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Biomedical subjects

I N Sandler

Publications and source records attributed to I N Sandler.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Linking empirically based theory and evaluation: the Family Bereavement Program.

Evaluated the effects of a theoretically derived program to prevent mental health problems in children who had experienced the death of a parent. The program was designed to improve variables in the family environment which were specified as mediators of the effects of parental death on child mental health. The evaluation design involved the random assignment of families to either an intervention or control group. The program led to parental ratings of increased warmth in their relationships with their children, increased satisfaction with their social support, and the maintenance of family discussion of grief-related issues. The program also led to parent ratings of decreased conduct disorder and depression problems and overall problems in older children. Significant correlations between the family environment variables and child mental health problems provided further empirical support for the theory underlying the program. Implications for program redesign were derived by reconsidering the adequacy of the program components to change theoretically mediating variables.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1991

Theory-based screening for prevention: focusing on mediating processes in children of divorce.

Prevention programs in mental health theoretically can benefit from selecting participants who have a greater likelihood of developing psychological problems because of their exposure to the putative mediators targeted for change in an intervention. Screening on mediators may increase statistical power to detect program effects, enhance the cost-effectiveness of intervention trials, and decrease the possibility of iatrogenic effects. The circumstances that optimize the strategy of screening on the basis of mediating variables are discussed, and data are presented to illustrate the development of a mediational selection strategy to identify families who might best benefit from a preventive intervention for children of divorce. In addition, we present evidence that adjustment problems for children experiencing a divorce, as with most mental health problems, are not the result of one specific factor, but are jointly determined by several mediating processes that occur subsequent to the divorce. The mediational selection strategy developed illustrates the utility of measuring a set of mediational processes central to conferring risk for mental health problems to children of divorce.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Small theory and the strategic choices of prevention research.

Our comments on the discussion of mediational screening for prevention research highlight two issues: (a) There are advantages to giving a high priority to theory in a strategic sequence of prevention research studies. (b) Screening to identify a subgroup that is experiencing problems on processes the program is designed to change may be useful in accomplishing specific goals within an overall strategy of prevention research studies.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1991

Frequency of visitation by divorced fathers: differences in reports by fathers and mothers.

Most previous research documenting the frequent abandonment by fathers of contact with their children has been based on survey responses of custodial mothers. The present survey of 220 divorcing couples revealed that the noncustodial parents reported significantly more visits with their children, as well as significantly more denial of visitation by their ex-spouses, than did the custodial parents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

The role of risk and protective factors in predicting symptomatology in adolescent self-identified children of alcoholic parents.

Tested a stress process model for predicting mental health symptoms in children of alcoholics (COAs). Stress and mental health measures were completed twice over a 3-month period by 145 high school students, 43 of whom self-identified as COAs. Using structural equation modeling, a stress process model for predicting mental health symptoms in children provided a good fit to the data. COA status was related to higher levels of negative and lower levels of positive events. In turn, positive and negative life events were found to have an immediate, but not a longitudinal, direct effect on adolescent symptomatology.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Social support of children of divorce: direct and stress buffering effects.

This study examined the direct and stress-buffering effects of support from family adults, nonfamily adults, family children, and nonfamily children on the adjustment of 104 children of divorce. For children's reports of adjustment, significant stress-buffering (i.e., Stress x Support) interactions for support from family adults and support from nonfamily adults occurred. The lower the level of social support, the stronger the positive relation between stress and adjustment problems. In addition, at high levels of stress, children with high support from nonfamily and family adults reported fewer adjustment problems than did children with low support. However, at the lowest level of stress, children with high support from nonfamily adults were significantly more poorly adjusted than were children with low support. For parental reports of children's adjustment, support from family adults was marginally positively related to adjustment whereas support from nonfamily adults was inversely related to adjustment. Implications for intervention programs for children of divorce are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

Risk status of adolescent children of problem-drinking parents.

