs assessment, goal setting and strategic planning, provision of brief interventions and brokering of community mental health services, and monitoring of goal attainment and goal revision as necessary.

Measures
Child Aggression. The mean of 2 aggression scales across 3 waves of data and 2 informants measured the level of child aggression. This ensured a stable, time-invariant measure of this construct. The aggression scales were the Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation-Revised (TOCA-R; 21) (α = 0.94) and the Parent Observation of Classroom Adaptation (POCA, 21) (α = 0.89).

Parent SES. We used the Hollingshead Rating System (22) to calculate parents’ self-report of occupation and education and yield SES at baseline.

Single-Parent Status. This was determined at baseline and year 2 from parent report of the number and relationship of all adults in the household.

Parent Nurturance. This was a composite variable computed as the mean of 5 scales from 4 different instruments. Two scales from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) (23) were included: Involvement (4-week retest reliability = 0.61) and Positive Parenting (4-week retest reliability = 0.59). One scale was used from the teacher version and one from the parent version of the Parent-Teacher Involvement Questionnaire (1) that assesses the extent of parent participation in school functions. Finally, one subscale, Cohesion, was used from the Family Relations Scale (FRS) (24). Internal consistencies (alphas) of the Involvement, Positive Parenting, Parent Participation (teacher and parent), and Cohesion scales in the current sample were 0.75, 0.80, 0.68, 0.65, and 0.75, respectively.

Parent Discipline. This variable consisted of the APQ Inconsistent Discipline scale (α = 0.73; at 4-week retest, α = 0.68) and a scale from the Parenting Practices Questionnaire (25) designed to measure the effect of discipline (α = 0.81).

Parent Stress. This was measured by 3 scales from the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (26)—Depression, Isolation, and Health—and by the Support scale from the FRS. Alphas for these scales were 0.79, 0.77, 0.70, and 0.70, respectively.

Parent Psychosocial Global Adaptive Functioning. The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale generated a composite index of parents’ global adaptive functioning (27). The index, a hypothetical continuum from mental health to illness scored from 1 (serious dysfunction) to 100 (superior functioning), was computed for the primary caregiver in each family (usually the mother). The convergent and discriminant validity of the GAF have been reported elsewhere (28). The family advocate (with consultation from an experienced clinical supervisor) assigned GAF scores for each caregiver, based on information reflecting a broad array of strengths and problems, including availability of formal and informal social and family supports, occupational satisfaction, and symptoms of psychiatric distress. Scores ranged from a low of 32 to a high of 93. The mean score was 72, SD 12; the median score was 74.

Preliminary analyses grouped participants by GAF ( < 70 was considered low functioning [LF]; > 71 was considered high functioning [HF]) to determine whether there were group differences in the mode across groups. They were used in subsequent analyses after differences were determined to exist (LF n = 45; GAF mean 61, SD 8.6. HF n = 53; GAF mean 81, SD 5.1).

As shown in Table 1, LF parents relative to their HF counterparts had lower levels of nurturance, higher levels of stress, children with lower levels of overall functioning, fewer social relationships, and fewer community activities.

Table 1 Means of baseline parent and child variables by parent functioning 

Variable 

Low functioning 

(n = 43) 


High functioning 

(n = 50) 


   

 

Mean

SD 

Mean 

SD 

F

Parent nurturancea 

–0.81 

0.57 

– 0.28 

0.55 

21.17 

0.001 

Effective disciplinea 

–0.63 

0.73 

–0.36 

0.78 

2.97 

0.088 

Parent stressa 

0.75 

0.87 

0.03 

0.73 

18.59 

0.001 

Child adaptive functioningb 

51.77 

13.72 

64.42 

12.89 

20.98 

0.001 

Child social relationshipsc 

2.30 

0.94 

2.80 

0.57 

9.82 

0.002 

Child community activitiesd 

1.30 

1.08 

2.50 

1.01 

28.34 

0.001 

aZ-score relative to a normative sample in which mean 0, SD 1.
bMinimum = 1, maximum = 100
cSum of 3 additive items (minimum = 0, maximum = 3)
dSum of 4 additive items (minimum = 0, maximum = 4) 

