ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tools Retrospective version (ICAST-R): Delphi study and field testing in seven countries

ObjectivesTo gain consensus among an ethnically and linguistically diverse group of international child protection experts on the structure and content of a new survey tool for retrospective measurement of child abuse, and to determine the performance of the instrument through an international field trial with young adults.MethodsThe questionnaire was developed through focus group discussions with international experts, and then subjected to a Delphi study in two waves to determine the perceived importance and translatability of items. The resultant questionnaire was translated into six languages and field tested in seven countries with convenient samples of young adults aged 18–26 years (N = 842).ResultsChild maltreatment experts from 28 countries provided input to questionnaire development. Satisfactory agreement on draft item inclusion and exclusion and the translatability of items was gained. The tool includes 15 primary questions about potentially abusive physical, sexual and emotional events, with follow-up questions about perpetrator characteristics, frequency of acts and periods in childhood when the recalled abuse occurred. The field test revealed lifetime prevalence per item usually exceeded 10% (11/15 items; range 2.1–49.5%). Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was moderate to high for each of three item sub-sets (between .61 and .82) and the rates of missing data were low (less than 1.5% for 14 of 15 items). The great majority of respondents nominated either peer and/or adult perpetrators (between 82.3% and 98.2% depending upon the item), and among these, child/adolescent peers and non-family adults (including teachers for emotional and physical acts) were nominated often.ConclusionsThe ICAST-R is based on consensus from international experts, translates clearly and has satisfactory properties for adoption as a survey tool to estimate prevalence and describe perpetrators and other contextual aspects of child abuse.Practice implicationsThis tool can be utilized in a broad range of cultures and languages and may contribute to improved research practice. Although the core items are limited to just 15 acts of maltreatment, if these behaviorally specific questions are adopted as key indicators and incorporated into comprehensive local, national or regional surveys, eventually there should be greater comparability in survey estimates.     

Prevalence of multiple antibiotic resistance and R-plasmid inEscherichia coli isolates of hospital sewage of Aligarh city in India

R-plasmids that transfer antibiotic resistance are common in the non-pathogenicEscherichia coli of the gastro-intestinal tract of human beings and domestic animals, which inturn may enter into sewage. Therefore we have isolated 30Escherichia coli isolates from hospital sewage of Aligarh city. These isolates were tested for their resistance and sensitivity against 10 antibiotics. 90% isolates showed resistance against ampicillin and sulphamethizole. Of the total 30E. coli isolates 86.6% were resistant to erythromycin and rifampicin but none of them was resistant to kanamycin and streptomycin. Plasmids (mol. wt. 16.5 mega daltons) were isolated from five differentE. coli strains which harboured only a single plasmid and were characterized on the basis of antibiogram. Moreover, the transformation experiments were also performed to confirm the resistant character on the plasmid. We conclude that multiple drug resistance among most of theE. coli isolates is plasmid borne.     

Informal information control in complex technological purchase situations

In this paper, we examine how individuals vary in their ability to control informal information during the purchasing process for an expensive complex technological product in the information technology area. As part of this research process, we use sociometric data from 41 firms to test a structural model of the effects that network heterogeneity and three organizational structure variables have on this type of information control. As hypothesized, increased network heterogeneity reduces an individual's ability to control informal information. Moreover, the structural variables of decentralization, formalization, and spatial differentiation are shown to affect informal information control in the predicted manner. Importantly, we also show that formalization and spatial differentiation affect network heterogeneity. Decentralization, however, was not found to be related to network heterogeneity.     

Willingness to Pay and Preference for Private Institutions

This study focuses on the correlates of student preference for private institutions over public institutions in their senior year in high school, with a particular focus on the effects of students' subjective responses to tuition costs and to financial aid availability. The data for this study were drawn from a longitudinal study of postsecondary educational choice of high school students in the state of Indiana. The results indicate that in addition to student and family background and student academic characteristics, students' subjective responses to tuition costs and to financial aid availability have a substantial linkage with student preference for private or public institutions. This study suggests that family and ascribed characteristics alone do not explain student preference for the type of postsecondary institution. Students' subjective responses to tuition costs and to financial aid availability are also directly related to student preference for a certain type of postsecondary institution, independent of student family background and academic characteristics. This suggests that the willingness to pay, not only the ability to pay, plays a direct role in student college choice decisions. The implications for policy making are discussed.     

Untangling the Links among Athletic Involvement, Gender, Race, and Adolescent Academic Outcomes

Although previous research has established that high school sports participation may be associated with positive academic outcomes, the parameters of the relationship remain unclear. Using a longitudinal sample of nearly 600 Western New York adolescents, this study examined gender- and race-specific differences in the impact of two dimensions of adolescent athletic involvement ("jock" identity and athlete status) on changes in school grades and school misconduct over a two-year interval. Female and black adolescents who identified themselves as "jocks" reported lower grades than those who did not, whereas female athletes reported higher grades than female nonathletes. Jocks also reported significantly more misconduct (including skipping school, cutting classes, having someone from home called to the school for disciplinary purposes, and being sent to the principal's office) than nonjocks. Gender moderated the relationship between athlete status and school misconduct; athletic participation had a less salutary effect on misconduct for girls than for boys.