PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

J M Strayhorn

Publications and source records attributed to J M Strayhorn.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Follow-up one year after parent-child interaction training: effects on behavior of preschool children.

A preventive mental health intervention previously reported found positive effects in a parent-child interaction training program on attention deficit and internalizing symptoms of low-income preschool children as rated by parents. Families were randomly assigned to a "minimal treatment" control group or a more extensive treatment experimental group. The present study reports follow-up results measured approximately 1 year after the end of the intervention. Parent ratings and child achievement test scores showed no difference between the two groups. Teachers blind to the condition of the intervention, however, rated experimental children as significantly superior to control children with respect to attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms (preintervention ratings by teachers on the same variable were statistically controlled). Composite teacher ratings of child behavior also significantly favored the experimental group. Children's improvements in classroom behavior were significantly correlated with improvements parents had shown during the intervention in their behavior toward the children.

Affective Symptoms

A symptom self-report measure for preschool children.

The Preschool Symptom Self-Report (PRESS) is a pictorial instrument designed to facilitate the self-report of depressive symptoms by preschool children. It was tested with a sample of 84 Head Start children and their parents and teachers. A parent-teacher version of the instrument correlated with other measures designed for adult rating of children's depression about as well as those measures correlate with one another. It showed high reliability upon retesting by a different examiner within 24 hours. The instrument also showed high internal consistency, which implies that the children responded to items based upon their meaning rather than upon irrelevant characteristics. The retest reliability of the instrument did not depend upon the child's mental age. The children's self-reports showed no relation to adults' ratings of the children's symptoms; this result is consistent with some findings with older children.

Affective Symptoms

Reduction of attention deficit and internalizing symptoms in preschoolers through parent-child interaction training.

A preventive mental health intervention was tested with low income parent-child dyads. Parents who were having a problem with the behavior of their preschool child were recruited; 89 parents, of 96 children, completed pre- and postintervention assessments. Families were randomly assigned to a "minimal treatment" control group or a more extensive treatment experimental group. Parent training was supervised by the authors and delivered by paraprofessionals using standard treatment manuals. The more extensive intervention produced significantly more improvement in parents' ratings of children's symptoms of attention deficit and internalizing symptoms than did the control intervention. A blind measure of videotaped interaction between parent and child also demonstrated significantly more improvement from the experimental intervention. Both groups improved with respect to parents' ratings of children's oppositional symptoms. Change in parent ratings of children's behavior was correlated with change in blind observers' ratings in parents' behavior.

Anxiety

Control groups for psychosocial intervention outcome studies.

In psychosocial outcome research, as contrasted to pharmacologic research, control groups receiving inert treatment, designed to raise expectations but otherwise provide no service, are almost never indicated; this is true because of methodologic as well as ethical reasons. Four types of comparisons suffice as alternatives: treatment versus no treatment, treatment versus minimal treatment, treatment A versus treatment B, and dismantling. When choices are made among these types of comparisons with power analysis and eight other factors taken into account, the questions of outcome research should be answerable with maximum economic efficiency, with maximum benefit to subjects, and without deception.

Costs and Cost Analysis

A diagnostic axis relevant to psychotherapy and preventive mental health.

Concepts commonly useful to therapists in deciding upon the direction of psychotherapy are collated into a diagnostic axis, using the language of skills. It is argued that this skills axis has more therapeutic relevance than a symptom-cluster scheme, is less pejorative than personality disorder labels, lends itself to scientific grounding, would promote clarity in outcome research, and could be usefully applied to preventive mental health.

Adaptation, Psychological

Differential diagnosis and therapeutic handling of communication barriers.

Encouragement of open, direct communication between members of a dyad may produce favorable or unfavorable results, depending upon the situation. The author presents a system of classifying communication barriers, designed to help the therapist decide when to encourage open communication and when to support the withholding of communication of certain sorts until other therapeutic goals have been achieved.

Communication