Political violence and child adjustment: longitudinal tests of sectarian antisocial behavior, family conflict, and insecurity as explanatory pathways

Understanding the impact of political violence on child maladjustment is a matter of international concern. Recent research has advanced a social ecological explanation for relations between political violence and child adjustment. However, conclusions are qualified by the lack of longitudinal tests. Toward examining pathways longitudinally, mothers and their adolescents (M = 12.33, SD = 1.78, at Time 1) from 2-parent families in Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, completed measures assessing multiple levels of a social ecological model. Utilizing autoregressive controls, a 3-wave longitudinal model test (T1, n = 299; T2, n = 248; T3, n = 197) supported a specific pathway linking sectarian community violence, family conflict, children's insecurity about family relationships, and adjustment problems.     

Urgent medical assessment after child sexual abuse

BACKGROUND: Immediate medical assessment has been recommended for children after sexual abuse to identify physical injuries, secure forensic evidence, and provide for the safety of the child. However, it is unclear whether young children seen urgently within 72 hours of reported sexual contact would have higher frequencies of interview or examination findings as compared to those seen non-urgently or whether forensic findings would be affected by child characteristics, type of reported contact, or later events. DESIGN/SETTING: We evaluated 190 consecutive cases of children under 13 years of age urgently referred during a 5-year period in 1998-2003 to a community child advocacy center and compared them to those non-urgently referred with regard to their physical examination findings, any sexually transmitted infections or forensic evidence, gender, pubertal development, type of contact, reported ejaculation, later bathing or changing clothes, time to examination, and gender, age and relationship of alleged perpetrator. RESULTS: Children seen urgently were younger and had less frequent CPS involvement, more disclosures, and more positive physical examinations, and had more contact with older perpetrators than those seen non-urgently. Overall, most children were female and had normal or non-specific physical examinations. Certain case characteristics were predictive of evidence isolation in the 9% who had positive forensic evidence identified. Semen or sperm was identified from body swabs only from non-bathed, female children older than 10 years of age or on clothing or objects. CONCLUSIONS: Female children over 10 years old who report ejaculation or genital contact without bathing have the highest likelihood of positive examinations or forensic evidence. While there are other potential benefits of early examination, physicians seeking to identify forensic evidence should consider the needs of the child and other factors when determining the timing of medical assessment after sexual abuse.     

An introductory guide to drug reference sources

A huge number of drug reference sources exist. For the librarian new to the drug information field, choosing the appropriate source to answer a reference question can be difficult. This paper presents some common drug reference questions and some of the American, British, and Canadian tools best suited to answering them.     

Incorporating a new bioinformatics component into genetics at a historically black college: outcomes and lessons

Many students at minority-serving institutions are underexposed to Internet resources such as the human genome project, PubMed, NCBI databases, and other Web-based technologies because of a lack of financial resources. To change this, we designed and implemented a new bioinformatics component to supplement the undergraduate Genetics course at Clark Atlanta University. The outcomes of the Bioinformatics course were assessed. During the first week of the semester, students were assigned the Felder-Soloman's Index of Learning Styles Inventory. The overwhelming majority of students were visual (82.1%) and sequential (75.0%) learners. Furthermore, pre- and postcourse surveys were administered during the first and the last week of the course to assess learning, confidence level, and mental activity. These indicated students increased the number of hours spent using computers and doing homework. Students reported confidence in using computers to study genetics increased, enabling them to better visualize and understand genetics. Furthermore, students were more mentally engaged in a more social learning environment. Although the students appreciated the value of the bioinformatics component, they reported the additional work load was substantial enough to receive additional course credit.     

Learning proper and common names in inferential versus ostensive contexts

A single, indirect exposure to a novel word provides information that could be used to make a fast mapping between the word and its referent, but it is not known how well this initial mapping specifies the function of the new word. The four studies reported here compare preschoolers' (N = 64) fast mapping of new proper and common names following an indirect exposure requiring inference with their learning of new names following ostension. In Study 1, 3-year-olds were shown an animate-inanimate pair of objects and asked to select, for example, Dax, a dax, or one. Children spontaneously selected an animate over an inanimate object as the referent for a novel proper name, but had no animacy preference in common name or baseline conditions. Next, the children were asked to perform actions on, for example, Dax or a dax, when presented with an array of three objects: the one they had just selected, another member of like kind, and a distracter. An indirectly learned proper name was treated as a marker for the originally selected object only, whereas a new common name was generalized to include the other category member. Study 2 showed that mappings made by inference were as robust as those made by ostension. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that even 2-year-olds can learn as much about the function of a new word from an indirect exposure as from ostension.     

