Biglan's dimensions: Are the perceptions empirically based?

The clusters of disciplines originally developed by Biglan have been useful guides in classifying or categorizing academic departments. Questions remain, however, as to the validity of the Biglan clusters among a wide range of colleges and universities.This study provides evidence which supports the validity of the Biglan categories by showing how faculty salaries and instructional staffing patterns differ among departments along the dimensions described by Biglan.     

The work of Ambroise Tardieu: the first definitive description of child abuse

The first important monograph describing the battered child syndrome was written in 1860 by Ambroise Tardieu, a French forensic physician. Here is a translation of his article, published in the Annales d'hygiene publique et de medecine legale, with the title "Etude medico-legale sur les sevices et mauvais traitements exerces sur des enfants." The first part of his article is entirely translated. A brief summary of the 32 cases report described by Tardieu in the second part of his article is presented.     

The effects of strong irrelevant thirst on food-rewarded instrumental performance

In Experiment I, rats received one food rewarded trial per day in a runway. One group received all its trials under hunger (Group H); the second group received a random half of its trials under hunger and the other half of its trials under hunger plus thirst (Group H-HT). Group H-HT ultimately ran slower on HT trials than on H trials. In Experiment II, the effects of shifting from H to HT and vice versa were examined in a five-phase design. In general, rats run under H ran faster than rats run under HT, and shifts from H to HT produced rapid decreases in speed, while shifts from HT to H produced extremely slow increases in speed. The results of both experiments were interpreted as indicating that the reward value of food is greater under H than under HT and that the manipulation H vs. HT may be viewed as theoretically similar to manipulation of reward magnitude.     

Concurrent observations of barpress suppression and freezing: Effects of CS modality and on-line vs. off-line training upon posttrial behavior

In a conditioned suppression study with rats, CS modality (light vs. noise) and type of conditioning (on-line vs. off-line training) were manipulated. All rats were then tested on-line with only half the test trials reinforced. Some results and conclusions were as follows: (1) During initial training, suppression following reinforced noise trials was moderately strong at first but weakened over days; for the light, it was weak from the start. It was suggested that this strong influence of CS modality might complicate interpretations of posttrial suppression as a measure of US effectiveness. (2) During testing, posttrial suppression and freezing were greater following non-reinforced trials than following reinforced trials (US-omission effect), and this effect was stronger for noise than for light. Since noise also produced more freezing than light, this result favors the hypothesis that the US-omission effect is due to persistent CS-elicited freezing that is un-disrupted by a shock US. (3) Although noise produced more freezing, both noise and light produced similar barpress suppression. This result is consistent with the suggestion that noise and light acquire equal associative strength but elicit different defensive behaviors.     

Progress report on the development of child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe

PROBLEM: After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems. METHOD: Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute began conducting trainings in Eastern Europe [Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 39 (2000) 660]. Originally 18 countries from the Baltics to the Balkans participated. A program was elaborated which would proceed in several stages: (1) training mental health professionals to deal with child abuse and neglect (CAN); (2) teaching multidisciplinary team work and fostering the development of multidisciplinary NGOs focused on CAN; (3) promoting the self-sufficiency of these NGO's which would then facilitate social and legal reform and increase public awareness of the problem. Specific methods included multi-national trainings, assignment of mentors to the developing teams who maintained weekly contact with the teams and made yearly site visits to their countries, and overseeing project grants from OSI. RESULTS: NGO's had been established and registered in 11 countries, many establishing a network of programs within their countries. By 2000, over 3800 mental health professional had been trained, either directly by the program or by the trainees of the program. By the end of 2000, over 17,000 other professionals (lawyers, police, judges, educators, other physicians, etc.) had been trained by the network. CONCLUSION: While more work needs to be in this region, the teams in 11 countries have made solid starts.     

Co-occurring forms of child maltreatment and adult adjustment reported by Latina college students

OBJECTIVES: This study had two primary objectives: First, to examine the nature and co-occurrence of various forms of child maltreatment (sexual, physical, emotional, and witnessing violence) reported by Latina college students, and second, to explore coexisting maltreatment types and acculturation status as possible contributors to long-term adjustment difficulties. METHOD: Participants were 112 Latina undergraduate students categorized by the number of childhood maltreatment types experienced (0, 1, or 2 or more) and acculturation level (1 to 5). The possible effects of co-occurring forms of maltreatment, in conjunction with acculturation status, were investigated with respect to participants' reported trauma symptomatology. Data were collected using self-report measures. RESULTS: Nearly three out of 10 participants (29%) experienced more than one type of child maltreatment and, as expected, these individuals reported greater trauma symptomatology than those reporting either a single type of maltreatment or no maltreatment at all. Those who reported multiple types also endured more severe maltreatment than did respondents who experienced a single type. Acculturation level was neither directly related to trauma symptoms nor did it moderate the lasting correlates of maltreatment among victims. Interestingly, those who experienced a single form of maltreatment reported no more trauma symptoms than did participants who reported no maltreatment history at all. CONCLUSION: This investigation documents a large degree of overlap among various forms of self-reported childhood maltreatment within a Latina college population. The results underscore the need to consider multiple forms of maltreatment, as well as severity, when making inferences regarding potential effects on later functioning.