Youth and parent report of sleep-based interventions and utilization of technology resources in the treatment of pediatric mood disorders.

OBJECTIVES: Mood disorders in youth are associated with social and academic impairment, and difficulties within the family system. Engagement in sleep hygiene, and family- and technology-based treatment models can address these impairments. The current study evaluates changes in functioning for youth who participated in a family-based partial hospitalization program (PHP) for mood disorders. Child and parent views of the importance and application of sleep hygiene and utilization of technology-based interventions were also evaluated. METHODS: 474 youth diagnosed with a primary mood disorder and their caregivers participated in a family-based PHP that addressed the role of sleep hygiene, technology use for symptom management, and components of evidence-based treatments in ameliorating mood disorders. Participants were evaluated 1-, 3-, and 6-month following treatment. RESULTS: Participants demonstrated improved functioning in social, home, and school domains. The majority of participants and parents found the sleep hygiene content and application important or very important as a component of treatment. Parents were significantly more likely than youth to be interested in using technology to access after care resources. CONCLUSIONS: Findings revealed significantly less impairment in functioning at follow-up. Parents and youth reported interest in sleep hygiene strategies as part of a comprehensive treatment for mood disorders as well as the use of technology-based resources to assist with treatment. Limitations include sample demographics and follow-up sample size.

An Experimental Investigation of Co-rumination, Problem Solving, and Distraction.

Co-rumination involves excessive dwelling on negative aspects of problems within a dyadic relationship (Rose, 2002). While research has focused on the tendency to co-ruminate within particular relationships, we were interested in examining the behavior of co-rumination outside the context of a preexisting relationship. Using an experimental manipulation of co-rumination, the primary goal of this study was to experimentally test the effects of co-rumination and examine its associations with negative and positive affectivity. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three interviewing style conditions: a co-ruminative style, a problem-solving style, or a distracting style. Results revealed that the co-rumination condition significantly differed from both the distraction and problem-solving conditions on overall negative affect, sadness, and anxiety, but not on hostility. There were no significant differences among groups on positive affect. In conclusion, this investigation revealed detrimental effects of co-ruminative behavior even between strangers.

Adolescents' co-rumination and stress predict affective changes in a daily-diary paradigm.

Co-rumination has been related to both high quality friendship and depressive symptoms. However, little is known regarding the extent to which co-rumination may be detrimental, its distinction from rumination and potential gender differences in co-rumination. This study used a modified version of Rose's Co-rumination Questionnaire (Rose, 2002) to examine the behaviour of daily co-rumination with daily stress and negative affect among adolescents. Results demonstrated that co-rumination did not have a main effect in predicting negative affect, but did evidence a significant interaction with life stress. Additionally, co-rumination demonstrated incremental utility above that of rumination. Finally, gender differences were not supported. In conclusion, this investigation revealed that co-rumination exacerbates the effects of life stress and is predictive of increased internalising symptoms.

Symptom variation on the trauma symptom checklist for children: a within-scale meta-analytic review.

Trauma exposure in youth is widespread, yet symptom expression varies. The present study employs a within-scale meta-analytic framework to explore determinants of differential responses to trauma exposure. The meta-analysis included 74 studies employing samples of youth exposed to traumatic events and who completed the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC). Mean weighted T scores across all TSCC subscales for U.S. samples ranged between 49 and 52. Youth outside the U.S. reported higher posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms, whereas those exposed to sexual abuse reported the highest posttraumatic stress, anxiety, depressive, and dissociative symptoms. Higher female representation in samples was associated with higher symptoms on all TSCC subscales except anger. In contrast, ethnic minority representation was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Moderator analyses revealed that sexual abuse, increased percentage of females, and older age were all associated with higher posttraumatic symptoms. The present meta-analytic results help elucidate some of the divergent findings on symptom expression in youth exposed to traumatic events.