Fathers detained, contact restrained: Experiences of Palestinian children visiting their fathers in Israeli detention

BACKGROUND

Very little is known about the experiences of children of political prisoners internationally, because of the challenges of researching within politically oppressive contexts.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this secondary analysis was to explore and understand Palestinian children's experiences visiting their fathers in Israeli detention.

PARTICIPANTS, SETTING AND METHODS

Qualitative data from sixteen in-depth interviews with thirty-one children were analyzed. Structural and longitudinal coding cycles were employed and focused upon the timeline of the visitation process.

RESULTS

Three overarching themes emerged, which included: Children's experiences 'before the visit', 'during the visit', and 'after the visit'. Subthemes related to the distressing and at times traumatic experiences the children suffered throughout the process of preparation for, going through, and the aftermath of the visit. This included reports of experiencing punitive measures at checkpoints and waiting areas and humiliation and maltreatment by the Israeli authorities during the visitation process. These findings are discussed with reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It was clear that the children's best interests were denied and contact and interaction with their fathers was restrained under the Israeli visitation scheme. Despite the arduous visitation process that children often hated, they loved to see their fathers.

CONCLUSIONS

Even though the children's rights were infringed upon, they still endured hardships to maintain whatever contact was possible. International advocacy for the realization of the 'rights of the child' for Palestinian children, as well as other children of political detainees is warranted.

Bullying victimization and depression among left-behind children in rural China: Roles of self-compassion and hope

BACKGROUND

Bullying victimization among school-aged children is an important public health issue that may affect their well-being and mental health. However, few studies have been conducted on left-behind children in rural China, who are defined as the children who stay in rural areas for more than six months and have one or both parents migrating to urban areas for work. The mechanisms through which bullying victimization will influence depression have disproportionally adopted a psychopathological perspective, and the protective factors are understudied.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims at investigating the factors that might contribute to breaking up the vicious circle between bullying victimization and developmental problems, focusing on the protective role of self-compassion and hope in the association between bullying victimization and depression.

METHODS

Using questionnaires, data were collected from a sample of 1091 school-aged left-behind children from west and central China.

RESULTS

Compared with rural children living with their parents, left-behind children reported a higher level of bullying victimization. Bullying victimization was positively associated with depression through decreased self-compassion and hope, and self- compassion played a more crucial role than hope in the linkage between bullying victimization and depression.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study's findings suggest that it is necessary to incorporate self-compassion and hope in mental health prevention and intervention programs targeting left-behind children with bullying victimization experiences.

Using Polygenic Profiles to Predict Variation in Language and Psychosocial Outcomes in Early and Middle Childhood

Purpose Children with poor language tend to have worse psychosocial outcomes compared to their typically developing peers. The most common explanations for such adversities focus on developmental psychological processes whereby poor language triggers psychosocial difficulties. Here, we investigate the possibility of shared biological effects by considering whether the same genetic variants, which are thought to influence language development, are also predictors of elevated psychosocial difficulties during childhood. Method Using data from the U.K.-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we created a number of multi-single-nucleotide polymorphism polygenic profile scores, based on language and reading candidate genes (ATP2C2, CMIP, CNTNAP2, DCDC2, FOXP2, and KIAA0319, 1,229 single-nucleotide polymorphisms) in a sample of 5,435 children. Results A polygenic profile score for expressive language (8 years) that was created in a discovery sample (n = 2,718) predicted not only expressive language (8 years) but also peer problems (11 years) in a replication sample (n = 2,717). Conclusions These findings provide a proof of concept for the use of such a polygenic approach in child language research when larger data sets become available. Our indicative findings suggest consideration should be given to concurrent intervention targeting both linguistic and psychosocial development as early language interventions may not stave off later psychosocial difficulties in children.

Promoting resilience and wellbeing in children exposed to intimate partner violence: A qualitative study with mothers

BACKGROUND

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are at increased risk of disruptions to their health and development. Few studies have explored mothers' perceptions of what helps their children cope throughout this experience.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to explore mothers' perceptions of their children's resilience and coping following IPV exposure, and the strategies they have used to support their children and promote resilience.

