Tools for screening for interpersonal violence: state of the science

In recent decades, the prevalence of abuse against women, older persons, and persons with disabilities has become a major public health problem. Health professionals, urged by their professional associations to universally screen these groups, have employed various tools in an effort to identify individuals in need of help. Yet many of the tools used widely in clinical settings have limitations in terms of empirical soundness. This article presents tools used to screen women, older persons, and persons with disabilities as well as data on the reliability and validity of these instruments. These properties and the resources needed to reduce harm are important factors to consider before implementing screening. The article concludes with a summary of the risk-benefit issues related to the use of these tools and universal screening in general.     

Commentary on the treatment of gender variant and gender dysphoric children and adolescents: common themes and ethical reflections

This commentary offers preliminary ethical reflections on the range of treatments for gender variant and gender dysphoric children, adolescents, and young adults described in the preceding five clinical articles. After clarifying the terminology used to discuss these issues, this commentary reviews several common themes of the clinical articles. Focusing on ethical values of informed consent, full disclosure, the minimization or avoidance of harm, and the maximization of life options, the commentary expresses concerns about various treatment options endorsed by some of the articles. In particular, this commentary focuses on how these practices problematically reproduce social prejudices and stereotypes and how they fail to acknowledge and embrace the multiple pathways for expressing one's gender. It also compares and contrasts the ethical issues related to gender variant and gender dysphoric youths and youths who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer.     

Getting Unstuck: Interdisciplinarity and Aging

Continuing the dialog initiated by Scheff in the March issue of Sociological Forum, we reflect on some of the challenges involved in interdisciplinary research.     

Skimming the Milk,Cajoling the Soul—Embodiment and Obscenity in Sexuality: Commentary on Muriel Dimen's Paper

Responding to Dimen's bringing together the vagaries of disgust, embarrassment, and shame lurking in sexuality, I translate “Eew” into abjection. I emphasize the “otherness” of sexuality mainly through the paradoxes of the body, which can figure as a chunk of flesh, demurring in a state of “facticity” (thingness), but which can also be(come) the house of the soul, the carrier of one's spirit, one's unique individuality and subjectivity.

To capture the other's ineffable subjectivity, we have to “cajole” his or her spirit to come and dwell on the body, particularly its apertures and skin. By caressing and arousing the other, we can transform the obscenity that inheres potentially in the sexual experience into the most transcendent and ecstatic event. Abjection, “Eew,” occurs when mutual understanding, which is the embodiment between two people, fails. When embodiment collapses into being only body, it is obscene and disgusting.     

The NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol: A Meta-Analytic Review

Systematic review and meta-analysis of literature were conducted examining the effectiveness of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Investigative Interview Protocol in improving the quality of child forensic interviews. Online databases were searched for journal articles published between the years 2000 and 2013. Measures of interview quality were the type of interviewer utterances and the amount of information provided by children. Five studies met criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Weighted mean of the effect sizes was calculated for each outcome measure. Protocol interviews had more invitations (g = 1.60) and fewer option-posing (g = ?.95) and suggestive prompts (g = ?.63) than standard interviews. Children interviewed by the protocol provided more central details (g = .90) in response to invitations than controls. Meta-analyses of a subset of preschool children samples revealed that protocol interviews had more invitations (g = 1.46), fewer suggestive prompts (g = ?.61), and fewer option-posing prompts (g = ?1.05) than controls. Findings corroborate results from previous studies that suggested the benefits of the protocol on the interviewers’ performance and on children’s informativeness. However, protocol did not show the same performance with regard to preschool children.     

Heritage and Community Regeneration in Northern Ireland: Finding Points of Coalescence in the Development Planning Process

ABSTRACT

Bringing heritage resources to the forefront in communities can serve to help heal long-standing divides with impacts not only in economic dimensions, but also social and cultural. It is an ironic turn—some of the heritage resources in Northern Ireland have been the site of intense and violent conflict over long periods of time—and now serve as focal points for bringing together divergent groups, helping heal divisions in communities. Seventeen communities throughout Northern Ireland are examined, gauging impacts and perceptions of community regeneration and redevelopment processes. Results provide insights for addressing lingering conflict and finding points of coalescence, with heritage playing a role in transformation.     

What Narrows the Stepgap? Closeness Between Parents and Adult (Step)Children in Germany

Using data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) based on 11,746 intergenerational family relationships, the present study examined differences in parental closeness across relations with multiple, coresidential, and non‐coresidential adolescent and adult children. Replicating previous research in a multilevel analysis across families, the authors found a strong positive effect of biological descent on closeness in comparison to adoptive and steprelations; this parental favoritism toward biological offspring was partly explained by selection via parental resources and attitudes. Supplemental within‐parent fixed effect analyses suggested that the relative disadvantage of stepchildren was offset by longer duration of the stepparent–stepchild relationship, lower household income, fewer children in the household, and high parental affirmation of familism.