Three families are described in which the healthy only child was, from early childhood, put to bed and treated as if ill, dependent, and incapable. This abnormal mothering continued for 28, 45, and 48 years, respectively, and the children died as disabled adults. In each case, the three mothers evaded medical, educational, and social services. The origins of their behaviour are examined, and the links with more common forms of separation anxiety, school refusal, and perceived and factitious illness are discussed. (+info)
Primary prevention of child abuse.
(2/1616)
In 1993, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect declared a child protection emergency. Between 1985 and 1993, there was a 50 percent increase in reported cases of child abuse. Three million cases of child abuse are reported in the United States each year. Treatment of the abuser has had only limited success and child protection agencies are overwhelmed. Recently, efforts have begun to focus on the primary prevention of child abuse. Primary prevention of child abuse is defined as any intervention that prevents child abuse before it occurs. Primary prevention must be implemented on many levels before it can be successful. Strategies on the societal level include increasing the "value" of children, increasing the economic self-sufficiency of families, discouraging corporal punishment and other forms of violence, making health care more accessible and affordable, expanding and improving coordination of social services, improving the identification and treatment of psychologic problems, and alcohol and drug abuse, providing more affordable child care and preventing the birth of unwanted children. Strategies on the familial level include helping parents meet their basic needs, identifying problems of substance abuse and spouse abuse, and educating parents about child behavior, discipline, safety and development. (+info)
The impact of after-school peer contact on early adolescent externalizing problems is moderated by parental monitoring, perceived neighborhood safety, and prior adjustment.
(3/1616)
Unsupervised peer contact in the after-school hours was examined as a risk factor in the development of externalizing problems in a longitudinal sample of early adolescents. Parental monitoring, neighborhood safety, and adolescents' preexisting behavioral problems were considered as possible moderators of the risk relation. Interviews with mothers provided information on monitoring, neighborhood safety, and demographics. Early adolescent (ages 12-13 years) after-school time use was assessed via a telephone interview in grade 6 (N = 438); amount of time spent with peers when no adult was present was tabulated. Teacher ratings of externalizing behavior problems were collected in grades 6 and 7. Unsupervised peer contact, lack of neighborhood safety, and low monitoring incrementally predicted grade 7 externalizing problems, after controlling for family background factors and grade 6 problems. The greatest risk was for those unsupervised adolescents living in low-monitoring homes and comparatively unsafe neighborhoods. The significant relation between unsupervised peer contact and problem behavior in grade 7 held only for those adolescents who already were high in problem behavior in grade 6. These findings point to the need to consider individual, family, and neighborhood factors in evaluating risks associated with young adolescents' after-school care experiences. (+info)
Sterilisation of incompetent mentally handicapped persons: a model for decision making.
(4/1616)
Doctors are regularly confronted with requests for sterilisation of mentally handicapped people who cannot give consent for themselves. They ought to act in a medical vacuum because there doesn't exist a consensus about a model for decision making on this matter. In this article a model for decision making is proposed, based on a review of the literature and our own research data. We have attempted to select and classify certain factors which could enable us to arrive at an ethically justifiable method of making a medical decision. In doing so we distinguish two major criteria: heredity and parenting competence, and six minor criteria: conception risk, IQ, age, personality, medical aspects and prognosis and finally support and guidance for the mentally handicapped person. The major criteria give rise to a "situation of necessity". In this situation the physician is confronted with a conflict of values and interests. The minor criteria are of an entirely different ethical order. They can only be considered once the major criteria have created a "situation of necessity". Ultimately it comes down to deciding whether the benefits of sterilisation outweigh the drawbacks and whether the means are appropriate to the end, where efficient contraception is the end and irreversible sterilisation is the means. (+info)
Expressed emotion and relapse in young schizophrenia outpatients.
