Forensic Assessment of Adults Reporting Childhood Sexualized Assault: Risk, Resilience, and Impacts

The design of a protocol for identifying and supporting children with developmental delays and/or disabilities in South African child and youth care centres

BACKGROUND

Historically, there is a lack of structured assessment and intervention protocols to support care of children with developmental delays and/or disabilities (DDDs) in rural child and youth care centres (CYCCs) across South Africa.

AIM

This study aimed to design an assessment and intervention protocol for holistic management of children in such centres, based on the opinions and input from CYCC staff and experts in the community.

METHODS

Data was collected in two stages, the first consisted of qualitative focus groups with CYCC staff using a semi-structured interview schedule and the second was qualitative individual interviews with experts in developmental health such as paediatricians and occupational therapists (OTs) using an interview schedule.

RESULTS

The results enabled the design of a preliminary Ecosystemic Assessment and Intervention Protocol (ECO-AIP) for children with DDDs in CYCCs that could be implemented on trial basis in further research.

CONCLUSIONS

Information relating to the identification, and care and support of children with DDDs in rural CYCCs was obtained to enable the design of the ECO-AIP. This algorithmic protocol will guide a multi-disciplinary CYCC team to identify DDDs and to assist children to reach their milestones.

Remote Forensic Psychological Assessment in Civil Cases: Considerations for Experts Assessing Harms from Early Life Abuse

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the question of whether psycho-legal assessments can be executed remotely in a manner that adheres to the rigorous standards applied during in-person assessments. General guidelines have evolved, but to date, there are no explicit directives about whether and how to proceed. This paper reviews professional, ethical, and legal challenges that experts should consider before conducting such an evaluation remotely. Although the discussion is more widely applicable, remote forensic psychological assessment of adults alleging childhood abuse is used as an example throughout, due to the complexity of these cases, the ethical dilemmas they can present, and the need to carefully assess non-verbal trauma-related symptoms. The use of videoconferencing technology is considered in terms of potential benefits of this medium, as well as challenges this method could pose to aspects of interviewing and psychometric testing. The global pandemic is also considered with respect to its effects on functioning and mental health and the confounding impact such a crisis has on assessing the relationship between childhood abuse and current psychological functioning. Finally, for those evaluators who want to engage in remote assessment, practice considerations are discussed.

Child protection cases, one size fits all? Cluster analyses of risk and protective factors

BACKGROUND

To provide effective tailor made case management in Child Protection Services (CPS) a insight is needed into the specific characteristics of the target group. Using the ecological perspective of maltreatment, this study explored poorly known characteristics of the CPS population.

OBJECTIVE

To distinguish CPS subgroups based on risk and protective factors enables tailor made case management that fits the specific needs of these subgroups.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

We studied 250 Dutch CPS cases of family supervision by court order that had completed the LIRIK and Action Plan checklists in August 2014-March 2015.

METHODS

This quantitative study analyzed risk and protective factors for children and parents reported in client files. Subgroups were identified by two-step cluster analyses. Chi-square analyses identified relations between parental risk subgroups and other groups.

RESULTS

Building on the interplay between risk and protective factors on the levels of child, parent and environment, we found five distinct subgroups in the CPS population. The most vulnerable is parents with multiple problems (31%) or socio-economic problems (13%). Parts of both subgroup have limited protective factors. Parents with major life events (16%) or poor parenting (13%) are characterized by single-level problems. One subgroup (28%), the unaccepted, has no parental risk factors registered.

CONCLUSIONS

Studying client files can lead to a better understanding of the healthcare needs of the CPS population. To develop and implement more effective case management requires constant dialogue between science, policy, and the experiences of both clients and professional.

Individual-level factors related to better mental health outcomes following child maltreatment among adolescents

Research on factors associated with good mental health following child maltreatment is often based on unrepresentative adult samples. To address these limitations, the current study investigated the relationship between individual-level factors and overall mental health status among adolescents with and without a history of maltreatment in a representative sample. The objectives of the present study were to: 1) compute the prevalence of mental health indicators by child maltreatment types, 2) estimate the prevalence of overall good, moderate, and poor mental health by child maltreatment types; and 3) examine the relationship between individual-level factors and overall mental health status of adolescents with and without a history of maltreatment. Data were from the National Comorbidity Survey of Adolescents (NCS-A; n = 10,123; data collection 2001-2004); a large, cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 13-17 years from the United States. All types of child maltreatment were significantly associated with increased odds of having poor mental health (adjusted odds ratios ranged from 3.2 to 9.5). The individual-level factors significantly associated with increased odds of good mental health status included: being physically active in the winter; utilizing positive coping strategies; having positive self-esteem; and internal locus of control (adjusted odds ratios ranged from 1.7 to 38.2). Interventions targeted to adolescents with a history of child maltreatment may want to test for the efficacy of the factors identified above.

Relationship and community factors related to better mental health following child maltreatment among adolescents

Research on factors associated with good mental health following child maltreatment is often based on unrepresentative samples and focuses on individual-level factors. To address these gaps, the present study examined the association between relationship- and community-level factors and overall mental health status among adolescents with and without a history of maltreatment in a representative sample. Data were drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey of Adolescents (NCS-A; n=10,148; data collection 2001-2004); a large, cross-sectional, nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 13-17 years from the United States. Having supportive parent and family relationships were significantly associated with good mental health (AOR ranging from 2.1 to 7.1). Positive community and school experiences were also significantly associated with good mental health (AOR ranging from 2.0 to 9.8). In most models, support from friends and siblings was not related to better mental health. Factors to be tested for efficacy in interventions targeted to adolescents with a history of child maltreatment include encouraging supportive parent and family relationships, and fostering positive community and school experiences.