ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool Children's Version (ICAST-C): Instrument development and multi-national pilot testing

ObjectiveTo develop a child victimization survey among a diverse group of child protection experts and examine the performance of the instrument through a set of international pilot studies.MethodsThe initial draft of the instrument was developed after input from scientists and practitioners representing 40 countries. Volunteers from the larger group of scientists participating in the Delphi review of the ICAST P and R reviewed the ICAST C by email in 2 rounds resulting in a final instrument. The ICAST C was then translated and back translated into six languages and field tested in four countries using a convenience sample of 571 children 12–17 years of age selected from schools and classrooms to which the investigators had easy access.ResultsThe final ICAST C Home has 38 items and the ICAST C Institution has 44 items. These items serve as screeners and positive endorsements are followed by queries for frequency and perpetrator. Half of respondents were boys (49%). Endorsement for various forms of victimization ranged from 0 to 51%. Many children report violence exposure (51%), physical victimization (55%), psychological victimization (66%), sexual victimization (18%), and neglect in their homes (37%) in the last year. High rates of physical victimization (57%), psychological victimization (59%), and sexual victimization (22%) were also reported in schools in the last year. Internal consistency was moderate to high (alpha between .685 and .855) and missing data low (less than 1.5% for all but one item).ConclusionsIn pilot testing, the ICAST C identifies high rates of child victimization in all domains. Rates of missing data are low, and internal consistency is moderate to high. Pilot testing demonstrated the feasibility of using child self-report as one strategy to assess child victimization.Practice implicationsThe ICAST C is a multi-national, multi-lingual, consensus-based survey instrument. It is available in six languages for international research to estimate child victimization. Assessing the prevalence of child victimization is critical in understanding the scope of the problem, setting national and local priorities, and garnering support for program and policy development aimed at child protection.     

Adaptation and psychometric properties of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool for use in trials (ICAST-Trial) among South African adolescents and their primary caregivers

Child abuse prevention research has been hampered by a lack of validated multi-dimensional non-proprietary instruments, sensitive enough to measure change in abuse victimization or behavior. This study aimed to adapt the ICAST child abuse self-report measure (parent and child) for use in intervention studies and to investigate the psychometric properties of this substantially modified tool in a South African sample. First, cross-cultural and sensitivity adaptation of the original ICAST tools resulted in two preliminary measures (ICAST-Trial adolescents: 27 items, ICAST-Trial caregivers: 19 items). Second, ICAST-Trial data from a cluster randomized trial of a parenting intervention for families with adolescents (N = 1104, 552 caregiver-adolescent dyads) was analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis established the hypothesized 6-factor (adolescents) and 4-factor (caregivers) structure. Removal of two items for adolescents and five for caregivers resulted in adequate model fit. Concurrent criterion validity analysis confirmed hypothesized relationships between child abuse and adolescent and caregiver mental health, adolescent behavior, discipline techniques and caregiver childhood abuse history. The resulting ICAST-Trial measures have 25 (adolescent) and 14 (caregiver) items respectively and measure physical, emotional and contact sexual abuse, neglect (both versions), and witnessing intimate partner violence and sexual harassment (adolescent version). The study established that both tools are sensitive to measuring change over time in response to a parenting intervention. The ICAST-Trial should have utility for evaluating the effectiveness of child abuse prevention efforts in similar socioeconomic contexts. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and examine cultural appropriateness, barriers for disclosure, and willingness to engage in child abuse research.     

Convergent validity of the preliminary Spanish version of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory: depression and marital adjustment]

This paper studies the "convergent validity" of the preliminary spanish version of the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory. In relation to the ecological-systemic model of child maltreatment, this inventory evaluates individual, family, and social factors which facilitate the occurrence of physical child abuse. Depression and marital adjustment were measured in three groups of mothers: one group of mother-perpetrators of physical child abuse (n = 20), another group of mothers with a rate superior to cut-off (percentile = 95) in the CAP Inventory (n = 15), and a group of mothers with low punctuation (under percentile 25) in the CAP Inventory (n = 15). The two last groups (High CAP and Low CAP) come from a larger sample of 829 subjects which are a demographically representative sample of the population of País Vasco (in Spain). Because of variations in the detection of social services, the physically abused group is formed by the most extreme and severe cases. The three groups of mothers were matched as to socio-economic family status, education, civil status, age of the mother, sex of the child, number of children. It was expected that in these variables, depression and marital adjustment, the group with physical abuse would resemble the High CAP group and that both groups would be significantly different from the Low CAP group. Results partially confirm these hypothesis, supporting the possibilities of developing a Spanish version of the CAP Inventory for detection of physical child abuse.     

