Zhang Jing, Slesnick Natasha
The Ohio State University.
J Marital Fam Ther. 2018 Oct;44(4):687-701. doi: 10.1111/jmft.12277. Epub 2017 Oct 3.
Children of substance abusing parents are at heightened risk to develop problem behaviors, yet little is known about the co-occurring patterns of internalizing and externalizing behaviors among this population. With 183 children (M age = 11.54 years, SD = 2.55, range 8-16) whose mothers were diagnosed with a substance use disorder, the current study identified subgroups/classes of children that were clinically distinct in their co-occurring patterns of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and examined how children in different clinical subgroups responded to a family systems intervention. Latent class analyses identified four classes of internalizing and externalizing behaviors: internalizing only, externalizing only, comorbid, and normative. Latent transition analyses showed that participation in family systems therapy resulted in an increased likelihood of transitioning from the externalizing class at baseline to the normative class at 18 months post-baseline, and from the comorbid class at baseline to the internalizing class at 18 months post-baseline as well. The findings support the effectiveness of family systems therapy in interrupting the stability of children's problem behaviors and improving children's behavioral outcomes.
父母有物质滥用问题的孩子出现问题行为的风险更高，但对于这一人群中内化行为和外化行为的共现模式却知之甚少。本研究以183名儿童（平均年龄 = 11.54岁，标准差 = 2.55，年龄范围8 - 16岁）为研究对象，这些儿童的母亲被诊断患有物质使用障碍，研究确定了在共现的内化和外化行为模式上具有临床差异的儿童亚组/类别，并考察了不同临床亚组的儿童对家庭系统干预的反应。潜在类别分析确定了内化和外化行为的四类：仅内化、仅外化、共病和正常。潜在转变分析表明，参与家庭系统治疗会增加从基线时的外化类别转变为基线后18个月时的正常类别的可能性，以及从基线时的共病类别转变为基线后18个月时的内化类别的可能性。这些发现支持了家庭系统治疗在中断儿童问题行为的稳定性和改善儿童行为结果方面的有效性。
