RESUMEN
Research evaluating mental health literacy (MHL) of adults who support children with mental health difficulties is relatively scarce. To date, no studies have investigated educator knowledge of conduct problems and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. This is a significant gap in the literature since conduct problems are among the most prevalent childhood mental disorders, while CU traits are associated with poor academic, behavioral, and social outcomes in school settings. In the current study, we assessed educators' knowledge of the characteristics and management of conduct problems and CU traits. Participants were N = 390 preschool and primary/elementary school educators (Mage = 38.62 years, SD = 11.66; 91% woman-identifying; 71% White) who completed a Knowledge Test and survey assessing educator characteristics and various student-educator outcomes. Averaged across items, educators scored 57.1% on the Knowledge Test. We identified gaps in educator knowledge with respect to identifying characteristics associated with distinct domains of externalizing difficulties and evidence-based management strategies. Educators' years of experience and accreditation status were not associated with knowledge. Paraeducators had significantly lower knowledge scores than teachers and leadership. Unexpectedly, greater knowledge was not associated with better student-teacher relationship quality or more positive perceptions of students with conduct problems. Findings support the need for universal MHL programs focused on conduct problems and CU traits, especially among paraeducators, while also suggesting that more intensive interventions may be required to improve educator-student relationship quality.
RESUMEN
A vast body of research and theory underscores the importance of parental warmth/affection (hereby 'warmth' and 'warmth/affection' are used interchangeably) as a distinct relational process that is fundamental to core developmental processes including parent-child attachment, socialization, emotion recognition and responsivity, and empathic development. The increasing focus on parental warmth as a viable transdiagnostic and specific treatment target for Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits highlights the critical need for a reliable and valid tool for measuring this construct within clinical contexts. However, existing assessment methods have limitations in their ecological validity, clinical utility, and the comprehensiveness of their coverage of core warmth subcomponents. In response to this clinical and research need, the observational Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS) was developed to comprehensively measure parent-to-child warmth/affection. This paper chronicles the conception and development of the WACS, which adopts a hybrid approach of utilizing both microsocial and macro-observational coding methods to capture key verbal and non-verbal subcomponents of warmth that are currently underrepresented or poorly captured by existing assessment tools. Recommendations for implementation and future directions are also discussed.
Asunto(s)
Relaciones Padres-Hijo , Responsabilidad Parental , Humanos , Responsabilidad Parental/psicología , Emociones/fisiología , Empatía , Padres/psicologíaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Elevated levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits have proven useful for identifying a distinct subgroup of children whose conduct problems (CP) are early emerging, severe, persistent, and underpinned by aberrant emotional processing. The early childhood emotional experiences and expressions of CP subtypes are poorly understood, despite their importance to understanding the problematic attachments and atypical social affiliation experienced by children with elevated CU traits. The current study aimed to test for differences in facial emotional reactions to mood-inducing film clips in children with CP and varying levels of CU traits. METHOD: We compared facial emotional reactions during a developmentally appropriate mood induction task in a mixed-sex sample of clinic-referred preschool children (Mage = 3.64 years, SD = 0.63, 66.9% male) classified as CP with elevated levels of CU traits (CP + CU; n = 25) versus low CU traits (CP-only; n = 47), and typically developing children (TD; n = 28). RESULTS: Relative to TD children, children with clinical CP showed less congruent and more incongruent facial emotional expressions to sad and happy film clips, controlling for child sex, age, and ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with older samples, young children with CP show atypical facial emotional expressions in response to positive and negative emotional stimuli. Findings have implications for developmental models of childhood antisocial behavior and can inform the development of targeted interventions.