Child development in developing countries: introduction and methods

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is a nationally representative, internationally comparable household survey implemented to examine protective and risk factors of child development in developing countries around the world. This introduction describes the conceptual framework, nature of the MICS3, and general analytic plan of articles in this Special Section. The articles that follow describe the situations of children with successive foci on nutrition, parenting, discipline and violence, and the home environment. They address 2 common questions: How do developing and underresearched countries in the world vary with respect to these central indicators of children’s development? How do key indicators of national development relate to child development in each of these substantive areas? The Special Section concludes with policy implications from the international findings.     

Accessibility and Order: Crossing Borders in Child Abuse Forensic Reports

Physicians write child abuse forensic reports for nonphysicians. We examined 73 forensic reports from a Canadian children's hospital for recurrent strategies geared toward making medical information accessible to nonmedical users; we also interviewed four report writers and five readers. These reports featured unique forensic inserts in addition to headings, lists, and parentheses, which are typical of physician letters for patients. We discuss implications of these strategies that must bridge the communities of medical, social, and legal practice.     

Child development in developing countries: child rights and policy implications

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey was used to provide information on feeding practices, caregiving, discipline and violence, and the home environment for young children across 28 countries. The findings from the series of studies in this Special Section are the first of their kind because they provide information on the most proximal context for development of the youngest children in the majority world using one of the only data sets to study these contexts across countries. Using the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular the Rights to Survival, Development and Protection, findings are explained with implications for international and national-level social policies. Implications are also discussed, with respect to policy makers and the larger international community, who have the obligation to uphold these rights.     

Feasibility of Conducting Child Abuse Research with Girls in Juvenile Detention Using Audio-Computer Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) Technology

This paper presents a feasibility study of audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) technology used to elicit self-reported histories of child maltreatment among detained adolescent girls (N?=?35). We focus on methodological, legal, ethical, and administrative challenges to the collection of sensitive information from minors who are wards of the state. We conclude that extensive collaboration with detention center staff was required to address and overcome these challenges. Pending the availability of additional evidence from demographically diverse samples, the extent to which the ACASI method improves the completeness and accuracy of child maltreatment histories reported by adolescent girls in juvenile detention remains unclear. Further research is needed to determine whether the advantages of the ACASI technology contribute to more valid and reliable reporting of maltreatment by detained girls in a setting where an empathetic interviewer, who may facilitate the disclosure process, is absent.     

Recurrence of maltreatment: an application of the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS).

OBJECTIVE: The research describes and compares patterns of maltreatment recurrence across multiple states using large samples, confirms the patterns of recurrence found in the literature, and explores unreported patterns of recurrence. METHOD: A recurrence data set for calendar years 1994 and 1995 was constructed from the multi-state case level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. These data were available for 10 states and included a range from 2,419 to 99,288 substantiated or indicated report-child pairs per state. A common set of data constructs lent consistency to data construction and analysis, while preserving differences in policy. Event History Analysis (survival) techniques were used. RESULTS: Single site studies were confirmed across the 10 states. These include the pattern where neglect is most likely to recur, followed by physical abuse and then sexual abuse. Similarly, younger children are more likely to recur. A finding of the analysis is that the likelihood of recurrence increases in a systematic and consistent fashion based upon the sequential ordering of recurrent maltreatment events. Also, the likelihood of recurrence is associated with the provision of postinvestigative services. CONCLUSION: Highly consistent patterns of recurrence were observed across states. Children experiencing multiple recurrences compared to no recurrence or one recurrence may represent a special at risk population requiring additional research. Adequate baselines and an understanding of recurrence is needed when considering recurrence as an outcome indicator or in developing risk assessment tools. Important recurrence patterns may be difficult to detect reliably with relatively small samples.     

