CHILD PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH and Specific Projects
The overall goal of the Child Public Mental Health Program is to strive for an efficient and optimal method for identification of mental health problems in children and adolescents in community and nonpsychiatric settings. Current projects include evaluating and assisting mental health service providers, family or general practitioners and school doctors in improving early identification, diagnosis, and referrals to treatment.
Contact person: Brigit van Widenfelt
DAWBA
The DAWBA has been developed by Robert Goodman and has been translated by our research team into Dutch. It is a package of interviews and questionnaires to be completed by parents, children and teachers, and designed to generate ICD-10 and DSM-IV psychiatric diagnoses on 5-17 year olds. A pilot and initial validation study of the Dutch version of the DAWBA is being developed. More about DAWBA.
Contact Person: Brigit van Widenfelt
Marriage and Parenting Study
This set of studies aims to better understand child psychopathology from a family perspective, asssessment being namely from the child’s perspective. The initial study was on a Dutch translation of the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict (CPIC; Grych, Seid & Fincham, 1992; Van Widenfelt & Treffers, 2000). The CPIC is a self-report measure in which children and adolescents can report on their experience and perceptions of marital conflict between their parents. The relationship between children's perceptions of parental conflict and child internalizing symptoms was also examined. In a more recent ongoing study, the role of the parenting environment is being further studied. The general aim of this study is to examine the relationship between parenting environment (parental psychopathology and stress, marital and parent-child interaction) and child and adolescent psychopathology (anxiety, depression, behavior problems, and peer relations). Assessment is from both from the child's perspective and that of the parents and teachers of the child. Boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 16 are included, and both mothers and fathers are asked to participate. The investigation includes a one year follow-up assessment, to test a prediction.
Contact person: Brigit van Widenfelt
Anxiety Disorders and Family Relationships
The research focus of this project is on familial patterns that may contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders, with an emphasis on childrearing style, as a potentially important contributor to the patterns children develop in their appraisal of, and coping with threatening stimuli. Additionally, attention is given to the following factors: temperament of the child, life events, sibling and marital relationships. In this research childrearing is studied during the age period that parenting actually takes place, in clinical and control samples. A bottom-up (anxiety disordered children) as well as a top-down (anxiety disordered parents) design is used. Within both approaches more than one perspective on childrearing is assessed and parental rearing practices of both mothers and fathers are examined. In addition, the research design has been made sensitive to capture non-shared aspects in parenting of anxiety disordered children, through the participation of their siblings. This project may, eventually, assist us in developing more effective methods of treatment and prevention.
Contact person: Monica Markus
Screening and Diagnosis in Forensic Youth Psychiatry
Recent inspection reports evaluating the Dutch juvenile detention centers have indicated the necessity of timely recognition and treatment of psychiatric disorders in the young inmates. For more information about the screening and diagnosis click here.
Contact person: Pauline Vahl
Development of Psychopathology in female adolescents following placement in a Juvenile Justice Institution
In 2002-2004 a representative sample (n=218) of adolescent females placed in a Juvenile Justice Institution was studied with regard to psychopathology, behavioural problems and relevant socio-demographic characteristics. Four years later a follow-up study is being executed with the same 218 girls. For more information about this study, click here.
Contact person: Elsa van der Molen
Hearing impairment and psychiatric symptoms studies
This dissertation project is aimed at better understanding psychiatric symptoms in a hearing impaired sample.
Contact Person: Tiejo van Gent
Medically Unexplained Symptoms Studies
This series of studies aims at 1) comparing somatic symptoms in children in a normal population with those in a medical population; 2) comparing children with somatic symptoms with those with a diagosis of a Somatoform Disorder.
Contact Person: Arjan Theil