Yvonne Bohr

• C. Psych.
• Professor (Associate) at York University

Inuit youth in Nunavut (NU) are resilient but face a protracted suicide crisis. The SPARX serious game and e-intervention, developed originally in New Zealand, teaches youth cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) skills to ameliorate stress and depression. Inuit youth in NU reviewed and culturally adapted SPARX and an existing wellness outcome measure...

Over 100 million children and youth around the world live in precarious street situations, most of whom are boys living in low- and middle-income country contexts. Although this vast group of youth is exposed to substantial hardship, it is increasingly evident that there are resilient processes underway that allow many of these young people to surv...

Purpose Active engagement in one’s therapy is a key contributor to successful outcomes. Research on child engagement in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has largely focused on youth without autism. This longitudinal study examined multiple indicators of child engagement in relation to outcomes for autistic children who took part in CBT for emotion...

There are tens of millions of children and youth in street situations (CYSS) worldwide, the majority of whom are males living in low- and middle-income countries. Many of these children demonstrate impressive adaptability and resilience. The focus of the current research was on the resilience of male CYSS in León, Nicaragua. Qualitative data were c...

This pilot study examined associations between transdiagnostic symptoms and parent-perceived parent-child relationship quality in treatment-seeking families of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, and interactions among clinical symptoms and cognitive functioning. Sixty-three children between 8 to 13 years of age and their caregivers were...

The objective of the current research was to investigate the relationship between parenting style, culture, and infant development in a sample of Latin American mother-infant dyads in Toronto, Canada. We examined associations between mothers' self-reported parenting style and infant cognitive and socioemotional development, which we compared to res...

This study investigated how COVID-19 has affected the wellness of a group of Inuit youth leaders in Nunavut in the context of their involvement with an ongoing mental health research initiative, the Making I-SPARX Fly in Nunavut [I-SPARX] project. The study had three goals: (1) to understand how the pandemic has affected I-SPARX leaders’ perceived...

Inuit youth in Canada endure significant mental health challenges, including geographic isolation, economic hardships, mental health stigma, and severely limited access to mental health services in remote Northern communities. Yet Inuit are also among the least likely of all youth in Canada to seek help when experiencing distress. This troubling re...

Understanding the role of therapeutic process factors in treatment change may prove useful for discerning why some autistic youth benefit from psychosocial interventions that target emotional and psychological aspects of mental health, while others do not. The aim of the current study was to synthesize what is currently known about therapeutic proc...

BACKGROUND Inuit youth in Northern Canada show considerable resilience in the face of extreme adversities. However, they also experience significant mental health needs and some of the highest adolescent suicide rates in the world. Disproportionate rates of truancy, depression, and suicide among Inuit adolescents have captured the attention of all...

Background: Inuit youth in Northern Canada show considerable resilience in the face of extreme adversities. However, they also experience significant mental health needs and some of the highest adolescent suicide rates in the world. Disproportionate rates of truancy, depression, and suicide among Inuit adolescents have captured the attention of al...

Caregiver-child interaction is known to play a central role in children’s socioemotional development, yet the diversity of measures commonly used to evaluate it call into question the nature of the construct being assessed. Contingency within caregiver-child interactions has been identified as a key dyadic process that requires taking a temporal pe...

The Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification—Brief (AMBIANCE‐Brief) was developed to provide a clinically useful and psychometrically sound assessment of disrupted parenting behavior for community practitioners. With prior evidence of this tool's reliability and validity in laboratory settings, this study aimed to det...

Peripartum depression (PPD) is considered a major public health concern due to its profound impact on families, including infants. In this paper, we report on a pilot initiative designed to reduce barriers and stigma related to the use of traditional infant mental health services for immigrant parents deemed at high risk of PPD. The Crying Clinic (...

Supporting language skills in the early years is important because children who begin school with stronger language skills continue to perform well later in their language as well as academic and socioemotional growth. This three-wave longitudinal study of 50 mother-infant dyads reveals that maternal sensitivity and maternal language at 5 months ea...

Background-E-cigarettes have grown in popularity around the world since 2003. Although marketed as a smoking cessation tool, e-cigarettes can lead to tobacco cigarette smoking in youth. In Canada, among all age groups, youth and young adults have the highest prevalence of e-cigarette use. The objective of this study was to assess the factors associ...

The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment (PCIA-II; Holigrocki, Kaminski & Frieswyk, 1999, 2002) began as a clinical research tool for understanding important aspects of parent-child interaction. In recent years, the PCIA-II has been adapted for use as a brief intervention with vulnerable caregivers. We describe the PCIA-II’s development and the work...

