Dimensions of child sexual abuse before age 15 in three Central American countries: Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala

OBJECTIVE: The prevalence of sexual abuse during childhood or adolescence varies depending on the definitions and age categories used. This study examines the first national, population-based data available on child sexual abuse that occurs before age 15 in three countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This study uses comparable indicators and measures of sexual abuse for the three countries to document the prevalence of abuse, types of perpetrators, and the association of child sexual abuse with recent intimate partner violence. METHODS: Child sexual abuse was defined as sexual abuse that first occurs before age 15. Nationally representative data from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras were used. In El Salvador, separate questions on forced intercourse and non-penetrative sexual abuse were asked. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using STATA Version 8SE. RESULTS: The prevalence of child sexual abuse varied from 7.8% in Honduras to 6.4% in El Salvador and 4.7% in Guatemala. In all three countries, the overwhelming majority of women who reported child sexual abuse first experienced the abuse before age 11. Perpetrators tended to be a family member, a neighbor, or an acquaintance. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated that women who experienced child sexual abuse in Guatemala and Honduras were about two times more likely to be in violent relationships as women who did not experience abuse. This relationship was not significant in multivariate analyses for El Salvador where the prevalence of intimate partner violence was the lowest. CONCLUSIONS: Child sexual abuse in Central America is clearly a problem with the prevalence between 5% and 8%. Child sexual abuse can have long-term negative health impacts including exposure to intimate partner violence in adulthood. Programs to prevent abuse and treat victims of child sexual abuse are needed in Central America.     

Reflection in Higher Education: A Concept Analysis

Despite the widespread adoption of reflective practices across many fields of study, a critical analysis of the concept of reflection and its application within higher education has been lacking. This article provides an examination of several major theoretical approaches to reflection including those of Dewey; Loughran; Mezirow; Seibert and Daudelin; Langer; Boud, Keogh and Walker; and Schön. Commonalties in terminology, definitions, antecedents, context, process, outcomes, and techniques to foster reflection are addressed. The implications of the findings for higher education are explained.     

Gender Differences in Faculty Member Job Satisfaction: Equity Forestalled?

Guided by Hagedorn’s (2000) theory of faculty job satisfaction, mindful of social and organizational structures of higher education, and acknowledging recent changes in the academic labor market, this study examines satisfaction for approximately 30,000 tenured and tenure-track faculty members in 100 US colleges and universities. Findings revealed similarity between female and male faculty members in some aspects of work satisfaction, but difference in other areas in which women reported lower satisfaction. Findings also revealed that perceptions of department fit, recognition, work role balance, and mentoring are more important to women faculty’s satisfaction than male peers. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

The value of institutional research in the assessment of institutional effectiveness

A survey of 167 institutions engaged in the regional reaccreditation process between 1987 and 1992 revealed that the presence of institutional research activities was positively related to the institution carrying out a systematic assessment of institutional effectiveness. Institutional research activity was more predictive of assessment efforts than was the type of governance (public or private), the level of degree offered, or enrollment size. An alarmingly low proportion of institutions had begun to define outcomes at the time of the survey—a first step in the development of assessment procedures. Even fewer had identified ways of measuring outcomes. Budgets and staff expertise were felt to be adequate for current responsibilities but insufficient to assume responsibility for assessing institutional effectiveness. Institutional research activity is urgently needed in order to support the data collection efforts required by institutional assessment mandates. Whether these activities are conducted by institutional researchers or are dispersed across the campus, they provide the underpinnings for assessment.     

Imitation and Pantomime in High-Functioning Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

A study was designed to test 2 alternative hypotheses—a symbolic hypothesis and an executive function hypothesis—for the imitation and pantomime deficits found in previous studies of autism. The subjects were 17 adolescent high-functioning subjects with autism spectrum disorders and 15 clinical comparison subjects who were matched on chronological age and verbal IQ. Meaning and sequence were manipulated in facial and manual imitation tasks. Sequence was manipulated in the pantomime and control tasks. Recognition memory and motor control tasks were matched to the experimental tasks. The results provided no support for the symbolic deficit hypothesis; meaning aided rather than hindered the performance of the group with autism. Partial support for the executive deficit hypothesis was found. There were no group differences on motor control tasks, and few on the memory control tasks, arguing against deficits in motor initiation, basic motor coordination, or visual recognition memory.     

