Differentiating between child protection and family support in the Canadian child welfare system's response to intimate partner violence,corporal punishment,and child neglect

Rates of reported child maltreatment nearly doubled in Canada over the period 1998–2003, an increase that reflects growing awareness of the harmful effects of an expanding array of parental behaviors, including corporal punishment, lack of supervision, and exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). Some of these situations may benefit from voluntary family support programs outside of the child welfare system. Analyzing a sample of 11,807 investigations, this paper compares cases where the sole concern is exposure to IPV, or hitting a child, or neglect, or other forms of investigated maltreatment. Situations where exposure to IPV or potentially abusive hitting were the sole reason for investigation presented with fewer risk factors and were less likely to lead to ongoing child welfare interventions compared to other maltreatment investigations. While situations involving alleged neglect presented a higher risk profile and elicited a more intensive child welfare response than did exposure to IPV or hitting, opportunities for alternative services were nevertheless identified. The study also found that visible minority families were overrepresented in cases involving hitting and that Aboriginal families were overrepresented in cases involving neglect. Overall the findings support the development of alternative response programs in Canada.     

The child dream and the child transference

This paper explores the symbolic meaning of dreams in which children appear with special attention to the way children in dreams symbolize the self, particularly the dependent and developing self. It is suggested that patients' growth in analysis can be monitored by observing what happens to the children in their dreams. This paper also explores the vicissitudes of the child transference, in which the patient treats the analyst as a child. An analysis is described in which the child dream and the child transference played an important role in elucidating the patient's neurotic behaviors. The author contends that the child dream and the child transference are common and clinically useful phenomena, especially important in the analysis of dependency conflicts. An additional thesis of this paper is that the child transference is most likely to be found in instances where a patient played a parental role with one of their parents during childhood.     

Progression, regression, and child analytic technique

A detailed example is presented of analytic work with a latency age youngster. The technical problems encountered in the analysis of such a child are discussed in order to consider how child analysis can help to elucidate what is involved in the psychoanalytic process.     

Personality assessment of the prelingual, profoundly deaf child or adolescent

Personality assessment of children and adolescents experiencing an early, profound hearing loss is hampered by the lack of instruments standardized and/or developed primarily for use with deaf clients. Further compounding the problem are the relatively few psychologists trained in and/or experienced with deaf personality assessment. This article reviews the rudimentary requirements for personality assessment with the deaf and critiques the available personality tests that are either used or useable in assessing the deaf.     

Extending the spectrum idea: child personality,parenting and psychopathology

The spectrum hypothesis, postulating that differences between referred and non‐referred samples are confined to mean level differences, is elaborated by exploring whether the covariation between child problem behaviour and its predictors—child personality and parenting, rated by mothers—is similar in referred (N = 205) and non‐referred (N = 596) children and whether personality by parenting interactions can be generalized across samples. Results showed significant mean level differences for all the variables. Both personality and parenting explained problem behaviour, with some differences in strength of the effects across samples. Parenting by personality interactions mainly predicted externalizing behaviour, with benevolence and conscientiousness as the most prominent moderators. Results confirmed that moderators of problem behaviour operate similarly in the two samples, thus corroborating the spectrum hypothesis. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maternal depression and its relationship to life stress,perceptions of child behavior problems,parenting behaviors,and child conduct problems

This study examined the relationship of reported maternal depression to prior and current life stressors, and to mother perceptions of child adjustment, parenting behaviors, and child conduct problems. Forty-six depressed mothers and 49 nondepressed mothers and their clinic-referred children (aged 3-8 years) participated. Depressed mothers were more critical than nondepressed mothers, but the behavior of children of depressed and nondepressed mothers showed no significant differences. Depressed mothers were more likely to have experience child abuse, spouse abuse, or more negative life events than nondepressed mothers. Maternal reports of stress related to mother characteristics and to negative life events were the most potent variables discriminating depressed from nondepressed mother families.     

Self-help and child abuse: Victims,victimizers, and the development of self-control

Study of child abusers reveals that many victimizers were once victims and that the behaviors underlying the perspectives of victims and victimizers are related. Three groups of abusing parents using directed self-help were studied at Parents Anonymous by participant observation methodology for two and-a-half years. Four of the 52 participating parents read and commented on a draft of the research. Their violence appeared to be an attempt to gain a sense of control or to deal with the frustration of not feeling in control. Suggestions are made for developing social services that enhance individuals' sense of control.Paper presented at the Groves Conference on Marriage and the Family, London, England, July, 1986.     

Illegitimacy, child abuse and neglect, and cognitive development

This study explored the relationship between illegitimate birth and cognitive development among 513 boys on probation. Prior research has shown that being part of a single-parent household leads to diminished verbal capacities and often puts a child in greater danger of abuse and neglect. Frequent abuse is thought to lead to the enhancement of visual and spatial skills relative to verbal skills through a process of "frozen watchfulness". I hypothesized that illegitimate boys from one-parent homes would have greater verbal-performance discrepancy scores than would boys from other combinations of birth status and family structure. These boys had the lowest verbal IQ and highest performance IQ scores and, hence, the largest discrepancy. These boys also suffered the highest degree of abuse and neglect of all four birth status/family structure combinations studied.     