Measures of Participation. Family participation in the family program and child participation in the summer program were computed as the percentage of sessions attended out of total sessions offered over 3 years of intervention (29 and 72 sessions for family and summer programs, respectively). The total time (in official contact minutes) between parent and family advocate over a period of approximately 2 years was used as the parent participation measure for the FLEX program. As expected for this tailored intervention component, families varied considerably in their participation time (range 0 to 69 hours). In addition, there was a highly positive skew in the distribution of time spent in FLEX, with one-half of the families receiving fewer than 3 hours (mean 6.5 hours). Because of the variability and shape of the distribution, the percentage of time parents spent in FLEX had a base of 300 minutes (5 hours). This represented the family advocate’s goal over the time interval in which they implemented this component. Scores of 100% were assigned to parents who received more than 300 minutes of FLEX. For each FLEX family contact, family advocates recorded the focus of the contact (that is, child, parent, or family) and the time spent discussing each domain immediately after each contact. We computed percentage of time spent in each domain over the total time spent in FLEX. Because family advocates could spend the same interval of time on both child and parent issues, times spent in each domain were not mutually exclusive, and percentages do not necessarily sum to 100.

Social Competence Outcome Measure. This was a composite variable based on the mean of 3 scales (Social Skills, Leadership, and Adaptability) from both the teacher and parent forms of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC, 29) and the Social Acceptance scale from the Teacher’s Scale of Child’s Actual Competence and Social Acceptance (30). For the teacher and parent scales of the BASC, respectively, the alphas were as follows: Social Skills (0.91, 0.86), Leadership (0.81, 0.78), and Adaptability (0.75, 0.73). For the Social Acceptance scale, the alpha was 0.92.

Timeline for Assessments. Measures of outcome, including child social competence (that is, social skills) and parent nurturance, discipline, and stress, were administered at baseline (that is, in the spring of the children’s kindergarten year and prior to the first summer program) and every spring thereafter for 3 consecutive years. We continuously recorded participation as intervention components came on-line over the 3-year trial. Data collected during the first 6 months of year 1 were accumulated to allow the family advocates sufficient time to access valid data to determine parent GAF (grouping variable).

Statistical Analysis
We constructed a theoretical model to guide our analyses of predictors and outcomes of participation. In this model, child, parent, and family variables at baseline hypothetically predicted participation in the family, summer, and FLEX components. In turn, when we controlled for baseline child social competence, participation in these 3 components hypothetically predicted child social competence at the end of year 3. Predictors of participation at baseline included SES, child aggression level, child IQ composite, and single-parent status prior to intervention. We allowed the baseline child, parent, and family variables and baseline social competence to covary. In addition, we allowed participation in the 3 program components to covary so that we could discern the effects of each component while controlling for participation in the other components. We analyzed this structural equation model in Amos 3.6 (31), using Full Information Maximum Likelihood to make full use of all available information, including cases with some missing data. Models that did not differ significantly from their saturated versions (P > 0.05) had a good fit to the data.

To test the principal hypothesis that parent psychosocial functioning (measured by GAF) plays a significant role in determining which program components clients choose to participate in, we assessed the effect of each specific program component on child social competence. We tested the relation between each part of the model (child, parent, and family baseline variables, as well as rates of participation and outcome) and the mean differences between LF and HF families. Second, we tested whether the regression weights (path coefficients) in the overall model differed between LF and HF parents. We did this to determine whether a single model or a 2-group model fit the data.

Results

Rates of Participation
Family program attendance ranged from 0% to 97%, with one-half of participants attending at least 38% of the sessions offered (mean 37%, SD 31%). Summer program attendance ranged from 19% to 100%, with one-half of all participants attending at least 89% of the sessions offered (mean 81%, SD 19%). FLEX contact time was the most variable of these program components. It ranged from 0% to 100%, with one-half of all participants using 54% of the 300 minutes recommended (mean 60%, SD 35%).

Group Differences in Family Factors, Attendance, and Child Social Competence
We tested mean differences by GAF group for each component of the model (that is, predictors, attendance, and social competence) by comparing a model with means constrained across groups and a model with means free to vary. Follow-up multiple analyses of variance (MANOVAs) located differences when significant differences in fit were found.

For predictors of participation, the difference in fit between the 2 models was significant (n = 98; c2 = 14.7, df 4; P = 0.005). Tests of between-groups effects revealed a significant difference between groups on SES (LF mean 37.86, SD 7.93; HF mean 44.55, SD 10.63; F1,93 = 11.53; P = 0.001) but not on level of child aggression, single-parent status, or child IQ. The constrained model was rejected for rates of participation in the 3 intervention components (n = 98; c2 = 18.7, df 9; P = 0.028), and the difference in fit between the 2 models was marginal (n = 98; c2 = 7.7, df 3; P = 0.053). Tests of between-group effects revealed a significant difference between groups on attendance in the family program (F1,96 = 7.45, P = 0.008): families in the LF group had lower mean attendance in the family program (mean 31.03%, SD 27.75%) than families in the HF group (mean 47.37%, SD 30.93%). The effect size (Cohen’s d) for this group difference was 0.55. There were no significant between-group differences in attendance at the summer program or in contact time in FLEX.

