Developmental Psychopathology

Objective: The present study aims to find out the impact of basketball playing on the psychological distress of the tribal students of Manipur University. Method: For the purpose of the present study, a total of 20 tribal basketball players of Manipur University are selected as subjects ranging from 18 to 28 years. Tools: To find out the psychological distress, the questionnaire SCL-90 constructed by Dr. John M. Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman is used. Results: Pre-test average scores of the psychological distress of tribal basketball players of Manipur University viz. obsessive compulsive, internalizing symptoms, depression, anxiety, hostility, paranoid, phobic anxiety, psychotics and somatization are (7.45±4.31), (6.90±2.98), (10.40±5.93), (7.55±4.59), (8.80±5.55), (8.80±4.16), (6.50±2.96) and (9.25±4.78) respectively. On the other hand, the post-test average scores of psychological distress are (3.75±2.97), (2.65±2.10), (3.10±2.40), (3,80±2.91), (3.45±3.37), (2.65±2.34), (2.80±2.28), (3.25±2.73) and (5.10±4.71). Conclusion: It is concluded that the basketball training programme has a significant impact on the psychological distress capacity of the tribal students of Manipur University.

Introduction:
Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience sustained functional impairment that simultaneously affects all areas of daily life. Available instruments for assessing this impact, designed within the clinical-psychological framework, capture internal states such as stress or anxiety but fail to measure the mother's functional capacity to sustain her own life. Naturopathy, through its conceptual framework of Health Status Indicators (HSI), offers an alternative perspective grounded in real-world vital functioning.
Objective:
To describe the development process, structure, and content of a naturopathic instrument for the assessment of HSI in caregiving mothers of children with ASD, and to present the baseline health status indicator profile generated by the instrument in a sample of 62 participants.
Methods:
The instrument was developed using the naturopathic expert method, based on the systematic observation of more than 1,000 family narratives accumulated over 15 years of naturopathic practice. The resulting questionnaire comprises 107 items organized into four thematic blocks with thirteen subsections, rated on a 0-to-5 scale. It was administered retrospectively to 62 caregiving mothers of children with ASD from 15 countries, all with a minimum of 12 months' participation in a personalized naturopathic health program.
Results:
Baseline HSI revealed a transversal and severe pattern of functional impairment across all evaluated blocks. Low functioning rates (scores 0-2) prior to program entry exceeded 80% in the personal block (mean: 81.0%), 72% in the social life and community block (72.5%), and 77% in the family and school block (77.0%). High functioning rates (scores 4-5) did not exceed 15% in any subsection at baseline, reaching as low as 2.5% in fears and anxieties and 4.6% in emotions and personal growth. Following program participation, substantial reductions in low functioning and increases in high functioning were observed across all blocks.
Conclusions:
The instrument captures dimensions of caregiving impact in mothers of children with ASD that standard clinical-psychological instruments do not measure, by focusing on real-life situations rather than internal states. The baseline data constitute in themselves a scientific contribution: the first systematic functional portrait of what these mothers experience before any intervention, built from direct naturopathic observation of more than one thousand narratives. The instrument demonstrates sensitivity for detecting functional changes in daily life and represents a contribution to the corpus of assessment tools in naturopathy.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders which affect a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture known as motor disability in childhood. Caregivers of children with cerebral palsy suffer from a substantial psychosocial burden. Mothers are the most common caregivers of children with cerebral palsy. The main objective of this study was to find out the relationship among emotional intelligence, Family support and mental well-being along with mediating role of family support between emotional intelligence and mental well-being of mothers having cerebral palsy children. 100 mothers with the age (M=35.79 and SD 5.93) were recruited and convenient sampling strategy was used to collect responses. The Self-Report Emotional Intelligence scale (Wong & Law, 2004), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al. 1998) and Warwick-Edinburg Mental Well-being Scale (Stewart-Brown et al. 2006) scales along with demographic Performa were used. Inferential statistics analysis was administered on quantitative data. Results revealed that there is significant positive correlation among emotional intelligence Family Support and mental well-being in mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Mediation analysis revealed that family support is a significant positive mediator in the relationship between emotional intelligence and mental well-being in mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Finding of this research will be helpful for families and mothers who have children with special need to cooperate with each other through psychological management, motivational strategies and psychoeducation.

