Play and social skills in maltreated and non-maltreated preschoolers during peer interactions

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the study was to investigate whether maltreated children differ from nonmaltreated children with regard to their social skills and play behaviors. METHOD: The social skills and free-play behaviors of 30 3- to 5-year-old maltreated and nonmaltreated children were compared. Fifteen children with a range of maltreatment experiences drawn from a hospital-based therapeutic nursery treatment program and 15 demographically similar children drawn from a home-based Head Start program participated in the study. All children were of low socioeconomic status. Children's free-play peer interactions were videotaped during the first 3 months of attendance in either program and analyzed along social and cognitive dimensions. Teachers and therapists rated children's social skills in peer interactions. RESULTS: Maltreated children were found to have significantly poorer skill in initiating interactions with peers and maintaining self-control, as well as a greater number of problem behaviors. Significant differences were not found between groups with regard to social participation or cognitive level of play. Significant correlations of moderate strength were found between social participation in play and social skills for the sample as a whole: total social skills score was positively related to interactive play, and negatively related to solitary play. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the experience of maltreatment has a negative impact on children's developing interpersonal skills above and beyond the influence of factors associated with low socioeconomic status and other environmental stressors.     

Factor structure of child behavior scale scores in peruvian preschoolers

Behavior rating scales aid in the identification of problem behaviors, as well as the development of interventions to reduce such behavior. Although scores on many behavior rating scales have been validated in the United States, there have been few such studies in other cultural contexts. In this study, the structural validity of scores on a Spanish translation of the six‐factor Child Behavior Scale (CBS) was assessed in a sample of 265 Peruvian preschool children who ranged from 2 to 6 years in age. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a four‐factor structure, and reliability estimates for scores on the four factors were adequate. The authors suggest replicating the study and examining the utility of CBS scores in predicting future problem behaviors in this population. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

School readiness of maltreated preschoolers and later school achievement: The role of emotion regulation,language, and context

Guided by bio-ecological theory, this study aimed to: (1) identify heterogeneity in the developmental patterns of emotion regulation for maltreated preschool-aged children; (2) examine the role of gender, language, placement instability, cognitive stimulation, and emotional support on patterns of stability and change of emotion regulation over time; and (3) elucidate the role of emotion regulation/dysregulation patterns on later academic achievement. This study utilized data from the first cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Results using LCA and LTA models indicated stability and change in emotionally regulated vs. emotionally dysregulated latent classes across 4, 5, and 6 ½ years of age. Placement instability significantly increased the likelihood of being classified as emotionally dysregulated at wave 1. Moreover, children classified as emotionally dysregulated by age 6 ½ scored significantly lower than children who were classified as emotionally regulated on measures of reading and math achievement by age 10. Based on these findings, placement stability at first contact with CPS should be promoted in order to prevent cascading negative effects on emotion regulation. Additionally, children who are more emotionally dysregulated by the time they transition to formal schooling should receive increased socioemotional and socioemotional learning supports.     

Name writing and letter knowledge in preschoolers: Incongruities in skills and the usefulness of name writing as a developmental indicator

In this study, 114 preschoolers (M age = 53 months) completed a battery of literacy assessments to explore the interplay between name writing and letter knowledge in early literacy learners. Name writing was significantly related to children's letter knowledge, and the relationships were moderate to high. However, many children exhibited an incongruity in name writing and name-specific letter-recognition skills (i.e., they could write their names but not recognize the letters in their names, or recognize the letters in their names but not write them). When these two groups were contrasted statistically, the children with superior name-specific letter recognition (but poorer name writing scores) had significantly higher letter knowledge scores than the children with superior name writing scores (but poor name-specific letter-recognition scores). Writing one's name, in itself, did not appear to correspond to a literacy advantage. Thus, with regard to the recommendation that name writing be used as a literacy assessment tool in preschool, the results from this study suggest that name writing should be used as a measure of mechanical skill only and should not be used as a means to assess children's conceptual knowledge (of letter names, letter sounds, or the alphabetic principle).     

Coping resources of maltreated children in the family: a salutogenic approach.

