Disclosing information, thoughts, and feelings about personal and meaningful topics (experimental disclosure) is purported to have various health and psychological consequences (e.g., J. W. Pennebaker, 1993). Although the results of 2 small meta-analyses (P. G. Frisina, J. C. Borod, & S. J. Lepore, 2004; J. M. Smyth, 1998) suggest that experimental disclosure has a positive and significant effect, both used a fixed effects approach, limiting generalizability. Also, a plethora of studies on experimental disclosure have been completed that were not included in the previous analyses. One hundred forty-six randomized studies of experimental disclosure were collected and included in the present meta-analysis. Results of random effects analyses indicate that experimental disclosure is effective, with a positive and significant average r-effect size of .075. In addition, a number of moderators were identified.

Experimental Disclosure and Its Moderators: A Meta-Analysis

The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education and Skills.

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What works in parenting support: a review of the international evidence

Parental psychosocial health can have a significant effect on the parent-child relationship, with consequences for the later psychological health of the child. Some parenting programmes aim to improve aspects of parental wellbeing and this review specifically looked at whether group-based parenting programmes are effective in improving any aspects of parental psychosocial health (for example, anxiety, depression, guilt, confidence). We searched electronic databases for randomised controlled trials in which participants had been allocated to an experimental or a control group, and which reported results from at least one scientifically standardised measure of parental psychosocial health. We included a total of 48 studies that involved 4937 participants and covered three types of programme: behavioural, cognitive-behavioural and multimodal. Overall, the results suggested statistically significant improvements in the short-term for parental depression, anxiety, stress, anger, guilt, confidence and satisfaction with the partner relationship. However, only stress and confidence continued to be statistically significant at six month follow-up, and none were significant at one year. There was no evidence of effectiveness for self-esteem at any time point. None of the studies reported aggression or adverse outcomes. Only four studies reported the outcomes for fathers separately. These limited data showed a statistically significant short-term improvement in paternal stress but did not show whether the parenting programmes were helpful in terms of improving depressive symptoms, confidence or partner satisfaction. This review shows evidence of the short-term benefits of parenting programmes on depression, anxiety, stress, anger, guilt, confidence and satisfaction with the partner relationship. The findings suggest that further input may be needed to support parents to maintain these benefits. However, more research is needed that explicitly addresses the benefits for fathers, and that provides evidence of the comparative effectiveness of different types of programme and identifies the mechanisms involved in bringing about change.

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Group‐based parent training programmes for improving parental psychosocial health

Background Mental health problems are common and there is evidence to suggest that the origins of such problems lie in infancy and childhood. In particular, there is evidence from a range of studies to suggest that maternal psychosocial health can have a significant effect on the mother-infant relationship, and that this in turn can have consequences for both the short and long-term psychological health of the child. The use of parenting programmes is increasing in the UK and elsewhere and evidence of their effectiveness in improving outcomes for children has been provided. Evidence is now required of their effectiveness in improving outcomes for mothers. Objectives The objective of this review is to address whether group-based parenting programmes are effective in improving maternal psychosocial health including anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Search strategy A range of biomedical, social science, educational and general reference electronic databases were searched including MEDLINE, EMBASE CINAHL, PsychLIT, ERIC, ASSIA, Sociofile and the Social Science Citation Index. Other sources of information included the Cochrane Library (SPECTR, CENTRAL), and the National Research Register (NRR). Selection criteria Only randomised controlled trials were included in which participants had been randomly allocated to an experimental and a control group, the latter being a waiting-list, no-treatment or a placebo control group. Studies had to include at least one group-based parenting programme, and one standardised instrument measuring maternal psychosocial health. Data collection and analysis A systematic critical appraisal of all included studies was undertaken using a modified version of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published criteria. The treatment effect for each outcome in each study was standardised by dividing the mean difference in post-intervention scores for the intervention and treatment group, by the pooled standard deviation, to produce an effect size. Where appropriate the results were then combined in a meta-analysis using a fixed-effect model, and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the significance of the findings. Main results A total of 23 studies were included in the original review which was increased to 26 at the first udate (2003). Of these 20 provided sufficient data to calculate effect sizes. The 20 studies provided a total of 64 assessments of outcome on a range of aspects of psychosocial functioning including depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, social competence, social support, guilt, mood, automatic thoughts, dyadic adjustment, psychiatric morbidity, irrationality, anger and aggression, mood, attitude, personality, and beliefs. Data sufficient to combine in a meta-analysis existed for only five outcomes (depression; anxiety/stress; self-esteem; social support; and relationship with spouse/marital adjustment). The results of the meta-analyses show statistically significant results favouring the intervention group for depression; anxiety/stress; self-esteem; and relationship with spouse/marital adjustment. The meta-analysis of the social support data showed no evidence of effectiveness. Of the remaining data that it was not possible to combine in a meta-analysis, approximately 22% of the outcomes measured, showed significant differences between the intervention group and the control group. A further 40% showed non-significant differences favouring the intervention group. Approximately one-third of outcomes showed no evidence of effectiveness.A meta-analysis of the follow-up data on three outcomes was also conducted - depression, self-esteem and relationship with spouse/marital adjustment. The results show that there was a continued improvement in self-esteem, depression, and marital adjustment at follow-up, although the latter two findings were not statistically significant. This review has been updated (2003) with the addition of 3 new included studies. A number of additional excluded studies have also been added. There is one additional study awaiting 03) with the addition of 3 new included studies. A number of additional excluded studies have also been added. There is one additional study awaiting assessment and 2 ongoing studies listed for inclusion at a future update of this review. The size of effect for the main outcomes has not been substantially altered by this update. Additional sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of quasi randomised studies on the result have also been added. Where the quasi randomised studies are excluded from the analysis, the result was found to be slightly more conservative. Reviewer's conclusions It is suggested that parenting programmes can make a significant contribution to the short-term psychosocial health of mothers. However, there is currently a paucity of evidence concerning whether these results are maintained over time, and the limited follow-up data which are available show equivocal results. This points to the need for further evidence concerning the long-term effectiveness of parenting programmes on maternal mental health. Whilst the results of this review are positive overall, some studies showed no effect. Further research is needed to assess which factors contribute to successful outcomes in these programmes with particular attention being paid to the quality of delivery.These results suggest that parenting programmes have a potential role to play in the promotion of mental health.

