When children’s testimonies are used as evidence: how children’s accounts may impact child custodial decisions

Abstract

In child custody cases, children oftentimes provide allegations of experienced trauma against one of their parents. Such allegations can happen before any investigative interviews (e.g., by the police or child protective services) have taken place. A central theme here concerns how to appraise such allegations and make certain that children’s accounts are taken seriously. In the current special issue, the focus is on new work on the functioning of children’s memory and its relation to trauma or work on children’s suggestibility and memory when they are traumatized. Specifically, key experts in the field of children’s memory provided contributions on: (1) the impact of interviewer support and rapport building on children’s testimonies, (2) the role of parental alienation in children’s testimonial accuracy, and (3) different types of false memories in children’s memory reports.     

A Family Perspective for Substance Abuse: Implications from the Literature

SUMMARY

This paper calls for researchers and treatment providers to increase their recognition of the role that family and family functioning has for understanding the incidence and impact of substance abuse. Substance abuse is identified as a family problem by exploring its occurrence within families as well as its impact on marital relationship, family violence, and child abuse and neglect. The impact of substance abuse on the roles of spouses and parents are examined, as is the impact of substance abuse on children at various developmental stages. The role of the family as participant in active substance abuse as well as a valuable treatment resource is also explored. Finally, the authors present recommendations for increasing the focus on family in substance abuse research.     

The Order of Alcohol-Related Life Experiences

Abstract

The pur pose of this study was to test hy poth e ses con cern-ing gen der dif fer ences among men and women di ag nosed with al cohol-re lated prob lems. The in stru ment was ad min is tered to sub j ects from a hos pi tal-based al co hoi ism treat ment pro gram as well as from Al ccr holies Anon y mous (A A) and Women for So bri ety (WFS). Women ex peri enced eight of the hy poth e sized 12 more woman-spe cific items ear lier in their drink ing ca reers than did men. ANOVAs per formed on the frequency of al co hol-re lated life events re vealed sig nif i cant differ ences between women and men on seven items. There were clear gender differ ences with re gard to the se quence and fre quency of al co hol-re lated life ex pe ri ences. On the ba sis of the pre lim i nary find ings, the au thors pro pose to ere ate and test a woman-spe cific al co hoi ism-screen ing in stru-ment.     

Addictions and the Self

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental, strengths-based pro gram for the treat ment of sub stance abus ing offend ers un der crim i nal jus tice su per vi sion in the United States Pro ba tion De part ment. The program is based upon new phys i o log i cal ev i dence that links ad die tions to the ex perience of hope, and consistent research that identifiesself-efficacy, futu rity and self-es teem as cru cial el e ments in re cov ery. Rooted in con cepts taken from Jung ian and Maslowian ideas of the Self, the program uses techniques gleaned from Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) and Ericksonian hyp no sis to pro vide a con tin u ing sense of Self and the pos si bil ity of pos i tive, self-ac tu al iz ing fu tures. This ar ti cle ex plores the the o ret i cal back ground of the pro gram, spe cific tools em ployed, pro gram re suits and sugges tions for fur ther research     

Toward an Understanding of Russian Speaking Heroin Addicts and Drug Treatment Services in Israel

Abstract

This pa per de scribes the find ings from a pur pos ive sample of 152 male and fe male Rus sian-speak ing drug ad diets who im migrated to Is rael dur ing the last ten years. Ap prox i mately one-third of the co hort was not Jew ish, in clud ing 47 per cent of the women. Forty-one per cent of the subjects re ported be ing phys i cally abused and 25 per cent of the women, com pared to 5 per cent of the men, re ported be ing sex u ally abused as a child. Al co hoi abuse was found to be dif fer ent among the par ents of male and fe male ad diets: 46% of the women com pared to 31% of the men had fa thers who drank ex ces sively; 14% of the women compared to 5% of the men had moth ers who were heavy drink ers. Also, female ad diets were more likely than male ad diets to have a mother who used il licit drugs. Treat ment re lated is sues are dis cussed along with the need for specialized, culturally sen si tiveser vice pro vision.     

The Well‐Being of Children Born to Teen Mothers

Children born to early child bearers are more likely than other children to display problem behaviors or poor academic performance, but it is unclear whether early childbearing plays a causal role in these outcomes. Using multiple techniques to control for background factors, we analyze 2,908 young children and 1,736 adolescents and young adults in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and the NLSY79 Children and Young Adults (CNLSY79) data sets to examine whether early childbearing causes children’s outcomes. We find evidence that teen childbearing plays no causal role in children’s test scores and in some behavioral outcomes of adolescents. For other behavioral outcomes, we find that different methodologies produce differing results. We thus suggest caution in drawing conclusions about early parenthood’s overarching effect.     