These studies assessed the risk status of children of untreated alcoholics. In Study 1, a cross-sectional survey of 208 high school students identified 18% as having serious concern about their parents' drinking. In Study 2, 32 children of problem-drinking parents and 39 others who participated in self-help groups were surveyed. Children of problem-drinking parents were more at risk of depression, low self-esteem, and heavy drinking than their peers in the general high school population. Within self-help groups, however, children's symptomatology was not related to their parents' drinking status. The results support the need for preventive intervention for children of problem-drinking parents and for developing strategies for improving the participation rate of such children in the intervention programs that are available.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

The children of alcoholics life-events schedule: a stress scale for children of alcohol-abusing parents.

Children of alcoholic parents have been shown to be at risk for the development of mental health problems. However, there is little empirical research that would allow one to determine which of these children are most at risk. Hypothesizing that the amount of parental drinking-related stress a child experiences may be a factor that discriminates those children of alcoholics who are most at risk from others, the Children of Alcoholics Life-Events Schedule (COALES) was developed. Using samples of high-school students, the COALES was found to have satisfactory test-retest reliability, internal-consistency reliability and construct and concurrent validity. Children who self-identified as having an alcoholic parent reported higher levels of negative events and lower levels of positive events than did their peers from nonalcoholic homes. Scores on the positive- and negative-event subscales were significantly correlated with the children's scores on measures of anxiety and depression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Events of parental divorce: stressfulness ratings by children, parents, and clinicians.

The stressfulness, for the "typical" child, of 62 events that occur to children of divorce was rated by children of divorce (n = 58), their custodial parents (n = 58), and clinicians (n = 50). In addition, a larger group of children (n = 123) rated the goodness or badness of the events that had happened to them. The rank orderings of the mean stress ratings for the typical child made by children, parents, and clinicians were highly correlated. However, when the absolute stress value of the events was compared across raters, children rated 10 events as significantly less stressful than did parents (p less than .05); parents' and clinicians' ratings differed for 9 events, parents rating 7 as less stressful (p less than .05). Children rated 19 events as less stressful than did clinicians (p less than .05). The rank ordering of the children's mean ratings of events actually experienced correlated highly with the rank orderings of the children's mean ratings of the negative events for the typical child.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

A retrospective assessment of inhalant abuse in the barrio: implications for prevention.

An interview questionnaire was administered to a group of primarily Hispanic identified inhalant users (N = 40) and a comparison group of neighborhood youths (N = 17) in the barrio of Phoenix, Arizona. This retrospective assessment revealed that inhalant abusers had a history of multiple problems, stressors, and difficulty with school and the criminal justice system; initiated drug use between the ages of 10 and 15; confined their drug use primarily to marijuana, alcohol, and inhalants; and often came from families with drug problems. Inhalant abusers from drug-involved families experienced more poverty and family disruption, perceived their friends as being more favorable to the use of drugs and inhalants, and were less involved in conventional youth activities (e.g., sports, school, church, hobbies) than were inhalant abusers from drug-free families. The results are discussed in terms of developing preventative programs for this population.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Toward a multi-method approach to assessing the effects of social support.

Two studies were done to assess the direct and stress-buffering effects of social support on psychological symptoms of college students. Three conceptually distinct measures were used to assess different aspects of social support: receipt of supportive transactions, satisfaction with support received, and social support network characteristics. The results indicated a significant direct and stress-buffering effect for support satisfaction in reducing psychological symptomatology. Two measures of support network size were used: number of people who were both a source of supportive and of upsetting interactions (conflicted support network), and number of people who were only mentioned as a source of support (unconflicted support network). Conflicted network size was positively related to symptomatology and increased the relationship between stress and symptomatology. No direct or interaction effects were obtained for unconflicted network size in predicting symptomatology.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1982

Locus of control as a stress moderator: the role of control perceptions and social support.

The study investigated the effects of locus of control beliefs as an individual difference variable on (a) the relationship between negative life events and psychological disorder, (b) perceptions of control over negative life events, and (c) the receipt and impact of social support. Ninety-three college undergraduates (52 internals, 41 externals) reported the negative events which occurred to them in the past year, their perceived control over these events, the amount of socially supportive transactions they received, and their psychological symptomatology (anxiety and depression). The correlation between negative events and anxiety was greater for externals than for internals. However, locus of control did not effect ratings of control over negative events or the correlations between high and low control negative events and psychological disorder. Locus of control did effect the receipt and impact of social support. Externality was positively related to the quantity of support received (r(90) = .21, p less than .05) but the stress-buffering effect of support was obtained for internals and not externals. Implications of the results from understanding the process by which locus of control moderates the effects of stress are discussed.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1980

Social support resources, stress, and maladjustment of poor children.