METHODS

In depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine women from the Maternal Health Study (MHS), a prospective study of women during pregnancy and following the birth of their first child. All women involved in the qualitative interviews reported experiencing IPV during their involvement in the MHS. Transcribed interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis which has a focus on how individuals make meaning of their experience.

RESULTS

Women discussed parenting strategies such as role modelling, stable and consistent parenting, and talking with their children about healthy relationships to promote their children's resilience. Mothers also spoke about the ways they tried to reduce their child's direct exposure to IPV, as well as reflecting on the difficulty of attending to their child emotionally when they were experiencing distress.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights that there are many strategies used by mothers who experience IPV to promote resilience and wellbeing in their children. Understanding what mothers see as useful for their children is essential in providing appropriate services to families following experiences of family violence.

Posttraumatic stress in young children with cancer: Risk factors and comparison with healthy peers

OBJECTIVE

The most commonly occurring childhood cancers are diagnosed during the preschool years; yet limited psycho-oncology research has focused on this developmental time period. The primary objective was to examine rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in young children with cancer and compare these findings with those of children without a history of serious illness (comparisons). The secondary aim was to examine risk and modifiable factors associated with PTSS.

METHOD

Ninety-seven caregivers of patients (n = 50) and comparisons (n = 47) aged three to six years completed diagnostic interviews for the assessment of PTSD. They also completed a survey measure of PTSS adapted from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL-PTSD), along with measures of their child's temperament and their own current psychological functioning.

RESULTS

On the CBCL-PTSD, no differences in PTSS were observed between children with cancer and comparisons, although many in both groups appeared at risk, with approximately 34% of children with cancer and 27% of comparisons meeting threshold scores for probable PTSD. However, using a "gold-standard" clinical-interview assessment, only three children in the patient group and no children in the comparison group met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Parental distress and child temperament were significantly associated with PTSS scores.

CONCLUSION

Findings indicate PTSD is relatively infrequent in children with cancer, and survey measures may overestimate rates of PTSD in young children. However, other emotional or behavioral issues may be present. Ultimately, screening for potential emotional/behavioral concerns in young children with cancer is indicated, and interventions should continue to target caregiver distress.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and standardized academic tests: Reliability across respondent type and age

Exploiting nation-wide data from the Danish National Birth Cohort, we show that children’s emotional and behavioral problems measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) are closely related to their performance in standardized academic tests for reading and mathematics in sixth grade. The relationship is remarkably linear across the entire distribution for both the total difficulties score and subscale scores of the SDQ; higher scores on the SDQ (more problems) are related to worse performance in academic tests. We assess the similarity across respondent type; parent (child age 7 and 11), teacher (child age 11) and self-reported scores (child age 11), and find that teacher and parent reported scores have very similar slopes in the SDQ–test score relationship, while the child reported SDQ in relation to the academic test performance has a flatter slope.

Maternal adverse childhood experiences, attachment style, and mental health: Pathways of transmission to child behavior problems

BACKGROUND

Investigations have found mothers' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) confer an intergenerational risk to their children's outcomes. However, mechanisms underlying this transmission have only been partially explained by maternal mental health. Adult attachment insecurity has been shown to mediate the association of ACEs and mental health outcomes, yet an extension of this research to children's behavioral problems has not been examined.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the cascade from maternal ACEs to risk for child behavioral problems at five years of age, via mothers' attachment insecurity and mental health.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Participants in the current study were 1994 mother-child dyads from a prospective longitudinal cohort collected from January 2011 to October 2014.

METHODS

Mothers retrospectively reported their ACEs when children were 36 months of age. When children were 60 months of age, mothers completed measures of their attachment style, depression and anxiety symptoms, and their children's behavior problems.

RESULTS

Path analysis demonstrated maternal ACEs were associated with children's internalizing problems indirectly via maternal attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and depression symptoms, but not directly (β = .05, 95% CI [-.001, .10]). Maternal ACEs indirectly predicted children's externalizing problems via maternal attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and depression. A direct effect was also observed from maternal ACEs to child externalizing problems (β = .06, 95% CI [.01, .11]).

