Lene-Mari Potulski Rasmussen

Early intervention can reduce the burden of internalising problems for children and adolescents, yet access remains limited. The field must ensure preventive interventions that are both durable and...

The Norwegian Network for Implementation Research (NIMP)`s fifth annual conference was held on February 5th, 2025, at Quality Hotel 33 in Oslo hosting a total of 123 attendees. The participants came from both academia and the practice field, with the majority being consultants, advisors or similar affiliations. This year’s conference included five keynote speakers, three of them were included in a panel discussion, reflecting on 30 years of experience within the field, and what should be considered in the future. In addition, there were two tracks of parallel sessions, where each track consisted of two parallel sessions. Each of these sessions had three oral presentations, yielding a total of 12 presentations. Six of the presentations had a research orientation, four were integrated, whereas two presentations were from the practice field. Four of the presentations were from secondary care (e.g. hospitals or psychiatric clinics), four from school, two from primary care (e.g. municipal services for elderly) and one from kindergarten and child welfare. The keynotes and presentations from the different parallel sessions highlighted the importance of building capacity for change in organizations using implementation support practitioners (ISP), focusing on developing infrastructure to monitor internal progress and addressing a need to strengthen implementation competence among professionals. One way to build competence and capacity for change, is including knowledge about implementation processes more specifically into the education programs. Although policy implementation was part of the call for abstracts, this topic was not addressed and should receive more attention in the future.

This article presents the findings of a study examining the resettlement experiences of displaced families in Norway, focusing on children's development opportunities and well‐being. Through qualitative interviews presented as four ideal‐typical families—Abdel, Elombe, Isaac and Amira—and guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory and Morgan's concept of ‘doing family’, the research explores how various ecological systems influence family dynamics and children's developmental trajectories. The findings show discrepancies in children's and parent's perceptions of past experiences. Further, challenges within the surrounding systems influence family interactions, illustrated by economic instability, school‐related challenges and parents' unemployment. The study suggests a need for supportive practices and policies to promote successful integration and improve the development opportunities and well‐being of refugee children.

The fourth annual conference of the Norwegian Network for Implementation Research (NIMP) was held on January 31st, 2024, in Oslo, Norway. This year’s conference focused on the role of context in implementation and called for innovations, methods, and practices that address and integrate contextual considerations in their implementation research and practice. A total of 137 people attended, and a majority attended for the first time. There was diversity in professional roles, and an increase in practice-oriented professions compared to past conferences. The conference program comprised three invited keynote speakers, Professor Aaron Lyon, Professor Henna Hasson, and Professor Gregory Aarons, twelve parallel session presentations, and eight poster presentations. The majority of presentations focused on understanding and/or explaining factors influencing implementation outcomes (n = 14), while fewer focused on describing and/or guiding the process of translating research into practice (n = 7) or evaluating implementation initiatives (n = 6). About half of the presentations were from implementation research, and the other half were from implementation practice or integrations of research and practice, indicating that the conference serves to connect implementation researchers and practitioners. In line with the call for abstracts, the role of context in implementation, approaches for community collaboration, and systems thinking were topics in several presentations, indicative of developments towards context-minded and systemic approaches to implementation in Norway. The conference saw little methodological work related to implementation measures and, similar to previous conferences, limited rigorous evaluations of implementation effectiveness and impact. NIMP should consider efforts to advocate for such studies to facilitate further advancement of implementation science and practice in Norway.

Including routine client feedback can increase the effectiveness of mental health interventions for children, especially when implemented as intended. Rate of implementation, or dose, of such feedback interventions has been shown to moderate results in some studies. Variation in implementation and use of client feedback may also contribute to the mixed results observed within the feedback literature. This study evaluates dose-response associations of client feedback using a novel Measurement Feedback System (MFS) within an indicated group intervention. The primary aim was to determine whether the rate of MFS implementation predicts symptom reduction in anxiety and depression among school-aged children. The secondary aim was to assess whether the rate of MFS implementation influences children’s satisfaction with the group intervention or their dropout rates. Data were collected via a randomized factorial study (clinicaltrials.gov NCT04263558) across 58 primary schools in Norway. Children aged 8 to 12 years (N = 701) participated in a group-based, transdiagnostic intervention targeting elevated symptoms of anxiety or depression. Half of the child groups also received the feedback intervention using the MittEcho MFS. Group leaders (N = 83), recruited locally, facilitated the interventions. The MFS dose was measured using the Implementation Index, which combines the use of MFS by both children and providers (group leaders) into a single dose variable. Results showed no significant additional effect of dose of MFS on change in depression or anxiety scores, on user satisfaction with the intervention or on intervention dropout. The discussion addresses potential reasons for these non-significant findings and implications for MFS implementation in preventive, group-based interventions in school settings.

