A randomized controlled trial of an intervention program to Brazilian mothers who use corporal punishment.

This study evaluated a positive parenting program to Brazilian mothers who used corporal punishment with their children. The intervention was conducted in four agencies serving vulnerable children, and at a home replica laboratory at the University. Mothers who admitted using corporal punishment were randomly assigned between experimental (n=20) and control group (n=20). The program consisted of 12 individual sessions using one unit from Projeto Parceria (Partnership Project), with specific guidelines and materials on positive parenting, followed by observational sessions of mother-child interaction with live coaching and a video feedback session in the lab. The study used an equivalent group experimental design with pre/post-test and follow-up, in randomized controlled trials. Measures involved: Initial Interview; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - parent and child versions; Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); observational sessions with a protocol; and a Program Evaluation by participants. Analysis of mixed models for repeated measures revealed significant positive effects on the BDI and SDQ total scores, as well as less Conduct problems and Hyperactivity in SDQ measures from the experimental group mothers, comparing pre with post-test. Observational data also indicated significant improvement in positive interaction from the experimental group mothers at post-test, in comparison with controls. No significant results were found, however, in children's observational measures. Limitations of the study involved using a restricted sample, among others. Implications for future research are suggested.

Instrumental variable approaches to identifying the causal effect of educational attainment on dementia risk.

PURPOSE: Education is an established correlate of cognitive status in older adulthood, but whether expanding educational opportunities would improve cognitive functioning remains unclear given limitations of prior studies for causal inference. Therefore, we conducted instrumental variable (IV) analyses of the association between education and dementia risk, using for the first time in this area, genetic variants as instruments as well as state-level school policies. METHODS: IV analyses in the Health and Retirement Study cohort (1998-2010) used two sets of instruments: (1) a genetic risk score constructed from three single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; n = 7981); and (2) compulsory schooling laws (CSLs) and state school characteristics (term length, student teacher ratios, and expenditures; n = 10,955). RESULTS: Using the genetic risk score as an IV, there was a 1.1% reduction in dementia risk per year of schooling (95% confidence interval, -2.4 to 0.02). Leveraging compulsory schooling laws and state school characteristics as IVs, there was a substantially larger protective effect (-9.5%; 95% confidence interval, -14.8 to -4.2). Analyses evaluating the plausibility of the IV assumptions indicated estimates derived from analyses relying on CSLs provide the best estimates of the causal effect of education. CONCLUSIONS: IV analyses suggest education is protective against risk of dementia in older adulthood.

[Psychotherapeutically Competent Child Guidance-General Framework and Legal Foundations]. / Psychotherapeutisch kompetente Erziehungsberatung - ihre Rahmenbedingungen und rechtlichen Grundlagen.

Assistances in education are pedagogical and therapeutic benefits connected with it. For child guidance as an assistance in education therefore psychotherapeutic competence is constitutive. The article describes the professional and legal framework of a psychotherapy in child guidance. It specifies on the one hand the composition of the multi disciplinary team (including child and youth psychotherapists and psychological psychotherapists) and the additional therapeutic qualifications acquired by the skilled employees. On the other hand it traces the judicial border between a medical psychotherapy with its scientifically recognised psychotherapy procedures and methods and a psychotherapy in child guidance. The applicability of the new law on the rights of patients with its requirements on a contract governing medical treatment (standards of medical specialists, duty to provide information, information provided for self-determination as well as documentation) on child guidance is discussed as well. The author argues for the preservation of psychotherapeutic competence in child guidance as a benefit sui generis and sees precisely in its therapeutic competence its specific contribution to the advancement of the assistances in education.