This chapter aims to contextualize Indigenous parenting customs by discussing the historical trauma context which affects many diverse Indigenous cultures worldwide whose parenting practices have been, and continue to be, affected by colonization and the ensuing traumatization of entire communities. It also explains past and current discriminatory...

There is a dearth of literature available on traditional Aboriginal child rearing. This review paper explores Aboriginal child rearing to determine if traditional practices are still in use, how these may differ from mainstream child rearing and may have been modified by mainstream influences and colonialism. Traditional Aboriginal parenting is dis...

Although mental health (MH) disorders are common among children and adolescents, most youth in need of services do not receive care. Among those who do access the mental health care system, quality of care remains poor. Telehealth technologies have the potential to improve access and quality of MH care for this population. In this article, we provi...

The significance of caregiver sensitivity for child development has been debated among scholars, not least due to sensitivity's inconsistent predictive value over time and across contexts. A lack of uniformity in the definition of sensitivity contributes to this debate, but shortfalls of intertool concordance and construct validity in the instrumen...

In recent years much attention has been directed to the development of effective caregiving interventions in response to a growing body of research that links parenting quality to healthy developmental outcomes of children. Many existing empirically validated interventions designed for caregivers are highly didactic and take a primarily behavioral,...

Every year, in North American immigrant communities, thousands of infants experience separations from their parents when left or sent to live with extended family overseas. The practice of transnational, temporary boarding is widespread and poorly understood. This practice has been documented in North American Chinese, South Asian, Caribbean, and F...

Prolonged transnational separation between parents and children is a common occurrence for many families today. Typically motivated by the desire to create a better economic future for the entire family, parents who move abroad in search of work opportunities often face limited childcare options in their country of settlement. This causes some pare...

Background: Depression and suicidality amongst Inuit youth is one of the most significant health concerns in Nunavut (Canada), however access to mental health services remains limited (Kirmayer et al., 2000). It is thus crucial to explore innovative intervention modalities for this community. Evidence suggests that Computerized Cognitive Behavioura...

The current study examined the distinctive gender-related expressions of adolescent romantic competence and patterns of maternal and paternal attitudes toward daughters’ and sons’ romantic involvements. Employing a qualitative approach, an in-depth interview assessing romantic competence was given to 69 Israeli adolescents (37 boys) ranging in age...

Background A negative birth experience has been shown to have a significant impact on the well-being and future choices of mothers. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of, and identify the risk factors associated with a negative birth experience for women in Canada. Methods The study was based on secondary data analysis of the...

Identity achievement has been described as a critical developmental task of adolescence, but has seldom been discussed in the context of adolescent parenthood. Little is known about how teen mothers negotiate identity development, nor about the role that the latter plays in influencing the teen parenting context, for example parenting quality and e...

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show high rates of anxiety, and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is recognized as an emerging evidence-based practice. Eighteen children (8–12 years of age, M = 9.5, SD = 1.34; male: n = 15) with ASD and significant anxiety problems participated in a 12-session group “Coping Cat” intervention toget...

Children of adolescent mothers born into high-poverty communities are at greater than average risk of being maltreated at the hands of their caregiver. One possible explanatory variable that is not well understood is the role of adolescent developmental task attainment in young mothers’ adaptation to parenting. Adolescent mothers face the unique du...

Introduction: Women’s migration is increasing globally. In spite of recent reports to the contrary, it is often believed that the lives of immigrant women and their families improve steadily after immigration, with enhanced health and mental health a logical consequence to settling in prosperous countries such as Canada. Main Body: When immigrant w...

Introduction: Maternal mental health has a significant impact on the health and well-being of both mothers and their children. Yet despite the prevalence and severity of unmet maternal mental health needs, mental health is often overlooked as a national health priority, and this seems particularly true in low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs)....

There is a dearth of literature available on traditional Aboriginal child rearing. This review paper explores Aboriginal child rearing to determine if traditional practices are still in use, how these may differ from mainstream child rearing and may have been modified by mainstream influences and colonialism. Traditional Aboriginal parenting is dis...

This community pilot study was designed to evaluate a small group intervention, Right From The Start (RFTS), in terms of the benefits it provides to adolescent mothers specifically. The effectiveness of the programme was examined in the areas of maternal sensitivity, parenting confidence, parenting stress, and postnatal depression. RFTS has been fo...

There is a dearth of literature available on traditional Aboriginal child rearing. This review paper explores Aboriginal child rearing to determine if traditional practices are still in use, how these may differ from mainstream child rearing and may have been modified by mainstream influences and colonialism. Traditional Aboriginal parenting is dis...