OBJECTIVE: Most research in child maltreatment within family focuses mainly on the pathological damage caused to the battered child. This study, based on a salutogenic approach, focuses on the resources that may help maltreated children to cope with their state and stay well. METHOD: Resilience was measured by two variables: perceived competence and psychological distress. The moderating or buffering variables that may contribute to better coping were: sense of family coherence, psychological sense of school membership, and social support. Two hundred and twenty-six 8th graders answered an anonymous self-report inventory. Based on the students' answers, they were divided into two groups: those who reported that they had been maltreated (MC) (n = 81) and those who did not (NMC) (n = 145). RESULTS: The study revealed a significantly high percentage of adolescents (35.6%) who reported having been maltreated within their families. A significant difference was found between the MC and the NMC in levels of perceived competence (higher for the NMC) and psychological distress (higher for the MC group). The moderating variables were found to have a differential effect on the dependent variables within the two groups. Sense of family coherence was found to be the main contributor to variance explanation of perceived competence among the MC, while sense of school membership had the main effect among NMC. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support a salutogenic approach in studying maltreated children. Implications on the possible detection of maltreated children in the community and on their coping resources that may contribute to resilience are discussed.     

Small Talk: Identifying communication problems in maltreated children

Development of speech and language is rapid in early years, yet if developmental problems in speech and language are not addressed they are likely to continue and impact negatively on a child's overall development and their life trajectory. Children who have experienced abuse and or neglect are particularly vulnerable. The aim of this study was to develop a tool to assist in identifying a child's need for assessment by a speech pathologist so that there could be early identification of problems. A culturally sensitive tool was developed to be completed by the child's carer included questions on language, speech and hearing, voice, fluency, understanding sentences, vocabulary and expression. Sixty-five children aged between 4 and 8 years, who had experienced abuse and/or neglect participated in the study. Fourteen percent were Aboriginal. A speech pathologist undertook an assessment for each child and the results were compared with the information on the Small Talk tool. The Tool was found to be high in sensitivity but low in specificity, requiring further refinement. However, it has the potential to assist non speech pathologists to identify a child's need for speech and language assessment with the findings identifying the Tool as promising practice.     

The maltreated adolescent: patterns of physical abuse

Although adolescents are severely and chronically physically abused, relatively little attention has been directed towards understanding this phenomenon. This study explored the family characteristics and the behavioral-emotional reactions of 77 adolescents who were physically maltreated. The youths were selected at a number of sites including a runaway shelter, a hospital-based child abuse team, and a protective service unit. Six different patterns of adolescent reaction to abuse were identified: acting-out, depression, generalized anxiety, extreme adolescent adjustment, emotional-thought disturbance, and helplessness-dependency. Abuse toward these youth had been ongoing for an average of nearly five years. As there were no differences in family characteristics and emotional-behavioral reactions between subjects who were abused only during adolescence (including single-incident abuse) and subjects for whom family violence was evident from childhood on, the utility of a developmentally specific system of abuse categorization is questioned. It is suggested that it is the pattern of parent and child interaction rather than the course of the maltreatment that is related to the emotional and behavioral dysfunction of the adolescent victim.     

Beyond semantic accuracy: preschoolers evaluate a speaker's reasons

Children's sensitivity to the quality of epistemic reasons and their selective trust in the more reasonable of 2 informants was investigated in 2 experiments. Three-, 4-, and 5-year-old children (N = 90) were presented with speakers who stated different kinds of evidence for what they believed. Experiment 1 showed that children of all age groups appropriately judged looking, reliable testimony, and inference as better reasons for belief than pretense, guessing, and desiring. Experiment 2 showed that 3- and 4-year-old children preferred to seek and accept new information from a speaker who was previously judged to use the "best" way of thinking. The findings demonstrate that children distinguish certain good from bad reasons and prefer to learn from those who showcased good reasoning in the past.     

Enhancing attachment organization among maltreated children: results of a randomized clinical trial

Young children who have experienced early adversity are at risk for developing disorganized attachments. The efficacy of Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC), an intervention targeting nurturing care among parents identified as being at risk for neglecting their young children, was evaluated through a randomized clinical trial. Attachment quality was assessed in the Strange Situation for 120 children between 11.7 and 31.9 months of age (M = 19.1, SD = 5.5). Children in the ABC intervention showed significantly lower rates of disorganized attachment (32%) and higher rates of secure attachment (52%) relative to the control intervention (57% and 33%, respectively). These results support the efficacy of the ABC intervention in enhancing attachment quality among parents at high risk for maltreatment.     

Treatment outcome for a maltreated population: benefits, procedural decisions, and challenges

OBJECTIVE: To review the benefits, challenges, and procedural decisions to consider when implementing and managing a treatment outcome program for a maltreated population. METHOD: We reviewed the reasons to implement a treatment outcome program, decisions regarding procedures, and challenges likely to be encountered based on literature in the field and the authors' 6 years of experience in developing and maintaining an outcome program at a center specializing in the treatment of maltreated children. RESULTS: The development of an outcome programs requires careful measurement selection, early and ongoing staff-involvement, support from higher management, a well-developed data base and client tracking system, a coordinator and support staff, clinical utility, planning for fiscal impact, and flexibility to contend with challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our experience, the plethora of clinically rich and administratively useful information derived from an outcome program far outweighs the challenges and costs of establishing and maintaining an outcome program.     

