Pier J M Prins

University of Amsterdam | UVA · Department of Developmental Psychology

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in the Netherlands is thriving: the Dutch Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (DABCT) has become the largest psychotherapy organization in the Netherlands, CBT techniques are first-line interventions in Dutch treatment guidelines for many common and less common clinical problems (Kwaliteitsontwikke...

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The captions of Figures 1 and 2 were swapped.

Objective: Executive functioning (EF) training-interventions aimed at ADHD-symptom reduction have limited results. However, EF-training might only be effective for children with relatively poor EF capacity. This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study examined if pre-training EF capacity moderates the outcome of an EF-training intervention...

Reframing cognitions is assumed to play an important role in treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, there hardly is any empirical support for this assumption, especially for children. The aim of this study was to examine if changing dysfunctional beliefs is a mediating mechanism of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for childho...

In de rubriek Frictie geven wisselende auteurs hun visie op een onderwerp dat discussie oproept, of kijken zij kritisch naar een misverstand of dilemma waar professionals in hun werk tegenaan lopen.

Background: Working memory capacity has been found to be impaired in adolescents with various psychological problems, such as addictive behaviors. Training of working memory capacity can lead to significant behavioral improvements, but it is usually long and tedious, taxing participants' motivation to train. Objective: This study aimed to evalua...

Objective: Attention problems are one of the most pronounced and documented consequences of very preterm birth (gestational age ≤32 weeks). However, up to now, there is no research published on suitable interventions at school age aimed to overcome these problems. Research in this population did show that executive functions (EFs) are strongly ass...

BACKGROUND Working memory capacity has been found to be impaired in adolescents with various psychological problems, such as addictive behaviors. Training of working memory capacity can lead to significant behavioral improvements, but it is usually long and tedious, taxing participants’ motivation to train. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate w...

Previously, a total of 121 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) performed an adaptive working memory (WM)-training, an adaptive flexibility-training, or a non-adaptive control (mock)-training. Despite overall improvement, there were minor differences between the adaptive and mock-training conditions. Moreover, dropout was relatively high...

This study increases knowledge on effectiveness of treatment for extremely violent (EV) youth by investigating their response to multisystemic therapy (MST). Using data of a randomized controlled trial on effectiveness of MST, we investigated differences in treatment response between EV youth and not extremely violent (NEV) youth. Pre- to post-trea...

Kan een gestandaardiseerd adviesgesprek ouders stimuleren om deel te nemen aan een oudertraining? In het adviesgesprek is structureel aandacht voor de samenwerkingsrelatie tussen behandelaars en ouders, en komen de factoren die van invloed kunnen zijn op de problematiek aan de orde. Vervolgens komen behandelaar en ouders gezamenlijk tot een behande...

Based on information processing models of anxiety and depression, we investigated the efficacy of multiple sessions of online attentional bias modification training to reduce attentional bias and symptoms of anxiety and depression, and to increase emotional resilience in youth. Unselected adolescents (N ¼ 340, age: 11e18 years) were randomly alloca...

Clinical consensus exists on the recommendation to add medication to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for children with moderate to severe obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it has never been examined if CBT monotherapy indeed is less effective for this subgroup. In addition, CBT is often expected to be less suitable in case of an auti...

A new perspective on ADHD; The role of executive functioning and motivation S. Dovis, S. Van der Oord, R.W. Wiers & P.J.M. Prins In this 14 page Dutch article, focused mainly on clinicians, parents and teachers, we explain how deficits in executive functioning (EF) and motivation can result in ADHD symptoms. Further, we discuss reinforcement effe...

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the moderating role of Big Five personality traits in short and long term effectiveness of MultiSystemic Therapy (MST) for serious and persistent juvenile delinquents. Method: Data of a randomized controlled trial (N = 256) were used to examine the research question. Results: Extraversion, Emot...