CONCLUSIONS

Maternal ACEs influenced children's risk for poor behavioral outcomes via direct and indirect intermediary pathways. Addressing maternal insecure attachment style and depression symptoms as intervention targets for mothers with histories of ACEs may help to mitigate the intergenerational transmission of risk.

Trajectories of traumatic stress reactions in children exposed to intimate partner violence

BACKGROUND

Understanding different longitudinal patterns of traumatic stress reactions in children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) can promote early identification of at-risk children.

OBJECTIVE

Our study aims to explore trajectories of traumatic stress reactions following childhood IPV exposure, and their relation with parental traumatic stress and child emotional security in the interparental subsystem.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The sample comprised 303 children (age 3-10, M = 6.20) from families referred to institutions for IPV. Data were collected at home.

METHODS

Three waves of parent-reported questionnaire data were analyzed using latent class growth analysis and linear regression.

RESULTS

Five trajectories were identified: 'resilient', 'moderate stable', 'struggling', 'improving', and 'elevated adjusting'. Only the 'struggling' trajectory had dysfunctional symptom levels at the final wave. Higher parental traumatic stress predicted 'improving' trajectory membership (β = 0.17, p =  .033), whereas lower parental traumatic stress (β = -0.20, p =  .003) and child emotional insecurity (β = -0.45, p = < .001) predicted 'resilient' trajectory membership. Higher child emotional insecurity predicted membership in trajectories with higher initial traumatic stress (improving: β = 0.26, p <  .001; struggling: β = 0.31, p <  .001; elevated adjusting: β = 0.27, p <  .001). Child emotional security did not buffer the effect of parental traumatic stress on likelihood of dysfunctional trajectory membership (β = 0.04, p =.380).

CONCLUSIONS

Children exposed to IPV show different trajectories of traumatic stress reactions, partly corresponding to trajectories identified in other populations. Child emotional security and parental traumatic stress predict trajectory membership.

Reduced psychiatric symptoms at 6 and 12 months' follow-up of psychotherapeutic and psychoeducative group interventions for children exposed to intimate partner violence

BACKGROUND

Long-term follow-up studies of interventions for children exposed to intimate partner violence are few, and the sustainability of their outcomes often remains unexplored and uncertain. Current research including follow-up assessment suggests that treatment gains may be maintained or continue post termination. In addition some children may show increased levels of symptoms.

OBJECTIVE

The present effectiveness study investigated the long-term outcomes of two established group interventions for children exposed to intimate partner violence and their non-offending parent.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The study included 50 children, 24 girls and 26 boys, aged 4 to 13 years attending a psychotherapeutic child and adolescent mental health service intervention and a psychoeducative community-based intervention.

METHODS

Background information, child and parental mental health problems, trauma symptoms, and exposure to violence were assessed pre- and post treatment and at 6 and 12 months' follow-up.

RESULTS

Sustained treatment gains and late improvements in children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms and in symptoms of traumatic stress were recorded from post treatment to the follow-up assessments (p = .004- .044; d = 0.29-0.67). No significant increase in symptoms was reported. Additionally, very little continued or renewed child exposure to violence was reported.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the study indicate that the children did benefit from the two interventions studied and that the outcomes of reduced child symptoms and protection from exposure to violence were sustainable. Children with severe trauma symptoms benefited the most, though maternal psychological problems may for some have hindered recovery. Clinical implications are discussed.

Children's and Parents' Well-Being in Joint Physical Custody: A Literature Review

Joint physical custody (JPC), a parental care arrangement in which a child lives with each parent for at least 25-50% of the time after separation or divorce, is increasingly common in many Western societies. This is a major shift from the standard of sole physical custody, with mostly mothers providing primary childcare after a parental separation or divorce. The increasing share of separated or divorced parents who practice JPC, which in some countries, US states, and regions reaches 30% and more, results from increasing gender equality due to mothers participating considerably in the labor force and fathers being actively involved in their children's daily lives. This review focuses on the effects of JPC on children's and parents' well-being, based on 40 studies from North America, Australia, and Europe published between 2007 and 2018. In sum, there is empirical evidence from different countries that suggests that JPC arrangements can have positive effects on the well-being of children and of parents. However, the existing studies are conceptually, methodologically, and contextually very heterogeneous. In addition, self-selected highly educated parents with a high socio-economic status, a low conflict level, and children between the ages of 6-15 practicing JPC dominate the samples. Thus, the risks and benefits of JPC are not clear yet and are heavily debated by advocates and academics. The review concludes with suggestions for future research.

