Development and initial validation of the institutional child abuse processes and coping inventory among a sample of Irish adult survivors of institutional abuse

ObjectiveTo develop a psychometric instrument to evaluate psychological processes associated with institutional abuse and coping strategies used to deal with such abuse.MethodsAs part of a comprehensive assessment protocol, an inventory containing theoretically derived multi-item rational scales which assessed institutional abuse-related psychological processes and coping strategies were administered to 247 Irish adult survivors of institutional child abuse. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to derive 6-factor scales, the reliability and validity of which were assessed.ResultsFactor scales to assess the following constructs were developed (1) traumatization, (2) re-enactment, (3) spiritual disengagement, (4) positive coping, (5) coping by complying, and (6) avoidant coping. There were varying degrees of support for the validity of the scales with most support for the traumatization and re-enactment scales.ConclusionsThe Institutional Child Abuse Processes and Coping Inventory (ICAPCI), particularly its traumatization and re-enactment scales, may be used in future research on adult survivors of institutional child abuse because they are currently the only scales that have been developed with this population to provide reliable and valid assessments of these constructs.Practice implicationsThe ICAPCI may be used, cautiously, to assess adult survivors of institutional child abuse.     

Inclusion and mastery: variations on the theme of subjection

This article undertakes a discursive analysis of the concepts of ‘inclusion’ and ‘mastery’ using memory stories generated in a collective biography workshop. The five authors analysed their memories from childhood and adolescence on two separate and competing concepts that currently inform educational practice: inclusion and mastery. These stories of mastery/non‐mastery and inclusion/exclusion often exceeded or transgressed dominant normative discourses concerning the competent performance of autonomous selves. Drawing on the work of several theorists, they authors explored these transgressions. In so doing, their analysis extends Butler’s theorising of the human subject as constituted through processes of exclusion and differentiation.     

Revisiting the Strange Stories: Revealing Mentalizing Impairments in Autism

A test of advanced theory of mind (ToM), first introduced by F. Happé (1994) , was adapted for children (mental, human, animal, and nature stories plus unlinked sentences). These materials were closely matched for difficulty and were presented to forty-five 7- to 12-year-olds with autism and 27 control children. Children with autism who showed ToM impairment on independent tests performed significantly more poorly than controls solely on the mental, human, and animal stories with greatest impairment on the former and least on the latter. Thus, a mentalizing deficit may affect understanding of biologic agents even when this does not explicitly require understanding others' mental states.     

Meztizaje and remembering in Afro-Mexican communities of the Costa Chica: implications for archival education in Mexico

This paper summarizes some of the major themes of a larger study that used Afro-Mexicans of the Costa Chica as a case study to understand archival education in Mexico. This study seeks to provide insight on how absences of Mexicans of African descent from the official record and recordkeeping came into being in Mexico; to examine the role that education of archival professionals might play in addressing or contributing to these absences; and to produce recommendations for remedying this under-documentation—at least in part—through changes to what is currently taught in formal archival education at the university level.     

Heroism and science education reform

In this study, we use a cultural framework to examine two important science curriculum changes in a large Australian state during the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, we describe the activities of two prominent science educators who presided over these curriculum reforms against a backdrop of significant changes in the school system of the time. We represent the actions of these persons as heroic Drawing on interview data from these and other members of the community, we describe how the Heroes shaped, modified and united the culture through referents, rituals and artefacts. We speculate on the importance of heroic activity in supporing curriculum change.