For child social competence, the difference in fit between the 2 models was significant (n = 98; c2 = 12.50, df 2; P = 0.002). Results from a repeated measures MANOVA revealed significant effects for time (F1,87 = 19.60, P < 0.001) and parent functioning group (F1,87 = 12.10, P = 0.001). Children in both the LF group (t41 = –2.13, P = 0.04) and the HF group (t46 = –4.37, P = < 0.001) significantly improved in social competence over time. In addition, GAF groups differed at baseline (t87 = –2.66, P = 0.009) and at year 3 (t87 = –3.35, P = 0.001): children in the LF group scored lower on social competence at baseline (mean –0.86, SD 0.53 vs mean –0.51, SD 0.69) and at year 3 (mean –0.63, SD 0.74 vs mean –0.13, SD 0.66) than did children in the HF group. However, there was no significant time × GAF interaction (F1,87 = 1.14, P = 0.29), suggesting that the rate of change in social competence did not differ by parent functioning.

Modelling Participation in GAF Groups
The constrained model, with regression weights for both LF and HF groups equal, did not fit the data (n = 98; c2 = 33.26, df 16; P = 0.007). Consequently, we analyzed a 2-group model with regression weights freed to vary across groups, which resulted in a good fit to the data (n = 98; c2 = 15.7, df 14; P = 0.33). We report below the specific significant paths for each group.

Part I: Who Attended? Predictors of Participation
Attendance in the Family Program. For the LF group, there was a significant relation between SES and attendance in the family program: only higher levels of SES were related to higher rates of attendance (β = 0.32, P < 0.05). For the HF group, attendance in the family program was higher for families whose children had higher IQ (β = 0.33, P < 0.05) and lower levels of aggression (β = –0.26, P < 0.05). Neither SES nor single-parent status predicted attendance for these families.

Attendance in the Summer Program. For the LF group, both child IQ (β = 0.29, P < 0.05) and SES (β = 0.42, P < 0.01) predicted attendance: only higher levels of IQ and SES were associated with higher levels of attendance. For the HF group, children from single-parent families had lower attendance rates than children from 2-parent families (β = –0.30, P < 0.05). No other variables predicted attendance.

Contact Time in FLEX. In the LF group, only the single parent variable was more likely to accumulate higher amounts of FLEX contact time (β = 0.37, P < 0.01). In the HF group, no baseline variables predicted contact time.

Part II: Who Benefited? Predictors of Outcome
For the LF group, when we controlled for baseline social competence and participation in the other program components, there was a significant positive relation between attendance in the summer program and social competence at year 3 (β = 0.51, P < 0.001). There also was a significant negative relation between contact time in FLEX and social competence at year 3 (β = –0.29, P < 0.005). There was no significant relation between attendance in the family program and child social competence at year 3. Figure 1 displays the results of the structural equation model for the LF group.

Figure 1   Significant standardized regression weights for low functioning group figure1realmuto.JPG - 0 Bytes
SES = Socioeconomic status

For the HF group, when we controlled for baseline social competence and participation in the other program components, there was a significant positive relation between contact time in FLEX and social competence at year 3 (β = 0.27, P < 0.05). There was no significant relation between participation in the other 2 program components and outcome in social competence at year 3. Figure 2 displays the results of the model for the HF group.

Figure 2   Significant standardized regression weights for high functioning group figure2realmuto.JPG - 0 Bytes
SES = Socioeconomic status

Exploratory Analyses
Because the results regarding the relation between FLEX participation and child social competence were contrary to our expectations for both groups, we conducted exploratory analyses to explicate these findings.

For the LF group, we originally predicted a positive relation between participation in FLEX and child social competence in year 3, but instead, we found a negative relation. We speculated that, as contact with the family advocate increased, parents developed more clarity about the extent of their child’s dysfunctional behaviour. This caused them to rate their child’s social competence less favourably at outcome. For the LF group, we predicted a positive relation between contact time in FLEX and child social competence in year 3 if we used only teacher ratings of child social competence. To test this reformulated hypothesis, we re-ran the above structural equation model with only teacher ratings. The teacher model fit the data well (n = 98; c2 = 18.63, df 14; P = 0.18). For the LF group, instead of the predicted positive relation, we found no relation between FLEX contact time and teacher-rated social competence at year 3. All the other significant relations were the same.

