Understanding staff- and system-level contextual factors relevant to trauma-informed care implementation.

Objective: Trauma-informed care (TIC) is increasingly used to address and prevent adverse childhood experiences. However, research on the implementation process of TIC has lagged, limiting its impact and sustainability. The goal of this two-study project was to provide a summary of staff- and system-level contextual factors relevant to TIC implementation. Method: Study 1 was a secondary data analysis of survey data from 760 staff members from human services, health, and education practice settings familiar with TIC. Independent-samples t tests were used to evaluate differences between lower- and higher-implementing organizations on staff- and system-level TIC implementation drivers. These drivers were then coded using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Study 2 was a content analysis of the empirical literature on TIC. Study 2 produced information on the staff- and system-level facilitators of and barriers to TIC implementation, which were then also coded using the CFIR. Results: Study 1 suggested that the attributes of the individuals implementing TIC and the implementation climate of the organization played the most central roles. Study 2 identified available resources and the strength and quality of the evidence underpinning the intervention as important contextual factors for TIC implementation. Conclusion: This study used a well-established framework, the CFIR, to elucidate key contextual factors related to the successful implementation of TIC, with the goal of informing the efforts of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Disparities in autism spectrum disorder diagnoses among 8-year-old children in Colorado: Who are we missing?

LAY ABSTRACT: Although autism can be reliably diagnosed as early as 2 years of age, many children are not diagnosed with autism until much later. We analyzed data to determine why many of the 8-year-old children who resided in Colorado and were identified as having autism through a review of their health and/or educational records did not have a documented clinical diagnosis of autism and were not eligible for special education services under an autism eligibility. We found that children who did not have a documented clinical diagnosis of autism and were not eligible for special education services under an autism eligibility were more likely to be female, aggressive, and argumentative. They had a poorer quality of information in their records and were less likely to have had a developmental regression, sleep problems, or an autism screener or diagnostic measure in their records. These results suggest that the symptoms characteristic of autism among this group of children may have been attributed to another disorder and that clinicians may be able to recognize autism more readily in children with more functional impairment and those who experience a developmental regression. We also discovered that differences in symptom presentations among children who had a documented clinical diagnosis of autism and/or were eligible for special education services under an autism eligibility were associated with different ages at autism diagnosis.

A Pilot Study Examining the Effectiveness of the PEERS Program on Social Skills and Anxiety in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The Program for the Evaluation of the Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), a social skills intervention for high functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has been proven efficacious in randomized control trials. However, the effectiveness of the PEERS program in community settings has not been studied. The present small-scale pilot study examined the effectiveness of the PEERS program in a community setting. Five adolescents and their caregivers participated in the PEERS intervention. Results indicated that the adolescents showed significant improvement in their social engagement, social cognition, social communication, social motivation, and knowledge of PEERS skills and concepts from pre- to post-intervention. Furthermore, adolescents showed significant reductions in their internalizing and autistic symptoms from pre- to post-intervention. The findings from this small-scale pilot study support the effectiveness of the PEERS program in community-based settings.

Age and Adaptive Functioning in Children and Adolescents with ASD: The Effects of Intellectual Functioning and ASD Symptom Severity.

The present study examined the moderating effects of intellectual functioning and ASD symptom severity on the relation between age and adaptive functioning in 220 youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Regression analysis indicated that intellectual functioning and ASD symptom severity moderated the relation between age and adaptive functioning. For younger children with lower intellectual functioning, higher ASD symptom severity was associated with better adaptive functioning than that of those with lower ASD symptom severity. Similarly, for older children with higher intellectual functioning, higher ASD symptom severity was associated with better adaptive functioning than that of those with lower ASD symptom severity. Analyses by subscales suggest that this pattern is driven by the Conceptual subscale. Clinical and research implications are discussed.

Exploring the association between cognitive functioning and anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorders: the role of social understanding and aggression.

This study examined relations between anxiety, aggression, social understanding, IQ, and diagnosis in a sample of 231 children (ages 2-9) diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs; Autistic Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) in a hospital setting. Children were administered tests of IQ, and parents completed measures of remaining variables. ASD diagnosis was associated with level of anxiety, and level of IQ explained this relation. IQ was significantly and positively associated with anxiety. Tests of a developmental model to explain the relation between IQ and anxiety showed that social understanding and aggression mediated the relation for toddlers. For preschool- and early elementary school-aged children, respectively, three-way interactions between IQ, social understanding, and aggression predicted anxiety, and graphs of the interactions suggest that the association between IQ and anxiety is increasingly driven by either aggression or social understanding over the course of childhood.