Minne Fekkes

TNO | tno · Expertise Group for Child Health

Programs that aim to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in children generally include multiple components, such as exposure and cognitive restructuring. It is unknown if separate components yield positive intervention effects in children or whether a combination of components is required. We investigated the effectiveness of exposure, cognitive rest...

This study compares process quality and child functioning in Dutch center-based care and home-based care and explores the role of the dyadic caregiver-child relationship. Participants in this study included 228 children from 74 locations (154 attending center-based child care, 74 home-based child care; mean age 2.5 years). The level of emotional an...

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual pa...

Prior research has related children's prosocial behavior to overall well-being, and stimulating prosocial behavior is the aim of many social-emotional skills interventions. This study assessed if affirming children's autonomy stimulates their psychosocial behavior. We conducted a three-arm microtrial with four repeated measures to assess if a socia...

Adolescents’ social-emotional skills are associated with positive outcomes in psychosocial health and success in education and work. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of Skills4Life, a Social Emotional Learning program for preparatory vocational secondary education aimed at enhancing self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, rel...

This study investigates the effectiveness of the PRIMA antibullying program for elementary education using a cluster-randomized trial with two experimental conditions (with and without student lessons) and a control group. Students of 31 schools participated in the study (N = 3,135; M age = 10 years). Multilevel regression analyses demonstrated pos...

Social skills training (SST) programs for nonclinical children and adolescents are known to have positive effects on social skills, but it remains unclear how distinct training components are related to program effects. This multilevel meta-analysis examines how psychoeducation (i.e., exercises aimed at the transfer of knowledge), psychophysical co...

Although anti-bullying programs often include a component that focuses on strengthening teachers’ abilities in identifying and addressing bullying, it is not clear which bullying situations teachers find difficult to address and what type of support is needed. In the current qualitative study, we investigated what teachers considered difficult bull...

While universal school‐based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs claim to target various SEL competencies, earlier reviews have not provided a clear overview of the competencies in question. We therefore wished to identify the competencies targeted in SEL programs for secondary school students. We also aimed to examine the effects of these...

Even though teachers are key figures of a program's effectiveness, most intervention studies have not focused explicitly on the effects of antibullying programs at teacher level. We conducted a meta‐analysis into the effects of school‐based antibullying programs on determinants of teacher intervention, including teachers’ attitudes towards bullying...

BACKGROUND The goal of the current study was to evaluate the effects of the Social Emotional Learning program Skills 4 Life on mental health and its risk factors self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, and social interaction skills in students of secondary schools. METHODS A cluster randomized controlled study was conducted, including 38 schools (66 classes;...

In deze studie is de mate van probleemgedrag en sociaal functioneren onderzocht onder jongeren met downsyndroom. Hiertoe is een cross-sectioneel onderzoek uitgevoerd in een landelijk Nederlands cohort van 16–19-jarigen met downsyndroom. Ouders van een kind met downsyndroom dat werd geboren in 1992, 1993 of 1994 zijn via de Stichting Downsyndroom ge...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the Dutch “Skills for Life” programme on students’ health behaviours, bullying behaviour and suicidal ideation. Design/methodology/approach – The effectiveness of the “Skills for Life” programme on health behaviour outcomes was evaluated at three points in time in using a cluster ra...

To determine the level of independence and social functioning in young people with Down syndrome. Cross-sectional study. Via the Dutch Down Syndrome Foundation (Stichting Downsyndroom), we asked parents of children with Down syndrome born in 1992, 1993 or 1994 to complete a written questionnaire about their child. This questionnaire contained the f...

Objectives The Hague Protocol is used by professionals at the adult Emergency Departments (ED) in The Netherlands to detect child abuse based on three parental characteristics: 1) domestic violence, 2) substance abuse or 3) suicide attempt or self-harm. After detection, a referral is made to the Reporting Center for Child Abuse and Neglect (RCCAN)....

To determine the critical facilitating and impeding factors underlying successful implementation of a method to detect child abuse based on parental rather than child characteristics known as the Hague Protocol. The original implementation region of the protocol (The Hague) was compared to a new implementation region (Friesland), using analysis of...

We aimed to assess the number of “missed cases” in the detection of child abuse based on the Hague Protocol. This protocol considers 3 parental characteristics of ED adult patients to identify child abuse: (1) domestic violence, (2) intoxication, and (3) suicide attempt or auto-mutilation. Methods This study focuses on parents whose children shoul...

