What's in a name? A comparison of methods for classifying predominant type of maltreatment

OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of the study was to identify a classification scheme, for determining the predominant type of maltreatment in a child's history that best predicts differences in developmental outcomes. METHOD: Three different predominant type classification schemes were examined in a sample of 519 children with a history of alleged maltreatment. Cases were classified into predominant maltreatment types according to three different schemes: Hierarchical regression analyses examined whether the HT, SFT, and EHT type classifications contributed to prediction of child behavior problems, trauma symptoms and adaptive functioning. RESULTS: After controlling for demographic factors, the HT definitions predicted four outcomes, while the SFT definitions predicted three, and the EHT classifications contributed to the prediction of five child outcomes. The co-occurrence of multiple types of maltreatment was robustly related to outcomes. However, the HT and SFT classifications predicted outcomes even after accounting for the co-occurrence of multiple maltreatment subtypes. CONCLUSION: A classification scheme that differentiates between type combinations and single maltreatment types may have the greatest predictive validity. Over and above knowing about co-occurrence of maltreatment sub-types, it is important to understand what type, or constellation of types, of maltreatment have been alleged in a child's history.     

Catholic women educators’ discourse and educational measurement in the early twentieth century in the United States

ABSTRACT

In the early twentieth century in the United States, Roman Catholic schools grew in number and became increasingly regulated by state departments of education. This led to the increased influence of public school reform movements in Catholic schools. Some Catholic educators questioned these movements, while others embraced them. Educational measurement strategies, such as IQ and standardised testing, gained support from women religious orders and congregations, who made up the majority of the Catholic teaching force. For pragmatic reasons, they saw some value in the promises of modern educational science for teaching and learning. This practice, however, put them at odds with some of the beliefs and values of their Church. This study demonstrates how Catholic sister teachers attempted to shape the debate on the introduction and use of reform strategies like IQ and standardised testing. It also examines how Catholic sister teachers made use of Catholic beliefs and values to make arguments in favour of IQ and standardised testing in Catholic schools. Using agreed upon Catholic religious tenets and working within their gendered reality, Catholic sister teachers demonstrated how they tried to convince their colleagues, male and female, to come to an understanding around the use of educational measurement.     

Incubator firm failure or graduation?: The role of university linkages

One of the theoretically important factors for incubator firm performance is the strength of their linkages to the research university sponsoring the technology incubator. Herein, we focus on two types of university linkages to the sponsoring institution: a license obtained from the university and a link to university faculty, while controlling for incubator firm linkages to non-sponsoring research universities, among other factors. We propose that a university link to the sponsoring institution reduces the probability of new venture failure and, at the same time, retards timely graduation. Further, we suggest that these effects are more pronounced the stronger the university link. Due to the difficulty of obtaining fine-grained longitudinal data, the incubation literature is characterized by a dearth of studies focusing on incubator firm differential performance. We attempt to take a first step towards closing this gap by testing these hypotheses through following 79 start-up firms incubated in the Advanced Technology Development Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology over the 6-year period between 1998 and 2003. We find broad support for the hypotheses advanced.     

Serial pattern learning of temporal intervals

The problem was to determine how rats adjust the times of their lever responses to repeating sequences of interfood intervals. In Experiment 1, rats were trained on an interval schedule of reinforcement with a 12-element Fleshler-Hoffman series with a mean of 60 sec; the order was as follows: ascending, random with repetition, random with replacement, random without replacement. In Experiment 2, rats were trained with a 10-element ascending or descending series (from 2⁰ to 2⁹ sec), and in a ramp procedure in which these intervals increased and then decreased repeatedly. In the ascending, descending, and ramp conditions (but not in the random conditions), postreinforcement pause (PRP) was a function of the interval. PRP was most highly correlated with an interval later in the series. Theories of conditioning and timing based on the averaging of past experience must be modified to account for such anticipatory behavior.     

Behavior of Infants with Iron-Deficiency Anemia

This study tested the hypothesis that infants with iron-deficiency anemia show behaviors, such as increased proximity to caregivers, increased wariness or hesitance, and decreased activity, that could contribute to “functional isolation.” The behavior of 52 Costa Rican 12- to 23-month-old infants with iron-deficiency anemia was contrasted with that of 139 comparison group infants with better iron status during free play and mental and motor testing and in the home. Infants with iron-deficiency anemia maintained closer contact with caregivers; showed less pleasure and delight; were more wary, hesitant, and easily tired; made fewer attempts at test items; were less attentive to instructions and demonstrations; and were less playful. Adult behavior also differed. The results indicate that iron-deficiency anemia in infancy is associated with alterations in affect and activity, suggesting that functional isolation is a useful framework for understanding poorer developmental outcome in iron-deficiency anemia, the world's most common single nutrient deficiency.     

Three‐year results of the Friendly Schools whole‐of‐school intervention on children's bullying behaviour

A group randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of the Friendly Schools program to reduce student bullying behaviour. This socio‐ecological intervention targeted the whole school, classroom, family, and individual students to reduce bullying behaviour. Self‐report data were collected in 29 schools over three years from a cohort of 1968 eight to nine‐year‐olds. Surveys measured frequency of being bullied, bullying others, telling if bullied and observing bullying. Results indicate that intervention students were significantly less likely to observe bullying at 12, 24 and 36 months and be bullied after 12 and 36 months, and significantly more likely to tell if bullied after 12 months than comparison students. No differences were found for self‐reported perpetration of bullying. The findings suggest whole‐of‐school programs that engage students in their different social contexts appear to reduce their experiences of being bullied and increase their likelihood of telling someone if they are bullied.     

Observations of youth football training: How do coaches structure training sessions for player development?

We used systematic observation tools to explore the structure (i.e., activity and inactivity) and sequencing (i.e., the types of activities used) of football coaching sessions in Australia following the implementation of a new National Curriculum. Youth soccer coaches (n = 34), coaching within the Skill Acquisition (U11–U13 n = 19) and Game Training (U14–U17 n = 15) phases of the Football Federation Australia National Curriculum participated. Participants were filmed during a regular coaching session, with systematic observation of the session undertaken to provide a detailed analysis of the practice activities and coach behaviours. Findings indicated a session comprised of Playing Form activities (40.9%), Training Form activities (22.3%), inactivity (31%), and transitions between activities (5.8%). Coaches prescribed more Training Form activities (e.g., individual (5.4%) and drills (15.1%)) early in the session and progressed to Playing Form activities (i.e., small-sided games (15.3%) then larger games (24.8%)) later in the session. Most inactivity reflected the players listening to the coach – either in a team huddle (9.9%) or frozen on the spot during an activity (16.5%). In addition, coaches generally spent over 3 min communicating to players prior to explaining and introducing an activity regardless of when in the session the activity was scheduled.