Family profiles of maltreated children in Singapore: A latent class analysis

Children who enter the child protection system often have complex family problems and have experienced early adverse experiences. Using latent class analysis, this study aimed to identify family classes of child protection cases in Singapore, to ascertain the prevalence of these family classes, and to test the association of family class membership to subsequent recurrence of harm. A sample of 440 cases who entered the Child Protective Service in Singapore was analyzed based on eight familial factors on the household and caregiver levels. A four-class solution was found to demonstrate the best fit: (a) the large household group was intergenerational and majority lived with extended family members, (b) the harsh parenting group showed high levels of parenting problems and the caregiver justifying his abuse/neglect, (c) the high criminality group had high levels of caregiver substance abuse and caregiver arrest and incarceration history, and (d) the low disadvantage group rated low on all the familial factors. A Cox Regression revealed that in comparison to the low disadvantage group, the harsh parenting group was twice as likely to have recurrence of harm. There were also differences across family classes with regard to age at entry into child protection, gender composition and abuse types. The findings and practice implications are discussed.     

Battered children grown up: a follow-up study of individuals severely maltreated as children.

Despite intensive research interest, the field of child abuse has produced few long-term follow-up studies. This paper describes the adult functioning of a group of 19 individuals who were severely battered as young children. Results indicate highly variable outcomes for the group: Some individuals exhibited limited autonomy and few adult coping skills while others were raising families, holding jobs, and maintaining functional social ties. There was little evidence of overt aggression in the group but resentment and suspiciousness scores were high. Many subjects maintained ties with their troubled parents while others sought out birth parents after losing contact with them in childhood. Several had developed long-term stable marriages, and social supports appeared adequate for most subjects in the group. Overall, study findings indicate that early abusive trauma and adult functioning have no simple relationship.     

Risk behaviors in maltreated youth placed in foster care: a longitudinal study of protective and vulnerability factors

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have examined the impact of placement in foster care prospectively to determine what early responses might predict later functioning. The current study examined protective and vulnerability factors in a longitudinal study of youth placed in foster care. METHODOLOGY: A cohort of 214 ethnically-diverse youth, ages 7-12, who entered foster care between May 1990 and October 1991 were recruited for the Time 1 study if they remained in foster care for at least 5 months. For the Time 1 study, youth and their caregivers were interviewed and assessed approximately 6 months following their initial placement. Six years later, as adolescents, the youth were re-interviewed regarding their involvement in four domains of risk behavior. RESULTS: Bivariate analyses indicated that several Time 1 control variables (e.g., age, ethnicity, type of maltreatment, behavior problems) and Time 1 psychosocial predictor variables (i.e., dimensions of social support and self-perception) were related to the Time 2 risk behavior outcomes. Regression analyses with all variables accounted for between 33 and 46% of the variance, with the psychosocial predictor variables, as a group, significant over and above the control variables. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that there are some modifiable protective and vulnerability factors present shortly after maltreated youth are placed in foster care that predict their engagement in adolescent risk behaviors 6 years later.     

Emotional abuse in a sample of multiply maltreated,urban young adolescents: Issues of definition and identification