虐童案背后的反思:我国学前教育的危机与对策

"携程亲子园"以及北京"红黄蓝"幼儿园虐童事件的发生,再一次引发全社会对于幼儿安全教育的关注.幼儿之事无小事,尤其是幼儿自身安全面临严重威胁的时候,不管是社会还是政府都应该竭尽全力对他们进行保护.虐童案的发生,根本原因还是由于幼儿教师数量的偏少、质量偏低以及公办幼儿园数量的严重缺口.持续不断地虐童事件再次曝光于社会公众面前,也从侧面反映了幼儿保护政策、预防措施不到位.政府应该加大公办幼儿园的建设力度并积极鼓励非师范本科以上毕业生投入到幼儿教育的事业,同时从法律法规制定、监督体制完善、管理者技能培训等多方面入手,唯有此才可能防止"虐童案"悲剧的再次发生.     

Child discipline in low- and middle-income countries: Socioeconomic disparities at the household- and country-level

BackgroundIn the past month, an estimated eight of ten children worldwide have experienced violent discipline. Understanding the economic and social contexts in which parents are more likely to use particular disciplinary practices is necessary to reduce violence against children. Critical examination of disciplinary practices and beliefs in cross-country analysis of low- and middle-income countries (LMICS) has been limited.ObjectiveTo estimate the association of country-level stressors and household-level economic stressors with disciplinary behaviors and beliefs.Participants and settingUsing Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey data between 2010 and 2013, 231,221 parents from 32 LMICS were included.MethodsThe prevalence of past-month nonviolent discipline, physical discipline, psychological aggression, belief in the utility of physical discipline, and incongruence of disciplinary practice and belief were estimated. Country-level prevalence was regressed on country-level stressors (economic burden, economic inequality, human security, and human development). Individual-level disciplinary practices and beliefs were regressed on household wealth.ResultsCountry-level stressors predicted psychological and physical discipline use and belief in the utility of physical discipline. Lower household wealth was associated with increased violent disciplinary practice and belief. Lower household wealth was associated with increased likelihood of using violent discipline, even when the caregiver did not believe in its utility (OR = 1.63 [1.34, 1.98]).ConclusionsDiscipline use and belief in LMICS should be understood within the context of salient societal and household stressors.Parental disciplinary beliefs and practices reflect complex interplay with broader social, political and economic contexts and should not be taken to be defined by monolithic views of culture.     

A retrospective study with ICAST-R (ispcan child abuse screening tools-retrospective) questionnaire for determination of child abuse in first year medical students in Turkish population

Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) is an important problem both in Turkey and worldwide. Unfortunately, we still don’t have enough and reliable data on this important subject. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of childhood maltreatment in a population of first year medical students in a Turkish university using the retrospective version of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool (ICAST-R). One hundred seventy three first year medical students, aged between 18 and 24 years, who agreed to complete the ICAST-R questionnaire, were recruited in our study. Of 173 students who completed the survey, 51.4% are found to be subjected to at least one type of child abuse (physical, emotional or sexual). The prevalence is higher in male gender and the difference is statistically significant. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse exposure rates are found to be 23.1%, 40.5% and 11% respectively. Physical and emotional abuse rates are higher in male gender and the difference is statistically significant. We did not find any statistically significant association between gender and sexual abuse. Efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect are growing in our country, as they are worldwide. However, child abuse is still common and a problematic issue. It is important to determine the prevalence of child abuse in order to raise awareness. We need further studies investigating not only prevalence but also risk factors to have reliable data for our country.     

Gamifying programming education in K-12: A review of programming curricula in seven countries and programming games

An increasing number of countries have recently included programming education in their curricula. Similarly, utilizing programming concepts in gameplay has become popular in the videogame industry. Although many games have been developed for learning to program, their variety and their correspondence to national curricula remain an uncharted territory. Consequently, this paper has three objectives. Firstly, an investigation on the guidelines on programming education in K-12 in seven countries was performed by collecting curricula and other relevant data official from governmental and non-profit educational websites. Secondly, a review of existing acquirable games that utilize programming topics in their gameplay was conducted by searching popular game stores. Lastly, we compared the curricula and made suggestions as to which age group the identified games would be suitable. The results of this study can be useful to educators and curriculum designers who wish to gamify programming education.     