Comparison of traditional methods with 3D computer models in the instruction of hepatobiliary anatomy

This study was designed to determine whether an interactive three-dimensional presentation depicting liver and biliary anatomy is more effective for teaching medical students than a traditional textbook format presentation of the same material. Forty-six medical students volunteered for participation in this study. Baseline demographic information, spatial ability, and knowledge of relevant anatomy were measured. Participants were randomized into two groups and presented with a computer-based interactive learning module comprised of animations and still images to highlight various anatomical structures (3D group), or a computer-based text document containing the same images and text without animation or interactive features (2D group). Following each teaching module, students completed a satisfaction survey and nine-item anatomic knowledge post-test. The 3D group scored higher on the post-test than the 2D group, with a mean score of 74% and 64%, respectively; however, when baseline differences in pretest scores were accounted for, this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.33). Spatial ability did not statistically significantly correlate with post-test scores for the 3D group or the 2D group. In the post-test satisfaction survey the 3D group expressed a statistically significantly higher overall satisfaction rating compared to students in the 2D control group (4.5 versus 3.7 out of 5, P = 0.02). While the interactive 3D multimedia module received higher satisfaction ratings from students, it neither enhanced nor inhibited learning of complex hepatobiliary anatomy compared to an informationally equivalent traditional textbook style approach. .     

Thinking in categories or along a continuum: consequences for children's social judgments

Can young children, forming expectations about the social world, capture differences among people without falling into the pitfalls of categorization? Categorization often leads to exaggerating differences between groups and minimizing differences within groups, resulting in stereotyping. Six studies with 4‐year‐old children (N = 214) characterized schematic faces or photographs as falling along a continuum (really mean to really nice) or divided into categories (mean vs. nice). Using materials that children naturally group into categories (Study 3), the continuum framing prevented the signature pattern of categorization for similarity judgments (Study 1), inferences about behavior and deservingness (Studies 2 and 5), personal liking and play preferences (Study 4), and stable and internal attributions for behavior (Study 6). When children recognize people as members of continua, they may avoid stereotypes.     

Changes in early adolescents' sense of responsibility to their parents in the United States and China: implications for academic functioning

This research examined American and Chinese children's sense of responsibility to their parents during early adolescence, with a focus on its implications for children's academic functioning. Four times over the seventh and eighth grades, 825 children (mean age = 12.73 years) in the United States and China reported on their sense of responsibility to their parents. Information on children's academic functioning was also collected from children as well as school records. Although children's sense of responsibility to their parents declined over the seventh and eighth grades in the United States, this was not the case in China. In both countries, children's sense of responsibility was predictive of enhanced academic functioning among children over time.     

Parenting Control in Contexts of Political Violence: Testing Bi-directional Relations between Violence Exposure and Control in Post-Accord Belfast

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study is to examine bi-directional relations between youth exposure to sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behavior and mothers' efforts to control youth's exposure to community violence in Belfast, Northern Ireland. DESIGN: Mother-child dyads (N=773) were interviewed in their homes twice over 2 years regarding youth's exposure to sectarian (SAB) and nonsectarian (NAB) community antisocial behavior and mothers' use of control strategies, including behavioral and psychological control. RESULTS: Youth's exposure to NAB was related to increases in mothers' use of both behavioral and psychological control strategies over time, controlling for earlier levels of these constructs. Reflecting bi-directional relations, mothers' behavioral control strategies were associated with youth's reduced exposure to both NAB and SAB over time, whereas psychological control was not related to reduced exposure. CONCLUSION: Only nonsectarian community violence was associated longitudinally with mothers' increased use of control strategies, and only behavioral control strategies were effective in reducing youth's exposure to community antisocial behavior, including both sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behavior.     

Intellectual interest mediates gene × socioeconomic status interaction on adolescent academic achievement

Recent studies have demonstrated that genetic influences on cognitive ability and academic achievement are larger for children raised in higher socioeconomic status (SES) homes. However, little work has been done to document the psychosocial processes that underlie this Gene × Environment interaction. One process may involve the conversion of intellectual interest into academic achievement. Analyses of data from 777 pairs of 17-year-old twins indicated that Gene × SES effects on achievement scores can be accounted for by stronger influences of genes for intellectual interest on achievement at higher levels of SES. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that higher SES affords greater opportunity for children to seek out and benefit from learning experiences that are congruent with their genetically influenced intellectual interests.