First Things First: Parent Psychological Flexibility and Self-Compassion During COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant stress and anxiety for many parents around the world. Psychological flexibility and self-care are fundamental aspects of psychological health. For parents, shaping these processes may help promote family nurturance, support children's prosocial behavior, and provide effective and consistent use of evidence-based parenting "kernels." The goal of this article is to provide practitioners with evidence-based tools that will support psychological flexibility, self-care, and positive parenting behaviors in caregivers during COVID-19 and beyond.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): advances and applications with children, adolescents, and families.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is part of a growing body of literature of "third-wave" behavioral therapy that finds its roots in the development of mindfulness. ACT for adults has gained empirical support across a broad range of psychiatric disorders and behavioral health issues, yet the literature looking at the adaptation of ACT for youth populations is still nascent. This article provides an outline of key components of ACT, a brief overview of the history and development of ACT, adaptations for children, the theoretical underpinnings of ACT, assessment and therapy, and a review of the evidence-based literature to date.

Early childhood OCD: preliminary findings from a family-based cognitive-behavioral approach.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relative efficacy of family-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) versus family-based relaxation treatment (RT) for young children ages 5 to 8 years with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). METHOD: Forty-two young children with primary OCD were randomized to receive 12 sessions of family-based CBT or family-based RT. Assessments were conducted before and after treatment by independent raters blind to treatment assignment. Primary outcomes included scores on the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement. RESULTS: For the intent-to-treat sample, CBT was associated with a moderate treatment effect (d = 0.53), although there was not a significant difference between the groups at conventional levels. For the completer sample, CBT had a large effect (d = 0.85), and there was a significant group difference favoring CBT. In the intent-to-treat sample, 50% of children in the CBT group achieved remission as compared to 20% in the RT group. In the completer sample, 69% of children in the CBT group achieved a clinical remission compared to 20% in the RT group. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that children with early-onset OCD benefit from a treatment approach tailored to their developmental needs and family context. CBT was effective in reducing OCD symptoms and in helping a large number of children achieve a clinical remission.