In search of average growth: Describing within-year oral reading fluency growth across Grades 1–8

Measures of oral reading fluency (ORF) are perhaps the most often used assessment to monitor student progress as part of a response to intervention (RTI) model. Rates of growth in research and aim lines in practice are used to characterize student growth; in either case, growth is generally defined as linear, increasing at a constant rate. Recent research suggests ORF growth follows a nonlinear trajectory, but limitations related to the datasets used in such studies, composed of only three testing occasions, curtails their ability to examine the true functional form of ORF growth. The purpose of this study was to model within-year ORF growth using up to eight testing occasions for 1448 students in Grades 1 to 8 to assess (a) the average growth trajectory for within-year ORF growth, (b) whether students vary significantly in within-year ORF growth, and (c) the extent to which findings are consistent across grades. Results demonstrated that for Grades 1 to 7, a quadratic growth model fit better than either linear or cubic growth models, and for Grade 8, there was no substantial, stable growth. Findings suggest that the expectation for linear growth currently used in practice may be unrealistic.     

Audit in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children and adolescents

The importance of multidisciplinary audit in child and adolescent psychiatry, including the work of child psychotherapists, is discussed. Research is highlighted which shows that certain groups of children in particular benefit from psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The problems related to auditing psychoanalytic psychotherapy are discussed, and a possible method of audit based on peer review of notes, which takes into account both inner and outer change, is presented.

A patient is discussed whose notes have been audited using the audit form. It is suggested that this form of audit has good educational potential as well as ensuring a high standard of patient care.     

Relations Between Parenting Behavior and SES in a Clinical Sample: Validity of SES Measures

Two common methods of measuring socioeconomic status (SES) were examined in relation to observed parenting behaviors in a clinical sample of 89 mothers of 3- to 6-year-olds referred for treatment of oppositional defiant disorder. Families were 74% Caucasian, 9% African American, 5% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and 11% Biracial. Most children were male (75%). Parenting behaviors were measured with the Dyadic Parent–Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) categories of prosocial talk and negative talk. Analyses were conducted with SES measured in two ways: (a) the Hollingshead Four-Factor Index of Social Status (HI) was correlated with parenting behaviors; and (b) family income, parent education (5 categories), and parent occupation (5 categories) were used to predict parent behavior. SES was significantly positively related to maternal prosocial talk. When SES was operationalized as income, occupation, and education, the model predicted three times more variance in maternal prosocial talk than the HI alone. SES was not related to maternal negative talk by either measure of SES.     

The Relationship Between Childhood Trauma,Combat Exposure,and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Male Veterans

The current study investigated the effects of combat exposure, childhood trauma, and depression on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity. Participants were 299 male veterans from the Korean War, World War II, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War who were being screened for admission to the PTSD unit. Participants were assessed with the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), Combat Exposure Scale (CES), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), and Mississippi Scale for PTSD (MPTSD). Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that, as expected, combat exposure and depression were significant predictors of PTSD severity. When examined with combat exposure, childhood trauma has a complex relationship to PTSD severity. Examination of the interaction between the CES and CTQ suggests that when levels of combat are low and childhood trauma levels are high, the CTQ is related to higher levels of PTSD severity on the CAPS, regardless of depression. Treatment implications are discussed.     

The role of verbal and nonverbal memory in the Family Pictures Subtest: Data from children with specific language impairment

This study examined the contribution of verbal and visual memory to performance on the Family Pictures subtest of the Children’s Memory Scale. This subtest purports to assess declarative memory functioning in the visual/nonverbal domain. A total of 115 nine-year-old children participated in this study. Fifty-eight had specific language impairment (SLI), whilst the remaining 57 were typically developing (TD), with no history of language difficulties. Results showed that the children with SLI, who had intact declarative memory for visual but not verbal information, obtained significantly lower scores on the Family Pictures subtest when compared to the TD group. Regression analyses revealed that across the entire sample, individual differences on the Family Pictures subtest was best predicted by a measure of verbal working memory. These results question whether the Family Pictures subtest can be considered a measure of visual memory in pediatric populations. These results have implications for the interpretation of scores on this subtest regarding the nature of the types of neurocognitive difficulties children may exhibit.     

Friendly drug-dealers and terrifying puppies: Affective primacy can attenuate the N400 effect in emotional discourse contexts

Words that are semantically congruous with their preceding discourse context are easier to process than words that are semantically incongruous with their context. This facilitation of semantic processing is reflected by an attenuation of the N400 event-related potential (ERP). We asked whether this was true of emotional words in emotional contexts where discourse congruity was conferred through emotional valence. ERPs were measured as 24 participants read two-sentence scenarios with critical words that varied by emotion (pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral) and congruity (congruous or incongruous). Semantic predictability, constraint, and plausibility were comparable across the neutral and emotional scenarios. As expected, the N400 was smaller to neutral words that were semantically congruous (vs. incongruous) with their neutral discourse context. No such N400 congruity effect was observed on emotional words following emotional discourse contexts. Rather, the amplitude of the N400 was small to all emotional words (pleasant and unpleasant), regardless of whether their emotional valence was congruous with the valence of their emotional discourse context. However, consistent with previous studies, the emotional words produced a larger late positivity than did the neutral words. These data suggest that comprehenders bypassed deep semantic processing of valence-incongruous emotional words within the N400 time window, moving rapidly on to evaluate the words’ motivational significance.     

Social Services Workers and Workplace Violence

Researchers and workplace violence experts have cited risk factors that theoretically increase the likelihood that individuals will experience workplace violence. Those include working alone, contact with the public, traveling to dangerous areas, as well as other factors. By the very nature of what social services workers do, many encounter these risk factors on a regular basis. Using national data, trends in workplace violence experienced by social services workers are examined, and comparisons are made between the rates of workplace violence among similar workgroups. Results suggest that social services workers are nearly six times more likely than other workers to experience workplace violence. In the discussion, attention is given to strategies to prevent violence against social services workers.     

Prologue: Introduction and Overview to Special Volume

Abstract

The editors provide an overview of the obstacles that prevent us from ending child abuse in the United States and briefly summarize the various articles in this volume that address these obstacles from multiple points of view.     

A genetic two-factor model of the covariation among a subset of Multidimensional Aptitude Battery and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised subtests

The phenotypic and genetic factor structure of performance on five Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) subtests and one Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS-R) subtest was explored in 390 adolescent twin pairs (184 monozygotic [MZ]; 206 dizygotic (DZ)). The temporal stability of these measures was derived from a subsample of 49 twin pairs, with test–retest correlations ranging from .67 to .85. A phenotypic factor model, in which performance and verbal factors were correlated, provided a good fit to the data. Genetic modeling was based on the phenotypic factor structure, but also took into account the additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) parameters derived from a fully saturated ACE model. The best fitting model was characterized by a genetic correlated two-factor structure with specific effects, a general common environmental factor, and overlapping unique environmental effects. Results are compared to multivariate genetic models reported in children and adults, with the most notable difference being the growing importance of common genes influencing diverse abilities in adolescence.