To understand why FLEX worked differently for the different GAF groups, we examined possible differences in how participants used time in FLEX and in how they applied time in FLEX. The 4 FLEX domains used for both analyses were percentage of time focused on child personal, behavioural, and emotional issues; on parent personal, behavioural, and emotional issues; on child social functioning; and on parent social functioning. Results showed that, for the LF group, no domains predicted social competence at year 3. However, for the HF group, time spent on parents’ social functioning predicted child social competence at year 3 (F2,44 = 16.25, P < 0.001; R2 = 0.43, β = 0.25, P < 0.037).

To better understand this relation for the HF group, we speculated that parent nurturance at year 2 mediated the relation between time spent on parents’ social functioning at year 1 and child’s social competence at year 3. We tested this hypothesized mediation effect in accordance with principles stipulated by Baron and Kenny (32) and Holmbeck (33): we examined the partial correlation coefficients between these 3 variables after controlling for baseline levels of child social competence. In the LF group, we did not find significant relations between any of these variables. However, we found several significant relations in the HF group. First, there was a significant positive relation between percentage of time spent on parents’ social functioning at year 1 and child social competence at year 3 (n = 39, r = 0.34, P = 0.028). Second, there was a significant positive relation between percentage of time spent on parents’ social functioning at year 1 and parent nurturance at year 2 (n = 42, r = 0.31, P = 0.040). Third, there was a significant positive relation between parent nurturance at year 2 and child social competence at year 3 (n = 42, r = 0.31, P = 0.04). Fourth, after we controlled for the effects of parent nurturance at year 2, there was a nonsignificant relation between percentage of time spent on parents’ social functioning at year 1 and child social competence at year 3 (n = 36, r = 0.17, P = 0.31). Thus increased parent nurturance accounted for the relation between time spent on parents’ functioning in year 1 and child social competence at year 3.

Discussion

Baseline characteristics, participation rates, and social competence outcomes significantly differed between parent GAF groups. The HF group had higher SES and attended more family program sessions. However, this group did not differ from the LF group in rates of child attendance in the summer program or in the amount of time they used in the FLEX component. Although children in the HF parent group scored higher in social competence at both baseline and year 3 than did those in the LF parent group, there was no group difference in the rate of change over time. Thus the program may have been equally efficacious for both high- and low-GAF families. Below, we discuss the results for each individual intervention component.

Family Program
For LF families, higher SES predicted higher attendance rates. For HF families, higher child IQ and lower child aggression, but not SES, predicted higher attendance rates. In neither group was there a relation between attendance in the family program and child social competence in year 3: this component did not deliver any added contribution to the overall success of the program in improving child social competence outcomes. In our previous studies, we found that the family program produced improved aggression scores for children with lower levels of disruptiveness (7) and improved discipline methods for parents who attained recommended attendance levels (5). Only one-third of our parents attended a minimum of 55% of the offered sessions; therefore, many of the attendees in our sample may not have reached a learning threshold that translated into social competence gains for their children. Perhaps neither group received sufficient dosage. We are currently examining the hypothesis that program demands, physical barriers (for example, inclement weather), and participants’ expectations mediate participation. Although we provided dinner, childcare services, and public transportation to families, these incentives failed to produce optimal participation rates.

Summer Program
In contrast to the family program, we achieved extraordinarily high participation rates for children from both HF and LF families. Approximately 75% of participants attended a minimum of 75% of the offered sessions, and 25% attended 94% of the sessions. For LF families, the protective factors of higher child IQ and higher family SES predicted higher attendance rates. For the HF families, children from single-parent households showed lower attendance rates than children from 2-parent families. Anecdotal reports may shed some light on this finding. In single-parent HF families with joint custody, children are often required to move to the noncustodial parent’s household for some or all of the summer months, which prevents them from regularly attending the summer program. Conversely, for children of LF parents, the noncustodial parent may have been less involved, with consequently less disruption of their summer program participation. As attendance increased for children of LF parents, social competence increased, but we found no such relation in children from HF households. This was the predicted relation. The summer program targeted many of the behavioural and social skill deficits frequently observed in disruptive children. It supplemented the child’s experience through many enrichment activities that are often unavailable or inaccessible to rural children from lower-functioning families—an important finding regarding the effectiveness of the summer program intervention for children from disadvantaged families, particularly in comparison with those from HF families. In a landmark longitudinal study of elementary school children, Entwisle and others found that low-SES and high-SES grade school children made comparable gains in reading and math achievement during the regular school year (34). However, during the summer months, when school was not in session, low-SES children lost ground, whereas their high-SES counterparts continued to make academic gains. During the summer months, high SES families had greater access to resources needed to promote continued growth, such as books, computers, and family outings. Conceivably, our summer program successfully raised the social competence of children from LF families by providing social experiences not available in their homes.