[The child in conflictual stepfamilies]

Family recomposition complicates parental separation and, even when it goes well, requires a clarification of the issues, roles and conflicts of loyalty; the noisy manifestation of the problems is not negative in itself but sometimes requires a psychotherapeutic support of the child, and guidance from all adults surrounding the child. This is an area where reflection, dialogue, questioning, psychic work is better than advice (which I still give as a precaution) because the passionate nature of the situations sometimes defies all reason and the experience of the past. The child may be forgotten when he becomes the stake or the instrument of this passion.

Evaluation of efficiency of puppet show in decreasing fears of school-age children against medical procedures in Zonguldak (Turkey)

OBJECTIVE

To determine children's medical fears and to evaluate the effectiveness of puppet show to decrease such fears.

METHODS

The quasi-experimental study was conducted from February 1 to May 31, 2016, in Zonguldak, Turkey, and comprised primary school students. Descriptive Information Form and Medical Operations Fear Scale were used to collect data. Those found to be 'very afraid' subsequently underwent a puppet show. The Scale was applied postintervention o track changes. SPSS 18 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS

There were 617 children with a mean age of 8.86}0.96 years and studying in second third and fourth grades. Of them, 316(51.2%) were boys. The mean score on the fear scale was 43.9}1.03 (range: 29-87); 58(9.4%) were terrified of medical procedures. There was a significant difference between the scores of children with respect to the year of education (p=0.001), age (p=0.0001), previous hospitalisations (p=0.0001), previous fears related to hospitalisations (p=0.0021) and fear of being sick (p=0.0001). Two sessions of puppet shows were performed for 44(76%) of the terrified students. There was a significant difference between baseline and post-intervention scores (p=0.0001)..

CONCLUSIONS

Age, previous negative experiences of hospitalisations and the fear of being sick were factors that shaped children's medical fears. Puppet show effectively decreased such fears.

Child friendly spaces impact across five humanitarian settings: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Humanitarian crises present major threats to the wellbeing of children. These threats include risks of violence, abduction and abuse, emotional distress and the disruption of development. Humanitarian response efforts frequently address these threats through psychosocial programming. Systematic reviews have demonstrated the weak evidence-base regarding the impact of such interventions. This analysis assesses the impact of Child Friendly Spaces (CFS), one such commonly implemented intervention after humanitarian emergencies.

METHODS

We completed baseline and endline (three-six months post-baseline) assessments regarding protection concerns, psychosocial wellbeing, developmental assets and community resources for a total of 1010 children and 1312 carers in catchment areas for interventions with humanitarian populations in Ethiopia, Uganda, Iraq, Jordan, and Nepal. We estimated intervention effect-sizes with Cohen's d for difference in mean difference scores between attenders and non-attenders - who proved comparable on baseline measures - by site. We then pooled findings for a meta-analysis summarizing overall impacts across domains.

RESULTS

Amongst children aged 6-11, significant intervention impacts were observed through site-level analysis for protection concerns (Ethiopia, Cohen's d = 0.48, 95% CI 0.08-0.88), psychosocial wellbeing (Ethiopia, d = 0.51, 95% CI 0.10-0.91; and Uganda, d = 0.21, 95% CI 0.02-0.40), and developmental assets (Uganda, d = 0.37, 95% CI 0.15-0.59; and Iraq, d = 0.86, 95% CI 0.18-1.54). Pooled analyses for this age group found impacts of intervention to be significant only for psychosocial wellbeing (d = 0.18, 95% CI 0.03-0.33). Among children aged 12-17, site-level analysis indicated intervention impact for protection concerns in one site (Iraq, d = 0.58, 95% CI 0.07-1.09), with pooled analysis indicating no significant impacts.

