Personality and Paranormal Belief: A Study Among Adolescents

A sample of 279 13- to 16-year-old adolescents completed the Short-form Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-S) and a six-item Index of Paranormal Belief. The data demonstrate that neuroticism is fundamental to individual differences in paranormal belief, while paranormal belief is independent of extraversion and psychoticism.     

Location serves as a conditional cue when harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus) solve object discrimination reversal problems.

We examined the capacity of harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus) to use spatial context (i.e., their tank) as a conditional cue to solve a two-choice visual discrimination reversal task. Seals were trained to touch one of two 3D objects. Two of four seals experienced a context shift that coincided with each of five reversals in the reward value of the two stimuli (i.e., a reversal of S+ and S-); these seals solved the six discriminations in significantly fewer trials than did seals that did not experience a context shift with the contingency reversal. Thus, harp seals use contextual cues when encoding information. The findings are discussed in terms of harp seals' adaptations to the pack-ice environment, the constraints of the learning tasks, and the nature of the subjects that were raised in captivity.     

Traumatic loss and major disasters: strengthening family and community resilience

This article presents the core principles and value of a family and community resilience-oriented approach to recovery from traumatic loss when catastrophic events occur. In contrast to individually based, symptom-focused approaches to trauma recovery, this multisystemic practice approach contextualizes the distress in the traumatic experience and taps strengths and resources in relational networks to foster healing and posttraumatic growth. The intertwining of trauma and traumatic losses is discussed. Key family and social processes in risk and resilience in traumatic loss situations are outlined. Case illustrations, model programs, and intervention guidelines are described in situations of community violence and major disasters to suggest ways to foster family and community resilience.     

Sibling Maltreatment: The Forgotten Abuse

Great advances have been made in the study of family violence in the past 30 years. However, sibling abuse and its prevalence in the family have largely been overlooked. In this article, the major issues associated with sibling maltreatment are highlighted, and strategies for helping the victims and perpetrators of sibling abuse and their families are described.     

Length of Time to Resolve Criminal Charges of Child Sexual Abuse: A Three-County Case Study

The present study sought to examine the court culture of three Oregon counties and their timelines for resolving felony child sexual abuse cases. Specifically, we examined (a) case outcomes, churning (i.e., the extent to which four court events were rescheduled), the length of time to reach a criminal case resolution, and how this length of time compared to that for felonies generally; (b) whether mandatory minimum sentences affected resolution timeliness; and (c) key stakeholders’ perceptions about their local court culture. Data included retrospective case-file abstraction (N = 532) on all felony child sex crimes for a 2-year period and interviews with legal professionals (N = 23). Across all three counties, a minority of child sexual abuse cases (18% to 47%) were resolved within the target timeframe of 4 months. In contrast, most felonies (65% to 77%) were resolved within this timeframe. The rescheduling of trials and the requirement of mandatory minimum sentences for some felony child sexual abuse crimes increased the time until case resolution. Results suggest that court cultures that are hierarchical and cooperative may lead to longer case resolution times than court cultures that are self-managing or autonomous. Implications of these results and other results are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.