ObjectiveThe main purpose of this paper is to use the Brassard and Donovan [Brassard, M. R. & Donovan, K. L. (2006). Defining psychological maltreatment. In M. M. Freerick, J. F. Knutson, P. K. Trickett, & S. M. Flanzer (Eds.), Child abuse and neglect: Definitions, classifications, and a framework for research (pp. 151–197). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookers Publishing Co., Inc.] framework to examine and describe the nature of emotional abuse experienced by a sample of urban, ethnically diverse male and female youth (N = 303) identified as maltreated by a very large public child welfare agency.MethodsCase record abstraction was conducted on the DCFS records of these maltreated youth using the Maltreatment Case Record Abstraction Instrument (MCRAI) which was based on the work of Barnett et al. [Barnett, D., Manly, J. T., & Cicchetti, D. (1993). Defining child maltreatment: The interface between policy and research. In D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth (Eds.), Advances in applied developmental psychology: Child abuse, child development and social policy (pp. 7–73). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp.] as modified by English and LONGSCAN [English, D. J., & the LONGSCAN Investigators. (1997). Modified maltreatment classification system (MMCS). Retrieved from http://www.iprc.unc.edu/longscan/]. Fifteen items of parental behavior deemed emotionally abusive were coded and organized into four subtypes of emotional abuse (spurning, terrorizing, isolating, exploiting/corrupting) using the Brassard and Donovan (2006) framework.ResultsUsing this coding system, almost 50% of the sample were found to have experienced emotional abuse in contrast to 9% identified at the time of referral by DCFS. Most of the emotionally abused youth also experienced physical abuse (63%) and/or neglect (76%) as well. The most frequent subtype of emotional abuse experienced was terrorizing. Most youth experienced more than one subtype.ConclusionsEmotional abuse, while frequent, was seldom the focus of the child protection services investigation. The nature of this abuse was not minor, but rather likely to be dangerous to the mental health and well-being of these children. Further more emotional abuse, in this sample of young adolescents, at least, was likely to be accompanied by other forms of maltreatment, especially physical abuse and/or neglect. These findings have important implications for practice and the direction of future research.Practice implicationsAll those who interact with child welfare clients must recognize the prevalence of emotional abuse in maltreated children so that appropriate interventions are instituted. Screening for emotional abuse should be part of all intake referrals and when confirmed should be noted in official records. When children are placed, foster parents (both kin and non-kin) need training on the prevalence and consequences of emotional abuse, and strategies to help their foster children recover from the aftermath. When children remain with maltreating parents, emotional abuse should be a focus of the interventions designed to help maltreating parents with more effective parenting strategies and also should be a focus of the interventions designed to help the child recover from the consequences of maltreatment.     

Involving parents in paired reading with preschoolers: Results from a randomized controlled trial

A paired reading program was implemented for 195 Hong Kong preschoolers (mean age = 4.7 years) and their parents from families with a wide range of family income. The preschoolers were randomly assigned to experimental or waitlist control groups. The parents in the experimental group received 12 sessions of school-based training on paired reading in 7 weeks. They were required to do paired reading with their children for at least four times in each of these 7 weeks. At the end of the program, the preschoolers in the experimental group had better performance in word recognition and reading fluency than their counterparts in the control group. They were also reported as more competent and motivated in reading by their parents. More importantly, the program had many favorable effects on parents. Parents in the experimental group had higher self-efficacy in helping their children to be better readers and learners. They also reported that they had better relationships with their children. Their changes in relationships and self-efficacy were found to mediate the program impact on some of the child outcomes. However, family income did not moderate the effectiveness of the program. Families with high and low income both benefited from the program alike.     

Pathways to completion: Patterns of progression through a university degree

This paper outlines a technique for identifyingand representing pathways of studentprogression through a degree course. Considerable attention over the last decade indeveloping performance indicators of studentprogress, retention and completion in highereducation, has neglected indicators ofindividual student progression. Common studentoutcome performance indicators are based oncohort or census-like counts. A new techniqueis proposed for longitudinal analysis ofindividual student enrolment and unit of studycompletions, to create pathways at the studentlevel. The frequency of individual pathwaysindicate the common patterns of studentprogression at the course level. Pathwaypatterns convey important information aboutchanges in programs of study, and associationswith student characteristics. Pathway patternscomplement current student outcome performanceindicators. The pathway technique is simple,accurate, practical and applicable not only tostaff and students in making informed decisionsregarding the teaching and learning environmentbut also to universities and governments inplanning and policy development.     

Listening text comprehension in preschoolers: a longitudinal study on the role of semantic components

A longitudinal study analyzed (a) which lower- and higher-level semantic components uniquely predicted listening text comprehension and (b) the nature of the relation (i.e., direct and indirect) between the predictors and listening text comprehension in preschoolers. One-hundred and fifty-two children participated in the present study (68 females; mean age = 4;10 years/months and 5;5 years/months at Time 1 and Time 2, respectively). Participants were administered measures to evaluate listening text comprehension (Time 1 and Time 2) and (a) expressive and receptive word knowledge (lower-level semantic components), and (b) inferential skills and the ability to use context (higher-level semantic components) (Time 1). Verbal short-term and working memory were also included as control variables. Data were analyzed using path analysis models. Results showed that both types of semantic components (a) accounted for unique variance in listening text comprehension at Time 2, with lower-level semantic components explaining a larger proportion of variance than higher-level semantic components; (b) were related to later listening text comprehension through direct and indirect relations. Memory resources did not significantly contribute to listening text comprehension. The results are discussed in light of their theoretical relevance and educational/practical implications.