Trends in children's disclosure of abuse in Israel: a national study

OBJECTIVE: To identify characteristics of suspected child abuse victims that are associated with disclosure and nondisclosure during formal investigations. METHODOLOGY: The database included all suspected cases of physical and sexual abuse investigated in the state of Israel between 1998 and 2002. All investigative interviews were conducted using a single standardized protocol, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol. FINDINGS: Overall, 65% of the 26,446 children made allegations when interviewed, but rates of disclosure were greater in the case of sexual (71%) than physical (61%) abuse. Children of all ages were less likely to disclose/allege abuse when a parent was the suspected perpetrator. Rates of disclosure/allegation increased as children grew older, with 50% of the 3- to 6-year-olds, 67% of the 7- to 10-year-olds, and 74% of the 11- to 14-year-olds disclosing abuse when questioned. CONCLUSIONS: Although most interviews of suspected victims yielded allegations, such rates of disclosure varied systematically depending on the nature of the alleged offences, the relationship between alleged victims and suspected perpetrators, and the age of the suspected victims. The findings obtained in this large and unselected data set confirm patterns previously reported in smaller and quite selective samples, most of them obtained in the United States.     

What makes a good engineering lecturer? Students\\ put their thoughts in writing

This paper describes a student essay competition with the title ‘What makes a good engineering lecturer?’ run by the Engineering Subject Centre of the UK Higher Education Academy. The competition was intended primarily to provide engineering lecturers with general feedback. The aim of the paper is to make the outcomes of the competition available in a convenient form to those who might be interested—particularly engineering lecturers. The paper describes the competition, sets out the approach used to analyse the essays, presents the content in terms of the main attributes identified, and compares these with published lists of recommended attributes. The paper lets the students speak for themselves through extensive quotation.     

The Cooperative Classroom Environment Measure (CCEM): Refining a Measure that Assesses Factors Motivating Student Prosociality

A classroom’s social environment and student dispositions towards social interaction together exert a substantial influence on academic outcomes. The strength of this effect is highlighted by research showing the positive effect of cooperative learning on student achievement, but can also be seen in the contribution that student social dispositions, specifically one’s disposition toward helping others (i.e. prosocial), has on individual achievement. The current study sought to assess the psychometric properties of the original Cooperative Classroom Environment Measure (CCEM) and refine the measure to increase its validity for use in the classroom. The CCEM was developed to provide information to educators about factors in the classroom environment contributing to student prosociality. The original form was answered by 431 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory life science class. Following data collection, both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Rasch analysis were used to remove problematic items and generate a refined form. The psychometric properties of this refined form were examined using Rasch and confirmatory factor analysis, and supported the presence of six (out of eight originally hypothesized) subscale constructs analogous to those influencing prosociality in other contexts. Additional evidence showed the presence of a single prominent underlying latent factor (termed Prosocial) that could account for significant variance in all subscale constructs. These findings provided preliminary evidence for the use of both the CCEM subscales and whole survey measures for investigations into optimizing classroom social environments for prosocial action.     

Assessing the accuracy of a child's account of sexual abuse: a case study

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the case study reported in this paper was to examine the accuracy of one child's account of a sexually abusive incident. The availability of an audio recording of the last in a series of abusive incidents enabled us to assess accuracy in greater detail than has hitherto been possible in forensic contexts. METHODS: Information given by the victim during an investigative interview was compared with an audio-taped record of the incident. Content analyses of the interview involved quantitative and qualitative analyses of the victim's account, and a qualitative analysis of the eliciting utterances. A CBCA analysis was performed on the victim's account to assess its purported credibility. RESULTS: Over 50% of the informative details reported by the victim were corroborated by the audio-recorded account (of which 98% were central, i.e., allegation related and 64% were confirmed by more than one source (audio-recording, suspect, witness). A total of 10 CBCA criteria were present in the victim's free-narrative account of the last abusive incident. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that children can indeed provide remarkably detailed and accurate accounts of their experiences.     

Interviewing youthful suspects in alleged sex crimes: a descriptive analysis

OBJECTIVE: To introduce and evaluate a structured interview protocol designed for investigative interviews of youthful alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse. METHOD: Seventy-two alleged perpetrators ranging from 9 to 14 years of age (M = 12 years) were interviewed by 1 of 13 experienced youth investigators, employed by the Israeli Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, about incidents that had been reported by alleged victims. All interviews were conducted as part of the investigators' regular work and followed the structured interview guide appended to this article. RESULTS: Interviewers questioned older and younger children similarly, but addressed fewer invitations, directive questions, and option-posing prompts to suspects who denied the allegations than to those who partially or fully admitted them. The total number of details provided by the suspects did not vary depending on their age or whether or not they fully or partially admitted the allegations. In both cases, more information was elicited using invitations rather than suggestive or option-posing prompts. CONCLUSION: Contrary to expectations, suspects who at least partially admitted their involvement provided considerable amounts of information and were very responsive to free recall prompts, although interviewers used more risky (potentially error-inducing) prompts when interviewing suspects rather than alleged victims.     

Recreational Activity Clustering among Adolescents

Abstract

Data on participation in 15 recreational activities were obtained from a sample of 2,760 junior and senior high school students. Interrelationships among activities were examined by use of a hierarchical clustering procedure for males and females within each of the following four age groups: 11–12, 13–14, 15–16, and 17–18.

The data indicated that the two a priori designated clusters of outdoor recreation and competitive recreation activities were of limited value for categorizing interrelated activities. However, the clustering procedures suggested that if the outdoor recreation and competitive recreation clusters were defined more narrowly, many of the activities within them did interrelate. A third group of activities emerged which had a very low relationship to the other two clusters and to each other. They were given the generic title “unique recreation activities” to indicate their relative independence.     

The development of communicative and narrative skills among preschoolers: lessons from forensic interviews about child abuse

This study examined age differences in 299 preschoolers' responses to investigative interviewers' questions exploring the suspected occurrence of child abuse. Analyses focused on the children's tendencies to respond (a) at all, (b) appropriately to the issue raised by the investigator, and (c) informatively, providing previously undisclosed information. Linear developmental trends characterized all types of responding. When the types of prompts were considered, 3- to 4-year-olds responded slightly more informatively to specific (directive) recall prompts than to open-ended prompts whereas children aged 5 and older were more responsive to open-ended recall prompts. The findings suggest that even 3-year-olds can provide information about experienced events when recall processes are activated, although the ability to provide narrative responses to open-ended recall prompts only becomes reliable later in development.