Children's experience of violence in China and Korea: a transcultural study

OBJECTIVE: There were two aims: First, to compare children's rates of being battered in home, by peers, and by teachers among students between China and Korea, and second, to identify particular risk factors for such violence. METHODS: Children in grades four through six in Shanghai (238 cases) and Yanji (245 cases) in China and Seoul (248 cases) and Kimpo (241 cases) in Korea were surveyed by questionnaire method. They were asked to complete the Straus' Conflict Tactics Scale and their frequencies in the three situations respectively, and other demographic items. RESULTS: Family violence during the last 1 year was experienced in 70.6% (minor 42.2%; serious 22.6%) of the children in China and 68.9% (minor 9.4%; serious 51.3%) of those in Korea. Experience rates of violence by peers were 42.7% (minor 25.7%; serious 13.7%) in China and 26.0% (minor 11.5%; serious 14.3%) in Korea. Finally, rates of corporal punishment by teachers were 51.1% (minor 28.0%; serious 4.1%) in China and 62.0% (minor 8.8%; serious 43.8%) in Korea. The most important and common risk factor for violence in one situation was the presence of violence in another situation. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the differences in children's overall experience rates were not particularly striking. However, Korean children experienced more severe forms of violence from family members and from teachers. Findings of risk factors clearly imply that there are children vulnerable to violence from multiple sources.     

Insect detectives

Insects are increasingly being used to trace absconding murderers. A fascinating branch of insect science (entomology)—forensic entomology—is introduced in this article.     

Satisfied conclusion validity of early intervention research with handicapped children

The statistical conclusion validity of early intervention research studies was examined by conducting a post hoc power analysis of 484 statistical tests from 49 early intervention articles. Statistical power determinations were made based on Cohen's (1977) criteria for small, medium, and large effect sizes. The analysis revealed that the median power to detect small, medium, and large effect sizes ranged from .08 to .46. Four percent of early intervention studies had adequate power (.80 or greater) to detect medium intervention effects and 18% to detect large intervention effects. The power values suggest poor statistical conclusion validity in the analyzed research and should alert investigators to the possibility of Type II experimental errors in the early intervention research literature. The argument is made that low statistical conclusion validity has practical consequences in relation to program evaluation and cost-effectiveness determinations.     

Dimensional salience and judgments of bigness by three-year-old children.

3-year-olds were shown triads of rectangles and asked to select the "big" one, where the biggest rectangle in each triad was neither the tallest nor the widest. Dimensional salience and response choice were highly related. In addition, as saliency of a particular dimension increased relative to the other dimension, significantly more responses were based on that dimension. The results support the notion that the young child does not rely on 1 specific dimension to make judgments of bigness but, rather, attends to the most salient differences among stimuli.     

Preparation,style, and format of doctoral dissertations in U.S. colleges and universities

While much criticism has been leveled at graduate education in major United States colleges and universities in the recent past, this study investigated the style and format variables related to preparation of the dissertation and associated matters. The results of this study indicate that a significant amount of introspective evaluation of the dissertation process and product has taken place over the last five years. Technological advances, quality concerns, and increased student involvement in the preparation process have been recognized and incorporated into new dissertation requirements, and a trend toward decentralized monitoring of dissertation preparation is evident from the results. Also presented are comparative information and data contrasting current practices with those reported in a 1975–76 survey of the same population. In both cases the response rate for the survey was greater than 85%, thus providing a very definitive picture of the current status of dissertation preparation.     

Word Play: Scaffolding Language Development Through Child-Directed Play

Play is an important activity in young children’s lives. It is how children explore their world and build knowledge. Although free play, which is play that is totally child directed, contributes to children’s learning, self-regulation and motivation, adults’ participation in children’s play is critical in their development, especially their language development. Guided by children, adults can help scaffold children’s language, and especially their learning. We suggest that adults scaffold children’s language during play by using research based strategies such as asking questions that invite extended responses and new inquiry, provide meaningful feedback and effectively use wait time, which provides children with the opportunity to respond to adults’ comments and questions. The goal is to provide adults with strategies to scaffold children’s language development during play while allowing children to direct their own play activities.     

The history of medical libraries from 2000 B.C. to 1900 A.D

Tablets said to date back to 2000 b.c. represent the earliest medical writings so far discovered. The history of the medical library (defined as a place where a collection of medical writings is kept) is traced through ancient and medieval civilizations, and the dependence of advancement or decline on the attitude toward learning and knowledge is demonstrated.The change in structure of medical libraries that took place around the 1500s with the development of scientific societies is discussed. Medical libraries of Colonial America are described and the history is brought forward to the era of public library collections of medical material in the early 1900s.     

Influence of the scholar

Among the factors which will influence the emerging roles of medical libraries will be the changing needs of the medical scholars who use them. The effectiveness of the medical practitioner will be determined to an increasing extent by his capacity to mobilize information with a rapidity sufficient to permit its application in day-to-day decision-making. The practice of medicine is becoming an increasingly academic pursuit. The library and the librarian will, therefore, become more directly involved in the practice of medicine, and the library will be a more crucial resource in providing superior patient-care. Changes in undergraduate and continuing medical education will make new demands on the library. These and other related developments will create new functions, new problems, and new opportunities for the librarian.