Integrated Treatment Programmes for Mothers with Substance Use Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Interventions to Prevent Out-of-home Child Placements

Approximately half of mothers receiving substance use treatment are involved with childcare proceedings. This review aims to determine whether integrated treatment programmes for mothers with substance use problems are effective in preventing out-of-home placement (temporally/permanent) and influencing other maternal factors such as patterns of substance use, treatment completion and parenting behaviours. Six trials were identified—two randomised controlled trials and four non-randomised controlled studies. The pooled sample of participants was 1717. The results showed that mothers who participated in integrated treatment programmes were significantly less likely to have the children removed from their care (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.27, 0.61), more likely to complete substance use treatment (OR = 3.01, 95% CI = 1.79, 5.06), and more likely to reduce their alcohol consumption (Standardised Mean Difference (SMD) = −0.40, 95% Cl = −0.78, −0.01) and drug use (SMD = −0.30, 95% CI = −0.53, −0.07). However, non-significant reductions were observed for parent–child conflict (SMD = −0.35, 95% CI = −0.72, 0.03) and child abuse risk (SMD = −0.03, 95% CI = −0.36, 0.31). While the findings from this review suggest that mothers involved in integrated treatment programmes could potentially be less likely to experience out-of-home child placements and more likely to improve substance use treatment outcomes, little evidence exists for the effectiveness of these interventions. Further research, particularly high-quality RCTs, is required to demonstrate and persuade health and public policy on the far-reaching value of the integrated approaches.

Applying Socio-Emotional Information Processing Theory to Explain Child Abuse Risk: Emerging Patterns from the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted profound effects on parents, which may translate into elevated child abuse risk. Prior literature demonstrates that Social Information Processing theory is a useful framework for understanding the cognitive processes that can contribute to parental abuse risk, but the model has not adequately integrated affective processes that may coincide with such cognitions. Given that parents are experiencing intense emotions during the pandemic, the current study sought to examine how socio-emotional processes might account for abuse risk during the pandemic (perceived pandemic-related increases in harsh parenting, reported physical and psychological aggression, and child abuse potential). A sample of 304 mothers participated in an online study, reporting on their abuse risk as well as a number of socio-emotional processes. Greater approval of physical discipline and weaker anger regulation abilities were directly or indirectly related to measures of abuse risk during the pandemic, with maternal justification to use parent-child aggression to ensure obedience consistently relating to all indicators of abuse risk during the pandemic. Socio-emotional processes that include anger appear particularly relevant during the heightened period of strain induced by the pandemic. By studying multiple factors simultaneously, the current findings can inform child abuse prevention efforts.

Assessing Mothers’ Automatic Affective and Discipline Reactions to Child Behavior in Relation to Child Abuse Risk: A Dual-Processing Investigation

Given the scope and adverse clinical consequences of child abuse, assessment of salient etiological factors can lend critical insights needed for abuse prevention. Increasingly, dual-processing models have been applied to aggression, which postulate that parallel automatic and conscious processes can evoke aggressive behavior, implicating both affective and cognitive elements in both routes. Using two samples of mothers ( n = 110 and n = 195), the current investigation considered evidence of the reliability and convergent, concurrent, and construct validity of the new Automatic Parent Emotion Analog Response task relevant to parent–child aggression, contrasted with a self-reported conscious processing measure. Findings provide evidence that affective reactions of both anger and worry relate to child abuse risk and inclination to respond aggressively, and demonstrate how mothers’ automatic reactions relate to both perceived child misbehavior and child dangerous behavior. Current results lend psychometric support for automatic processing in parent–child aggression consistent with other dual-processing theories of aggression.

Revisited—The Subliminal Channel in Blockchain and Its Application to IoT Security

Although digital signature has been a fundamental technology for cryptosystems, it still draws considerable attention from both academia and industry due to the recent raising interest in blockchains. This article revisits the subliminal channel existing digital signature and reviews its abuse risk of the constructor’s private key. From a different perspective on the subliminal channel, we find the new concept named the chamber of secrets in blockchains. The found concept, whereby the secret is hidden and later recovered by the constructor from the common transactions in a blockchain, highlights a new way to encourage implementing various applications to benefit efficiency and security. Thus, the proposed scheme benefits from the following advantages: (1) avoiding the high maintenance cost of certificate chain of certificate authority, or public key infrastructure, and (2) seamlessly integrating with blockchains using the property of chamber of secrets. In order to easily understand the superiority of this new concept, a remote authentication scenario is taken as a paradigm of IoT to demonstrate that the further advantages are achieved: (1) avoiding high demand for storage space in IoT devices, and (2) avoiding maintaining a sensitive table in IoT server.

Risk of Child Abuse and Its Predictors in Mothers with Children Under 5 Years Old

Introduction: Child abuse as a public health problem has adverse consequences for children’s physical and mental health. Even mothers may be responsible for child abuse, so it is essential to identify high-risk cases and take preventive measures. Objective: This study aimed to determine the potential risk of child abuse and its predictors of risk among mothers with children under 5 years old referred to comprehensive health service centers in Rasht City, Iran, in 2019. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 450 mothers of children under 5 years old referred to the comprehensive health service centers in Rasht. The study data were collected by Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory form (AAPI-2 form A). The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, stepwise multiple linear regression, and the Friedman test to investigate the relationship between subscales. Results: The samples were mothers with a mean±SD age of 30.6±5.2 years. Mostly had diploma (41.78%), were housewife (79.33%) and all of them were married. The total mean±SD of score obtained for the child abuse risk was 3.18±0.56. Most mothers (87.31%) had moderate to severe level of child abuse risk. Based on multiple linear regression test, education (β=0.161, 95%CI; 0.076-0.247, P =0.001), being an employee (β=0.223, 95%CI; 0.059-0.387, P=0.008), family income (β=0.092, 95% CI; 0.006-0.179, P=0.037), spouse’s education (β=0.128, 95% CI; 0.046-0.209, P=0.002), and addiction status of spouse (β=0.236, 95% CI; 0.006-0.466, P=0.044) were predictors of child abuse risk among the studied variables, respectively. Conclusion: The results showed that most samples had a moderate risk of child abuse. It reveals the necessity to assess the attitudes of mothers about parenting, which predicts the potential of child abuse to some extent and can provide a basis of educational interventions for mothers to prevent child abuse.

Child Abuse Potential in Young German Parents: Predictors, Associations with Self-reported Maltreatment and Intervention Use

Since child maltreatment has highly negative effects on child adjustment, early identification of at-risk families is important. This study focuses on longitudinal risk factors for child maltreatment and associations between abuse risk and occurrence. It also examines whether abuse risk and involvement in early childhood intervention are associated. The sample comprises 197 German caregivers with children under 3 years of age. Data was collected in two waves. The Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory assessed abuse risk. Socio-demographic, parent, child and family-related risk factors were measured using screening tools. The analysis revealed that parental characteristics (psychopathology, own maltreatment experiences etc.) were associated with concurrent abuse risk. Longitudinal changes in abuse risk were linked to caregiver education and child-related factors. Cumulative risk did not explain more variance than specific risk factors. Significant associations with caregiver-reported abuse were found, and data suggest that some burdened families cannot be reached by early childhood intervention.