Coaching, truth induction, and young maltreated children's false allegations and false denials

This study examined the effects of coaching (encouragement and rehearsal of false reports) and truth induction (a child-friendly version of the oath or general reassurance about the consequences of disclosure) on 4- to 7-year-old maltreated children's reports ( N = 198). Children were questioned using free recall, repeated yes–no questions, and highly suggestive suppositional questions. Coaching impaired children's accuracy. For free-recall and repeated yes–no questions, the oath exhibited some positive effects, but this effect diminished in the face of highly suggestive questions. Reassurance had few positive effects and no ill effects. Neither age nor understanding of the meaning and negative consequences of lying consistently predicted accuracy. The results support the utility of truth induction in enhancing the accuracy of child witnesses' reports.     

Examining Trauma-Informed Teaching and the Trauma Symptomatology of Court-Involved Girls

Young women living in urban contexts, particularly those with involvement in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, experience significant barriers to academic well-being as a result of childhood trauma. To date, little research has been done to evaluate evidence-based, trauma-informed educational interventions to improve outcomes among these students. This study used survey data from a multi-year trauma-informed teaching intervention to quantitatively measure the well-being of trauma-exposed girls in an urban, trauma-informed school setting. The study explored whether girls at a trauma-informed school demonstrated significant changes in trauma symptomatology and whether these changes varied by race/ethnicity. As hypothesized, participants experienced a statistically significant decrease in trauma symptoms over the observation period. However, there were no significant differences in trauma symptom change based on race/ethnicity. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

     

Charismatic cops,patriarchs and a few good women: leadership,club culture and young peoples' drinking

The paper reports on key findings of a research project that examined the roles that community-based sporting clubs in the Australian state of Victoria play in shaping young people's understandings and uses of alcohol. Our research imagined clubs as community hubs that are located in complex networks that impact on the ways that clubs understand their locations in communities, and which have unpredictable influences and consequences on club histories, culture and orientations to issues such as young people and alcohol use. The paper focuses on understanding the key roles played by club leaders in facilitating change and transformation in these contexts, particularly in terms of alcohol-related practices and the potential impact of these on young people's uses and understanding of alcohol. We situate these findings in a framework that draws on the literature of complexity science and complex adaptive systems (CAS) to suggest that these practices and changes need to be understood in ways that allow for complexity, uncertainty, emergent behaviours and adaptive change.     

Eliciting Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Children's Transgression Disclosures: Narrative Practice Rapport Building and a Putative Confession

This study tested the effects of narrative practice rapport building (asking open‐ended questions about a neutral event) and a putative confession (telling the child an adult “told me everything that happened and he wants you to tell the truth”) on 4‐ to 9‐year‐old maltreated and nonmaltreated children's reports of an interaction with a stranger who asked them to keep toy breakage a secret (n = 264). Only one third of children who received no interview manipulations disclosed breakage; in response to a putative confession, one half disclosed. Narrative practice rapport building did not affect the likelihood of disclosure. Maltreated children and nonmaltreated children responded similarly to the manipulations. Neither narrative practice rapport building nor a putative confession increased false reports.     

Competitive opportunity and liberal culture: the significance of Scottish education in the twentieth century

Three of the great social ambitions of educational reform since the late nineteenth century are now seriously problematical. Although education does offer individuals a way of bettering themselves, we now know that it does little to change the terms of the competition among people who start from different social classes: it probably does not, by itself, affect relative social mobility. Education in advanced economies has little effect on overall rates of growth: it is now clear that the analogy between individual and economic development is untenable. And the main other option to these instrumental goals—that education should pass on the best that has been thought and said—is now deeply unfashionable with policy‐makers, radical activists and most shades of academic opinion. Scotland is a telling case of these shifts. In the past century, it has held quite firmly to all three older views, and has tried quite thoroughly to implement educational reforms in pursuit of them. Its experience is as good a demonstration as any that the first two ambitions—of social mobility and of economic development—cannot be realised by educational change alone. The country is also moving deliberately away from the third ambition, its old humanism of knowledge. The implications of this experience and these developments are discussed.     

Strategy Precedes Operational Effectiveness: Aligning High Graduation Rankings With Competitive Graduation Grade Point Averages

Two pivotal and interconnected claims are addressed in this article. First, strategy precedes program effectiveness. Second, graduation rates and rankings are insufficient in any account of academic progress for African American students. In this article, graduation is regarded as the floor and not the ceiling, as it were. The ideal situation in the promotion of strategy is the alignment of high graduation rates or rankings with high graduation cumulative grade point averages. This strategic alignment is precisely what needs to be formulated in the first instance before making judgments about program development and/or operational effectiveness. The work of the Office of African American Affairs of the University of Virginia provides the context for observing trends in academic performance that illustrate the optimal alignment between high graduation rankings and correspondingly high grade point averages.     

The Prediction of Antisocial Behavior from Avoidant Attachment Classifications

109 Children were classified using the Ainsworth Strange Situation at 18 months. 81 children who were unequivocally classified as insecure/avoidant (A1, A2) or securely attached (B1, B2, B3) were used in this study. The children's parents reported on occurrences of problem behaviors at 24 months, 27 months, 30 months, and 48 months using several methods. The children were observed at 18 and 30 months in their homes with their families and in toddler playgroups during the same period. The only significant effect for attachment classification was that teachers and observers of the playgroups rated girls classified as insecure/avoidant as more difficult to deal with and as having more difficulty with peers than girls rated as securely attached.     

The middle years slump: addressing student-reported barriers to academic progress

First-year university student attrition has been widely explored. However, there is a gap in our understanding when it comes to later years. Why do students who successfully navigate the hurdles of transition into university become at risk of exclusion in the middle years of study because of poor academic progress? This qualitative project develops a student-centred understanding of the problem of attrition through academic failure. It investigates the reasons given by students wishing to avoid involuntary exclusion from their course. Specifically, we address why middle-year students say they fail when they wish to succeed by examining self-reports. We find six main self-reported themes in three categories. The problems faced by mid-degree undergraduates are broader and more complex than those encountered in the first year. Our findings contrast with previous work on first-year attrition, which found that negative expectations of their own ability to succeed were a major factor in students’ decisions to drop out, although our study is constructed differently in that we analyse people wishing to continue their studies. The results expand our understanding of student involuntary attrition in the middle years. The overarching major issues in the themes we identified were financial, family/personal issues and health problems. In particular, mental health issues were remarkably apparent. This has significant implications for future student support. We find that there are commonly multiple reasons underlying each student’s at-risk status and provide suggestions for managers of programs that help students succeed.     

Not Just "Ghosts in the Nursery":1 Contemporaneous Intergenerational Relationships and Parenting in Young African-American Families

The association of the mother-grandmother relationship with parenting of preschoolers was examined in a sample of 96 African-American multigenerational families. Mother-grandmother and parent-child interactions were assessed at home with videotaped problem-solving tasks. The Scale of Intergenerational Relationship Quality (SIRQ), a global observational coding system, was developed to assess the quality of the mother-grandmother relationship via observational ratings of mothers' and grandmothers' discussion of conflict. It yielded 4 factors: Emotional Closeness (connectedness), Positive Affect (upbeat tone), Grandmother Directness (demandingness and clarity), and Individuation (balance of autonomy and mutuality). Regression analyses controlling for socioeco-nomic background variables showed that SIRQ factors, particularly Individuation, were consistently related to mothers' parenting. Relationship effects varied when interacted with age and coresidence. The importance of a multigenerational, contextual perspective for research and intervention with young African-American mothers is discussed.