Supreme Court Impacts in Public Health Law: 2022-2023.

In another tumultuous term of the United States Supreme Court in 2022-2023 a series of critical cases implicate instant and forthcoming changes in multiple fronts that collectively shift the national public health law and policy environment.

Federalism's Fallacy at the Forefront of Public Health Law.

Amid undulating conceptions of the role and prowess of federalism emerges its central constitutional role: protecting American liberties against unwarranted governmental intrusions. To the extent that federalism is used as a guise for withdrawing fundamental rights to abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, individual rights are sacrificed in contravention of constitutional structural norms.

Measuring Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships: The Initial Development of an Assessment Instrument.

BACKGROUND: Although the partnership between academic researchers and community members is paramount to community-based research efforts, a limited number of measures exist to evaluate this construct. Of those in existence, no assessment measures include a comprehensive coverage of the many dimensions of partnerships. In addition, these measures were not designed through an extensive community-based participatory research (CBPR) model, in which the strengths of traditional assessment techniques were integrated with input from stakeholders. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article was to describe the creation of a measure to evaluate key dimensions of partnerships forged between researchers and community members using a CBPR approach to measurement development. METHODS: The iterative process of developing this measure consisted of integrating valuable feedback from community partners and researchers, via multiple rounds of item sorting and qualitative interviewing. RESULTS: The resultant measure, titled Partnership Assessment In community-based Research (PAIR), consists of 32 items, and comprises 5 dimensions: communication, collaboration, partnership values, benefits, and evaluation. The innovative process of using CBPR in the development of measures, the benefits of this approach, and the lessons learned are highlighted. CONCLUSIONS: PAIR was developed out of a need identified jointly by community members and researchers, and is intended to characterize the range of relationships between researchers and community members engaging in community-based research and programming.

Shrinking the gap between research and practice: tailoring and testing youth psychotherapies in clinical care contexts.

Most youth psychotherapy research involves conditions quite unlike the clinical practice it is designed to strengthen. Most studies have not tested interventions with clinically referred youths and practicing clinicians in clinical care settings, nor have they tested whether new treatments produce better outcomes than usual practice. Limited exposure to real-world conditions and questions may partially explain why empirically supported treatments show such modest effects when tested under more representative conditions, against usual care. Our deployment-focused model calls for intervention development and testing with the kinds of participants (e.g., clients and clinicians) and in the contexts (e.g., clinics) for which the interventions are ultimately intended, and for randomized comparisons to usual clinical care. Research with the Child STEPs (system and treatment enhancement projects) treatment approach illustrates the methods and potential benefits of the deployment-focused model. Findings supporting Child STEPs are but one part of a rich research matrix needed to shrink the gap between intervention research and clinical practice.

Relation between parent symptomatology and youth problems: multiple mediation through family income and parent-youth stress.

This study tested whether family income and stress in the parent-youth relationship might mediate links between parent symptoms and youth problems, and whether the process might differ for youth externalizing versus internalizing problems. We used a multiple mediation technique to test pathways by which family income and stress in the parent-child relationship might relate to parent-youth symptom associations in a sample of clinically-referred 7-13 year-olds (32% female; M age = 10.16 years). Family income and stress jointly mediated the relation between parent symptoms and youth externalizing problems but not between parent symptoms and youth internalizing problems. Future longitudinal research should investigate whether low income and parent-youth stress may deplete the parental resources needed to manage youth externalizing behavior. This study extends existing literature by suggesting a specific pattern by which two identified risk factors for youth problems may operate jointly, and by showing specificity to externalizing problems.

Therapeutic assessment with an adolescent: choosing connections over substances.

This case study provides an in-depth example of a comprehensive therapeutic assessment with an adolescent (TA-A) and his parents. The TA-A addressed parental concerns about their son's drug experimentation as well as the adolescent's own private questions about his distinctiveness from others, all set against a backdrop of ongoing parental conflict and poor communication. The TA-A process and how it is specifically tailored to balance the needs of adolescents and their parents is discussed. Subsequently, each step of TA-A is illustrated through the case study. Research findings at the conclusion of the assessment and at follow-up indicated significant decreases in internalizing symptomology and school problems, increases in self-esteem and self-reliance, and improved family functioning as reported by the adolescent. At follow-up, the father spoke of developing a more assertive parenting approach and successful follow-through on recommendations. This case study provides a template for clinicians interested in conducting TA-A.

Therapeutic Assessment with children: a pilot study of treatment acceptability and outcome.

Therapeutic Assessment (TA) with children is a hybrid of psychological assessment and short-term intervention. It uses the ongoing process and results of psychological assessment to enhance parents' understanding of their child and to facilitate change. Clinical reports and single case studies suggest that TA with children is an acceptable and effective brief intervention. However, no aggregate data have been published to support this claim. This pilot study investigated the acceptability and preoutcome-postoutcome of TA with 14 clinically referred children with emotional and behavior problems and their parents. Results indicated high treatment acceptability as well as significantly decreased child symptomatology and enhanced family functioning as reported by children and mothers. In addition, mothers demonstrated a significant increase in positive emotion and a significant decrease in negative emotion pertaining to their children's challenges and future. The findings, although limited due to the design and small sample size, support assertions from published single case studies that TA is possibly an efficacious child and family intervention for children with emotional and behavioral problems and should be studied in a larger, comparison design.