Το παρόν κείμενο βασίζεται σε μια σειρά από κείμενα ταυτότητας παιδιών με προσφυγικό υπόβαθρο που παρήχθησαν από το 2016 έως 2022 σε διαφορετικά περιβάλλοντα και σε χώρους τυπικής και μη τυπικής εκπαίδευσης. Αναλύεται η σημασία τους για την ενδυνάμωση των παιδιών με πολλαπλές αφετηρίες καθώς και οι τρόποι αξιοποίησής τους από εκπαιδευτικούς που παρακολούθησαν προγράμματα επαγγελματικής ανάπτυξης και δράσεις υποστήριξης σχολείων για τη συμπερίληψη παιδιών με προσφυγική εμπειρία, όπως τα «Σχολεία για όλους» και «Εκπαίδευση για την Ένταξη». Τα κείμενα ταυτότητας των μαθητών/τριών παρουσιάζονται ως πεδία ανίχνευσης των πολυγλωσσικών ρεπερτορίων όπως και των προκλήσεων που οι μαθητές/τριες αντιμετώπιζαν κατά την εκπαιδευτική διαδικασία. Μέσα από τα κείμενα αυτά αναδύεται ο ρόλος των γλωσσών προέλευσης και σχολικής εκπαίδευσης στη διαδικασία οικοδόμησης των ταυτοτήτων των μαθητών/τριών ενώ ταυτόχρονα μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν ως εφαλτήριο μέσα από το οποίο αναδύονται οι γλωσσικές ιδεολογίες των ανήλικων προσφύγων. Έτσι, η εξοικείωση των εκπαιδευτικών με τη χρήση των κειμένων ταυτότητας προβάλλει τις πολλαπλές λειτουργίες τους στην εκπαιδευτική πράξη, εφόσον μπορούν να αξιοποιηθούν ως εργαλεία ανάπτυξης των πολυγλωσσικών δεξιοτήτων καθώς και των δεξιοτήτων ζωής, δημοκρατικής κουλτούρας και κοινωνικοσυναισθηματικής μάθησης. Παράλληλα, εργαλεία και μεθοδολογίες (όπως το «Φτου και Βγαίνω»), όπως και δράσεις επιμόρφωσης, υποστηρίζουν τους εκπαιδευτικούς ώστε να αναπτύξουν υποστηρικτικά, μαθητοκεντρικά πλαίσια μάθησης, καλλιεργώντας σχέσεις θετικής αλληλεπίδρασης και υψηλές προσδοκίες, που αναγνωρίζουν και αξιοδοτούν το δυναμικό, αλλά και το πολιτισμικό και γλωσσικό κεφάλαιο όλων των μαθητών και μαθητριών.

This article is the result of the research called “Aggressiveness in children. A perspective from dynamic psychology, family and critical pedagogy” conducted by the Luis Amigo University Foundation in 2010. This research used a qualitative methodology having some hermeneutical scopes. The objective was the interdisciplinary understanding of the aggressive behavior of children aged between 7 and 10 years attending a school in a suburb of Medellin city, Colombia. This paper presents the results of the psychological component of the project. In order to get the information it was applied the Thematic Apperception Test for Children (CAT) and the family drawing test. For the analysis it was used a hermeneutical method of discourse analysis, not the protocols of such test. The sample consisted of 11 children who showed aggressive behavior and 10 who had regular behavior, which served as control group. As a result, it was found that the fundamental differences between both groups of childr...

Digital games have been increasingly recognized as promising tools for supporting meaningful learning in school contexts. This study examined the effects of Alien Health, an embodied video game designed to promote nutrition and healthy eating learning among fifth-grade students in Chile. A quasi-experimental repeated-measures design was conducted with 327 students from 10 public, subsidized-private, and private schools in the Province of Concepción. Using pre-existing fifth-grade classes, participants were organized into a control group, who received traditional teacher-led instruction and an experimental group, who engaged with the video game without teacher mediation. Learning outcomes were assessed using the Nutrition and Healthy Eating (NHE) test, a 10-item curriculumaligned instrument developed for this study and reviewed by expert teachers. The test was administered at pretest, posttest, and delayed retest. Data were analyzed through repeatedmeasures ANOVA, considering total scores, curricular sub-objectives, and Bloom-based cognitive categories. Results showed a differentiated pattern over time. Control students tended to achieve higher scores at the immediate posttest, particularly in tasks associated with factual recall, whereas experimental students showed more stable performance at delayed retest and stronger outcomes in some higher-order tasks, especially food classification and integrative diet design. Differences in school type and gender were also observed, suggesting that the effects of the intervention varied across educational contexts. Overall, the findings indicate that embodied video games may serve as a valuable complement to traditional instruction by supporting longer-term knowledge retention and conceptual integration in primary education. The study contributes empirical evidence from a Latin American context to the literature on embodied learning, game-based education, and nutrition teaching.

ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience sustained functional impairment that simultaneously affects all areas of daily life. Available instruments for assessing this impact, designed within the clinical-psychological framework, capture internal states such as stress or anxiety but fail to measure the mother's functional capacity to sustain her own life. Naturopathy, through its conceptual framework of Health Status Indicators (HSI), offers an alternative perspective grounded in real-world vital functioning.
Objective:
To describe the development process, structure, and content of a naturopathic instrument for the assessment of HSI in caregiving mothers of children with ASD, and to present the baseline health status indicator profile generated by the instrument in a sample of 62 participants.
Methods:
The instrument was developed using the naturopathic expert method, based on the systematic observation of more than 1,000 family narratives accumulated over 15 years of naturopathic practice. The resulting questionnaire comprises 107 items organized into four thematic blocks with thirteen subsections, rated on a 0-to-5 scale. It was administered retrospectively to 62 caregiving mothers of children with ASD from 15 countries, all with a minimum of 12 months' participation in a personalized naturopathic health program.
Results:
Baseline HSI revealed a transversal and severe pattern of functional impairment across all evaluated blocks. Low functioning rates (scores 0-2) prior to program entry exceeded 80% in the personal block (mean: 81.0%), 72% in the social life and community block (72.5%), and 77% in the family and school block (77.0%). High functioning rates (scores 4-5) did not exceed 15% in any subsection at baseline, reaching as low as 2.5% in fears and anxieties and 4.6% in emotions and personal growth. Following program participation, substantial reductions in low functioning and increases in high functioning were observed across all blocks.
Conclusions:
The instrument captures dimensions of caregiving impact in mothers of children with ASD that standard clinical-psychological instruments do not measure, by focusing on real-life situations rather than internal states. The baseline data constitute a scientific contribution in themselves: the first systematic functional portrait of what these mothers experience before any intervention, built from direct naturopathic observation of more than 1,000 narratives. The instrument demonstrates sensitivity for detecting functional changes in daily life and represents a contribution to the corpus of assessment tools in naturopathy.

The understanding of the self is of paramount significance because as individuals we wonder who we are; where we come from; what the purpose of our life is, and what true happiness and misery entail. Muslim philosophers such as Razi, Farabi and Avicenna as well as Sufi mystics like Sanai, Attar and Rumi believe mankind is composed of an external form or body, and an internal entity, which is one's true substance, 'nafs', self, mind or soul. Sufi mystics likewise the Muslim philosophers believe that mankind is a union of mind and body; nevertheless, they consider the physical body is a deception, as the true essence of human consists of his soul that is eternal and divine. They emphasize the immortal nature of the soul, created by God that returns through various stages to be in closer proximity to its Creator. They concur "although man is not primordial, he is eternal; while his corpus is terrestrial, his soul is divine; and although his essence is mixed with animal and voracious attributes; if he gets rid of his maleficence, man will reach the proximity of God, which represents its ultimate happiness.

I hereby declare that this paper titled "The Neuro-Hormonal Compensation Hypothesis" is my original work. I confirm that: 1. The research and theoretical framework presented are the result of my own analysis and literature review. 2. All sources and intellectual contributions of others have been duly acknowledged through formal citations and references. 3. This work has not been submitted, in whole or in part, for any other degree or professional qualification. 4. I have followed ethical guidelines in the collection and interpretation of the scientific data discussed herein.

Higher prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (14.8%) in DMD boys. Higher prevalence of Intellectual Disability (36.2%) in DMD. Higher prevalence of CBCL Internalizing Problems (23.4%) in DMD. First study in DMD based on reliable psychopathological assessment.