The Hague Protocol considers three parental characteristics of Emergency Department adult patients to identify child abuse: (a) domestic violence, (b) intoxication, and (c) suicide attempt or auto mutilation. This study investigated whether additional parental characteristics could be included to improve the chance of detection. Using a nested case...

To determine the level of mainstream education in a nationwide cohort of adolescents with Down Syndrome (DS), and to find characteristics related to mainstream or special school attendance. Dutch children with DS born in 1992, 1993 or 1994, were assessed when 16-19 years old. Parents scored school enrolment between the age of 4-18 years, general ch...

Achtergrond en doelstellingVeel Nederlandse jongeren tussen de 11 en 17 jaar hebben ernstige gedragsproblemen, zoals depressie of agressie. Het lesprogramma ‘Levensvaardigheden’ is ontwikkeld door Diekstra en Gravesteijn ter preventie van gedragsproblemen bij scholieren van de tweede tot vierde klas van het voortgezet onderwijs van alle schoolnivea...

To assess problem behavior in adolescents with Down syndrome and examine the association with sex and severity of intellectual disability. Cross-sectional data of a Dutch nationwide cohort of Down syndrome children aged 16-19 years were collected using a written parental questionnaire. Problem behavior was measured using the Child Behavior Checklis...

Identifying child abuse and neglect solely on the grounds of child characteristics leaves many children undetected. We developed a new approach (Hague protocol) based on characteristics of parents who attend the Emergency Department (ED) because they have the following problems: (1) intimate partner violence, (2) substance abuse, or (3) suicide att...

To examine which factors determined the participation in HPV vaccination programme in 2009 and 2010. Retrospective cross-sectional study. Random samples of Dutch girls who had been invited for the HPV vaccination programme in 2009 and 2010, as well as their mothers, were drawn from an Internet panel. Data were gathered by means of a web-based quest...

The Dutch government recently added universal Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination for 12-year-old girls to the existing national immunization program. The participation rate for the initial catch-up campaign for girls aged 13 to 16 years in 2009 was lower (47%) than expected (70%). To inform future HPV information campaigns, this paper examines...

Background and aims Becoming independent is for young people with Down syndrome (DS) not a standard development, because of their intellectual impairment. Parents often wonder what level their child with DS might reach. This study aims to measure the level of self-sufficiency and problem behaviour in a large population based sample of 16–19-year-ol...

Objective Parents and health professionals believe that recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTI) have a large impact on children with Down syndrome (DS). We studied the relation between parent-reported RRTI and development, behaviour and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in 8-year-old children with DS. Method During a 3-year period, 325 c...

Background and aims: Recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTI) have a significant impact on the developmental age of children with Down Syndrome (DS). Since RRTI are related to impaired hearing we proposed that verbal skills are more influenced compared to perceptual-performance, quantitative, memory and motor development in these children.

Children with Down syndrome (DS) have delayed psychomotor development. We investigated levels of development, problem behavior, and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in a population sample of Dutch eight-year-old children with DS. Developmental outcomes were compared with normative data of eight-year-old children from the general population. O...

Objective: Children with Down syndrome (DS) have delayed psychomotor development. We investigated levels of development, problem behavior, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Dutch eightyear- old children with DS. Developmental outcomes were compared with normative data of eight-yearold children from the general population.

To evaluate the reliability, and construct validity of the Spanish version of the TNO-AZL preschool children quality of life (TAPQOL). A consecutive sample of children (3 months to 5 years old) was recruited from primary care centers and two teaching hospitals in Spain. The TAPQOL and a set of questions related to their child's health status were a...

To obtain a Spanish version of the TNO-AZL Preschool Children Quality of Life Questionnaire (TAPQOL) that would be both semantically and culturally equivalent to the original. The TAPQOL questionnaire was designed to measure health-related quality of life in children aged 3 months to 5 years and contains 43 questions distributed in 12 subdimensions...

Objectives To obtain a Spanish version of the TNO-AZL Preschool Children Quality of Life Questionnaire (TAPQOL) that would be both semantically and culturally equivalent to the original. Material and methods The TAPQOL questionnaire was designed to measure health-related quality of life in children aged 3 months to 5 years and contains 43 question...

This article describes the process evaluation of a stress management program called `Learn Young, Learn Fair' for 5th and 6th graders. Studies, reviews and meta-analyses of prevention programs report that a common limitation in studies is the restricted documentation of process factors that contribute to the success of interventions. Program implem...

To evaluate the effects of an antibullying school intervention in elementary schools. Two-year follow-up randomized intervention group-control group. Forty-seven elementary schools in the Netherlands. Three thousand eight hundred sixteen children aged 9 to 12 years. During the first study year, an antibullying school program was implemented in the...

