Emotion-Focused Intervention for Mothers and Children Under Stress

描述(申请人提供)：针对入狱后重聚的母亲和儿童的情绪干预本修订后的R34申请是对PAR-06-248“从干预发展到服务：探索性研究拨款”的回应。有相当数量的父母被监禁在刑事司法系统中，这使得人们更加关注他们的子女面临的巨大挑战，目前他们的子女人数已超过200万。与监禁相关的风险因素，包括亲子关系的中断、生活安排的转变、照顾者的经济和其他压力来源以及情绪困扰，使被监禁父母的孩子面临患上严重行为和情绪障碍的巨大风险。虽然有一些证据表明，父母犯罪行为对儿童适应不良的影响是通过育儿做法来调节的，但很少有方案促进积极的育儿或支持被监禁的父母和他们的孩子在出狱后重新团聚。因此，我们提出了一项为期三年的项目，以开发和试点一项以情绪为重点的多模式干预计划，以促进被监禁母亲和儿童之间的情感联系，以及他们个人的情感和行为调整。情感计划将扩展现有的循证监狱实施的育儿计划，通过加强母亲、儿童和儿童照顾者的情感技能，帮助家庭应对与从监狱过渡回家相关的负面情绪和经历。此外，由于情绪调节困难与广泛的精神病理有关，通过与情绪有关的父母教育实践促进儿童的情绪能力将使我们能够降低儿童和青少年各种困难的风险。在第一年，将制定和完善干预措施，并制定实施措施。在第二年和第三年，将对60名母亲及其6-8岁的孩子进行实验性初步研究(n=30以情绪为重点的干预；n=30积极的育儿治疗对照)。被监禁的母亲、她们的孩子和他们孩子的照顾者将被招募参加。情绪计划将包括学习技能，以增加母子情绪调节以及积极的父母情绪社会化行为。干预组的家庭将在母亲出狱前和出狱后参加干预活动。将在干预开始之前、释放前干预之后和释放后干预之后对参与者进行评估。我们假设，提高父母调节自己情绪和帮助孩子调节情绪的能力，将增加孩子在重聚阶段进行健康情绪和社会适应的可能性，并随着时间的推移为孩子取得积极的结果奠定基础。针对监狱后母亲和孩子团聚的情绪干预首席调查者：Joann Wu Shortt，博士。随着被监禁父母的数量持续增加，这些父母的孩子面临着许多强调良好父母教育重要性的挑战。被监禁父母的孩子比他们的同龄人更有可能经历情感和行为问题，而且很少有支持父母和孩子入狱后的计划。这个项目将通过教授母亲、照顾者和孩子健康的情绪技能来帮助他们适应监狱外的生活。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Emotion-Focused Intervention for Mothers and Children Reuniting After Prison This revised R34 application is in response to PAR-06-248 "From Intervention Development to Services: Exploratory Research Grants." The substantial number of parents incarcerated in the criminal justice system has resulted in increased attention to the enormous challenges faced by their children, now numbering over two million. Risk factors associated with incarceration, including disruption of parent-child relationships, transitions in living arrangements, financial and other stressors on caregivers, and emotional distress put children of incarcerated parents at great risk for developing significant behavioral and emotional disorders. Though there is some evidence that the impact of parent criminality on child maladjustment is mediated by parenting practices, there are few programs to promote positive parenting or support the reunification of incarcerated parents and their children upon release from prison. Hence, we propose a three-year project to develop and pilot a multi-modal emotion-focused intervention program to foster both the emotional connection between incarcerated mothers and children and their individual emotional and behavioral adjustment. The emotion program will extend an existing evidence-informed prison-implemented parenting program by strengthening the emotional skills of mothers, children, and the children's caregivers to help the family cope with the negative emotions and experiences associated with the transition home from prison. As well, because emotion regulation difficulties are associated with a wide range of psychopathology, promoting children's emotional competence through emotion-related parenting practices will enable us to decrease risk for a wide- range of child and adolescent difficulties. In Year 1, the intervention will be developed and refined, and implementation measures will be developed. In Years 2 and 3, an experimental pilot study will be conducted with 60 mothers and their children ages 6-8 years (n=30 emotion-focused intervention; n=30 active parenting treatment comparison). Incarcerated mothers, their children, and their children's caregiver will be recruited to participate. The emotion program will involve learning skills to increase maternal and child emotion regulation as well as positive parent emotion socialization behaviors. Families in the intervention group will participate in intervention activities both before and after mothers' release from prison. Participants will be assessed prior to the beginning of the intervention, after the pre-release intervention, and after the post-release intervention. We hypothesize that increasing parents' ability to both regulate their own emotions and assist children with their regulation of emotions will increase the likelihood of healthy emotional and social adjustment for children in the reunification phase, and set the stage for positive child outcomes over time. For Emotion-Focused Intervention for Mothers and Children Reuniting After Prison Principal Investigator: Joann Wu Shortt, Ph.D. As the number of incarcerated parents continues to increase, the children of these parents face many challenges that emphasize the importance of good parenting. Children of incarcerated parents are more likely than their peers to experience emotional and behavior problems, and there are very few programs to support parents and children after prison. This project will help mothers, caregivers, and children adjust to life outside of prison by teaching them healthy emotional skills.