Mental health and behavioral problems of youth in the child welfare system: residential treatment centers compared to therapeutic foster care in the Odyssey Project population

This is the first multisite, prospective study of behavioral and mental health disorders of youth in residential treatment centers (RTC) and therapeutic foster care (TFC), and the first study to compare the two. This study addressed two questions in a sample of 22 agencies in 13 states: (1) how prevalent were emotional and behavioral disorders in the youth admitted to RTCs and TFC?, and (2) were the youth in RTCs significantly more likely to be disturbed than youth served in TFCs? Data were drawn from the Time 1 phase of the longitudinal national "Odyssey Project" developed by the Child Welfare League of America (1995). Measures included an extensive child and family characteristics form (CFC) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The results revealed extremely high levels of behavioral and mental health disorders in the sample as a whole, well above the norms for a non-child welfare population. The prevalence of disorder in the RTC population was substantially greater than in the TFC population.     

Combination training and resistance training as effective interventions to improve functioning in elders

The purpose of the study was to determine whether resistance training (RT) or a combination of resistance and aerobic training (CT) resulted in the most improvement in measures of functional ability in functionally limited elders. Elderly adults who exhibited some limits in functional ability were randomly assigned to either a CT, RT, or control (C) group. Both RT and CT exercised three times per week for 16 weeks. At Weeks 0 and 17, participants completed six measures of strength and six functional tests. A 3 (group) x 3 (time) ANOVA with repeated measures on the time factor was used to analyze the results. CT and RT scored significantly better than C at Week 17 for biceps curl, elbow extension, chair stand, and time up the stairs. These findings demonstrate that RT and CT are both effective at increasing measures of strength and functional ability in elderly adults who begin exercise with functional limitations.     

Lessons Learned From the First-Year Evaluation of a Small-Scale Home Visitation Program

ABSTRACT

Home visitation programs to prevent child maltreatment are offered in many communities. Agencies in these communities want to help families in need while under increased pressure to provide effective services. Funding is limited and competitive; some agencies might choose to limit funds spent on supervision, training, and evaluation as a way to provide more direct service. In this article, we use an implementation science framework and the results of an evaluation of a small home visitation program to underscore the importance of ongoing training and supervision, attention to fidelity, and program evaluation. The evaluation included 17 families entering the program during 21 months. Evaluators visited families in their homes at the beginning of the program and again 10 months later. Like many other well-intended, small-scale programs, this one “borrowed” from evidence-based models and expanded enrollment criteria in an attempt to better serve families. Findings from the evaluation suggest that the program, as it was carried out, was not effective at reducing parenting behaviors known to be associated with child maltreatment. We offer advice to funding and community agencies based on these findings and implementation science. Future evaluation research must pay greater attention to fidelity and implementation.     

The Relations among Theory of Mind,Behavioral Inhibition,and Peer Interactions in Early Childhood

The current study examined relations among child temperament, peer interaction, and theory of mind (ToM) development. We hypothesized that: (1) children classified as behaviorally inhibited at 24 months would show less ToM understanding at 36 months in comparison to nonbehaviorally inhibited children; (2) children who displayed negative peer interaction behaviors in a peer dyadic interaction at 24 months would exhibit less ToM understanding at 36 months; and (3) behavioral inhibition (BI) and the degree of negative behaviors during a peer interaction would jointly influence ToM development, such that children with both heightened BI and negative peer interaction behaviors would exhibit worse ToM performance than behaviorally inhibited children who did not display negative social behaviors. Both BI and negative peer interaction behaviors were associated with passing fewer ToM tasks. The data revealed that children high in both BI and negative peer interaction behaviors passed fewer ToM tasks at 36 months of age than those high in BI and low in negative peer interactions or those low in BI.     

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Abstract

Social work practice in a psychiatric emergency department presents a unique set of professional and personal challenges for the clinician. This article presents an individual account of practice within this setting and within a larger system of mental health care which is overwhelmed by individual and societal needs and limited provider options. The personal and professional challenges which arise in response to crisis work with chronic populations is discussed.     

PARTICIPANT NARRATIVES AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN A METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT

In this article we explore social movement solidarity through an examination of narratives offered by participants in a metaphysical movement. Drawing from contemporary social movement theory, we focus on how members develop a carefully built collective identity that perpetuates movement goals and ideology. Data for this project are drawn from in-depth interviews with local psychics, participant observation in various metaphysical fairs, and document analysis. We find that the movement's collective identity is centered around several narratives that help establish boundaries, identify antagonists, and create a collective consciousness. Together these narratives form a web of belief that binds members to the movement. The data we present in this article have implications for understanding other expressive movements, as well as for social movement theory in general.     

Is There a Place for Extended Assessments in Addressing Child Sexual Abuse Allegations? How Sensitivity and Specificity Impact Professional Perspectives

Using data from a survey of perceptions of 932 child welfare professionals about the utility of extended assessments, the researchers constructed a scale to measure respondents' views about sensitivity (ensuring sexually abused children are correctly identified) and specificity (ensuring nonabused children are correctly identified) in child sexual abuse evaluations. On average, respondents scored high (valuing sensitivity) on the sensitivity versus specificity scale. Next, the researchers undertook bivariate analyses to identify independent variables significantly associated with the sensitivity versus specificity scale. Then those variables were entered into a multiple regression. Four independent variables were significantly related to higher sensitivity scores: encountering cases requiring extended assessments, valuing extended assessments among scarce resources, less concern about proving cases in court, and viewing the goal of extended assessments as understanding needs of child and family (adjusted R2 = .34).     

The Distribution of Stock Returns: New Evidence Against the Stable Model

We present a simple but effective procedure for determining whether a reasonably large sample comes from a stable population against the alternative that it comes from a population with finite higher moments. The procedure uses the fact that a stable population sample has moments of the fourth and sixth order whose magnitudes increase very rapidly as the sample size increases. This procedure shows convincingly that stock returns, when taken as a group, do not come from stable populations. Even for individual stocks, our results show that the stable-population-model null hypothesis can be rejected for more than 95% of the stocks.     

Australian primary maternity units: Past,present and future

Primary maternity units are commonly those run by midwives who provide care to women with low-risk pregnancies with no obstetric, anaesthetic, laboratory or paediatric support available on-site. In some other countries, primary level maternity units play an important role in offering equitable and accessible maternity care to women with low-risk pregnancies, particularly in rural and remote areas. However there are very few primary maternity units in Australia, largely due to the fact that over the past 200 years, the concept of safety has become inherently linked with the immediate on-site availability of specialist medical support.The purpose if this paper is to explore the various drivers and barriers to the sustainability of primary maternity units in Australia. It firstly looks at the historical antecedents that shaped primary level maternity services in Australia, from the time of colonisation to now. During this period the space and management of childbirth moved from home and midwifery-led settings to obstetric-led hospitals. Following on from this an analysis of recent political events shows how Australian government policy both supports and undermines the potential of primary maternity units. It is important that researchers, clinicians and policy makers understand the past in order to manage the challenges facing the development and maintenance of midwifery-led maternity services, in particular primary maternity units, in Australia today.