Contemporary models of behavioral change frequently assume that cognitive insight and awareness are sufficient for modifying maladaptive patterns. However, persistent discrepancies between insight and behavior challenge this assumption. Individuals often demonstrate clear understanding of their actions while remaining unable to alter them. This paper proposes that such limitations arise from biologically stabilized regulatory processes, specifically through hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis conditioning and embodied body schema formation. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from neuroscience, developmental psychology, and embodied cognition, this paper introduces the concept of the Biological Threshold of Awareness, defined as the point at which physiological dysregulation constrains the translation of insight into action. Building on research demonstrating that exercise and body-mind practices modulate the HPA axis through improvements in body schema (Kosma, 2026), this framework extends the discussion by proposing that maladaptive behaviors are maintained through embodied stress-response learning rather than purely cognitive distortions. A novel model, the Regulatory Encoding Loop, is introduced to describe how early relational stress conditions HPA-axis reactivity, shapes body schema, and drives perception and behavior in a self-reinforcing cycle. The paper further argues that sustainable behavioral change requires physiological recalibration through embodied interventions, rather than reliance on insight alone. This integrative model provides a unifying explanation for constraints in empathy, accountability, and behavioral flexibility, positioning regulation; not cognition, as the primary gateway to transformation.

RESUMEN Este artículo busca entregar una revisión teórica, así como una reflexión, respecto a la participación de las mujeres en psicoterapia. Se releva al género como un filtro por el que transita todo nuestro quehacer terapéutico, y la importancia que tiene el autoconocimiento como recurso para el trabajo clínico. Además, se propone el reconocimiento de resonancias y la supervisión clínica, como herramientas centrales para el desarrollo de la persona de la terapeuta en distintas etapas de nuestro quehacer psicoterapéutico. Palabras claves: mujeres, psicoterapeuta, persona del terapeuta, resonancia, supervisión SUMMARY This article aims to provide a theoretical review and reflection on women's participation in psychotherapy. It highlights gender as a lens through which all our therapeutic practices are filtered, emphasizing the significance of self-awareness as a resource for clinical work. Furthermore, the recognition of resonances and clinical supervision are proposed as central tools for the therapist's personal development at different stages of our psychotherapeutic practices.

Background: Substance use and abuse is a growing problem among adolescents with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (ID). Substance use patterns in general population are similar to patterns among non-disabled peers, but substance use has more negative consequences for adolescents with mild to borderline ID, and they are at an increased risk for developing a substance use disorder. Nevertheless, effective and evidence based prevention programs for this groups are lacking. The study described in this protocol tested the effectiveness of a selective intervention aimed at reducing substance use in adolescents with mild to borderline ID and behavioral problems. In the intervention, participants acquire competences to deal with their high-risk personality traits. Methods: A randomized controlled trial will be conducted among 14-21-year old adolescents with mild to borderline ID and behavioral problems admitted to treatment facilities in the Netherlands. Inclusion criteria are previous substance use and personality risk for substance use. Participants will be individually randomized to the intervention (n = 70) or control (n = 70) groups. The intervention group will be exposed to six individual sessions and five group sessions carried out by two qualified trainers over six-week period. Primary outcomes will be the percentage reduction in substance use (for alcohol: percentage decrease of binge drinking, weekly use and problematic use, for cannabis: the percentage decrease of lifetime cannabis use and weekly use and for hard drug: the percentage decrease of lifetime use). Secondary outcomes will be motives for substance use, intention to use, and internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. All outcome measures will be assessed after two, six, and twelve months after the intervention. Discussion: This study protocol describes the design of an effectiveness study of a selective prevention program for substance use in adolescents with mild to borderline ID and behavioral problems. We expect a significant reduction in alcohol, cannabis and hard drug use among adolescents in the intervention group compared with the control group. Trial registration: This trial is registered in the Dutch Trial Register (Cochrane Collaboration) as NTR5037 registered at