Sharing the Baton,Not Passing It: Collaboration between Public and Private Child Welfare Agencies to Reunify Families

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, public sector child welfare agencies are contracting with private agencies for the provision of specialized services to clients while maintaining oversight and case management responsibilities. At the same time, funders, both private and public, are demanding that service providers partner and collaborate with one another. In this article, we present results from a study of a unique partnership between two state child welfare agencies and a private child welfare agency aimed at reunifying families whose children have been removed and placed in foster care. Data was obtained from 41 key informants using a questionnaire and a structured interview. Findings support earlier studies of collaboration, and indicate the strengths of this partnership and factors that facilitated and hindered it. The results have implications for agencies that both contract for and provide a range of child welfare services as well as other interagency relationships.     

The Relationship of Expectancies to the Transtheoretical Model of Change in College Smokers

Abstract

Efforts on the part of the sci en tific com mu nity have resulted in in creased knowl edge about to bacco ad die tion and im proved treat ment ef fi cacy. De spite these gains, how ever, our un der stand ing of to bacco ad die tion re mains in com plete. Two el e ments that may help il lu-mi nate the knowl edge of this ad die tion pro cess and pro vide im pli ca tions for treat ment are the Transtheoretical Model of Change and the con cept of ex pec tan cies. This project is a be gin ning step in ex plor ing the re la tion ship be tween the transtheoretical model and fac ets of ex pec tan cies among col lege smokers.     

Relationships Between Psychosocial Risks and Stress in Homeless Children

Homeless children are typically exposed to the worst environmental conditions associated with poverty. Despite recent attention to psychosocial risks associated with homelessness, limited attention has been paid to stress-related symptoms in homeless children. Better understanding of homeless children’s experience of stress could point the way toward improvement of services for them. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to assess associations between child psychosocial riskfactors and emotional and behavioral symptoms of stress in homeless children, Twenty-two homeless nlothers of 29 children between the ages of 2 and 10 were surveyed about known psychosocial risks for homeless children and completed the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS), a 17-item measure of stress-related symptoms in children. Findings suggest that the stress-related symptoms of these children are related to the cumulative effects of environmental risk factors. The PEDS appears to be a sensitive measure of stress in children, and its brevity provides an advantage in assessments in high-stress situations. More developmental work with low-SES samples, however, is recommended.     

Relationships Between Psychosocial Risks and Stress in Homeless Children

Homeless children are typically exposed to the worst environmental conditions associated with poverty. Despite recent attention to psychosocial risks associated with homelessness, limited attention has been paid to stress-related symptoms in homeless children. Better understanding of homeless children's experience of stress could point the way toward improvement of services for them. The purpose of the present exploratory study was to assess associations between child psychosocial risk factors and emotional and behavioral symptoms of stress in homeless children. Twenty-two homeless mothers of 29 children between the ages of 2 and 10 were surveyed about known psychosocial risks for homeless children and completed the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (PEDS), a 17-item measure of stress-related symptoms in children. Findings suggest that the stress-related symptoms of these children are related to the cumulative effects of environmental risk factors. The PEDS appears to be a sensitive measure of stress in children, and its brevity provides an advantage in assessments in high-stress situations. More developmental work with low-SES samples, however, is recommended.     

Performing Child(hood)

Taking an example of play as our point of departure, we consider what it means to be a child and to perform (Butler, Feminism/Postmodernism, 1990; Gender, 1990. Routledge: New York) childhood. By drawing on poststructuralist accounts of subjectivity, language and meaning (Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 1979. Penguin: Harmondsworth; Derrida, Dissemination, 1974. Athlone: London), we argue that despite powerful discourses that seek to contain childhood, children manage to exceed or interrupt sites of containment. We then go on to suggest that if children themselves are moving beyond some of the discourses in which they are enwrapped, how might we seek to further destabilise what ‘becoming’ (Deleuze,1990: http://www.generation-online.org/p/fpdeleuze3.htm ) child might mean and what might be the implications for our practice(s) with children.     

Children’s Time Use: Labor Divisions and Schooling in Indonesia

Data from the Worker and Iron Status Evaluation are used to examine gendered patterns in children’s time in market and nonmarket work, schooling, and leisure in Indonesia (N= 2,929). Boys spend more time in market work; girls spend more time in nonmarket work. Work responsibilities increase with age as well as gender differentials in children’s time use. By age 18, girls spend nearly 1 more hour per day working and enjoy significantly less leisure time, but the gender gap in schooling is not significant, suggesting that parents and children are committed to both work and schooling. Additionally, Tobit regression results suggest that parents’ education, household income, and rural residency are important predictors of children’s labor and schooling time.     

Child Protection,Public Services and the Chimera of Market Force Efficiency

The different agencies and professions that contribute towards child protection services have all recently had to begin to take account of the impact of market forces on their activities, yet detailed consideration of the consequences of this are slow to emerge. This article begins to consider these changes for child protection services. Having briefly described the child protection systems in England and Wales, it looks at the theoretical underpinning to the market forces approach which has become a significant ideological position in respect of public services in the UK and increasingly throughout the world. The article then considers the impact of a market forces approach on the organization of child protection services in relation to coordination versus fragmentation, profit versus professionalism, planning versus short-termism, and cooperation versus competition. It concludes that the argument that a market forces approach to child protection will lead to greater efficiency in relation to protecting children is a chimera. The article is thus of relevance for the different professions who contribute to child protection services in all countries where a market approach to public welfare is being suggested or implemented.     

