The impact of a statewide trauma-informed child welfare initiative on children’s permanency and maltreatment outcomes

This article presents findings of a state-wide trauma informed child-welfare initiative with the goal of improving well-being, permanency and maltreatment outcomes for traumatized children. The Massachuetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP), funded by the Administration of Children and Families, Children’s Bureau was a multi-year project implementing trauma-informed care into child welfare service delivery. The project’s implementation design included training and consultation for mental health providers in three evidence-based treatments and training of the child-welfare workforce in trauma-informed case work practice. The learning was integrated between child-welfare and mental health with Trauma Informed Leadership Teams which included leaders from both systems and the greater community. These teams developed incremental steps toward trauma-informed system improvement. This study evaluated whether MCTP was associated with reductions in child abuse and neglect, improvements in placement stability, and higher rates of permanency during the first year of implementation. Children in the intervention group had fewer total substantiated reports of maltreatment, including less physical abuse and neglect than the comparison group by the end of the intervention year. However, children in the intervention group had more maltreatment reports (substantiated or not) and total out-of-home placements than did their counterparts in the comparison group. Assignment to MCTP, however, was not associated with an increase in kinship care or adoption. Overall, the results are promising in reinforcing the importance of mobilizing communities toward improvements in child-welfare service delivery.     

Making the case for recordkeeping literacy: a narrative approach

The role of recordkeeping in our personal and professional lives is rarely perceived as a topic of mainstream interest outside the world of professional records managers and archivists. While corporate records management has been written about throughout the recordkeeping literature, there has traditionally been less focus on what McKemmish describes as the role of ‘personal recordkeeping cultures’. Yet personal recordkeeping can play a role in creating a sense of belonging, especially for children and families. For example, within the field of Australian early childhood education, one of the key policy documents replicates a similar theme with the aptly titled ‘Early Years Learning Framework – Belonging, Being & Becoming’. By reflecting on her own personal recordkeeping story and that of her family, the author aims to explore the purpose of recordkeeping awareness and the role this plays in the wider profession. This article will draw upon relevant recordkeeping theory as well as some key early childhood education literature to introduce how ‘recordkeeping awareness’ could be reconceptualised as ‘recordkeeping literacy’. She will also explore what impact a reconceptualised understanding of continuum-based ‘recordkeeping literacy’ may have upon evolving recordkeeping theory and practice.     

Where are all the males? Gender-specific typologies of childhood adversity based on a large community sample

BackgroundMethodological issues have been identified when quantifying exposure to adversity and abuse. To address a single type may obscure covarying effects. To sum multiple exposures gives equal weight to each. Latent class analysis (LCA) addresses this by identifying homogenous subpopulations. Most studies using LCA have pooled gender data in spite of evidence that the nature and frequency of exposure differs by gender. Males report more interpersonal abuse, females report more of other exposures, particularly sexual.ObjectiveThis study aimed to identify if stratifying data by gender resulted in different profiles of adversity/abuseParticipants and setting: The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) wave II, a large community-based survey, nationally representative of the US population.MethodThis study used 14 indicators of childhood adversity as the basis for LCA.ResultsThe number and nature of classes differed by gender. The best solution for females was 4-class: a low risk class; a class at higher risk of sexual abuse; a class at higher risk of physical abuse; a class at higher risk of combined physical and sexual abuse. The best solution for males had only 3-classes; a low risk class, a class at higher risk of sexual abuse; a class at higher risk of physical abuse. The combined dataset resulted in a solution similar to the female solution.ConclusionThe importance of developing models for males and females separately was evidenced by the male and female classes being differentially associated with mental health variables.     

童心的天地人性的世界——试论《尼基塔的童年》

《尼基塔的童年》通过俄罗斯男孩尼基塔从九岁到十岁这一年四季的生活经历,出色地描写了童心的天地、人性的世界。童心的天地里一切都有着生命,有着感情,甚至有着思想,一切都像第一次见到那样令人充满惊奇,更富于想象,还充满了细致的观察和诗意的美;人性的世界首先是一个人与人之间相互平等的世界,也是一个充满关心与爱的世界,还是一个重视人的品质和对自然万物富于同情、充满关爱的世界。     

儿童是自然的存在

童年期的出现是人类特殊的进化过程的产物，童年期的延长是生物进化与社会文化发展的必然要求和产物。童年是自然赋予，剥夺儿童享受童年的乐趣，就是剥夺儿童的生命权，是对自然人性的扭曲，对自然规律的践踏。     

如何引导中职学生矫正过去的心理创伤

面对中职学生这样一个特别需要关注的群体,笔者从家庭教育、学校教育和社会偏见等方面分析了学生过去所受的心理创伤,并提出了引导中职学生矫正过去的心理创伤的三条途径:一、进行"自我省察";二、运用"生命线"回溯;三、写"情绪日记",希望对矫正中职学生过去的心理创伤有所帮助。     

Social‐emotional well‐being and resilience of children in early childhood settings – PERIK: an empirically based observation scale for practitioners

Compared with the traditional focus on developmental problems, research on positive development is relatively new. Empirical research in children's well‐being has been scarce. The aim of this study was to develop a theoretically and empirically based instrument for practitioners to observe and assess preschool children's well‐being in early childhood settings. The analysis of preschool teachers' ratings yields six dimensions of social‐emotional well‐being: (1) making contact/social performance, (2) self control/thoughtfulness, (3) self‐assertiveness, (4) emotional stability/coping with stress, (5) task orientation, (6) pleasure in exploration. Composite scales were constructed. PERIK consists of six scales of six items each. The scales differentiate in both the upper and lower range and despite their brevity have good psychometric qualities. The instrument was published together with a booklet containing examples of how PERIK observations can be employed in practical work with children.     

腹膜后血肿36例临床分析

目的探讨腹膜后血肿的诊断及治疗方法。方法回顾分析36例腹膜后血肿病例的临床资料。结果治愈32例（92%）,死亡4例（8%）。主要死亡原因为失血性休克及严重合并伤。结论腹部外伤时,应高度警惕腹膜后血肿的存在,并早期纠正休克,结合辅助检查,明确诊断,避免不必要的剖腹探查,并强调按照不同部位的血肿给予不同的处理方法。     

When is a Frog a Book or a Book a Frog?

During early childhood, children adopt a design-based conception of books with increasing consistency. It is not clear if or how young children spontaneously indentify the myriad of commercially produced, book-related props, toys, and other materials as support for their early literacy activities. Guidelines for evaluating these supplementary materials are presented and thirteen books are reviewed and recommended.     

Immigrant Families and Children (Re)Develop Identities in a New Context

Resolving conflicting linguistic traditions and struggling with new identities are significant challenges for immigrants to the United States. This case study introduces an immigrant mother from Mexico who renamed her youngest son on his first day of first grade to avoid the widespread stereotypes and academic stagnation experienced by her two older sons. Such (re)naming practices constitute and represent the very precarious social and institutional relationships taking place in schools involving immigrant children. In this case study, there was indication of negative aspects of assimilation processes taking place as the family adapted to a new culture and language. For example, the misconception is still widespread that efforts to learn two languages rather than just one diminish a child’s ability to learn other things, which should be learned. However, research in language acquisition and development, points to bilingualism and multilingualism as resources rather than deficits (Souto-Manning, 2006).