CONCLUSION

CFS can provide - albeit inconsistently - a protective and promotive environment for younger children. CFS show no impact with older children and in connecting children and carers with wider community resources. A major reappraisal of programming approaches and quality assurance mechanisms is required.

Reconnecting mothers and children after violence (RECOVER): a feasibility study protocol of child-parent psychotherapy in Australia

INTRODUCTION

Intimate partner violence detrimentally affects the social and emotional well-being of children and mothers. These two populations are impacted both individually and within the context of their relationship with one another. Child mental health, maternal mental health and the mother-child relationship may be impaired as a consequence. Early intervention to prevent or arrest impaired mother-child attachment and child development is needed. Dyadic or relational mental health interventions that include mothers with their children, such as child-parent psychotherapy, are effective in improving the mental health of both children and mothers and also strengthening their relationship. While child-parent psychotherapy has been trialled overseas in several populations, Australian research on relational interventions for children and women recovering from violence is limited. This study aims to assess the acceptability and feasibility of implementing child-parent psychotherapy in Australian families.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

Using a mixed methods, prepost design this feasibility study will examine the acceptability of the intervention to women with preschool aged children (3-5 years, n=15 dyads) and providers, and identify process issues including recruitment, retention and barriers to implementation and sustainability. In addition, intervention efficacy will be assessed using maternal and child health outcomes and functioning, and mother-child attachment measures. Young children's mental health needs are underserviced in Australia. More research is needed to fully understand parenting in the context of intimate partner violence and what works to help women and children recover. If the intervention is found to be feasible, findings will inform future trials and expansion of child-parent psychotherapy in Australia.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethics approval obtained from clinical sites and the La Trobe University Human Research Ethics Committee (ID: HEC17-108). Results will be disseminated through conference proceedings and academic publications.

Collections, collectives, and individuals: Preschoolers' attributions of intentionality

Given the complexity of our social worlds, humans must develop the ability to make nuanced interpretations of behavior, including the ability to infer an actor's intentions from perceptual properties of an actor's movements. Consistent with the common perception of a group as a single collective entity and the use of singular nouns to refer to groups, such as a clan, family, team, army, herd, hive, or a gaggle, Bloom and Veres (1999) found that adults attribute intentionality to groups to the same extent that they do to single entities. This study examines the developmental course of both these phenomena by examining the performance of adults and preschoolers on an adaptation of Bloom and Veres' task. Our results show that preschoolers, like adults, readily attribute intentions to a group and that the more they do so, the more they perceive the group as a single collective entity. This effect is largely mediated by increased attributions of goal-directed action and, to a lesser extent by attributions of mental states, consistent with the claim that purposeful, coordinated action makes a collection of individuals conceptually coalesce into an entity.

Changing conceptualizations of regression: What prospective studies reveal about the onset of autism spectrum disorder

Until the last decade, studies of the timing of early symptom emergence in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relied upon retrospective methods. Recent investigations, however, are raising significant questions about the accuracy and validity of such data. Questions about when and how behavioral signs of autism emerge may be better answered through prospective studies, in which infants are enrolled near birth and followed longitudinally until the age at which ASD can be confidently diagnosed or ruled out. This review summarizes the results of recent studies that utilized prospective methods to study infants at high risk of developing ASD due to family history. Collectively, prospective studies demonstrate that the onset of ASD involves declines in the rates of key social and communication behaviors during the first years of life for most children. This corpus of literature suggests that regressive onset patterns occur much more frequently than previously recognized and may be the rule rather than the exception.

The Importance of Screening Preteens for Suicide Risk in the Emergency Department

OBJECTIVES

To describe the prevalence of screening positive for suicide risk in a sample of 10- to 12-year-olds presenting to the emergency department (ED).

METHODS

Patients presenting to the ED were administered a battery of measures, including the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions and the criterion-standard Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire. Answering affirmatively to any of the 4 Ask Suicide-Screening Questions and/or scoring above the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire cutoff score was considered a positive screen result for suicide risk.

