Consequences of Children's Exposure to Community Violence

Much has been learned over the past decade about the way children respond to experiences of violence in their community. The goal of this paper is to review what is known about the effects of community violence on children's development. In addition to main effects, factors that mediate these effects, as well as factors that moderate children's response to community violence are discussed. Special attention is paid to developmental differences in children's responses to community violence and the factors that may promote resilient functioning.     

The Relation of Social Capital to Child Psychosocial Adjustment Difficulties: The Role of Positive Parenting and Neighborhood Dangerousness

Substantial research attention has focused on the psychosocial adjustment problems of children and adolescents residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods. However, less attention has been directed to neighborhood factors within disadvantaged neighborhoods that may facilitate child psychosocial adjustment. An expanded model, assessing how social capital, neighborhood dangerousness, and positive parenting relate to child psychosocial adjustment difficulties, was estimated using structural equation modeling (Lisrel 8.3). Participants included 130 African American mothers and their children (mean age = 12.9 years) residing in inner city New Orleans, LA. The model examined 3 avenues through which social capital (e.g., support, neighborhood cohesion) may relate to fewer child psychosocial adjustment difficulties: a direct relation; through its relation to positive parenting; and through its relation to neighborhood dangerousness. Results indicate that social capital related to child psychosocial adjustment difficulties through positive parenting and neighborhood dangerousness, but not directly. Overall, the proposed model fit the observed data reasonably well. The results suggest that social capital in disadvantaged neighborhoods is important in indirectly facilitating child psychosocial adjustment and should be incorporated into assessment and intervention practices.     

The Relation of Parental Emotionality and Related Dispositional Traits to Parental Expression of Emotion and Children's Social Functioning

The purpose of this study was to test relations between parental temperamental emotionality and regulation or related personality characteristics and parental behavior, children's regulation, and children's social functioning. Mothers and fathers reported on their own personality and/or temperament and expressivity in the family (mothers only); parents and teachers rated children (71 girls and 99 boys; M age = 73 months) on their temperamental regulation, social competence, and problem behavior. Mothers also were observed interacting with their child, and behavioral measures of children's regulation were obtained. In general, high parental regulation and low negative emotionality were associated with positive developmental outcomes in children and more positive parental behaviors, and mothers' expression of positive emotion in the family mediated some of the relations of their dispositions to children's socioemotional functioning.     

Children Exposed to Domestic Violence and Child Abuse: Terminology and Taxonomy

Three definitional issues regarding children exposed to domestic violence are examined. First, the multiple ways in which a child can be exposed to violence is discussed. A taxonomy of 10 types of exposure is proposed. Nine key characteristics of domestic violence, as they relate to children and children's exposure, are then outlined. The third issue addressed concerns why children who are exposed to domestic violence can be considered victims of child maltreatment. These children, by nature of their experience in the home, are psychologically maltreated and are also at high risk for physical abuse and some risk for sexual abuse. Empirical questions concerning these definitions and taxonomies and their interrelations are discussed.     

Upward versus Downward Anchoring in Frequency Judgments of Social Facts

Frequency estimation of social facts in two methods of judgment elicitation was investigated. In the “narrow-range” condition, subjects answered questions in the format: “Out of 100 incidents, how many belong to category X?” In the “wide-range” condition, the frequency for the same event was assessed with respect to “Out of 10,000”. Judged frequencies in the wide-range condition were divided by 100, and were compared with the corresponding judgments in the narrow-range condition. Such comparisons were made for low-frequency and high-frequency events. Previous research has shown that, for low-frequency events, judged frequencies are proportionally greater in the narrow-range than in the wide-range condition. These results reflect cognitive processes of implicit anchoring, whereby judged frequencies lie close to small numbers within the response ranges provided. I call this process “downward anchoring,” and predicted that this tendency would be replicated in the present study. Moreover, I predicted that assessments about high-frequency events would evoke similar cognitive processes operating in the opposite direction. By such “upward anchoring,” judged frequencies would lie close to relatively larger numbers within the given response ranges. Consequently, I predicted that judged frequencies for high-frequency events would be proportionally greater in the wide-range condition than in the narrow-range condition. These predictions were confirmed.     

