Sharon Dawe

Griffith University · School of Applied Psychology

Background Parental substance misuse is a pervasive risk factor for a range of detrimental outcomes for children across the life course. While a variety of interventions have been developed for this population, the existing evidence‐base requires consolidation and consideration of the comparative effectiveness of different interventions to facilita...

Children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) have high rates of sleep disturbance and marked difficulties with executive functioning (EF). Sleep disturbance has been associated with poorer EF across development in typically developing children. The contribution of insomnia symptoms and nightmares to EF di...

Substance use during pregnancy is associated with poor neonatal outcomes. Women incarcerated during pregnancy may have a history of substance use, and their babies may be at risk of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). This study examines the incidence of NAS and other outcomes in infants born to currently or formerly incarcerated women. Infants bor...

Parental incarceration has been associated with educational disadvantages for children, such as lower educational attainment, increased grade retention, and truancy and suspensions. However, children exposed to parental incarceration often experience other adversities that are also associated with educational disadvantage; the contribution of these...

Background The developmental impacts of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and postnatal exposure to adversity are typically considered in isolation. However, both contribute independently to sleep problems. Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have PAE and significant sleep disturbances. What is not clear is the relative contribution...

Aims: Children of incarcerated mothers are at increased risk of experiencing multiple adversity such as poverty, mental illness and contact with child protection services (CPS), including being taken into out of home care (OOHC). However, little is known about whether these children are at increased risk of suicide or self-harm compared to childre...

Objective: Across all of Australia's states and territories, it is legal for a parent or carer to hit their child. In this paper, we outline the legal context for corporal punishment in Australia and the argument for its reform. Methods: We review the laws that allow corporal punishment, the international agreements on children's rights, the evi...

Vulnerability is not a fixed state; people and families can move in and out of experiencing vulnerability throughout their lives. All families are at risk of experiencing vulnerability at some point, which means that social workers and other professionals must be equipped with the skills to effectively provide them with support. Working with Famili...

Background: Women prisoners are a growing portion of the prison population. Health and social outcomes of their children have been studied and found to be poor, but little is known about child protection outcomes. Objectives: Ascertain child protection system contact of children exposed to maternal incarceration. Participants and setting: All...

Background Early diagnosis of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) assists in implementing critical early support. The challenge lies in having a diagnostic process that enables valid and reliable assessment of domains of functioning in young children, with the added complexity that many children will also have co‐occurring exposure...

Background The consequences for children born with birth defects and developmental disabilities encompassed by foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are profound, affecting all areas of social, behavioural and cognitive functioning. Given the strong evidence for a core deficit in executive functioning, underpinned by impaired self‐regulation skil...

Quantification of childhood adversity has typically involved a cumulative risk approach in which total number of discrete adversities serves as an index of overall risk. However, this approach fails to account for the growing evidence of differential outcomes following exposure to childhood adversities. An alternative approach adopts a dimensional...

Objectives Despite a large evaluation literature for interventions aiming to improve the lives of families affected by parent substance misuse, very few studies have examined how families change when engaged with treatment. This study examines the interactive process of change in parent psychopathology and mindful parenting during participation in...

Background The impact of parental drug use on children is a major public health problem. However, opioid-dependent fathers have been largely ignored in parenting research. Objective To implement and test the feasibility and acceptability of the Parents under Pressure programme (PuP4Dads) for opioid-dependent fathers and their families, and to dete...

Objectives: Parenting is central to children's optimal development and accounts for a substantial proportion of the variance in child outcomes, including up to 40% of child mental health. Parenting is also one of the most modifiable, proximal, and direct factors for preventing and treating a range of children's problems and enhancing wellbeing. To...

Background and aims Family-focused interventions can improve family functioning when parents have substance use problems. However, there has been little focus on potential predictors of change and analysis of mechanisms of change. This study aims to identify mediators and moderators of change in a pragmatic, multisite, randomised controlled trial o...

Objective To investigate the association between dose and frequency of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and sleep problems in children, after controlling for established risk factors for sleep problems. Methods Data from the birth cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) was used. Mothers of 3447 children provided information...