Naming practices,typicality, and underextension in child language

Preschool children (3 to 5 years of age) in an initial study underextended superordinate labels. The labels (e.g., food) were not applied to category instances that were rated as atypical by adults (e.g., ketchup). In a second experiment, mothers seldom used a superordinate term in referring to pairs of the same atypical instances, but they did label pairs of typical instances with a superordinate. A third experiment demonstrated the effects of several word-referent modeling conditions on young children's comprehension of a superordinate term. The results were viewed as suggesting that the child undergeneralizes superordinate labels because adult naming practices are such that category instances having certain functional or perceptual attributes may be labeled with a superordinate, while other, dissimilar instances are almost always labeled with subordinate names instead of a superordinate.     

Questions and the allocation,construction, and timing of turns in child discourse

The role of questions (i.e., interrogative forms with illocutionary force of questioning) in turn-taking was investigated. Turn-taking has three components: speaker selection, turn construction, and timing of turn transfer. Questions explicitly, via the verbal code, provide a clearance signal and a requested topic for the response, whereas assertions do not. Consequently, questions, in general, but not all linguistically defined sub-types of questions, contrast with assertions on the first two turn-taking components. It was shown that the probability of a turn transfer, of a relevant response, and of a turn transfer and relevant response is higher following questions, in general, than assertions. Questions also transmit an earlier speaker-selection signal (initial or terminal clausal position) whereas in the case of assertions speaker selection must be managed following clause completion. Questions do not seem to contrast with assertions on the third component as a result of this earlier clearance signal. Keeping the relevance of an utterance to prior text and the content of the response constant, switching pauses were about the same following both questions and assertions.This research was supported from funds of the Biomedical Research Support Grant, 5SO7RR07041-12 to The Johns Hopkins University and a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the second author.     

Birth order,sex of child,and maternal help-giving

As part of a larger study of birth order, sex of child, and mother—child interaction, mothers were asked to supervise their child's performance on memory and puzzle tasks. Subjects were 56 5-year-old boys and girls and their mothers, half with a same-sex older sibling, half with a same-sex younger sibling. Mothers showed no differences in spontaneous help-giving as a function of sex or birth order of child, but were more likely to give requested help and support to daughters than sons, and to respond contingently to daughters' mistakes. Implications of greater reinforced help-seeking for girls' orientations to achievement and problem-solving are considered.The work for this study was financed in part by Public Health Service Predoctoral Fellowship 5F1MH20, 971-02 and Special Fellowship 1-F03-HD-49722-01 from the National Institutes of Health. The authors wish to express gratitude for the assistance of Dan Eisenberg in performing data analysis.Portions of this paper were presented at meetings of the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco. 1974.     

Influence of parent,child, and contextual factors on the quality of the home environment

The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to the quality of the home environments mothers provide for their infants. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on 602 mothers with infants between 12 and 23 months of age were used for this study. Consistent with Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting, the quality of the home environment was influenced by maternal characteristics, child characteristics, and contextual factors. A positive linear relation was found between scores on a family risk index and the probability that infants were experiencing a relatively unsupportive home environment.     

A few thoughts about the mind,the brain,and a child with early deprivation

Infant brain research is having an increasing impact on child psychotherapy and our understanding of the neurobiological effects of trauma and neglect. This paper outlines the 'experience-dependent' nature of brain development in infancy and the concept of critical periods in such development. The effects of deprivation on child development are illustrated and case material from a child who was institutionalized during his second year is used as a basis for posing questions about the nature of the mind and the brain. In spite of his deprivation, he was able to communicate imaginatively. Schore's proposal for the use of early interventions is put forward to counter discouragement that can be engendered by work with severely deprived children.     

Exploring the relationships between maternal and child metacognitions and child anxiety

Research has shown that anxiety may be transmitted through verbal information pathways, for example, when parents share their anxious cognitions with their child. Less is known about the influence of parental metacognitions, that is, beliefs regarding thoughts, on child anxiety. We explored the relations between metacognitions in mothers and their children and anxiety in the children. Our study included 111 non‐clinical children aged 8 to 12 years and their mothers. Children rated their metacognitions, worry and anxiety, and mothers rated their metacognitions. Results indicated agreement between maternal and child metacognitions. Maternal metacognitions were positively associated with children's anxiety symptoms and worry, and this relation was mediated by the children's metacognitions. Our results warrant further examination of the role of parental metacognitions in child anxiety.     

G. Stanley Hall's contribution to science, practice and policy: The child study, parent education, and child welfare movements

G. Stanley Hall influenced several social movements that had great implications for child wellbeing: the Child Study, Parent Education, and Child Welfare Movements. However, while Hall laid much of the foundation for the field of scientific child study and policy-relevant research, his legacy is virtually nonexistent. The current article reviews the life and contributions of G. Stanley Hall, and the dual role Hall played in history as a revered leader of the Child Study Movement and a controversial figure in the landscape of early child psychology.