A number of studies have shown that victimization from bullying behavior is associated with substantial adverse effects on physical and psychological health, but it is unclear which comes first, the victimization or the health-related symptoms. In our present study, we investigated whether victimization precedes psychosomatic and psychosocial sympt...

The object of this study was to develop a class stress-management programme which would help children to develop a broader coping repertoire. First a problem analysis was conducted to determine the need for the programme. Next, the programme was developed, using the five steps of intervention mapping (IM) as a guide: 1) formulating proximal program...

To estimate the costs and effects of different treatment strategies with intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis to prevent early-onset group B streptococcal (GBS) disease in the Netherlands. The treatment strategies include a risk-based strategy, a screening-based strategy, a combined screening/risk-based strategy and the current Dutch guideline. Cost-...

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to present age references for waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), and waist/hip ratio (WHR) in Dutch children. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 14,500 children of Dutch origin in the age range 0-21 years. National references were constructed with the LMS method. This method summarises the...

Bullying victimization is associated with several health issues. Prevention of bullying is therefore an important goal for health and education professionals. In the present study, 2766 children from 32 Dutch elementary schools participated by completing a questionnaire on bullying behavior, and the involvement of teachers, parents and classmates i...

To assess the association between bullying behavior and a wide variety of psychosomatic health complaints and depression. Study design In a cross-sectional study, 2766 elementary school children age 9 to 12 years filled out a questionnaire on bullying behavior and health complaints. Three groups-bullied children, active bullies, and children who bo...

Specific subgroups of people planning IVF might be at risk of having more psychological or health-related problems. Identification of subgroups at risk may better enable allocation of appropriate counselling. A group of 425 men and 447 women planning to undergo IVF treatment filled out a questionnaire. Four domains of health-related quality of life...

The sub-scales of the SF-36 in the Dutch National Study are investigated with respect to unidimensionality and reliability. It is argued that these properties deserve separate treatment. For unidimensionality we use a non-parametric model from item response theory, called the Mokken scaling model, and compute the corresponding scalability coefficie...

The relationship of preterm birth to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was examined for children aged 1 to 4 years. Three gestational age groups with a NICU history were selected, <32 weeks (n=65), 32 to 36 weeks (n=41), 237 weeks (n=54), and a reference group from the open population (n=50). The main instrument was the TNO-AZL Preschool Quali...

The relationship of preterm birth to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was examined for children aged 1 to 4 years. Three gestational age groups with a NICU history were selected, <32 weeks (n=65), 32 to 36 weeks (n=41), ≥37 weeks (n=54), and a reference group from the open population (n=50). The main instrument was the TNO-AZL Preschool Quali...

The present study examined the social impediments experienced by young adults with minor congenital heart disease (CHD) and compared the health status and health-related quality of life of these CHD-patients with a matched group (age, sex) from the general population. Young adults with minor CHD, not in need of surgical correction, were sent a ques...

The 43-item TNO-AZL Preschool Children Quality of Life (TAPQOL) questionnaire was developed to meet the need for a reliable and valid instrument for measuring parent's perceptions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in preschool children. HRQoL was defined as health status in 12 domains weighted by the impact of the health status problems on...

The primary objectives of this research were to translate, validate, and generate normative data on the SF-36 Health Survey for use among Dutch-speaking residents of the Netherlands. Translation of the SF-36 into Dutch followed the stepwise, iterative procedures developed by the IQOLA Project. Following extensive pilot testing, the SF-36 was admini...

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL), conceptualized as patients' own evaluations of their health status, is an important criterion in evaluation health and health care and in the treatment of individual patients. Until now, few systematic attempts have been made to develop instruments to assess the HRQoL of children using such a conceptualizatio...

The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that daily administration of growth hormone using the Medi-Jector results in fewer adverse psychological responses than needle injection with a multidose injection pen. The Medi-Jector is a needle-free injection device that can deliver growth hormone subcutaneously through jet injection. The group stu...

Needle-free jet transjector devices are increasingly being used to reduce the pain and anxiety associated with repeated subcutaneous injections of insulin or synthetic growth hormone. The Medi-Jector®, which uses air propulsion to deliver the drug across the skin barrier, has been shown to reduce adverse psychological effects and potentially improv...

Health related quality of life (HRQOL), defined as the patients' own evaluation of their health status, is an important criterion in evaluating health and health care. Until now, few systematic attempts have been made to develop instruments to assess HRQOL in children. For this reason, the aim of the study was to evaluate the psychometric performan...