Environmental smoking has numerous adverse effects on child health, and children are frequently exposed to environmental smoking. In the present study, we investigated the role of environmental smoking (parental smoking, sibling smoking, peer smoking) in smoking-related cognitions (pros of smoking, perceived safety of casual smoking, cue-triggered wanting to smoke) and susceptibility to smoking among 9-12 year old never-smoking children (N = 778). We collected cross-sectional survey data from children attending 15 Dutch primary schools. Using structural equation modelling, we assessed direct as well as indirect relationships among study variables. The results showed that children who were exposed to more smoking parents, siblings, and peers perceived more pros of smoking. Additionally, parental smoking was associated with higher perceived safety of casual smoking and more cue-triggered wanting to smoke. In turn, perceiving a higher safety of casual smoking and more cue-triggered wanting to smoke were associated with a higher susceptibility to smoking in children. No direct effects of environmental smoking on children's susceptibility to smoking were found. However, parental smoking was associated with children's susceptibility to smoking through children's perceived safety of casual smoking and cue-triggered wanting to smoke. The present study indicates that pre-adolescents may already display favourable smoking-related cognitions and that these cognitions may be an early indicator of a child's vulnerability to smoking. Environmental smoking, particularly parental smoking, is associated with more favourable smoking-related cognitions in never-smoking children. In the intergenerational transmission of smoking from parents to children, children's risk perceptions of smoking and the experience of cue-triggered wanting to smoke may constitute mechanisms of action, which need to be investigated in longitudinal research.

Adult smokers were found to reduce cognitive dissonance regarding their smoking behaviour by adhering to rationalizations or justifications to continue smoking, also known as disengagement beliefs. These beliefs were found to be an important barrier with regard to smoking cessation practices. Neither the occurrence of disengagement beliefs, nor its effect on motivation to quit and actual smoking cessation have been studied among adolescent smokers. Therefore, this prospective study among a sample of 363 adolescents examined the extent to which adolescents adhere to disengagement beliefs, and the relations between disengagement beliefs and adolescents' motivation to quit smoking, motivation change and smoking cessation. The association and interplay between disengagement beliefs and level of nicotine dependence was also assessed. Results showed that the degree to which adolescent smokers adhere to disengagement beliefs was similar to that of adults, if not stronger. Higher levels of dependence coincided with stronger adherence to disengagement beliefs. Further, when controlling for nicotine dependence, disengagement beliefs were strongly negatively associated with motivation to quit, but only marginally inversely associated with smoking cessation one year later. Nicotine dependence was the strongest barrier for smoking cessation at follow-up.

Background: Several forms of cessation support have been shown effective in increasing the chance of successful smoking cessation, but cessation support is still underutilized among smokers. Proactive outreach to target audiences may increase use of cessation support. Methods: The present study evaluated the efficiency of using study invitation letters distributed through primary schools in recruiting smoking parents into cessation support (quitline support or a self-help brochure). Use and evaluation of cessation support among smoking parents were examined. Results: Findings indicate that recruitment of smokers into cessation support remains challenging. Once recruited, cessation support was well received by smoking parents. Of smokers allocated to quitline support, 88% accepted at least one counselling call. The average number of calls taken was high (5.7 out of 7 calls). Of smokers allocated to receive self-help material, 84% read at least some parts of the brochure. Of the intention-to-treat population, 81% and 69% were satisfied with quitline support or self-help material, respectively. Smoking parents were significantly more positive about quitline support compared to self-help material (p<.001). Conclusions: Cessation support is well-received and well-used among smoking parents recruited through primary schools. Future studies need to examine factors that influence the response to offers of cessation support in samples of nonvolunteer smokers. Trial registration: The protocol for this study is registered with the Netherlands Trial Register NTR2707

To increase understanding of the etiology and epidemiology of nicotine dependence among adolescent smokers, the present study examined the occurrence and development of distinct nicotine dependence symptom profiles in a sample of adolescent smokers. A total of 25 secondary schools throughout the Netherlands participated in a 1-year longitudinal study. Multiple dimensions of nicotine dependence were assessed, at two time points, among 641 adolescents (aged 14 -17 years) who were classified as smokers. Results showed 4 distinct, yet stable, nicotine dependence subtypes that could be characterized by quantitative as well as qualitative differences. The symptom profiles were similar for males and females but differentially associated with previously identified correlates of nicotine dependence, namely parental smoking, peer smoking, and depressive mood. Finally, differential links of the 4 subtypes were found with regard to smoking uptake and cessation. The finding of qualitative different subgroups of adolescent smokers may have important implications for intervention efforts regarding nicotine dependence and smoking cessation. Such efforts may need to be tailored to the specific subgroups' needs.

Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based brief alcohol intervention 'What Do You Drink' (WDYD) among heavy drinking students at 1-and 6-month post-intervention. Additionally, it was investigated whether certain subgroups would benefit more than others from the WDYD intervention. Methods: A two-arm parallel group randomized controlled trial was conducted online in the Netherlands in 2010-2011. Inclusion criteria were: (1) being between 18-and 24-year old, (2) reporting heavy drinking in the past 6 months, (3) being motivated to change alcohol consumption, (4) having access to the Internet and ( ) giving informed consent. Participants (n = 913) were randomized to the experimental (WDYD intervention) or control condition (no intervention). Measures were heavy drinking, frequency of binge drinking and weekly alcohol consumption. Results: Analyses according to the intention-to-treat principle revealed no significant main intervention effects in reducing the alcohol measures at the follow-up assessments. Secondary analyses revealed that gender, freshmen and fraternity or sorority membership did not moderate the effect of the WDYD intervention at both follow-ups. Readiness to change, problem drinking and carnival participation moderated intervention effects such that contemplators, those with severe symptoms of alcohol abuse or dependence, and those who participated in carnival benefited more than others from the WDYD intervention regarding weekly alcohol consumption at 1-month follow-up. Conclusions: The WDYD intervention was not effective in reducing the alcohol measures among heavy drinking students at 1-and 6-month postintervention. However, there is preliminary evidence that the WDYD intervention is effective in lowering drinking levels for subgroups of heavy drinking students in the short term.

Aims: To examine the use of a cue-reminder to target alcohol use among youth in social contexts. Methods: Two experiments were conducted. First, among 92 late adolescents, we tested if a cue-reminder could be effectively associated with information about empowerment, awareness and monitoring of one's own limits with regard to alcohol use. Second, among 107 young adults, the effect of the cue in a real-life drinking setting was examined. Results: The first study showed that adolescents in the experimental condition recalled more empowerment information compared with adolescents in the control condition (mean 2.00 ± 0.92 vs mean 1.52 ± 0.96, P = 0.017), indicating the possibility of creating an association between a symbol (cue-reminder) and empowerment information with regard to alcohol use. In the second study, significant interaction effects between general drinking frequency and condition were found in relation to having an alcoholic consumption (β = -0.24; P = 0.027) and to the amount of alcoholic consumptions (β = -0.24; P = 0.035), suggesting that the presence of the cue-reminder in a drinking situation may have an inhibitory effect on alcohol consumption among frequent drinkers. Conclusion: The cue-reminder seems to have the potential to function as an intervention to reduce excessive alcohol use in social settings.

Detrimental health consequences of smoking for both parents and children stress the importance for parents to quit. A Dutch efficacy trial supported the efficacy of proactive telephone counseling on parents. Still, how this program would function in "real world" conditions and how parents could be optimally reached is unclear. Therefore, this study will use an innovative method to examine the recruitment success of two implementation approaches (i.e., via a healthcare approach and a mass media approach) to test the (cost)effectiveness of the program. A two-arm randomized controlled trial and an implementation study (i.e., process evaluation) are conducted. Parents (N = 158) will be randomly assigned to the intervention (i.e., telephone counseling) or control conditions (i.e., self-help brochure). Primary outcome measure is 7-day point prevalence abstinence at three months post-intervention. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are used for the process evaluation. We expect that parents in the intervention condition have higher cessation rates than parents in the control condition. We also expect that the recruitment of parents via (youth) health care services is a more promising implementation approach compared to mass media. Results will have implications for the effectiveness of a proactive telephone counseling and provide directions for its successful implementation.