This review aims to first enhance and update existing reviews by comprehensively synthesising the full array of psychosocial, pharmacological and legal interventions that aim to improve the psychosocial outcomes of children with substance misusing parents. Second, the review aims to use network meta‐analysis to integrate and examine the comparative...

Background Methamphetamine has been consistently associated with positive psychotic symptoms, but little is known about whether the reverse also occurs. Aims This study determined whether the relationship between methamphetamine use and positive psychotic symptoms is bidirectional over 12 months. The impact of lifetime psychotic disorders and meth...

The quality of caregiving is often compromised when mothers have co-occurring difficulties such as substance misuse and problems associated with extreme emotional dysregulation. These, in turn, are associated with poor child outcomes. The aim of the current study was twofold. First, to investigate the potential differences in risk factors associate...

There is a growing evidence base for mindfulness-based interventions in educational settings. Notably, there has been little investigation of the potential benefits of classroom-based mindfulness programs in children in the early school years (Preparatory/Kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2) despite early childhood being a period characterized by the deve...

A protocol describing a proposed systematic review and meta-analysis exploring interventions designed to improve executive functioning in children with FASD

Background/aim: The aim of the current study was to review drug harms as they occur in Australia using the Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology adopted in earlier studies in other jurisdictions. Method: A facilitated workshop with 25 experts from across Australia, was held to score 22 drugs on 16 criteria: 9 related to harms that...

A title registration for a systematic review and meta-analysis exploring interventions designed to improve executive functioning in children with FASD

Background: There is growing interest in the provision of parenting support to substance misusing parents. Methods: This pragmatic, multi-center randomized controlled trial compared an intensive one-to-one parenting program (Parents under Pressure, PuP) with Treatment as Usual (TAU) in the UK. Parents were engaged in community-based substance mi...

The Parents under Pressure program was developed in Australia for families facing multiple difficulties including parental substance abuse and potential or actual engagement in the child protection system. This study was undertaken in the UK to determine if findings from Australian studies could be replicated. Importantly, the PuP program was deliv...

Objectives: To systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the evidence for the impact of parenting interventions for incarcerated parents on parenting knowledge and skills, parent well-being, and quality of the parent–child relationship. Methods: A systematic search of 19 published and unpublished literature sources was conducted between J...

Working with Vulnerable Families - edited by Fiona Arney September 2013

Cambridge Core - Sociology: General Interest - Working with Vulnerable Families - edited by Fiona Arney

Objective: To explore the differences in baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) between children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and typically developing children (TDC) and to investigate whether children with FASD have the capacity to engage in a brief mindfulness exercise. Methods: Participants were 14 children with FASD and 20 T...

Aims: To estimate the extent to which specific sexual behaviours (being sexually active, having multiple sex partners, casual sex, condomless casual sex, anal sex, and condomless anal sex) change during periods of methamphetamine use. Design: Within-person estimates for the relationship between methamphetamine use and sexual behaviour were deriv...

Pre‐birth risk assessment is a process by which circumstances affecting an unborn child can be identified and support for mother and infant embedded. This mixed methods study describes a community‐based pre‐birth assessment and care pathway that utilised the Parents Under Pressure (PuP) programme to assess parenting capacity and provide support pre...

Introduction and aims: Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is a significant public health concern, and growing recognition in Australia led to the establishment of a specialist service for young children. The aim of the current study was to report on the diagnostic profile of a group of children who attended the service, to document the extent...

Background: Growing evidence shows that children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) can benefit from interventions, and specifically interventions focused on improving self-regulation. However, novel ways of improving outcomes for children with FASD need further investigation so that programs target not only the individual child but also...

The identification of potential child maltreatment using reliable and valid screening instruments is of particular importance in high risk populations. The current study investigates the psychometric properties of the Brief Child Abuse Potential (BCAP) Inventory in mothers enrolled in opioid substitution therapy. The BCAP Risk Abuse scale had stron...

Introduction: The effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol are wide-ranging and pervasive in nature. In response to growing concerns about the lifelong disabilities related to prenatal alcohol exposure, a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) diagnostic clinic was established in 2012. This was the first multi-disciplinary service operating permane...

