Validity and Psychometric Properties of the Early Development Instrument in Canada,Australia, United States,and Jamaica

There is an increasing support from international organizations and the research community for stepping beyond infant or child mortality as the most common child level social indicator and progressing towards an international measure of child development. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a teacher-completed measure of children’s developmental health at school entry, which to date has been used in more than a dozen countries. The EDI includes five developmental domains (Physical Health and Well-being, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Language and Cognitive Development and Communication Skills and General Knowledge) and 16 subdomains. This paper examines the EDI’s psychometric properties in four English-speaking countries (Canada, Australia, United States and Jamaica) by evaluating both the internal consistency and factor structures, as well as exploring the association between the EDI’s Language and Cognitive Development Domain and a direct assessment of children’s receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, PPVT). Overall, the factor loadings and internal consistencies of domains and subdomains were similar across the countries. The comparisons of the Language and Cognitive Development Domain with the PPVT showed high specificity and low sensitivity. The results of this paper indicate that the EDI, a measure of children’s developmental status at school entry, demonstrates similar psychometric properties in a number of countries, thus building the evidence for the instrument to be added to the limited array of internationally comparable child social indicators.     

VALIDATION OF A DIARY MEASURE OF CHILDREN'S PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

This study compares levels of physical activity of 9–14-year-old children from a self-reported time diary with those measured using an accelerometer. Children (N = 92) wore an accelerometer for one weekend day and completed a 24-hour time diary for that day. The time children spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity from time diaries was moderately highly correlated with the measured results. Self-reported and objective measures of intensity were correlated, but the correlation varied substantially by activity and characteristics of the family. This study provides empirical evidence to support the validity of time-diary estimates when accelerometer data are not available.     

Domestic violence intervention program: Unconditional shelter?

This case examines the difficult choices facing a domestic violence shelter in crisis. Beth George had been on the run from her estranged husband with her two sons for three years. When the shelter hired Beth rather than another former resident (her roommate at the shelter) for a staff position, the roommate called Beth's ex‐husband and told him where they were. Police arrested Beth, sent the children back to their father, and began an investigation of whether shelter staff had knowingly harbored a fugitive. The shelter had just begun a fundraising campaign for a new building, but all financial contributions immediately stopped, throwing the organization into financial crisis. The executive director and staff were under enormous pressure and faced possible criminal sentences. The board had to try to minimize the damage to its reputation in the media, figure out how to keep the organization from failing financially, decide whether to continue to employ Beth George and the executive director, who were under criminal investigation, and fend off attacks from fathers' rights activists. The case explores the difficult management issues facing an organization and individuals in crisis. It examines how class, sexual orientation, race, and feminist ideology structure services to battered women. It also provides a window into the difficult job of front‐line workers skating on the edge of the law as the law begins to recognize and protect victims of intimate violence. It invites readers to consider how one should decide what and whom to believe. Finally, it considers the significance of grass‐roots feminist mobilizing to support feminist organizations.     

Working with Domestic Violence: Ethical Dilemmas in Five Theoretical Approaches

Therapists working with domestic violence are trained in many different theoretical models, each based on different values and assumptions. Each model raises different ethical dilemmas. In this paper, five theoretical approaches are evaluated in relation to the ethical principles of: respect for clients' autonomy; beneficence; non‐maleficence; and justice. The inverse relationship between respect for autonomy and beneficence and non‐maleficence is discussed. The hierarchical asymmetry involved in the therapeutic relationship is also explored.