Trouble in Eden

In response to the Wild-Anderson Report, Little Children are Sacred (June 2007) that outlined a pattern of widespread sexual abuse of small children and chronic alcoholism among aboriginals in the Australians' N.T. (Northern Territory), the federal government launched a major Intervention there sending in teams of doctors and health workers to examine all aboriginal children for abuse and special police and army units to stabilise the situation in remote communities. Moving beyond the recommendations contained in the Report the Howard government announced it would use compulsory acquisition powers and appoint administrators over aboriginal townships and centres (about 73 of them) for five years. These officials would be charged with building up local infrastructures and could assign individuals to work for their welfare payments at jobs assigned to them. More disturbing to aboriginal leaders and communities was a government plan to allow individual aboriginals to lease small plots of land on traditional community owned reserves for the purpose, it was said, of owning their home and/or to start a small business. Furthermore, traditional owners would be allowed to enter into long term leases (for 99 years) on their lands in order to attract outside investment and capitol. There was considerable fear among aboriginals that these unilateral moves by the government would undermine the basis of aboriginal culture and lead inevitably to the loss by aboriginal people of real control over their traditional land.     

CAREGIVER–CHILD INTERACTION,CAREGIVER TRANSITIONS,AND GROUP SIZE AS MEDIATORS BETWEEN INTERVENTION CONDITION AND ATTACHMENT AND PHYSICAL GROWTH OUTCOMES IN INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILDREN

This report describes a secondary analysis of data from a comprehensive intervention project which included training and structural changes in three Baby Homes in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. Multiple mediator models were tested according to the R.M. Baron and D.A. Kenny ( 1986 ) causal‐steps approach to examine whether caregiver–child interaction quality, number of caregiver transitions, and group size mediated the effects of the intervention on children's attachment behaviors and physical growth. The study utilized a subsample of 163 children from the original Russian Baby Home project, who were between 11 and 19 months at the time of assessment. Results from comparisons of the training and structural changes versus no intervention conditions are presented. Caregiver–child interaction quality and number of caregiver transitions fully mediated the association between intervention condition and attachment behavior. No other mediation was found. Results suggest that the quality of interaction between caregivers and children in institutional care is of primary importance to children's development, but relationship context may play a less direct mediational role, supporting caregiver–child interactions.     

Evaluating wraparound services for seriously emotionally disturbed youth: pilot study outcomes in Georgia

Since the early 1990s, intervention strategies designed to preserve the family system while serving children diagnosed with severe emotional disturbances (SED) have been on the rise. Many of these strategies sought to provide families with comprehensive approaches that link various agencies and services, thus providing a complete system of care. The term wraparound services was coined to describe these approaches. However, evaluation studies of the outcomes of these programs remains limited. In order to assess the impact of wraparound services, outcome evaluation programs need to be implemented and their feasibility assessed. This paper focuses on the feasibility and implementation of a computer-based field assessment system and the ability to provide empirically based feedback to the programs. In addition, an assessment of 15 participating children and families, comparing selected aspects of clinical functioning at intake and 6-month follow-up, is presented and discussed.     

When the customer shouldn't be king: antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment by clients and customers

Much of the work in today's service industries requires women to deal with people outside of their organizations, namely, customers and clients, yet research on sexual harassment has focused almost exclusively on sexual harassment within organizations. Because the threat of harassment also operates at the boundaries of organizations, our existing models based solely on harassment inside organizations may be too restricted to adequately explain the harassment experiences of women in today's economy. To address this, the authors introduce a theoretical model of the antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment by clients and customers (CSH) and describe 2 field studies conducted to test components of the model. In Study 1, they developed a model of antecedents and consequences of CSH and illustrated that certain contextual factors (client power and gender composition of the client base) affect levels of CSH and that CSH is related to a number of job and psychological outcomes among professional women. Study 2 revealed that CSH is related to lower job satisfaction among nonprofessional women, above and beyond that which is accounted for by internal sexual harassment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Digit identity influences numerical estimation in children and adults

Learning the meanings of Arabic numerals involves mapping the number symbols to mental representations of their corresponding, approximate numerical quantities. It is often assumed that performance on numerical tasks, such as number line estimation (NLE), is primarily driven by translating from a presented numeral to a mental representation of its overall magnitude. Part of this assumption is that the overall numerical magnitude of the presented numeral, not the specific digits that comprise it, is what matters for task performance. Here we ask whether the magnitudes of the presented target numerals drive symbolic number line performance, or whether specific digits influence estimates. If the former is true, estimates of numerals with very similar magnitudes but different hundreds digits (such as 399 and 402) should be placed in similar locations. However, if the latter is true, these placements will differ significantly. In two studies (N = 262), children aged 7–11 and adults completed 0–1000 NLE tasks with target values drawn from a set of paired numerals that fell on either side of “Hundreds” boundaries (e.g., 698 and 701) and “Fifties” boundaries (e.g., 749 and 752). Study 1 used an atypical speeded NLE task, while Study 2 used a standard non‐speeded NLE task. Under both speeded and non‐speeded conditions, specific hundreds digits in the target numerals exerted a strong influence on estimates, with large effect sizes at all ages, showing that the magnitudes of target numerals are not the primary influence shaping children's or adults’ placements. We discuss patterns of developmental change and individual difference revealed by planned and exploratory analyses.     

Developmental Variation in the Associations of Attention Bias to Emotion with Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Attention biases to emotion are associated with symptoms of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents. It is...     

Young homeless drug users—ways of coping with harassment

This paper explores young homeless drug users' ways of coping with harassment. Discussions of coping and harassment are based on the cognitive appraisal model. Coping accounts were essentially problem‐focused and action‐oriented. Results indicate the need for more policy developments to prevent homelessness and for specific interventions around homelessness and harassment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationship between self-harm and alexithymia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Self-harm, defined for the purpose of this review as any act of self-injury without explicit suicidal intent, is an increasing public health concern, with potential long-term implications for those who engage in it. Previous research has identified a correlational relationship between self-harm and alexithymia, an emotion processing deficit characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, and an externally orientated thinking style. Through a systematic search of the literature, the current review examines the association between alexithymia and self-harm. A meta-analysis based on 23 studies found a significant, positive relationship between self-harm and alexithymia, with a medium effect size (g = 0.57, 95% CI 0.46–0.69). All 23 studies used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS20) to measure alexithymia. The alexithymia subcomponents difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings were significantly associated with self-harm, but there was no significant association between self-harm and externally orientated thinking. The effect size of the relationship was significantly larger in adolescent samples compared with adult samples and in female compared with male samples. The definition of self-harm did not affect the effect size of the relationship between alexithymia and self-harm and the results are consistent with previous meta-analyses focused more narrowly on non-suicidal self-injury and, separately, suicidal behaviors. Heterogeneity between the included studies was high. The results support an affect regulation model of self-harm, in which self-harm is used to regulate an emotional experience that is poorly understood.