A few introductory notes on the special issue on the Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in Research and Innovation (EFFORTI)

Being European with a long standing research interest in evaluation of gender policies, I could not begin my assignment as Editor in Chief with a better task. Readers will forgive me for these few biographical notes. Before presenting this special issue, I owe many thanks to Jonny Morell who involved me in its design as early as June 2018. I also want to thank Susanne Bührer, Clemens Striebing, Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt, Rachel Palmén, Sybille Reidl, Florian Holzinger and Jörg Müller, who invited me at the 2019 conference in Brussels, where the final results of the European initiative ‘Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in Research and Innovation’ (EFFORTI) were critically debated.¹ And drawing on the outline and comments I pointed out on that occasion, in this short introduction, I highlight why this special issue is politically relevant and theoretically innovative.     

Integrating the gender dimension in teaching,research content & knowledge and technology transfer: Validating the EFFORTI evaluation framework through three case studies in Europe

Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research is one of the six European Research Area (ERA) priorities. Integrating the gender dimension in research content and teaching is one of its three objectives. It is arguably the objective where least progress has been made. In this article we contribute to the evidence base by applying the EFFORTI evaluation framework to three empirical case study interventions that aim to integrate the gender dimension in tertiary education and research content. Comparison is based on an evaluation of the design of the intervention, those factors that have enabled/ hindered its implementation as well as an assessment of outcomes and impacts. The findings of the case studies highlight the importance of design, specifically regarding resources, legal status and the definition and operationalisation of the gender concept. Implementation hinges on top-level institutional commitment and mainstreaming gender studies with support of a central unit and crucially gender competence. A lack of recognition and status of gender studies and subsequent innovations was seen to hamper implementation. Outcomes and impacts included an increased awareness and interest in gender, increased gender competence, a push towards gender equality regarding representation and organisational change as well as an improved accreditation process and more and better research.     

The Assessment Checklist for Adolescents — ACA: A scale for measuring the mental health of young people in foster,kinship, residential and adoptive care

The Assessment Checklist for Adolescents — ACA is a 105-item carer-report mental health rating scale, measuring behaviours, emotional states, traits, and manners of relating to others, as manifested by adolescents (ages 12 to 17) residing in various types of alternate care, as well as those adopted from care. The ACA was designed for population and clinical research with these young people, and for use as a clinical assessment measure. The ACA's content was largely derived from the Assessment Checklist for Children (ACC). Fifteen ACC items were modified to better reflect adolescent difficulties, and 25 additional items were derived using a combination of inductive and deductive strategies. Item and factor analyses were carried out on scores from a 136-item research instrument, obtained for 230 young people residing in long-term care (as part of the NSW Children in Care study). These data were supplemented by ACC scores obtained for 142 adolescents residing in treatment foster care in Ontario, Canada. A robust 7-factor model was identified among a core of 73 clinical item scores, accounting for 51% of score variance. Four of the factors replicate ACC clinical scales (non-reciprocal interpersonal behaviour; sexual behaviour problems; food maintenance behaviour; and suicide discourse), and three are unique to the ACA (social instability/behavioural dysregulation; emotional dysregulation/distorted social cognition; and dissociation/trauma symptoms). The ACA also contains two empirically-derived low self-esteem scales (low confidence; negative self-image) that are shared with the ACC. Initial data indicate that the ACA has good content, construct and criterion-related validity, as well as high internal reliability.