Not all bad treatment is psychological maltreatment

One of the conceptual and definitional issues that has plagued the study of child maltreatment is the relationship between intention and outcome. This paper flows from the finding that the common developmentally destructive element in all forms of child maltreatment is psychological maltreatment, that the study of child abuse and neglect is the study of child maltreatment in a fundamental way. The key is to find a way to embrace the dynamic character of defining “psychological maltreatment,” by creating and sustaining a model that locates that dynamic in the conceptual space between science and professional practice on the one hand, and culture and community norms on the other.     

Can we measure success in preventing child abuse? Issues in policy, programming and research

Can we measure success in preventing child abuse? As the field of child abuse and neglect prevention matures intellectually and as more and more agencies require evaluative research to substantiate claims of programmatic success, this issue is emerging with ever growing vigor. This paper reviews efforts to set prevention goals in the United States, e.g., by the federal government's Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and by the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse. For such goal setting to be defensible and socially productive, it must be linked to a research base. This research base is growing and maturing. The home health visitor concept, in particular, has received clear and powerful support as a preventive strategy. However, many issues remain concerning other strategies. Of equal or greater importance are the many difficulties we face in documenting base rates of maltreatment with which to assess the impact of preventive interventions. Questions remain about the adequacy of infant mortality data, child injury rates, and the validity of officially reported cases of child maltreatment. The paper reviews the data available to clarify and resolve these issues, and outlines a strategy for assessing success of efforts to reduce severity and incidence of child abuse in the United States. These efforts are presented in the context of a series of principles regarding child abuse prevention, e.g., the difference between prevention linked to broad social and economic reforms versus preventive programming targeted at ameliorating the lives of high-risk families in the absence of broad socioeconomic change.     

Teaching developmental psychology to adults with field experience as a vehicle for resource development

This paper examines the ways in which the field experience—including both job-related activities and life-span developments—of adults affects the teaching of developmental psychology. It examines the psychological differences between conventional students (18 to 22-year-olds) and the growing numbers of adult students who are a new challenge to higher education, particularly in the teaching of psychology in general and developmental psychology. The role of a growing new breed of colleges (colleges that make use of assessment of prior learning, utilize individualized instruction, and are nonresidential) is examined.This article is based upon a paper delivered at the 83rd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association as part of a symposium, Learning of Growth, Learning as Growth: Teaching Developmental Psychology.     

Early Investment in Cognitive Development as a Strategy for Reducing Poverty

This paper reviews the possibilities and limitations of programs aimed at promoting early investment in child development programs and early childhood education as a strategy for reducing poverty. It sets modern theories of intellectual development within a broader Eriksonian conception of the whole child. This highlights the links between the cognitive and the affective. Sternberg's “triadic model of intelligence” serves as the organizing framework for this discussion. Having made this case, the paper examines a series of hypotheses regarding essential components of early intervention and educational programs designed to succeed with poor, high risk, underclass families. The results of this review are sobering, and make it clear that superficial efforts and other business-as-usual approaches will not meet with success. Nonetheless, it is also clear that the social and economic costs of the underclass for the community as a whole as well as for those caught within its cycles of poverty and social pathology can justify expensive interventions and still be cost effective and cost efficient. “Succeeding with those who cost the most saves the most in the long run” becomes a principle to complement the well established principle that “those who have the most, gain the most.”     

Risk and Protective Factors for Homophobic Bullying in Schools: An Application of the Social–Ecological Framework

Homophobic bullying is a serious concern for students, parents, teachers, and school officials. This article reviews evidence on the status of this problem and how it may be addressed in a multilevel and multidisciplinary manner growing out of a social–ecological perspective on homophobic bullying as a social phenomenon. The ecological framework developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979) is applied to organize this effort, which includes micro-, exo-, and macro-systems in which behavior and development are embedded. The inherent fluidity of experience postulated by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approach offers hope that as practices and policy to promote diversity move forward, they will reshape the social ecology of sexual minority youth.