Abuse and deliberate self-poisoning in women: a matched case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: Controlled studies have shown deliberate self-harm to be more common in abused populations, but no controlled studies have shown abuse to be more common in self-harming populations. This is the first controlled study to determine whether abuse experiences (sexual, physical, and psychological) occurred more commonly in women who take overdoses than in controls. METHOD: The design was a matched (1:1) case-control study set in a district general hospital in England. The subjects were 36 women admitted following deliberate self-poisoning. They were matched with the next non-overdose admission to the same hospital on six variables (sex, age, ethnicity, social class, marital status, and geographical locality). The main outcome measures used were modified versions of standardized self-report questionnaires of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse, together with measures of parenting style and general psychopathology. RESULTS: Women who had taken an overdose were more likely (odds ratio 15.0, 95% confidence interval 2.0 to 113.6) to have been sexually abused, and somewhat more likely to have been psychologically (1.02, 1.00 to 1.05) but not physically abused. They also had higher measures of psychopathology (GHQ-30: 1.19, 1.07 to 1.31), were more likely to have been abused at a younger age, exposed to the "affectionless control" style of parenting by their mothers, and to have harmed themselves in other ways. CONCLUSIONS: The management of women presenting to hospital after self-poisoning should include assessment of abuse experiences, and instigation of appropriate treatment in those with significant sequelae of abuse.     

Adaptation of Child Abuse Potential Inventory in Chile: analysis of the difficulties and challenges in the application in Chilean studies

OBJECTIVE: This paper describes two studies aimed at validating the Chilean version of Child Abuse Potential (CAP). The paper also discusses problems in what respects conceptualizing and detecting maltreatment within a process of research as it relates to a specific culture. METHOD: An instrument based on the Child Abuse Potential Inventory was administered to two different samples of 134 people and 280 people, respectively. Both studies are contrasted in terms of internal consistency, factor analysis, and the instrument's ability to discriminate between abusers and non-abusers. RESULTS: Both studies feature good internal consistency (.98 and .95) and a factor structure similar to that of the original instrument; however, the second study shows problems concerning correct subject classification. The contrast of both studies suggests that the instrument is suitable for discriminating between severe child physical abuse and very well-treated children. The indecision area of classification is 67%. CONCLUSION: The results of both studies highlight the need to conceptualize and operationalize child abuse within a specific cultural context. The distinction between abusers and non-abusers becomes more blurred in the less extreme cases.     

Screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): Cautions and suggestions

This article argues that it is still premature to start widespread screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in health care settings until we have answers to several important questions: 1) what are the effective interventions and responses we need to have in place to offer to those with positive ACE screening, 2) what are the potential negative outcomes and costs to screening that need to be buffered in any effective screening regime, and 3) what exactly should we be screening for? The article makes suggestions for needed research activities.     

Selecting a learning management system (LMS) in developing countries: instructors' evaluation

Learning management systems (LMSs) contain hidden costs, unclear user environments, bulky developer and administration manuals, and limitations with regard to interoperability, integration, localization, and bandwidth requirements. Careful evaluation is required in selecting the most appropriate LMS for use, and this is a general problem in web-based education. One possibility is to automate this evaluation process using computer-aided techniques. In this article, the researcher has focused on the idea of automating the evaluation process and has developed a computer-aided system named Easy Way to Evaluate LMSs (EW-LMS), for the quick and efficient evaluation of LMSs, especially for developing countries, where the idea of using an LMS may be relatively new. The investigation described in this article was carried out with 88 voluntary higher education instructors to test the usefulness of the developed system. Two types of quantitative questionnaires were used during the study. The results obtained indicate that the instructors were highly satisfied using the developed system, and the EW-LMS is technically sound and well developed. Theevaluation system can help instructors to select the best LMS appropriate to their educational needs and their type of usage in the shortest possible time, with little effort, without any specialized technical knowledge/training and by following simple, user-friendly steps. The system is oriented to anyone interested in evaluating and using an LMS in web-based education. Those individuals who may be interested in using this software are instructors, students, or anyone else who may have an interest in LMSs, and educational organizations such as universities, schools, and institutes.     

