Lifetime assessment of poly-victimization in a national sample of children and youth

ObjectiveTo use a lifetime assessment of victimization experiences to identify children and youth with high cumulative levels of victimization (poly-victims). Also to compare such children to other victims and non-victims, and assess the contribution of cumulative victimization to levels of psychological distress.DesignA national sample of 1,467 children aged 2–17 recruited through random digit dialing and assessed via telephone interviews (with caretakers and youth themselves) about a comprehensive range of 33 types of victimization experiences in the previous year and at any time in their lives.ResultsNearly 80% of the children and youth reported at least one lifetime victimization. The mean number of lifetime victimizations was 3.7 and the median 2.6. The total number of different lifetime victimizations was highly predictive of symptoms of current distress. The best linear prediction of distress on the basis of cumulative victimization entailed weighting child maltreatment and sexual assault by factors of 4 and 3 respectively compared to other victimizations. We proposed classifying poly-victims as those 10% of children and youth with the highest victimization scores, and calculating different thresholds for children at different ages. Poly-victims designated in this way had significantly more distress, more non-victimization adversities than other youth and were less likely to come from an intact family.ConclusionLifetime assessment of victimization has value as a means of identifying groups of highly victimized children and youth.Practice ImplicationsThis paper describes a procedure under which practitioners can assess for a group of children, termed “poly-victims,” who have a very high burden of lifetime victimization. These children merit identification because they have high levels of psychological distress, some of the most serious victimization profiles, and a presumed vulnerability for further victimization.     

A secure base in adolescence: markers of attachment security in the mother-adolescent relationship

This study sought to identify ways in which adolescent attachment security, as assessed via the Adult Attachment Interview, is manifest in qualities of the secure base provided by the mother-adolescent relationship. Assessments included data coded from mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of moderately at-risk 9th and 10th graders. This study found several robust markers of adolescent attachment security in the mother-adolescent relationship. Each of these markers was found to contribute unique variance to explaining adolescent security, and in combination, they accounted for as much as 40% of the raw variance in adolescent security. These findings suggest that security is closely connected to the workings of the mother-adolescent relationship via a secure-base phenomenon, in which the teen can explore independence in thought and speech from the secure base of a maternal relationship characterized by maternal attunement to the adolescent and maternal supportiveness.     

Quality Judgements and Quality Improvement

This paper considers the quality movement in English higher education through an examination of four quality techniques, those of Total Quality Management, assurance of systems, assessment and audit. A heuristic device is used to further understanding through examination of judgements concerning association of the four techniques with a range of purposes, criteria and methods of evaluation. An emphasis throughout is the connections between improvement and evaluation; teaching and learning are the focus of the discussion. Some of the conclusions are linked to possible ways forward for the next phase of assessment, including the need to reduce emphasis on external evaluation and measurement and facilitate the development of a culture more aligned to improvement.