Background: Web-based brief alcohol interventions are effective in reducing alcohol use among students when measured at limited follow-up time points. To date, no studies have tested Web-based brief alcohol intervention effectiveness over time by using a large number of measurements. Objective: Testing whether the What Do You Drink (WDYD) Web-based brief alcohol intervention can sustain a reduction in alcohol use among heavy-drinking students aged 18-24 years at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up intervals. Methods: A purely Web-based, 2-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial applying an ecological momentary assessment approach with 30 weekly measurements was conducted in the Netherlands (2010)(2011). Participants were recruited offline and online. A total of 907 participants were randomized into the experimental condition (n=456) including the singlesession and fully automated WDYD intervention, or into the control condition (n=451) including assessment only. Weekly alcohol consumption and frequency of binge drinking were the self-assessed outcome measures. Results: Attrition rates of the 907 participants were 110 (12.1%), 130 (14.3%), and 162 (17.9%) at 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up intervals, respectively. Latent growth curve analyses according to the intention-to-treat principle revealed that participants in the experimental condition had significantly lower weekly alcohol consumption compared to participants in the control condition that was sustained at 3-month follow-up (intercept=-2.60, P<.001; slope=0.16, P=.08). Additional linear regression analyses indicated that this intercept difference resulted from significantly higher levels of alcohol units per week for participants in the control condition compared to those in the experimental condition at 1-month SE 0.74, Cohen's d=0.20, P=.001), SE 0.60, Cohen's d=0.13, P=.003), and 6-month (beta=-1.21, SE 0.58, Cohen's d=0.09, P=.04) follow-up intervals. Latent growth curve analyses further indicated that participants in the experimental condition had a significantly lower frequency of binge drinking compared to participants in the control condition that was sustained at 6-month follow-up (intercept=-0.14, P=.01; slope=0.004, P=.19). This intercept difference resulted from higher levels in this outcome for participants in the control condition relative to participants in the experimental condition at 1-month (beta=-1.15, SE 0.06, Cohen's d=0.16, P=.01), 3-month (beta=-0.12, SE 0.05, Cohen's d=0.09, P=.01), and 6-month (beta=-0.09, SE 0.05, Cohen's d=0.03, P=.045) follow-up intervals. Conclusions: The WDYD intervention was shown to be effective in preventing an increase in weekly alcohol consumption and frequency of binge drinking directly after the intervention. This effect was sustained 3 and 6 months after the intervention.

Prevalence and consequences of smoking Globally, about one in every five adolescents aged 13 to 15 years is a smoker and between 80,000 and 100,000 children start smoking every day . If current trends continue, over 200 million persons who are currently children and teenagers will die from tobacco-related illnesses . Although in the Netherlands a decrease in adolescent smoking occurred around 2003, the prevalence has been relatively stable since that time. Demographic data still provide a troubling picture (Figure ), given that 45% of adolescents aged 10-19 years indicate that they have tried smoking at least once, 24% indicate to have smoked during the last four weeks, and 16% indicate to smoke on a daily basis . The health consequences of smoking are considered to be two-fold. First, once started smoking, dependence on nicotine can develop rapidly (e.g. . By inhaling cigarette smoke, smokers deliver the addictive drug nicotine to the brain about as efficiently as an intravenous injection with a syringe .

Recently, a Dutch proactive parent-tailored telephone smoking cessation counselling program, Smoke-free Parents (SFP), was demonstrated to be effective in helping parents to quit smoking. This study aimed to examine the program's uptake and the costs of two recruitment approaches (i.e. healthcare vs mass media) for SFP. In addition, parent's barriers to participating in SFP and the characteristics of participating parents were assessed. METHODS As part of an effectiveness-implementation hybrid trial, 402 smoking parents were recruited via healthcare settings and mass media for an informal, proactive, and free phone call with a smoking cessation counsellor about SFP (the Netherlands, September 2016 -September 2018). Parents were asked whether they wanted to participate in SFP. If parents refused, reasons for decline and additional information (e.g. educational level) were collected. RESULTS Results revealed that 26.4% of the recruited parents participated in SFP. Although the program uptake of parents recruited via mass media was slightly, but not significantly, higher than via healthcare (27.3% vs 26.8%, p=0.92), the healthcare approach resulted in lower costs per participant (€99.62 vs €205.72). Smoking cessation counsellors were unable to reach almost one-third (32.7%) of the parents after they had agreed to be called about SFP. CONCLUSIONS The present study showed that more than a quarter of all recruited parents participated in SFP and that the mass media approach and healthcare approach can be used to recruit parents for SFP. To increase the number of parents participating in SFP, it is important to overcome the identified barriers that prevent parents from participating.

This poem reflects a personal journey shaped by one year of ministry in an unfamiliar context. It explores the tension between comfort and calling, using the metaphor of a confused bird carried by an eagle into a harsh yet formative environment. The unfamiliar nest represents a space of testing rather than ease, where fear, uncertainty, and surrender become instruments of transformation. Through vivid imagery, the poem portrays spiritual and personal formation as a process marked by disruption and refinement. Ultimately, it suggests that growth emerges not from comfort, but through trials that shape identity, purpose, and resilience in the life of one called into deeper formation.