Original trial study protocol. (DOC)

Translated trial study protocol. (DOCX)

Original Ethics Protocol. (PDF)

CONSORT checklist. (DOC)

Translated Ethics Protocol. (PDF)

Long-term effects of two CBTs for adolescents with ADHD are explored: One aimed at improving planning skills (Plan My Life; PML), the other a solution-focused therapy (SFT) without focusing on planning skills. In a RCT, adolescents with ADHD (n = 159) were assigned to PML or SFT and improved significantly between pre- and posttest with large effect...

Objective: This study explored qualitative treatment-subgroup interactions within data of a RCT with two cognitive behavioral treatments (CBT) for adolescents with ADHD: a planningfocused (PML) and a solution-focused CBT (SFT). Qualitative interactions imply that which treatment is best differs across subgroups of patients, and are therefore most r...

Cognitive training has been studied in the context of many psychological disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression, and addiction. While several studies have found clinically relevant training effects, both in preclinical (experimental) and in clinical settings, cognitive training is often experienced...

Samenvatting Er zijn sterk verschillende opvattingen over wat goed burgerschap is. Het onderwijs hoort met deze verscheidenheid rekening te houden. Het Europese beleid aangaande burgerschapsvorming propageert evenwel onderwijs dat zich richt naar een beperkt en exclusief normatief kader, een hybride van de liberale en de republikeinse burgerschapsi...

Samenvatting Om een eind te maken aan de maatschappelijke polarisering rond dierenwelzijn bepleitte de Raad voor Dierenaangelegenheden vijf jaar geleden de omgang met dieren als thema een plaats te geven in het basisonderwijs. Hier is tot nu niets mee gedaan. Wel is er meer aandacht voor wetenschaps- en technologische aspecten. Het is een gemiste k...

The effectiveness of a school-based targeted intervention programme for disruptive behaviour was investigated by comparing the intervention condition to a waitlist control condition. Furthermore, the additional effects of active teacher training versus educational teacher training were compared. The children included (n = 173) were aged 8–12, from...

Dutch translation of the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI) for Parents and Teachers. The CHEXI (including the Dutch translation) is freely available at www.chexi.se. The CHEXI focuses on working memory, inhibition, planning and regulation and seems more suited for children with ADHD than the BRIEF (and it has less items).

Excessive use of psychoactive substances during adolescence poses a serious health risk. It can lead to cognitive impairment, as well as addictive problems later in life. Dual process models of addiction suggest that to counter this development, the overdeveloped automatic reactions to drug-related cues should be tempered and cognitive control func...

Deficits in working memory (WM) and reinforcement sensitivity are thought to give rise to symptoms in the combined (ADHD-C) and inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) of ADHD. Children with ADHD are especially impaired on visuospatial WM, which is composed of short-term memory (STM) and a central executive. Although deficits in visuospatial WM and reinforcem...

Executive functions (EFs) training interventions aimed at ADHD-symptom reduction have yielded mixed results. Generally, these interventions focus on training a single cognitive domain (e.g., working memory [WM], inhibition, or cognitive-flexibility). However, evidence suggests that most children with ADHD show deficits on multiple EFs, and that the...

Excessive use of psychoactive substances and resulting disorders are a major societal problem, and the most prevalent mental disorder in young men. Recent reviews have concluded that Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) shows promise as an intervention method in this field. As adolescence is a critical formative period, successful early intervention m...

Adolescents with ADHD have planning problems, often affecting school- and social functioning. Evidence-based treatments for adolescents with ADHD are scarce and treatment drop-out rates are substantial. The effectiveness of two new, individual, short-term cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) was investigated: One with an aim on improving planning s...

Background People with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) experience executive function (EF) deficits. There is an urgent need for effective interventions, but in spite of the increasing research focus on computerized cognitive training, this has not been studied in ASD. Hence, we investigated two EF training conditions in children with ASD.Methods I...

Om meer zicht te krijgen op de effectieve bestanddelen van cognitieve gedragstherapie bij kinderen en adolescenten met een angststoornis, werd door middel van een longitudinaal design met meerdere meetmomenten onderzocht of een verandering in een aantal beoogde mediatoren (negatieve en positieve gedachten, coping-strategieën en ervaren controle) vo...