Beskrivelse: Kinder Lebensqualität Fragebogen (KINDL®) er et spørreskjema som måler livskvalitet hos barn og unge (3–17 år). Spørreskjemaet ble utviklet i Tyskland, sist revidert i 1998 av Ravens-Sieberer og Bullinger, og oversatt til norsk i 2004 av Thomas Jozefiak og Sølvi Helseth. KINDL® inneholder selv-rapporteringsskjema for barn og foresatte med ulike alderstilpassede versjoner. Det er ingen formelle krav til administrering og fortolkning av testen. Skjemaet består av 24 spørsmål fordelt på seks delskalaer. Det beregnes gjennomsnittskår for hver delskala samt totalskalaen som transformeres til en 0–100 skår. Høy skår indikerer høy grad av livskvalitet. Litteratursøk: Litteratursøket resulterte i 39 publikasjoner som ble vurdert i fulltekst, hvor 22 ble inkludert. De fleste studiene rapporterte tall fra ulike kliniske og ikke-kliniske undergrupper, mens de resterende representerte normalpopulasjonen. Psykometri: Resultatene viser god til utmerket reliabilitet i form av indre konsistens for totalskala for barn, men større variasjon på delskalaene, spesielt blant de yngste barna. For totalskalaen viste test-retest med to uker mellom en høy intraklassekorrelasjon, og noe lavere for delskalaene. Her også var det lavest for den yngste gruppa. Det er begrenset informasjon om rapportering fra foresatte, men det som eksisterer viser tilfredsstillende reliabilitet. Informantdiskrepans viste gjennomgående høy variasjon mellom informanter. Det finnes noe støtte til begrepsvaliditeten, men faktorstrukturen har ikke blitt entydig replisert. Korrelasjoner med andre instrumenter som også måler livskvalitet tyder på at KINDL® måler det den er ment for å måle. Endringssensitivitet, sett gjennom takeffekter, rapporteres som tilfredsstillende. Konklusjon: KINDL® virker som et lovende instrument for å vurdere barn og unges livskvalitet, både i kliniske og ikke-kliniske underutvalg samt i normalpopulasjonen. KINDL® har moderat dokumentasjon på psykometriske egenskaper. Totalskalaen fremstår pålitelig for alle aldersgrupper. Det er derimot variasjon mellom delskalaene, og de viser seg å være bedre egnet for eldre barn enn de yngste (under 12 år). Vurdering av foresatte-rapporteringen er mangelfull, men det som eksisterer viser tilfredsstillende reliabilitet. Normgrunnlaget som finnes per nå, er noe begrenset og begynner å bli utdatert.

The aim of this article is to review the psychometric properties of the psychological tests that are being used in the Nordic countries during pregnancy and the child’s first two years of life. A systematic literature search was performed for 33 identified tests routinely used in health care, using specific review databases as well as PsycInfo, Embase and Medline. The trained authors conducted an overall assessment of quality for each test which was then verified by the editors. A total of 12% of the tests were rated at Level 1 ‘Low level of quality’, 61% at Level 2 ‘Some evidence of Quality’, 15% at level 3 ‘Good level of Quality’ and 12% at Level 4 ‘High level of quality’. This indicates that the evidence for the psychometric properties is insufficient for many tests used in the Nordic countries for this purpose

Internalizing problems may be associated with poor academic performance and school absenteeism among youth. This study investigated the impact of the EMOTION: “Coping Kids” Managing Anxiety and Depression Program on academic achievement and school adaptation in children. Data were collected in a national cluster-randomized controlled trial at three time points in Norway. Children (N = 688, 8–12 years), who had elevated levels of anxiety or depressive symptoms from 36 schools participated. There were no significant differences between the intervention and control groups post-intervention or at 12-month follow-up regarding academic achievement and school adaptation. Likewise, no significant intervention effects were identified for school-related variables in the anxiety-only, depression-only, or combined (anxiety and depression) groups. The intervention did not have an impact on school functioning. Thus, focusing on school-related challenges and enhanced collaboration with teachers, possibly through a tailored version of the EMOTION program, could be an interesting adaptation of the intervention.

Background: Prevention is essential to reduce the development of symptomology among children and adolescents into disorders, thereby improving public health and reducing costs. Therefore, easily administered screening and early assessment methods with good reliability and validity are necessary to effectively identify children’s functioning and how these develop. The Brief Problem Monitor (BPM) is an instrument designed for this purpose. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the BPM parent (BPM-P) and teacher (BPM-T) versions, including internal reliability and construct validity at assessing children with internalizing problems.Methods: Baseline data were collected from a national randomized controlled intervention study. Children aged 8–12 years with self-reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depression with one standard deviation above a chosen population’s mean were included in this study. Teachers (n = 750) and parents (n = 596) rated children using the BPM-T and BPM-P, respectively. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha, and multi-informant agreement between the BPM-P and BPM-T was measured using Spearman’s correlations. Construct validity was assessed via confirmatory factor analysis.Results: Internal consistency was good throughout all domains for both the BPM-P and BPM-T, with a Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .763 to .878. Multi-informant agreement between the parents and the teacher was moderate on the externalizing, attention, and total scales and low on the internalizing scale. The model fit for the three-factor structure of the BPM was excellent for the BPM-P and good for the BPM-T.Conclusions: Internal consistency was good, and the original three-factor solution of the BPM-P and BPM-T was confirmed based on our sample of school children at-risk for emotional problems. These promising results indicate that the BPM may be a valid short assessment tool for measuring attentional, behavioral, and internalizing problems in children.Trial registrationin Clinical Trials: NCT02340637; June 12, 2014.