Native American Literature and Its Place in the Inter-American Project

Abstract

Issues of Native American literature and culture are placed in a comparative and inter-American perspective, where texts from Canada, the United States, Spanish America, and Brazil are discussed and contrasted. Native American texts are analyzed in the context of inter-American literary study, which is defined as an interdisciplinary approach to the literatures of North, Central, and South America. The argument is made that Native American literature represents the cultural and historical foundation of the entire inter-American project.     

Completing the Circle

Abstract

The four themes of the Circle of Courage, a Native American medicine wheel that focuses on child socialization, connect with and add to key ideas from Western theories of human development. These themes are belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework developed from the integration of the Circle of Courage with theories of human development. A key feature of the framework is the role of adults in providing guidance, modeling, and affirmation. Assessment guidelines to promote the resilience of children and youth in out-of-home care are developed from the framework. The long term goal of the framework is to “complete the circle”; that is to foster the resilience of young people in care so that they can in turn provide to guidance, modeling, and affirmation.     

Child dialect acquisition: New perspectives on parent/peer influence1

Regardless of the variability and complexity in the linguistic environment around them, children begin constructing stable linguistic identities at a young age. Prior research has effectively modeled child dialect acquisition in terms of parent influence versus peer influence, and peer influence has often been shown to be the key determiner. The present study takes the next step by showing that the parent/peer group contrast in prior studies should be viewed as a special case of a more general pattern: children learn and construct dialect identity as a process of group distinction. Using data the author collected among exogamous Sui clans in rural southwest China, the present study shows how diverse cultures can lend new perspectives to the issue of parent/peer influence; Sui children's linguistic worlds are not divided along parent/peer lines but rather along clan lines, yet a similar process of group distinction occurs.     

Racism,Trauma and Positive Aspects of Exposure to Race-Related Experiences

ABSTRACT

Ex po sure to race-re lated ex pe ri ences, such as race-hate as sault and dis crim i nation, are not rou tinely and sys tern at i cally ad dressed in as sess ment and treat ment in ter ventions or in so cial work prac tice formulations. A psychodynamic, ethnocultural, and strengths-ori ented conceptual framework is presented to describe exposure to stressful, traumatic, and positive race-re lated experiences. Criteria are identified for con ducting an in quiry about race-re lated ex pe ri ences to help as sess pos-si ble en vi ron men tal stress ors re lated to pre senting symp toms of Adjustment, Acute Stress or Post-Trau matic Stress Dis or ders. Also, there is an identification of obstacles and factors to consider when in ter viewing about ex po sure to race-re lated ex pe ri ences, and aspe cific in ter view format to guide sys tern atic in quiry about such ex po sure. Finally, sa lient im pli cations for as sess ment, treat ment and re search are de scribed.     

Examining risk,strengths, and functioning of foster families: Implications for strengths-based practice

ABSTRACT

Foster families provide safe and stable homes for children and youth who are removed from their homes due to maltreatment. Despite the stressors associated with bringing children in and out of a family’s home, many maintain healthy family functioning and continue fostering for many years serving an essential function in the child welfare system. This study sought to understand the factors that explained higher levels of family functioning within foster families. Collaborating with one statewide public child welfare agency, 681 licensed foster parents participated in an online survey that examined the association between family functioning with family strengths and risk factors. Findings from this study can inform strengths-based practice including training, assessment, and interventions for new and existing foster families to strengthen families and improve the well-being of children and youth in their care.     

Crossover Children: Examining Initial Criminal Justice System Contact Among Child Protection-Involved Youth

ABSTRACT

Child protection-involved youth face increased risk of criminal justice system contact. Such “crossover children” experience earlier police involvement and more serious criminal justice sanctions, yet little is known about their early offending. Using a cross-sectional sample of 300 crossover children before three Victorian Children's Courts in 2016–17, this mixed-methods study examines the nature and context of children's initial police charges. Findings indicate that crossover children are initially charged with disproportionately violent offending, and often incur first police charges around the time of initial care placement. For many, initial criminal justice contact occurred in the context of conflict with caregivers, ongoing maltreatment, and household adversity, or emotional and behavioural regulation challenges. Efforts towards preventing offending for child-protection-involved youth should focus on preventing childhood maltreatment, alongside targeting parent–child relationship challenges, and strengthening community and care system responses that address the impacts of complex trauma, mental health problems, and neurodisability.

IMPLICATIONS

• Compared to all sentenced children, those from statutory child protection backgrounds are charged with more serious offending at their first criminal court adjudication.

• Among “crossover children”, earlier police charges were seen for Indigenous children, those experiencing greater cumulative maltreatment, and children with emotional or behavioural challenges related to trauma, mental health, and neurodisability.

• Crossover children are most often first charged by police in the year before, and after, their first out-of-home care placement.