A lack of perceived control over anxiety-related situations is theorized to be characteristic of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. In the current study we tested several theoretical predictions and developmental variation with the Dutch translation of the Anxiety Control Questionnaire for Children (ACQ-C). The theoretical factor struct...

The present study focused on the sustainability of the effects of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) on delinquency and recidivism. A sample of 256 juveniles with severe and persistent antisocial behavior were randomly assigned to MST (147) and Treatment As Usual (TAU) (109) condition. Pre-test assessment took place before the start of MST/control group t...

Background: There is an urgent need for effective interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Current interventions focus mainly on teaching social or communicative skills, and appear to be relatively unsuccessful. Few studies focused directly on fundamental abilities such as executive functioning (EF). Children with ASD are k...

Both cognitive and motivational deficits are thought to give rise to the problems in the combined (ADHD-C) and inattentive subtype (ADHD-I) of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In both subtypes one of the most prominent cognitive weaknesses appears to be in visuospatial working memory (WM), which is composed of short-term memory (STM...

Ongeveer 10 à 15% van de kinderen en jongeren ontwikkelt zich niet goed en vertoont problemen op uiteenlopende gebieden. Deze problemen herstellen zich vaak, maar bij een aantal kinderen gaan ze niet vanzelf over. Er ontwikkelt zich een stoornis, zoals een angst- of gedragsstoornis. Klinische ontwikkelingspsychologie houdt zich bezig met deze psyc...

October is time for the Games for Health Europe meeting in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Games for Health Journal would like to highlight exciting developments in games for health in Europe by asking European members of our Editorial Board to comment on what developments they see.

The Anxiety Severity Interview for Children and Adolescents (ASICA) was developed for the repeated assessment of the impact of anxiety and control over anxiety symptoms. The ASICA incorporates three main components of anxiety: physical response, avoidant behaviour and anxious thoughts. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric pr...

Objective: In this randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effectiveness of a school-based targeted intervention program for disruptive behavior. A child-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program was introduced at schools in disadvantaged settings and with active teacher support (ATS) versus educational teacher support (ETS) (CBT...

The purpose is to investigate whether a change in putative mediators (negative and positive thoughts, coping strategies, and perceived control over anxious situations) precedes a change in anxiety symptoms in anxiety-disordered children and adolescents receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Participants were 145 Dutch children (8-18 years ol...

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine whether psychopathic traits act as a predictor and/or moderator of the effectiveness of Multisystemic Therapy (MST). Method: The sample included N = 256 adolescents (188 boys and 68 girls) referred for conduct problems, randomized to MST or Treatment As Usual (TAU). The mean age was 16 yea...

Objective. In the present randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) in The Netherlands was examined. Moderator tests were conducted for ethnicity, age and gender. Methods. The sample consisted of N=256 adolescents, referred because of conduct problems, and randomized to MST or treatment as usual (TAU). Assessment...

Objective: A considerable amount of children with anxiety disorders do not benefit sufficiently from cognitive behavioral treatment. The present study examines the predictive role of child temperament, parent temperament and parenting style in the context of treatment outcome. Method: Participants were 145 children and adolescents (ages 8-18) wi...

Deficits in Working Memory (WM) are related to symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In children with ADHD visuospatial WM is most impaired. WM is composed of Short-Term Memory (STM) and a Central Executive (CE). Therefore, deficits in either or both STM and the CE may account for WM impairments in children with ADHD. WM-comp...

In the area of childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, there is an urgent need for new, innovative, and child-focused treatments. A computerized executive functioning training with game elements aimed at en-hancing self-control was developed. The first results are promising, and the next steps involve replication with larger samples, ev...

Steeds vaker wordt het afwijkend functioneren van kinderen en jongeren in verband gebracht met problemen in het executief functioneren. Executieve functies zoals het werkgeheugen, het vermogen gedrag te stoppen en cognitieve flexibiliteit zijn onmisbaar voor het aansturen van doelgericht gedrag. Kinderen met ADHD hebben juist problemen met doelgeri...

Objective: This pilot study tested the short- and long-term efficacy (9 weeks follow-up) of an executive functioning (EF) remediation training with game elements for children with ADHD in an outpatient clinical setting, using a randomized controlled wait-list design. Furthermore, in a subsample, that is, those treated with methylphenidate, additiv...