Parent-training programmes for improving maternal psychosocial health.

Providing competent clinical supervision is challenging for the practitioner both in determining supervisee competencies and in conducting the corresponding supervision. Competence, an ethical principle that informs the practice of psychology, refers to requisite knowledge, skills, and values for effective performance. Similar to other health care professions, psychology is increasingly moving towards competency-based approaches in education, training, and performance appraisal. In this article, the authors review perspectives on competence as a construct and define competency-based clinical supervision, with particular attention to the nature of ethical, legal, contextual, and practice issues that arise from the establishment of a standard of competency-based supervision practice. The authors conclude with a discussion of challenges faced in clinical supervision and recommendations for best practices.

Competence in Competency-Based Supervision Practice: Construct and Application

This definitive state-of-the-art volume discusses the use of rational-emotive therapy (RET) with school-age children. Provides the first comprehensive review of important work over the past 20 years, and compares RET with other cognitive behavioral procedures. Offers a compendium of materials, activities, and techniques useful in education and developmental counseling with children as young as five years of age.

Rational-emotive therapy with children and adolescents : theory, treatment strategies, preventative methods

The effects of a rational-emotive parent education program were studied on forty-eight parents from a nonclinical population using a pre-test, post-test control group design. The RET parenting program included four components: a) reducing emotional stress through disputing irrational beliefs, b) implementing rational discipline methods, c) rational problem solving skills and d) fostering rational thinking traits in their child. Four dependent variables were studied: parent irrationality, parent emotionality, parent perceptions of child problems and the perception of participants' parenting by their spouses. Results showed that for experimental group subjects there was a statistically significant reduction in parent irrationality, parent guilt and parent anger. An exploratory ten month follow-up suggested maintenance of effects, a reduction in perceived child behavior problems, and changes in parental irrational beliefs regarding self worth.

Emotional relief for parents: Is rational-emotive parent education effective?

In 2000 the Ethics Committee of the APS conducted a survey of ethics education and training in all Australian University Psychology Academic Organisational Units (AOUs). Content analysis of course syllabi received directly from AOUs and/or obtained from accreditation documentation lodged by them with the APS as part of the 5-year APS course accreditation cycle showed that ethics education appeared in less that one quarter of syllabi for years 1–3 and approximately 90% of syllabi for years 4 and 5–7, with a clear emphasis on the integrative approach in years 1–3 and roughly equal emphasis on integration within or separation from the core curriculum in years 4 and 5–7, and with roughly equal emphasis on philosophical and code-based instruction in years 1–3, but mainly the latter instruction in years 4 and 5–7. Research ethics constituted the predominant theme in years 1–3; a comprehensive listing of professional topics was covered in years 4 and 5–7, with few thematic differences between these year levels. ...

Survey of ethics education in Australian university schools and departments of psychology

This study investigated the relationship between methods of disclosure of recalled negative experience and well-being. Six first-year undergraduate class groups (N = 100) at an Australian university completed pre- and post-intervention measures of psychological and psychophysical well-being. For the disclosure intervention, three groups wrote, drew, or drew-and-wrote about a recalled negative experience (RNE groups); the three non-disclosure groups wrote, drew, or drew-and-wrote on neutral topics (NT groups). The expectation that disclosure of negative experiences would enhance well-being was partly supported, with writing and drawing-and-writing disclosure groups reporting increased psychological, but not psychophysical, well-being. As predicted, verbal disclosure methods were more effective than non-verbal methods, with the draw-and-write group showing the greatest improvement. Unexpectedly, disclosure via drawing alone was associated with decreased psychological well-being. Against predictions, changes were found in two NT groups: The draw-and-write group reported improved psychological, and the draw group improved psychophysical well-being. It was concluded that verbal disclosure, especially when combined with the non-verbal method of drawing, may enhance psychological well-being, but that drawing, without accompanying verbalization, may decrease psychological well-being. It is suggested that future studies address variables such as level of disclosure, content and time of the negative experience, with time taken to manifest changes in well-being, using both subjective and objective indicators.

Verbal and non-verbal disclosure of recalled negative experiences: Relation to well-being

The contributions of Albert Ellis to the understanding of human happiness including his suggestions for living a happier life have not been represented in the field of positive psychology. This article presents Ellis’ theoretical constructs associated with his conception of happiness (dual nature of human psyche, self-actualization, purpose and goals of life and short- and long-term happiness). Eleven of Ellis’ rational principles of living (e.g. self-interest, self-direction, self-acceptance, commitment to absorbing activities, hedonism) are presented. When consistently applied in practice, they may help people to experience frequent positive affect, less frequent and intense negative emotions and high life satisfaction. It will show how Ellis’ ABC-DE scientific method can be used with individuals to lessen unhappiness. Suggestions are provided for research into associations between rationality and happiness as well as the impact of different rationality-based interventions on happiness.

Marie R. Joyce

Papers

Rational-emotive therapy with children and adolescents : theory, treatment strategies, preventative methods

Emotional relief for parents: Is rational-emotive parent education effective?

Survey of ethics education in Australian university schools and departments of psychology

Verbal and non-verbal disclosure of recalled negative experiences: Relation to well-being

Albert Ellis: Unsung hero of positive psychology