Pediatric Psychology: Child Psychological Health in the Next Century

The future of pediatric psychology is reviewed and placed in brief historical context in relation to children's psychological health care. Contemporary trends affecting the delivery of psychological services, research, and clinical training are highlighted, with suggestions for future development. Pediatric psychology is a child-based, developmentally-focused multidisciplinary practice directed toward psychosocial and neuropsychological issues of health and illness in children and youth. Pediatric psychologists need to develop strong professional identities as health care psychologists combined with a collegial and collaborative arrangement with physicians to ensure the future growth and development of pediatric psychology in the next century as a major vehicle to promote children's health care.     

Examining Influences on Problem Recognition and Help-Seeking for Child Externalizing Behaviors Among African American Mothers

Childhood behavior problems are one of the most common clinical referrals. If left untreated, these behaviors can result in detrimental consequences to the child’s development (Wehmeier et al., 2010; Scholtens et al., 2012). Behavior parent training has been identified as first-line treatment for oppositional behavior; however, many racial minority families fail to enroll in behavior parent training. The current study examines maternal help-seeking for children displaying oppositional behavior in hopes to delineate variables that might influence parent training enrollment among African American families. Participants were 112 African American mothers who were provided child behavior vignettes and completed measures assessing factors related to problem recognition, parental attributions, child rearing values, mental health stigmatization, racial identity, and treatment utilization. Results found that when presented with a child displaying clinically significant externalizing child behaviors, slightly more than half of African American mothers recognized clinically significant child behavior problems. Mothers were more likely to engage in behavioral parent training if problematic behavior was recognized. Additionally, mothers’ attributions of child behavior, cultural values, and mental health stigmatization were influential to help seeking. This study supports the importance of considering cultural variables that impact problem recognition and subsequent treatment utilization among African American families.     

TEACHING CHILD-CARE SKILLS TO MOTHERS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

The present study identified and remediated child-care skill deficits in parents with developmental disabilities to reduce their risk of child neglect. Eleven mothers with developmental disabilities who were considered by social service and child welfare agencies to be providing neglectful child care were found in baseline to have several important child-care skill deficits (e.g., bathing, diaper rash treatment, cleaning baby bottles) compared to nonhandicapped mothers. Parent training (consisting of verbal instructions, pictorial manuals, modeling, feedback, and reinforcement) resulted in rapid acquisition and maintenance of child-care skills in all mothers. Mean percentage correct scores increased from 58% in baseline to 90% in training and 91% in follow-up (M = 31 weeks). The latter two scores compare favorably to the mean score (87%) of 20 nonhandicapped mothers on the same skills. Where observable, parent training was associated with corresponding benefits to the children (e.g., elimination of diaper rash and cradle cap, increased weight gain, successful toilet training). These results indicate that parent training may be a viable option to the removal of the child from the home when parenting skill deficits place the child's well-being in jeopardy.     

Protective factors and behavioral adjustment in preschool children of Iranian Martyrs

Out of 228 Iranian preschool Martyrs' children whose behaviour adjustment in the nursery settings was screened using the Preschool Behaviour Checklist, 12 well adjusted, zero scorers were compared with 8 poorly adjusted, high scorers. Using the parent's Behaviour Checklist, high scorers showed significantly more problems at home than zero scorers. On the Malaise Inventory, mothers of high scorers showed poorer mental health than mothers of zero scorers. Home observations showed that mother-child interaction was more aversive in high scorers than in zero scorers. More mothers of zero scorers had remarried.     

The aggression-coercion cycle: Use of seclusion and restraint in a child psychiatric hospital

The widespread use of seclusion and restraint in child psychiatric hospitals to manage aggression and noncompliance is based on the assumption that coercive consequences reduce the frequency of undesirable behaviors exhibited by the patients. We report a study of the use of seclusion and restraint in a public child psychiatric hospital during a 3-year period. Twenty-eight percent of the patients had been secluded or restrained a total of 1670 times. About 25% of these patients had been secluded more than five times during their hospitalization, and 32% had been placed in restraints more than once. Behaviors that typically resulted in repeated seclusion included physical aggression toward staff, verbal aggression toward peers, non-compliant or oppositional behavior, and self-harm. Variables that predicted patients most at risk for repeated seclusion included age, gender, and psychiatric diagnosis. The predictor variables for those most at risk for repeated restraint included age, property destruction, and self-harm. The high rates of use of seclusion and restraint suggest that these methods for controlling the behavior of children and adolescents in this child psychiatric hospital may not have been therapeutic. We suggest that staff in such hospitals engage in a pattern of behavior characterized by an aggression-coercion cycle, in which increasingly aggressive and coercive behaviors are exhibited by both patients and staff.