RESULTS

The sample included 79 preteen patients. The overall positive screen result rate was 29.1% (23 of 79). More than half (54.1%) of patients presenting with psychiatric chief complaints screened positive for suicide risk, and 7.1% of preteens presenting with chief medical complaints screened positive. Of preteens, 17.7% (14 of 79) reported previous suicidal behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Preteens think about suicide and engage in suicidal behavior at rates that warrant further study. Notably, 7% of preteens presenting with chief medical complaints screened positive, highlighting the importance of screening all preteen patients as young as 10 years old for suicide risk in the ED.

Toddlers and infants expect individuals to refrain from helping an ingroup victim's aggressor

Adults and older children are more likely to punish a wrongdoer for a moral transgression when the victim belongs to their group. Building on these results, in violation-of-expectation experiments (n = 198), we examined whether 2.5-year-old toddlers (Exps. 1 and 2) and 1-year-old infants (Exps. 3 and 4) would selectively expect an individual in a minimal group to engage in third-party punishment (TPP) for harm to an ingroup victim. We focused on an indirect form of TPP, the withholding of help. To start, children saw a wrongdoer steal a toy from a victim while a bystander watched. Next, the wrongdoer needed assistance with a task, and the bystander either helped or hindered her. The group memberships of the wrongdoer and the victim were varied relative to that of the bystander and were marked with either novel labels (Exps. 1 and 2) or novel outfits (Exps. 3 and 4). When the victim belonged to the same group as the bystander, children expected TPP: At both ages, they detected a violation when the bystander chose to help the wrongdoer. Across experiments, this effect held whether the wrongdoer belonged to the same group as the bystander and the victim or to a different group; it was eliminated when the victim belonged to a different group than the bystander, when groups were not marked, and when either no theft occurred or the wrongdoer was unaware of the theft. Toddlers and infants thus expect individuals to refrain from helping an ingroup victim's aggressor, providing further evidence for an early-emerging expectation of ingroup support.

A Doubly Latent Space Joint Model for Local Item and Person Dependence in the Analysis of Item Response Data

Item response theory (IRT) is one of the most widely utilized tools for item response analysis; however, local item and person independence, which is a critical assumption for IRT, is often violated in real testing situations. In this article, we propose a new type of analytical approach for item response data that does not require standard local independence assumptions. By adapting a latent space joint modeling approach, our proposed model can estimate pairwise distances to represent the item and person dependence structures, from which item and person clusters in latent spaces can be identified. We provide an empirical data analysis to illustrate an application of the proposed method. A simulation study is provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in comparison with existing methods.

Disentangling the effect of out-of-home care on child mental health

BACKGROUND

Children in out-of-home care are consistently found to have poor mental health compared to children in the general population. However, UK research has so far failed to disentangle the impact of the care system on children's mental health outcomes from the effects of the adverse circumstances that led to their admission to care.

OBJECTIVE

This research investigated the association between care placement and the presence of child mental health problems after controlling for children's pre-care experiences. It also identified factors associated with mental health problems among children in care.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The sample comprised three groups of children involved with child welfare services due to maltreatment, including children in out-of-home care (n = 122), reunified children (n = 82) and those who had never been in care (n = 159).

METHODS

The mental health of the children in the three groups was compared, using information collected from their parents/foster carers and social workers.

RESULTS

The odds of a child in out-of-home care having a mental health problem were not significantly higher than those of a child who had never been in care (AOR = 1.24; p = 0.462). However, the odds of a child in out-of-home care having reactive attachment disorder (RAD) were significantly higher than those of a child who had never been in care (AOR=1.92; p = 0.032).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings make an important contribution to international debates about whether placing children in care is beneficial or detrimental to their wellbeing, and highlight a range of inter-linking factors associated with the mental health of children in out-of-home care.