FLEX Family Support Component
We hypothesized that LF families would particularly benefit from FLEX. The FLEX component directly supported these families in their homes by alleviating stress and daily living problems. The family advocates facilitated linkages to informal and formal resources, and program staff empowered parents to pursue positive lifestyle changes and healthy goals. We speculated that HF families might need less service and have fewer contacts with the family advocate. Contrary to expectations, the total amount of FLEX contact time did not differ for HF and LF families. Moreover, for LF families we found a negative relation to child social competence outcomes, and for HF families we found a positive relation. The finding for LF families disappeared when we analyzed only teacher ratings of child social competence. We suspect that the intervention had an impact on the norms that LF parents used to rate their children’s behaviour. Over time, LF parents may have learned to better observe and judge dysfunctional behaviour, such that more FLEX time resulted in lower parent scores for child social competence. To better understand the findings for HF families, we examined how FLEX time was spent and how it was applied for each group. We found that LF parents, who exhibited more stress and poorer parent management strategies than HF parents, spent more time on their child’s personal, behavioural, and emotional issues. We hypothesized that LF parents who operate in such a crisis mode have little time to devote to themselves. In contrast, HF parents were able to parlay the time they spent working with program staff on their own social functioning into gains for their child’s social competence. Moreover, improvements in parent–child nurturance mediated this path. In contrast to the direct effects of the summer program, FLEX may affect the child indirectly through its strengthening of the affective relationship between parent and child.

Clinical Implications
Prevention programs that offer health promotional services for children and families may attract some participants who gain considerable benefit, some who do not gain at all, and some who will not engage. Our findings suggest that each component of the prevention program requires individual evaluation for level of participation and beneficial outcome.

The findings suggest that SES and level of adaptive family functioning may be key determinants in tailoring interventions. LF families may struggle with adverse life events, marital discord, social isolation, unreliable transportation, and competing occupational commitments, all of which may determine which components of a program they choose to attend and how efficacious those components are. Although interventionists are in no position to change factors such as SES or single-parent status, they can tailor to particular subgroups interventions that are known to produce high levels of participation and benefit.

Also of clinical significance is the finding that social skills of children with HF parents appeared to grow as an indirect result of time spent by program staff on parental social functioning. Consistent with the social learning perspective, parents’ involvement in social activities and the quality of their ensuing social support network may provide opportunities for modelling of prosocial behaviours that reinforce such behaviours in the child. The path that connects parent social functioning, nurturance of the child, and social competence is also compatible with attachment theory. As parents become more focused on improving social function, they may plan activities and participate in community social events that also include their child. Parent availability and responsivity to the child during such activities may serve to strengthen emotional parent–child bonds that in turn provide the impetus for gains in social competence. Even later in development, the quality of a mother’s interpersonal relationships, especially in her marriage and social network, predict the quality of adolescent friendships (35).

Limitations
Several limitations of this study merit consideration. First, because participants were not randomly assigned to individual components (in a dismantling design), participation rates across components were not independent of each other. Thus it was very likely that situational barriers, personal expectations, self-efficacy beliefs, and intervention characteristics affecting participation in one component (either positively or negatively) influenced participation in other components.

Second, we assessed participation in terms of the rate at which children and parents attended the summer program and family program sessions. Although attendance rate provides important information about dosage received in a program component, it does not necessarily reflect the participant’s interest or engagement. Indeed, Orvell-Pallante and others found that the level of therapeutic engagement between program facilitator and parent was positively related to both rate and quality of participation (36). Further research is needed in this area.

Third, while this study identified several informative relations between child, parent, and family characteristics and participation and outcome, the mechanisms underlying these relations require clarification. Fourth, the present findings address only the relation between participation and one outcome, specifically, children’s social competence. A different set of predictors may be relevant for other proximal and distal outcomes. Last, we examined only linear relations. The relations between participation and outcome may not be linear for some groups. For example, one subgroup may need a particular threshold of participation for changes to occur, or another subgroup may improve up to a point of participation, then decline. Future studies will examine these complex relations.


Funding and Support

This study was supported as part of a cooperative, multisite agreement (Prevention Intervention Studies on Predictor Variables by Developmental Stage) sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration–Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (SAMHSA-CSAP).

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Author(s)

Manuscript received August 2003, revised, and accepted January 2004.

1. Associate Professor, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2. Professor, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

3. Research Scientist, Social Development Research Group, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

Address for correspondence: Dr GM Realmuto, F256/2B West, 2450 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454

e-mail: realm001@umn.edu

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