BACKGROUND The quality of caregiving in mothers with substance abuse problems appears to be compromised. However, divergent findings, methodological variability, and sample characteristics point to the need for research synthesis. METHODS A comprehensive systematic search was undertaken. Studies were eligible if they (1) compared substance-misusin...

We examined the lifetime experience of hallucinations and delusions associated with transient methamphetamine-related psychosis (MAP), persistent MAP and primary psychosis among a cohort of dependent methamphetamine users. Participants were classified as having (a) no current psychotic symptoms, (n = 110); (b) psychotic symptoms only when using met...

This review aims to first enhance and update existing reviews by comprehensively synthesising the full array of psychosocial, pharmacological and legal interventions that aim to improve the psychosocial outcomes of children with substance misusing parents. Second, the review aims to use network meta‐analysis to integrate and examine the comparative...

We report the development of a self-report questionnaire of the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality for use with children. Focus groups were held with children to sample their experiences of situations modelled on components of three RST systems: fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS, related to fear), behavioural inhibition system (BI...

Background: Methamphetamine use can produce symptoms almost indistinguishable from schizophrenia. Distinguishing between the two conditions has been hampered by the lack of a validated symptom profile for methamphetamine-induced psychiatric symptoms. We use data from a longitudinal cohort study to examine the profile of psychiatric symptoms that a...

Background: Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) can experience profound impairments and long-term adverse outcomes. This systematic review adopts a life span perspective providing an extensive analysis of the available literature. Methods: Studies were identified from PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, CINAHL, ERIC...

Children living in families with parental substance abuse are at high risk of child maltreatment and associated adverse outcomes. A trial of methadone‐maintained parents randomised to the Parents under Pressure (PuP) parenting programme reported significant improvements in family functioning relative to standard care or a brief intervention, as ind...

The developmental needs of infants during the first year of life have been emphasised by recent research from a variety of sources highlighting the crucial role that early parent–infant interaction plays. Infants identified as being at significant risk of maltreatment need adequate protection within a time frame consistent with their developmental...

This study investigates the rates of primary psychotic disorders (PPD) and substance-induced psychotic disorders (SIPDs) in methamphetamine (MA) users accessing needle and syringe programs (NSPs). The aim was to determine if there are systematic differences in the characteristics of MA users with PPDs and SIPDs compared to those with no psychotic d...

Background and Objectives: Cannabis use is common in early psychosis and has been linked to adverse outcomes. However, factors that influence and maintain change in cannabis use in this population are poorly understood. An existing prospective dataset was used to predict abstinence from cannabis use over the 6 months following inpatient admission f...

Objective Around 50% of women report symptoms that indicate some aspect of their childbirth experience was “traumatic”, and at least 3.1% meet diagnosis for PTSD 6 months post partum. Here we aimed to conduct a prospective longitudinal study and examine predictors of birth-related trauma – predictors that included a range of pre-event factors – as...

The evidence linking the personality trait of impulsivity and substance misuse is well established. Importantly, impulsivity not only predicts substance misuse problems but has an association with duration in treatment, likelihood of completing treatment and time to relapse. Treatment that focuses on increasing awareness and acceptance of thoughts...

Several impulsivity-related models have been applied to understanding the vulnerability to addiction. While there is a growing consensus that impulsivity is multifaceted, debate continues as to the precise number of facets and, more critically, which are most relevant to explaining the addiction-risk profile. In many ways, the current debate mirror...

To determine whether violent behaviour increases during periods of methamphetamine use and whether this is due to methamphetamine-induced psychotic symptoms. A fixed-effects (within-subject) analysis of four non-contiguous one-month observation periods from a longitudinal prospective cohort study. Sydney and Brisbane, Australia. A total of 278 part...

There is considerable comorbidity between substance use disorders and other mental health problems with a particularly high co- occurrence between substance use disorders and anxiety and mood disorders. The success of treatment often depends on an early detection of co-occurring disorders thus the timely identification of possible comorbidity is a...

Abstract: The adoption of evidence-based practice in social work has been widely promoted in recent years and with this, a growing emphasis on the evaluation of practice using well validated and reliable measurement processes. The Department of Health’s “Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families” in the United Kingdom incl...