A meta-analysis of differences in children's reports of single and repeated events

When children report abuse, they often report that it occurred repeatedly. In most jurisdictions, children will be asked to report each instance of abuse with as many details as possible. In the current meta-analysis, we analyzed data from 31 experiments and 3099 children. When accuracy was defined as the number of correct details from the target instance (i.e., narrow definition), repeated-event children were less accurate than single-event children. However, we argue that defining accuracy as the number of reported details that were experienced across instances (i.e., broad definition) is more appropriate for repeated events. When a broad definition was applied, single- and repeated-event children were similarly accurate. Importantly, repeated-event children were less likely than single-event children to report details that had never been experienced and they were no more likely to say "I don't know." Overall, repeated-event children were more suggestible than single-event children, but this was moderated by length of delay to recall. In analyses of recognition data, single-event children's sensitivity score was higher than repeated-event children's, with no significant difference in response bias as a function of event frequency. We discuss these results in the context of how children's memory for repeated events is organized. We also consider the advantage of applying a broad definition of accuracy for victims of repeated abuse and charging repeated abuse as a continuous offense rather than discrete acts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Contributions of autism evaluation unit in the clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders

BACKGROUND

Based on the recognized principles of assessment of autistic disorders, the child and adolescent psychiatry department in Razi Hospital developed, in coordination with the department of neurology of Razi Hospital and the department of genetics of Charles Nicolle's Hospital an assessment unit for autism spectrum disorders.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the clinical characteristics in terms of severity and comorbidities of children assessed for autism spectrum disorders.

METHODS

We compiled data about clinical examination of autistic symptoms using the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) and the Childhood autism Rating Scale (CARS). Each child developmental age was determined using the Psycho Educative Profile (PEP-R). Neurological examination completed with electroencephalography and genetics testing (caryoptype and X fragile) were performed.

RESULTS

Fifty-two children were included in our study. The mean age was 6.6 years with a sex ratio of 6.5. The severity of the clinical presentations was assessed through the following score means: CARS 35, ADI-B: 20, ADI-C: 13, ADI-D: 7, functional developmental age: 2.4 years. Comorbidity with epilepsy was present in 7% of cases and an intellectual disability was found in 80% of them. Genetic tests were normal.

CONCLUSION

Our results will be discussed in the light of international recommendations.

Lifespan differences in emotional contagion while watching emotion-eliciting videos

Previous research has examined empathic concern by presenting toddlers with a sad stimulus and examining their emotional response, with the conclusion that toddlers display empathy. Yet, such research has failed to include basic control conditions involving some other aversive stimulus such as white noise. Nor has it compared toddlers to adults to examine potential development in empathy. In the present study, we showed toddlers and adults four video types: infant crying, infant laughing, infant babbling, and a neutral infant accompanied by white noise. We then coded happiness and sadness while viewing the videos, and created a difference score (happiness minus sadness), testing 52 toddlers and 61 adults. Whereas adults showed more sadness towards infant crying than any other stimulus, toddlers' response to crying and white noise was similar. Thus, the toddler response to crying was comparable to previous studies (slight sadness), but was no different to white noise and was significantly reduced relative to adults. As such, toddlers' response seemed to be better characterized as a reaction to an aversive stimulus rather than empathy.

Beliefs about the controllability of social characteristics and children's jealous responses to outsiders' interference in friendship

Although some jealous children respond to outsider interference in friendships with problem solving and discussion, others withdraw from the relationship or retaliate against the friends or others. Beliefs about the nature of social characteristics are proposed as an explanation for behavioral heterogeneity in response to jealous provocation. Based on learned helplessness theory and research on children’s implicit personality theories, children who subscribed strongly to the belief that social characteristics are fixed and that social outcomes are uncontrollable (high entity beliefs), were expected to more strongly endorse asocial and antisocial responses and less strongly endorse prosocial responses to outsider interference than children who did not have strong entity beliefs, depending on their internal versus external attributions of blame. Two hundred eighty-six children in sixth through eighth grades (primarily Caucasian) participated in an experimental test of this hypothesis. Although hypothesized interactions between beliefs and locus of blame were not supported, results indicated that children who believe social characteristics are changeable also believed they had more control in the internal condition than children who believe social characteristics are immutable. Further, pessimistic children were more likely to tend to endorse asocial and antisocial behavior and less likely to endorse prosocial behavior than optimistic children.