This study examined the experience of mothering in adolescence in the context of romantic involvement and social support. 30 adolescent mothers completed measures of adolescent self-development and motherhood, romantic relationship experience, availability of and satisfaction with social support, and parenting stress. Findings suggest that young mo...

In this study, I examined dyadic behavioural rigidity as a possible mediator between maternal depression and child externalizing behaviour in 39 mother-child dyads (child age range: 1.5-4 years old). Mothers completed questionnaires about their own symptoms of depression and about their children’s externalizing symptoms, and mothers and children we...

In this study, I examined dyadic behavioural rigidity as a possible mediator between maternal depression and child externalizing behaviour in 39 mother-child dyads (child age range: 1.5-4 years old). Mothers completed questionnaires about their own symptoms of depression and about their children’s externalizing symptoms, and mothers and children we...

The objective of the current study was to produce a meta-synthesis of the existent qualitative research on pregnant or mothering adolescents who have been in the custody of child protective services. Seven overarching themes emerged from analyzing 17 qualitative studies: (1) infant filling an emotional void; (2) lack of consistent education and lac...

Italy has experienced a recent surge in immigration, which has led to an increase in the country's birth rate. Many immigrant mothers are adolescent parents. 30 adolescent mothers (17 recent immigrants and 13 adolescents of Italian descent) completed measures of adolescent self-development and motherhood, perceived availability and satisfaction wit...

Maternal risk factors, including depression and stress, are often linked to child externalizing behaviour (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999). This study explores the relationship between these risk factors and child externalizing symptoms in immigrant (IMM) and non-immigrant (NIMM) communities. Mother-child dyads were recruited at a child and family mental h...

This study examined the links between parental divorce, quality of maternal parenting, spousal relationships and middle adolescent romantic competence in 80 mother-adolescent daughter pairs (40 divorced). Mothers were asked to describe their attitudes and behaviors with regard to their daughters' romantic behavior. In addition, mothers were intervi...

The study aims to examine the prevalence and characteristics of adolescent mothers throughout the provinces of Canada. The analysis was based on the Maternity Experience Survey targeting women aged ≥15 years who had singleton live births during 2005/2006 in the Canadian provinces and territories. The main dependent variable in this study was the mo...

Abstract— Researchers have paid little attention to the effects of a rapidly globalizing world on infants and toddlers, even though some features of globalization may have a significant impact on their development and well-being. For example, fragmentation occurs in many North American and European transnational families when infants are separated...

Background: Individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) are at increased risk for mental health problems compared to the general population, especially with regard to mood and anxiety disorders. Generic mental health services are often ill-equipped to offer psychotherapeutic treatments to this population, and specialized supports are difficult to find....

Evidence‐based parenting programmes frequently undergo modifications when delivered in community mental health centres. Adaptations are made to the original curriculum due to clientele demographics, practitioner judgement and resource restrictions. It is thus important to evaluate whether adapted interventions successfully meet their expected goals...

We describe the assessment and treatment of a mother who was a victim of domestic violence and of her 10-year-old son, both of whom were living in a domestic violence shelter. The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II Modifying Attributions of Parents intervention (PCIA-II/MAP; Bohr, 2005; Bohr et al., 2008; Bohr & Holigrocki, 2005) is a structure...

This study examines a practice which is characteristic of an era of intensifying globalization: As part of a transnational lifestyle, an increasing number of immigrants to North America send infants thousands of miles back to their country of origin to be raised by members of their extended families—a culturally sanctioned tradition. After several...

This article describes one child and family treatment center's process of creating a long-awaited, new infant/child early intervention program. An experimental service model is discussed in the context of the need for empirically validated assessment and intervention for very young clients in high-risk families. Case examples and illustrations of s...

The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II Modifying Attributions of Parents (PCIA-II/MAP) is a manualized intervention currently used in Canada and the USA. This approach integrates direct observation and video-recall methods of assessment with a cognitive-behavioral therapy model. It is a brief intervention aimed at modifying inappropriately nega...

Synopsis Psychometric and clinical correlates of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) are described for a large sample of female anorexia nervosa ( N = 160) and female comparison ( N = 140) subjects. An abbreviated 26-item version of the EAT (EAT-26) is proposed, based on a factor analysis of the original scale (EAT-40). The EAT-26 is highly correlated...

Sujet Plus de 200 millions de personnes partout dans le monde sont des migrants internationaux. Le processus d'immigration implique un déplacement qui a des effets importants sur la vie familiale, notamment en raison des changements culturels inhérents à la réinstallation. De nouvelles recherches sont axées sur les répercussions de l'immigration et...