The effects of the presence of social support resources as moderators of the relationship between stress and maladjustment was investigated. The sample consisted of 71 kindergarten through third-grade inner-city children referred by their teachers as experiencing adjustment problems. Stress was assessed using a 32-item recent life event scale, and maladjustment was assessed using parent ratings of children's adjustment problems. The sample was subdivided to reflect the presence versus absence of three social support resources: older sibling vs. no older sibling, one- vs. two-parent family, and ethnically congruent vs. incongruent with the community. Correlations between stress measures and maladjustment measures were computed within each subsample. The results indicate that older siblings and two parents in the family both reduce the negative effects of stress on children. The results are interpreted to be consistent with social support literature and implications for preventive interventions are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1980

Dimensional analysis of childrens' stressful life events.

Two studies are presented applying a cognitive dimensional analysis to the study of childrens' life stress events. Study 1 investigated the dimensions derived from nine psychologists' ratings of the similarity of events. Items on a 32-item event scale were paired yielding 496 item pairs. Psychologists rated event similarity using a 5-point scale. Mean similarity judgments were calculated, linearly transformed, and factor analyzed by the method of principal components with varimax rotation. Seven factors with eigenvalue greater than unity accounted for 63.6% of the variance. These factos were judged interpretable: loss, entrance, family troubles, sibling problems, primary environment, physical harm, and positive events. Study 2 utilized these dimensions to identify what stressors related to adjustment problems in a sample of young inner-city schoolchildren. Two dimensions, family troubles and entrance, were found to discriminate maladapting from control children and to correlate with parents' ratings of adjustment problems for the maladapting group. The study was interpreted to support the utility of a dimensional analysis of life stress events.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1980

Factors affecting parent ratings of teacher-identified maladjusted inner-city children.

Demographic characteristics which moderate the extent to which parent ratings of child behavior problems discriminate inner-city children referred by teachers for adjustment problems from controls were studied. Demographic characteristics of interest were family source of income (welfare vs. nonwelfare), mother's educational level (ninth grade and above vs. below ninth grade), sex (male vs. female), and ethnicity (black vs. Chicano). The referred and control groups were subdivided by demographic characteristics and the effect of each on parent ratings were assessed using a series of two (referral) X two (demographic characteristic) analyses of variance. Interaction effects indicated that source of income and mother's educational level moderate the discrimination of referred versus control children on the parent rating scales. Parents reported more behavior problems for referred than control children for the nonwelfare and higher mother's education subsamples but not for the welfare or lower mother's education samples. No referral X demographic interactions were obtained for the sex or ethnicity variables. Implications of the findings for the design of school-based secondary prevention programs are discussed.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1979

Life stress and maladaptation of children.

Social environmental variables differentiating maladapting children from matched controls in four inner-city elementary schools were investigated. Teacher selection was used to identify the maladapting children. Identified maladapting children were more likely to have been on welfare and to have experienced significantly more stressful life events during the previous year than the matched control children. The maladapting group was subdivided into welfare and non-welfare groups. Comparisons between groups on the life stress event measures indicated that the nonwelfare maladapting group experienced more life events than either the nonwelfare controls or the maladapting welfare children. The measures of life events correlated with parent ratings of behavior problems for the nonwelfare maladapting group but not for the welfare maladapting or the control groups.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1975

Effectiveness of an early secondary prevention program in an inner-city elementary school.

The adaptation of an early secondary prevention program to an inner-city elementary school is described. The program utilizes nonprofessional workers as the primary helping agents with maladapting children in kindergarten through third grade classes. The program also involves consultation with classroom teachers and parents and an after-school activity group. A community advisory board helps provide accountability to the community and increased program impact in the community. Evaluation of the program provides support for program effectiveness in improving the adaptation of program children.

Achievement↗