Background: There is an urgent need for effective interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Most intervention studies focus directly on teaching of social and communicative skills. However, as children with ASD are known to show difficulties in executive functioning (EF), training these fundamental abilities might be susce...

The present study tested the hypothesis that improvements in parental sense of competence during multisystemic therapy (MST) lead to positive changes in parenting, which in turn lead to a decrease of adolescent externalizing problems. Mediational models were tested separately for 3 dimensions of parenting (positive discipline, inept discipline, and...

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who participated in a randomized clinical trial, which compared a brief intensive multimodal behaviour therapy combined with optimally titrated methylphenidate to optimally titrated methylphenidate alone (n = 45), were re-assessed at adolescence in a naturalistic follow-up 4.5 to 7.5 yea...

Despite guidelines and repeated calls from the literature, statistical mediation analysis in youth treatment outcome research is rare. Even more concerning is that many studies that have reported mediation analyses do not fulfill basic requirements for mediation analysis, providing inconclusive data and clinical implications. As a result, after mor...

Perceived control is thought to play an important role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in children. The objective of the present study was to further investigate the Perceived Control Implicit Association Procedure (IAP, Hogendoorn et al., 2008) as an indirect measure of perceived control in children. The IAP was completed b...

Negatively valenced thoughts are assumed to play a central role in the development and maintenance of anxiety. However, the role of positive thoughts in anxiety is rather unclear. In the current study we examined the role of negative and positive self-statements in the anxiety level of anxious and non-anxious children. Participants were 139 anxiety...

Visual-spatial Working Memory (WM) is the most impaired executive function in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Some suggest that deficits in executive functioning are caused by motivational deficits. However, there are no studies that investigate the effects of motivation on the visual-spatial WM of children with- and...

Although the meta-cognitive model (Wells, 1997, 2000) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has clearly influenced research and treatment of OCD, little research has been performed in youth samples. In the present study the psychometric properties of the Dutch Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (MCQ-A; Cartwright-Hatton et al., 2004...

In deze studie onderzochten we sommige aspecten van de kwaliteit van de implementatie van Multisysteem Therapie (MST) in Nederland. Zowel de invloed van behandel integriteit als van nonspecifieke f actoren van MST op de verandering in een primaire uitkomst (e xternaliserend p robleemgedrag) en secundaire uitkomsten (positieve discipline, nega-tieve...

Obesitas bij kinderen is de afgelopen decennia sterk toegenomen. Er is een aantal redenen om te interveniëren bij obesitas op de kinderleeftijd. Cardiovasculaire risicofactoren komen bij ernstige obese kinderen veel vaker voor dan bij kinderen zonder gewichtsproblemen en obesitas op de kinderleeftijd vergroot het risico op cardiovasculaire morbidit...

Inhibition deficits, including deficits in prepotent response inhibition and interference control, are core deficits in ADHD. The predictive value of prepotent response inhibition and interference control was assessed for outcome in a 10-week treatment trial with methylphenidate. Thirty-four children with ADHD (ages 8-12) received 10 weeks of methy...

To improve research in cognitive theories of childhood OCD, a child version of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ-CV) has been developed (Coles et al., 2010). In the present study, psychometric properties of the Dutch OBQ-CV were examined in a community sample (N=547; 8-18 years) and an OCD sample (N=67; 8-18 years). Results revealed good int...

Although selective attention to threatening information is an adaptive mechanism, exaggerated attention to threat may be related to anxiety disorders. However, studies examining threat processing in children have obtained mixed findings. In the present study, the time-course of attentional bias for threat and behavioral interference was analyzed in...

Samenvatting In dit onderzoek werd de effectiviteit onderzocht van een gedragstherapeutische training voor leerkrachten van kinderen met adhd. Achtentwintig leerkracht-leerling koppels in een experimentele behandelconditie en 25 in een wachtlijst-controleconditie werden in een quasi-experimenteel onderzoek met elkaar vergeleken. De leerkrachten wer...