Do less-advantaged students avoid prestigious universities? An applicant-centred approach to understanding UCAS decision-making

Less-advantaged students are under-represented at prestigious universities, but can we infer that they actively avoid them? This research measured university applicants’ knowledge of 115 UK universities. Using card-sort tasks within an interview format, 56 Year 13 students from different types of 16–19 education described how they chose five courses for their application form. Significant cross-cohort trends in knowledge and understanding demonstrated the influence of different educational environments, but within-cohort variation showed that applicant characteristics could over-ride environmental factors. The only cohort where every student understood relative status was an independent school providing individual, career-focused guidance. Limited resources in state-sector schools and colleges necessitated ‘opt-in’ models of guidance, meaning that only highly motivated students were well-informed. When students knew that universities are ranked by national league tables, this informed their decision-making strategy, but reliance on word-of-mouth rather than fact-based information resulted in some students over-estimating status and graduate outcomes. A new conceptual framework blending developmental and cognitive psychology explained persistent class-based progression trends whilst demonstrating how personal agency or educational interventions enabled some less-advantaged students to enter prestigious universities. There was no evidence that prestigious universities were actively avoided, but some students had insufficient knowledge or understanding to make status-based distinctions.     

PARENTING PROGRAMMES: Do generalist parenting programmes improve children's behaviour and attendance at school? The parents’ perspective

Previous research has demonstrated that parenting programmes can be an effective intervention in changing behaviour and parent/child interactions. However, less attention has been given to the impact of these programmes in relation to improving attendance and behaviour at school. Lynne Rogers, lecturer in teacher education specialising in the post-14 sector, Susan Hallam, Professor of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Policy and Society, and Jacquelene Shaw, educational psychologist, all working in the University of London, set their debate in this article in the context of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and the Respect Action Plan 2006. These authors use their article in order to describe parents' perceptions of the impact of parenting programmes on their own and their children's behaviour, with particular reference to behaviour at home and at school. The perceptions reported here, and enlivened with direct quotes from parents, are based on questionnaire data from 142 parents and interviews with a sample of parents and teachers. Parents were broadly positive about the benefits of parenting programmes. However, where the child's problem was rooted in school-related issues, some concerns about behaviour and attendance remained. Lynne Rogers, Susan Hallam and Jacquelene Shaw close their article with a call for parenting programmes to be more closely aligned with activities in school and with educational processes.     

Prolonged exposure to conspecific and predator odors reduces fear reactions to these odors during subsequent prod-shock tests

In Experiment 1, four groups of male rats were given a session as an intruder in either aggressive (i.e., alpha) or nonaggressive colonies of conspecifics and later received either a 2-h exposure to the odors of the alpha colonies or an exposure-control session with the odors of a nonalpha colony. Two additional groups of rats that had been attacked and defeated by alpha residents were later given a 12-h exposure session with alpha-colony odors or nonaipha-control odors. Twenty-four h after the colony-intruder session, all subjects were given a single 6.5-mA shock from a prod with alpha-colony odors present in the bedding of the test chamber. Attacked rats that had been given exposure-control sessions showed significantly less prod burying and greater freezing than nondefeated subjects. This implies that the alpha-colony odors elicited conditioned fear. In contrast, the attacked subjects that had been given a pretest exposure session with alpha-colony odors showed significantly more prod burying and significantly less freezing. This suggests that the alpha-odor exposure resulted in the extinction of fear to these odors. Furthermore, the 12-h exposure to alpha-colony odors was found to be more effective in reducing fear-mediated responses than was the 2-h exposure. In Experiment 2, three groups of rats were exposed to a cat while they were in a protective cage; later they were given a 12-h exposure session with cat odors, a 12-h exposure-control session with no cat odors, or no exposure treatment. Compared with the two control groups, the subjects that were exposed to cat odors showed less freezing during subsequent prod-shock tests in the presence of cat odors, but they did not show prod burying. The reported changes in fear-mediated reactions to the odors of conspecifics and a predator are discussed in terms of both associative and nonassociative processes.     

Some factors in problem solving: The name of the concept,specific instructions,and the ability to verbalize

Three extrinsic factors were manipulated in a problem-solving task performed by 80 10-year-old children of IQ 90–110. The factors were: The presence or absence of the name of the concept given in feedback, specific instructions, and whether the child was allowed to verbalize. The task was a modification of Vygotsky's experiment on concept formation using concrete material. The performance criteria were: time taken to solution, number of moves, and amount of verbalization. The presence of the name of the concept given in feedback speeded the time to solution and reduced the number of moves required. Specific instruction speeded the solution but did not reduce the number of moves; whereas verbalization reduced the number of moves but increased the time of solution.