Fatal child maltreatment in England, 2005-2009

Objective

This paper presents comprehensive and up-to-date data covering 4 years of Serious Case Reviews into fatal child maltreatment in England.

Methods

Information on all notified cases of fatal maltreatment between April 2005 and March 2009 was examined to obtain case characteristics related to a systemic classification of 5 broad groups of maltreatment deaths (severe physical assaults; covert homicide/infanticide; overt homicide; extreme neglect/deprivational abuse; deaths related to but not directly caused by maltreatment).

Results

A total of 276 cases were recorded giving an incidence of 0.63 cases per 100,000 children (0-17) per year. 246 cases could be classified based on the data available. Of these the commonest specific group was those children who died as a result of severe physical assaults. Apparently deliberate overt and covert homicide was less common, while deaths as a direct consequence of neglect were rare. In contrast, some evidence of neglect was found in at least 40% of all cases, though not the direct cause of death.

Conclusions

Class characteristics differ between the different categories of death and may suggest the need for different strategies for prevention.     

Adults and Reading Disability: A New Field of Inquiry

This paper first describes the development of adult literacy pedagogy and philosophy in Australia, then reports and discusses two studies of research into reading disability for adults. The first study uses a quantitative approach with a sample of 102 asthma patients and has important implications for the assessment of adults' reading. The second study is a theory‐driven, critical case study of the stated needs for literacy of 11 adult literacy learners. These stated literacy needs are argued to be socially constructed, influenced by the external environment of more general socio‐political contexts as well as particular civic, personal and workplace literacy requirements. These needs are also influenced by the adult learners' reconstructions and memories of schooling and the views about literacy of significant others, all of which affect the adult learners' perceptions of their ‘reading failure.’ The perspectives offered by the two different studies provide understandings and insights into this new field of inquiry.     

丫环的诱惑--白薇对宝玉访晴雯的颓废主义叙述

白薇是中国颓废主义创作阶段的代表作家之一.论文以白薇的坎坷人生经历为切入点,深刻分析了其颓废主义创作手法形成的原因及发展过程.从白薇的第一部剧作<琳丽>开始,美与爱的主题就开始显现.到了<访雯>,白薇就达到了颓废主义创作的顶峰.<访雯>与意大利文学家加百列·邓南遮的<死城>有着众多相似之处.爱、死和美是两部剧作中共同关心的主题;宝玉跟晴雯的绵绵爱意与里奥纳多跟妹妹玛丽亚之间的爱情都属非比寻常的兄妹之恋;两部剧都注重了对场景和情节的刻画,反映出颓废主义的精神特征.但是,如果从女性解放的角度分析,白薇笔下晴雯的形象已经超越了邓南遮的玛丽亚;同时,宝玉的形象又为亚莱桑特罗这个人物所不及.总之,白薇<访雯>的创作源头很可能来自邓南遮的<死城>,并且在一定程度上有所超越,因而备受关注.     

Stress Regulation in Adolescents: Physiological Reactivity During the Adult Attachment Interview and Conflict Interaction

The current study examined whether adolescents’ attachment representations were associated with differences in emotion regulation during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1996 ) and during a mother–adolescent conflict interaction task (Family Interaction Task [FIT]; J. P. Allen et al., 2003 ). Participants were one hundred and fifty‐six 14‐year‐old adolescents. Dismissing adolescents showed less interbeat interval (IBI) reactivity (indicating less stress) during the AAI than secure adolescents. However, during the FIT, dismissing adolescents showed more IBI reactivity. No differences in physiological reactivity were found between individuals with resolved or unresolved loss or trauma during the AAI or FIT. The results indicate that dismissing adolescents may effectively use a defensive strategy during the AAI but less so in direct conflict interaction with their attachment figure.     

Measuring standards in primary English: The validity of PIRLS—a response to Mary Hilton

Hilton (2006) criticises the PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) tests and the survey conduct, raising questions about the validity of international surveys of reading. Her criticisms fall into four broad areas: cultural validity, methodological issues, construct validity and the survey in England. However, her criticisms are shown to be mistaken. Her claim of forced unidimensionality in the tests is not supported by statistical analyses and her claims of cultural strangeness are contradicted by the involvement of all the countries involved. She is concerned about linguistic diversity but this is actually reflected in the ways countries organise their surveys. Finally, Hilton suggests that the English sample was biased, but fails to recognise the stringent sampling requirements or the monitoring roles of external assessors and the sampling referee. A careful study of the evidence concerning PIRLS shows that it is actually a fair and robust measure of reading attainment in different countries.     

Prenatal Maternal Stress and Child IQ

The evidence for negative influences of maternal stress during pregnancy on child cognition remains inconclusive. This study tested the association between maternal prenatal stress and child intelligence in 4,251 mother–child dyads from a multiethnic population-based cohort in the Netherlands. A latent factor of prenatal stress was constructed, and child IQ was tested at age 6 years. In Dutch and Caribbean participants, prenatal stress was not associated with child IQ after adjustment for maternal IQ and socioeconomic status. In other ethnicities no association was found; only in the Moroccan/Turkish group a small negative association between prenatal stress and child IQ was observed. These results suggest that prenatal stress does not predict child IQ, except in children from less acculturated minority groups.