Does war contribute to family violence against children? Findings from a two-generational multi-informant study in Northern Uganda

After 20 years of civil war in Northern Uganda, the continuity of violence within the family constitutes a major challenge to children's healthy development in the post-conflict era. Previous exposure to trauma and ongoing psychopathology in guardians potentially contribute to parental perpetration against children and dysfunctional interactions in the child's family ecology that increase children's risk of maltreatment. In order to investigate distal and proximal risk factors of child victimization, we first aimed to identify factors leading to more self-reported perpetration in guardians. Second, we examined factors in the child's family environment that promote child-reported experiences of maltreatment. Using a two-generational design we interviewed 368 children, 365 female guardians, and 304 male guardians from seven war-affected rural communities in Northern Uganda on the basis of standardized questionnaires. We found that the strongest predictors of self-reported aggressive parenting behaviors toward the child were guardians’ own experiences of childhood maltreatment, followed by female guardians’ victimization experiences in their intimate relationship and male guardians’ posttrautmatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol-related problems. Regarding children's self-report of victimization in the family, proximal factors including violence between adults in the household and male guardians’ PTSD symptom severity level predicted higher levels of maltreatment. Distal variables such as female guardians’ history of childhood victimization and female guardians’ exposure to traumatic war events also increased children's report of maltreatment. The current findings suggest that in the context of organized violence, an intergenerational cycle of violence persists that is exacerbated by female guardians’ re-victimization experiences and male guardians’ psychopathological symptoms.     

Best channels of academia-industry interaction for long-term benefit

Interactions between public research organizations and industry can be conceptualized as having three main stages: drivers of interaction, channels of interaction, and the perceived benefits from collaboration. Both of the agents differ in terms of the incentives they have to collaborate and the behaviors they adopt during the collaboration process. Following a three-stage model based on Crépon et al. (1998), this paper discusses the impact of drivers of collaboration on channels of interaction, and the impact of these channels on the perceived benefits by researchers and firms. The methodology also allows firm-level benefits from interaction to be connected with researchers’ characteristics via the analysis of four common channels of interaction for firms and researchers. The study is based on original data collected through two surveys, carried out in Mexico during 2008, of R&D and product-development managers of firms and of academic researchers. Our results show that all channels of interaction play an important role in determining benefits; however, they differ in terms of their impact on short- or long-term benefits for firms. The channels related to joint and contract R&D, property rights, and human resources are the best, as they have a higher impact on long-term benefits for firms. Policy implications derived from this study focus on specific actions that enhance those researchers’ characteristics related to the best channels for fostering long-term benefits for firms.     

An Interview Protocol and Scoring Rubric for Evaluating Teacher Performance

This paper introduces an interview protocol, administration procedures, and scoring rubric for evaluating teacher performance. Procedures used to develop and adminis ter the protocol and scoring rubric and subsequent validity and reliability studies are reported. All evidence suggests that the protocol and scoring rubric are aligned with professional standards and focus on a teacher's assessment of and ability to modify instruction to improve student learning. These findings support the viability of the interview protocol as an effective method of evaluating teacher performance.     

Vocational and psychological characteristics of employed,non-college degreed,incongruent women

Paul R. Salomone is a professor of Counselor Education and of Rehabilitation Counseling at Syracuse University. Claudia Pask-McCartney is a doctoral candidate in the area of Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation at Syracuse University.     

Guidelines for the protection and treatment of the abused child

The purpose of this paper is to review ten actions that can be taken by multi- disciplinary child protection teams or individuals in this field to assure that the interests of the abused child are consistently addressed.     

Parental distress: the initial phase of hearing aid and cochlear implant fitting

The results of previous cross-section studies suggest that childhood hearing impairment may lead to parental psychosocial stress. The present study investigated whether modifications in parental psychic state can be ascertained in connection with the child's treatment events and the child's hearing and speech status, in a prospective study design. Data were available on 116 fathers and mothers regarding the pre-cochlear implant examination or hearing aid fitting of their child. In the course of the child's treatment, parental quality of life improved from a low to a normal level. Among children who were at the stage of pre-examination for a cochlear implant, better hearing and speech capacity was linked to more severe impairment of the parental state. It is emphasized that the parents whose children showed comparatively good language development at the time of pre-examination for a cochlear implant were especially subjected to stress.     

The determinants of research output and impact: A study of Mexican researchers

This paper uses a unique data set of Mexican researchers to explore the determinants of research output and impact. Our findings confirm a quadratic relationship between age and the number of published papers. However, publishing peaks when researchers are approximately 53 years old, 5 or 10 years later than what prior studies have shown. Overall, the results suggest that age does not have a substantial influence on research output and impact. We also find that reputation matters for the number of citations but not publications. Results also show important heterogeneity across areas of knowledge. Interpretations of other aspects, such as gender, country of PhD, and cohort effect, among others, are also discussed.