Opioid neurotoxicity: A case series and review from members of the Child Neurology Society Neurocritical Care Special Interest Group.

In Western societies, adolescence is an especially arduous period for adolescents and parents because of major biological, cognitive, and emotional changes the adolescents are undergoing; changes in parent–adolescent relationships []; and adolescents’ growing need for autonomy, individuation, and more egalitarian relationships [] that might increase parent–adolescent conflict []. Also, adolescents spend less time with their parents and more time with peers [], making it more challenging for parents to monitor their adolescents’ whereabouts. Furthermore, adolescence usually overlaps with parents’ midlife needs, when they are reevaluating their life course [] and going through what has been found to be the lowest point in parents life satisfaction []. Based on the determinants of the parenting model proposed by Belsky [, ], parental personality and parental psychological functioning are the most significant factors in the determinants of parenting, because they affect parenting behavior and predict optimal parental behaviors [, ]. Hence, the current study seeks to add to the literature examining parenting behaviors (i.e., parenting practices) during the challenging time of parenting adolescents, by analyzing the characteristics and parenting practices of highly sensitive mothers with attachment avoidant orientation, which has not yet been explored. This research was conducted in Israel with Israeli participants. Israeli society is an intermediate one somewhere along the individualism-collectivism axis with strong family values and connectedness. As studies have reported, Israel has high levels of closeness between parents and children and autonomy support, but its highly involved parents have difficulties in practicing parental authority and parental monitoring [, ]. Being highly sensitive refers to an individual’s temperamental trait, genetically based, to tend to process more strongly and deeply a variety of information, such as one’s own and others’ moods and thoughts. Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs), who constitute 20-30% of the population [], tend to process and respond to lower thresholds of information and to better detect subtle differences in their environment [, ]. HSPs are more likely to experience social phobia [], depression [], avoidant personality disorder [], behavioral inhibition [], and attachment insecurity []. However, HSPs are not condemned to have “challenging” personalities with associated negative effects. There is some evidence that HSPs are differentially susceptible to environmental factors [, ]. Studies on highly sensitive children show that their sensitivity magnifies both positive and negative effects of their early relationships with their significant others [, ] as they integrate those experiences into their personality, coping strategies, and behaviors [, , –]. Thus, it is important to explore highly sensitive parents’ adjustment during the challenging period of adolescence.