(5/1616)
High familial expressed emotion (EE) reliably predicts 9-month relapse rates in schizophrenia patients. Difficulties interpreting the EE-relapse finding arise, however, because EE is usually assessed during a hospital admission, yet relapse following discharge is predicted. Researchers in Scotland assessed EE in relatives while the patients were out of hospital; using conservative relapse criteria, they failed to find higher subsequent 6- and 12-month relapse rates among patients living in high-EE homes (McCreadie and Phillips 1988). Our goal was to determine the ability of EE to predict relapse in a sample of 69 schizophrenia outpatients using both conservative criteria (for 6-and 12-month rates) and standard relapse criteria (for 9- and 18-month rates). According to the conservative criteria, EE failed to predict 6- and 12-month relapse. According to the standard criteria, 9-month relapse rates were significantly greater among patients in high-EE households. In parental homes, relapse at both 9 months and 18 months was best predicted by fathers' critical comments and mothers' emotional overinvolvement. Relapse was not associated with medication compliance and the amount of contact with high-EE relatives. (+info)
The health of grandparents raising grandchildren: results of a national study.
(6/1616)
OBJECTIVES: This study sought to compare the functional and self-rated health of grandparents raising grandchildren with that of noncaregiving grandparents. METHODS: A secondary analysis of data from the 1992 to 1994 National Survey of Families and Households was conducted. Bivariate and logistic analyses compared 173 custodial and 3304 noncustodial grandparents in terms of functional health limitations, self-rated health, and satisfaction with health. RESULTS: Custodial grandparents were significantly more likely to have limitations in 4 of the 5 activities of daily living (ADLs) examined, with more than half reporting some limitation in 1 of the 5 ADLs. A logistic regression analysis indicated that caregiving grandparents had 50% higher odds of having an ADL limitation. Caregivers were significantly more likely to report lower satisfaction with health, and a statistical trend indicated that the caregivers had lower self-rated health. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is needed to determine whether the differences observed reflect artifacts or actual differences in functional abilities and other health measures. The need for policies that support rather than penalize grandparents raising grandchildren is stressed. (+info)
Slapping and spanking in childhood and its association with lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders in a general population sample.
(7/1616)
BACKGROUND: Little information is available in Canada about the prevalence of and outcomes associated with a history of slapping and spanking in childhood. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of a history of slapping or spanking in a general population sample and to assess the relation between such a history and the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders. METHODS: In this general population survey, a probability sample of 9953 residents of Ontario aged 15 years and older who participated in the Ontario Health Supplement was used to examine the prevalence of a history of slapping and spanking. A subgroup of this sample (n = 4888), which comprised people aged 15 to 64 years who did not report a history of physical or sexual abuse during childhood, was used to assess the relation between a history of slapping or spanking and the lifetime prevalence of 4 categories of psychiatric disorder. The measures included a self-administered questionnaire with a question about frequency of slapping and spanking during childhood, as well as an interviewer-administered questionnaire to measure psychiatric disorder. RESULTS: The majority of respondents indicated that they had been slapped or spanked, or both, by an adult during childhood "sometimes" (33.4%) or "rarely" (40.9%); 5.5% reported that this occurred "often." The remainder (20.2%) reported "never" experiencing these behaviours. Among the respondents without a history of physical or sexual abuse during childhood, those who reported being slapped or spanked "often" or "sometimes" had significantly higher lifetime rates of anxiety disorders (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-1.96), alcohol abuse or dependence (adjusted OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.27-3.21) and one or more externalizing problems (adjusted OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.36-3.16), compared with those who reported "never" being slapped or spanked. There was also an association between a history of slapping or spanking and major depression, but it was not statistically significant (adjusted OR 1.64, 95% CI 0.96-2.80). INTERPRETATION: There appears to be a linear association between the frequency of slapping and spanking during childhood and a lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorder, alcohol abuse or dependence and externalizing problems. (+info)
Initial impact of the Fast Track prevention trial for conduct problems: I. The high-risk sample. Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group.
(8/1616)
Fast Track is a multisite, multicomponent preventive intervention for young children at high risk for long-term antisocial behavior. Based on a comprehensive developmental model, intervention included a universal-level classroom program plus social skills training, academic tutoring, parent training, and home visiting to improve competencies and reduce problems in a high-risk group of children selected in kindergarten. At the end of Grade 1, there were moderate positive effects on children's social, emotional, and academic skills; peer interactions and social status; and conduct problems and special-education use. Parents reported less physical discipline and greater parenting satisfaction/ease of parenting and engaged in more appropriate/consistent discipline, warmth/positive involvement, and involvement with the school. Evidence of differential intervention effects across child gender, race, site, and cohort was minimal. (+info)