Impulsivity is clearly associated with adolescent substance use. However, contemporary models of impulsivity argue against a unitary construct and propose at least two potential facets of impulsivity: reward drive and disinhibition. This study investigated the mediating role of prosocial risk-taking in the association between these two facets of im...

A fully dimensional view of psychiatric disorder conceptualises schizotypy as both a continuous personality trait and an underlying vulnerability to the development of psychotic illness. Such a model would predict that the structure of schizotypal traits would closely parallel the structure of schizophrenia or psychosis. This was investigated in in...

Personality and cognitive processes are both related to alcohol use and misuse. A recent model of hazardous drinking referred, the 2-CARS model, postulates two major pathways to hazardous drinking. One pathway primarily involves the association between Reward Drive and Positive Outcome Expectancies, the second involves the association between Rash...

Background: Many babies in the UK are born to drug-dependent parents, and dependence on psychoactive drugs during the postnatal period is associated with high rates of child maltreatment, with around a quarter of these children being subject to a child protection plan. Parents who are dependent on psychoactive drugs are at risk of a wide range of...

Context Methamphetamine is associated with psychotic phenomena, but it is not clear to what extent this relationship is due to premorbid psychosis among people who use the drug. Objective To determine the change in the probability of psychotic symptoms occurring during periods of methamphetamine use. Design Longitudinal prospective cohort study. A...

Evidence suggests that children in out-of-home care function better when placed in kinship compared with foster care. Less is known about the functioning of children in the unique form of kinship care where grandparents are caring full-time for their grandchildren in informal care arrangements. As grandparent carers are increasingly taking on this...

Background: Mindfulness is the development of a nonjudgmental accepting awareness of moment-by-moment experience. Intentionally attending to one's ongoing stream of sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they arise has a number of benefits, including the ability to react with greater flexibility to events and sustain attention. Thus the teaching of...

To evaluate the impact of community-based drug treatment on methamphetamine use using inverse probability of treatment-weighted (IPTW) estimators to derive treatment effects. A longitudinal prospective cohort study with follow-ups at 3 months, 1 year and 3 years. Treatment effects were derived by comparing groups at follow-up. IPTW estimators were...

Context: Methamphetamine is associated with psychotic phenomena, but it is not clear to what extent this relationship is due to premorbid psychosis among people who use the drug. Objective: To determine the change in the probability of psychotic symptoms occurring during periods of meth-amphetamine use. Design: Longitudinal prospective cohort study...

Background: Severe and persistent conduct problems in children during the primary school years are associated with school exclusion, increased risk of delinquency and early substance abuse. Method: Literature reviews and consultation with experts in the field were used to better understand the factors that contribute to severe and persistent conduc...

The current study investigated whether negative mood alone, or in conjunction with exposure to food cues, influences the urge to eat. Female participants (N=160) were allocated to either a negative or neutral mood induction procedure followed by exposure to either a preferred food cue or a non-food cue. Participants reported their urge to eat at ba...

The capacity to regulate emotional impulses and pursue appropriate long-term goals is an integral part of adaptive human functioning. Therefore, it is not surprising that this capacity consistently emerges as a core trait in biologically-based models of personality. Variously labeled as “impulsivity,” “sensation seeking,” or “constraint” amongst ot...

Multiple lines of evidence suggest impulsivity comprises two distinct components relevant to substance misuse. Reward drive reflects sensitivity to rewarding stimuli and subsequent approach motivation. Rash impulsiveness reflects the ability to inhibit such approach behavior in light of negative consequences. However, several studies suggest the la...

Relatively little is known about the clinical course of symptoms in patients with a substance-induced psychosis (SIP) compared with those with a primary psychotic disorder (PPD). In this study, symptoms associated with psychosis were monitored across admission in two groups of patients: those with SIP (amphetamines or cannabis; n = 47) and those wi...

It is paradoxical that while indices of health and wellbeing indicate that many in the Western world are living longer and healthier lives, there are a significant number of young women who engage in eating behaviours that are highly detrimental to health and can, in the extreme, result in starvation and death. The phenomenon of disordered eating,...

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