Evaluation report of Early Intervention Program in Situations of Youth-to-Parent Aggression: What happens one year after? / Informe de Evaluación del Programa de Intervención Precoz en Situaciones de Violencia Filio-Parental: ¿Qué ocurre un año después?

Introducción: El Programa de Intervención Precoz en Situaciones de Violencia Filio-Parental (IP-VFP) tiene un buen nivel de protocolización y es de acceso abierto. El objetivo principal de este estudio es evaluar el efecto del programa IP-VFP en los/as adolescentes a medio plazo. Métodos: Los/as participantes fueron 22 adolescentes (entre 12 y 17 años) y 49 padres-madres de familias españolas, que habían completado el programa. Se aplicó un diseño experimental de caso único, permitiendo realizar el seguimiento del cambio en los/as adolescentes mediante la comparación entre fases (pre, post-intervención y seguimiento a los 6 meses). Resultados. A medio plazo tras la intervención, se observó una disminución de la violencia filio-parental, de los síntomas clínicos (síntomas depresivos, creencias irracionales, inestabilidad emocional y falta de empatía), y de la percepción del conflicto familiar, así como un aumento de la satisfacción vital. Conclusiones: Este estudio aporta más evidencias de la calidad de este programa pionero, ya que se comprueba que tiene un impacto positivo en los/as adolescentes a medio plazo y que tiene una buena aceptabilidad por parte de ellos/as, por lo que puede considerarse un programa muy prometedor para el contexto clínico y de protección familiar.(AU)

Introduction: The Early Intervention Program in Situations of Youth-to-Parent Aggression (EI-YPA) has a good level of protocolization and is open access. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the ef-fect of the EI-YPA program on adolescents in the medium term. Methods: Among the participants who successfully completed the program, 22 ado-lescents (between 12 and 17 years old) and 49 parents from Spanish fami-lies participated in the study. A single-case experimental design was ap-plied, allowing the monitoring of change within adolescents through com-parison between phases (pre-, post-intervention, and follow-up at 6 months). Results: In the medium term after the intervention, it was ob-served reductions in youth-to-parent aggression, clinical symptoms (de-pressive symptoms, irrational beliefs, a lack of empathy, and emotional in-stability), and the perception of family conflict, alongside improved life sat-isfaction. Conclusions: This study improves the quality of the evidence of this pioneering program, having a positive impact on adolescents in the medium term and good acceptability; it can thus be considered a very promising program for the clinical and family protection contex.(AU)

Emotion recognition in fathers and mothers at high-risk for child physical abuse.

OBJECTIVE: The present study was designed to determine whether parents at high risk for physical child abuse, in comparison with parents at low risk, show deficits in emotion recognition, as well as to examine the moderator effect of gender and stress on the relationship between risk for physical child abuse and emotion recognition. METHODS: Based on their scores on the Abuse Scale of the CAP Inventory (Milner, 1986), 64 parents at high risk (24 fathers and 40 mothers) and 80 parents at low risk (40 fathers and 40 mothers) for physical child abuse were selected. The Subtle Expression Training Tool/Micro Expression Training Tool (Ekman, 2004a, 2004b) and the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy II (Nowicki & Carton, 1993) were used to assess emotion recognition. RESULTS: As expected, parents at high risk, in contrast to parents at low risk, showed deficits in emotion recognition. However, differences between high- and low-risk participants were observed only for fathers, but not for mothers. Whereas fathers at high risk for physical child abuse made more errors than mothers at high risk, no differences between mothers at low risk and fathers at low risk were found. No interaction between stress, gender, and risk status was observed for errors in emotion recognition. CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The present findings, if confirmed with physical abusers, could be helpful to further our understanding of deficits in processing information of physically abusive parents and to develop treatment strategies specifically focused on emotion recognition. Moreover, if gender differences can be confirmed, the findings could be helpful to develop specific treatment programs for abusive fathers.

Dispositional empathy in neglectful mothers and mothers at high risk for child physical abuse.

This study investigates whether mothers who are neglectful and at high risk for child physical abuse present a deficit in empathy. Participants were neglectful mothers (n=37), mothers at high risk for child physical abuse (n=22), and nonmaltreating mothers (n=37). The Interpersonal Reactivity Index, a self-report measure assessing specific dimensions of empathy, was used to assess dispositional empathy. No differences between neglectful and non-neglectful mothers were found for perspective taking, empathic concern, and personal distress. High-risk mothers reported less perspective taking and more personal distress than nonmaltreating mothers. No difference between groups was found for empathic concern. The present study supported the hypothesis that parents at high risk for child physical abuse show a deficit in particular aspects of dispositional empathy: personal distress and perspective taking. However, no differences were found between neglectful and nonmaltreating mothers in any dimension of dispositional empathy.

Impact of stress and mitigating information on evaluations, attributions, affect, disciplinary choices, and expectations of compliance in mothers at high and low risk for child physical abuse.

The objective is to know if high-risk mothers for child physical abuse differ in their evaluations, attributions, negative affect, disciplinary choices for children's behavior, and expectations of compliance. The effect of a stressor and the introduction of mitigating information are analyzed. Forty-seven high-risk and 48 matched low-risk mothers participated in the study. Mothers' information processing and disciplinary choices were examined using six vignettes depicting a child engaging in different transgressions. A four-factor design with repeated measures on the last two factors was used. High-risk mothers reported more hostile intent, global and internal attributions, more use of power assertion discipline, and less induction. A risk group by child transgression interaction and a risk group by mitigating information interaction were found. Results support the social information-processing model of child physical abuse, which suggests that high-risk mothers process child-related information differently and use more power assertive and less inductive disciplinary techniques.