Reviews of teacher training and teacher performance in developing countries: Beeby revisited (2)

The effects of teacher training and qualifications on teacher and student performance in developing countries have been matters of considerable interest recently. A forerunner to this debate was a relationship hypothesized by C.E. Beeby between levels of general education and professional training of teachers and passage through stages of educational development. In a recent critique of Beeby's stages, it was argued that the stages concept is theoretically and methodologically unsound; however, the relationship between teachers' training and performance received only cursory attention. This article pursues the issue further through an analysis of recent literature reviews on teacher effectiveness in developing countries. Given the objections to stage analysis, Beeby's hypothesis was recast to predict a positive relationship between teachers' general education and professional training as independent variables and teachers' performance as dependent variable. The two less restrictive and more wide-ranging of the literature reviews provided considerable support for this hypothesis in developing countries, but made clear that the exact nature of the relationship is complex and varies considerably between different educational and cultural contexts. It was noted that considerable attention is needed to operational specification of the hypothesis according to the needs of individual countries. Research should no longer concentrate on whether such a relationship exists, but should seek to establish the particular nature of the relationship in the different contexts.

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Zusammenfassung In letzter Zeit ist viel über die Auswirkungen der Lehrerausbildung und ihrer Qualifikationen auf die Leistungen von Lehrern und Schülern in Entwicklungsländern diskutiert worden. Ein Vorläufer dieser Debatte war eine von C.E. Beeby aufgestellte Hypothese über den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Niveau der Allgemeinbildung und beruflichen Ausbildung von Lehrern und ihrem Durchlaufen von pädagogischen Entwicklungsstufen. In einer neueren Kritik von Beeby's Stufentheorie wurde ausgeführt, daß das Stufenkonzept theoretisch und methodologisch angreifbar sei; auf den Zusammenhang von Lehrerausbildung und -leistung wurde jedoch nicht näher eingegangen. Der vorliegende Artikel geht der Frage weiter nach, indem er neuere Literatur über die Effizienz von Lehrern in Entwicklungsländern analysiert. Angesichts der Einwendungen gegen die Stufenanalyse wird Beeby's Hypothese so abgewandelt, daß sie einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen der Allgemeinbildung und beruflichen Ausbildung von Lehrern als unabhängigen Variablen und ihrer Leistung als abhängiger Variable ergibt. Die beiden weniger einschränkenden und weitreichenderen Literaturstudien liefern beachtliche Unterstützung für diese Hypothese in bezug auf Entwicklungsländer, machen aber deutlich, daß dieser Zusammenhang komplexer Natur ist und in den verschiedenen pädagogischen und kulturellen Kontexten erheblich variiert. Daher muß der operationellen Spezifizierung der Hypothese entsprechend den Bedürfnissen der einzelnen Länder besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet werden. Die Forschung sollte sich nicht länger darauf konzentrieren, ob ein solcher Zusammenhang besteht, sondern vor allem die Eigenart der Beziehung in den verschiedenen Kontexten untersuchen.

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Résumé Les effets de la formation et des qualifications de l'enseignant sur le rendement de l'enseignant et de l'étudiant dans les pays en développement ont été l'objet, récemment, d'un intérêt considérable. Le postulat formulé par Beeby d'une relation entre les niveaux de l'éducation générale et la formation professionnelle des enseignants ainsi que le passage par une série d'étapes de développement éducationnel a été le prélude de ce débat. Une récente critique des étapes de Beeby a argué que son concept était théoriquement et méthodologiquement erroné; cependant la relation entre la formation et la performance des enseignants a retenu quelque peu l'attention. Cet article approfondit la question en analysant les enquêtes récentes sur la performance de l'enseignant dans les pays en développement. Etant donné les objections présentées à l'analyse de l'étape, l'hypothèse de Beeby a été remaniée pour prédire une relation positive entre l'éducation générale des enseignants et la formation professionnelle considérées comme des variables indépendantes et la performance des enseignants vue comme une variable dépendante. Les deux enquêtes les moins restrictives et les plus ouvertes portant sur les écrits inspirés par ce thème ont fortement étayé cette hypothèse dans les pays en développement, mais ont clairement montré par ailleurs que la nature exacte de cette relation est complexe et qu'elle varie considérablement selon les contextes culturels et éducatifs. On a remarqué que la spécification opérationnelle de l'hypothèse en fonction des besoins de chacun des pays requiert une attention extrême. La recherche ne doit plus se consacrer désormais à vérifier l'existence d'une telle relation mais bien s'intéresser à la nature particulière de ce rapport dans les différents contextes.