Contexts as Moderators of Observed Interactions: A study of Costa Rican Mothers and Infants from Differing Socioeconomic Backgrounds

Twenty first-born infants from low SES families and 20 first-born infants from middle SES families in Costa Rica were observed for 12 hours when they were 14 weeks old. The goals of this study were to: (1) study the impact of length of observation and context on our measures of interactional engagement; and (2) compare the interactional experiences of the infants in the two groups in various functional (e.g. feeding, object play) and social (e.g. with mother, with mother and others) contexts. Attuned and disharmonious interactions, as well as the frequency of positive affect, soothing, and vocalisation, varied considerably across the functional contexts. In addition, disharmonious interactions increased and interactional engagement decreased when mothers and infants were joined by others. Highly unstable measures of individual differences were obtained when observations were limited to 45-minute blocks, but stability increased considerably as the duration of the observations expanded. The groups did not differ with respect to amounts of time spent in various functional and social contexts, in attuned or disharmonious states, or in high levels of interactional engagement. Within some of the functional contexts, however, significant group differences in levels of attuned interactions, infant vocalisation, and maternal response vocalisation were found. Overall, functional and social contexts clearly moderated interactional experiences. SES effects on verbal and other interactional measures were limited to some contexts and may thus represent the infants’ overall experiences quite poorly. Consequently, comparisons based on a single context may be inadequate for studies of subjects from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.

Repetition of contaminating question types when children and youths with intellectual disabilities are interviewed

BACKGROUND

The present study examined the effects of repeating questions in interviews investigating the possible sexual abuse of children and youths who had a variety of intellectual disabilities. We predicted that the repetition of option-posing and suggestive questions would lead the suspected victims to change their responses, making it difficult to understand what actually happened. Inconsistency can be a key factor when assessing the reliability of witnesses.

MATERIALS

Case files and transcripts of investigative interviews with 33 children and youths who had a variety of intellectual disabilities were obtained from prosecutors in Sweden. The interviews involved 25 females and 9 males whose chronological ages were between 5.4 and 23.7 years when interviewed (M = 13.2 years).

RESULTS

Six per cent of the questions were repeated at least once. The repetition of focused questions raised doubts about the reports because the interviewees changed their answers 40% of the time.

CONCLUSIONS

Regardless of the witnesses' abilities, it is important to obtain reports that are as accurate and complete as possible in investigative interviews. Because this was a field study, we did not know which responses were accurate, but repetitions of potentially contaminating questions frequently led the interviewees to contradict their earlier answers. This means that the interviewers' behaviour diminished the usefulness of the witnesses' testimony.

The effect of being a victim or witness of family violence on the retrieval of autobiographical memories

OBJECTIVE

This study was designed to determine whether greater reliance on general memory retrieval in children was related to depression, and whether family violence affected the specificity of children's memory retrieval.

METHOD

We compared children who had experienced some form of family violence with children who had never experienced any form of family violence, based on their responses to questions concerning child-parent and interparental disagreements.

RESULTS

As expected, there was a positive correlation between the extent of "generic-categoric" memory retrieval and depression level. There was no evidence, however, that autobiographical memory was affected by family violence.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is the first to report significant associations between depression and autobiographical memory style in children. The results suggest that the effect of family violence on children's memory retrieval may be mediated by depression.

Male roles in families "at risk": the ecology of child maltreatment

Research on child development has increasingly emphasized the complexity of developmental processes, and this reconceptualization is reflected in recent research on the effects of child maltreatment as well. The articles in this special issue illustrate the value of studying maltreatment in the context of children's relationships, not only with their biological mothers, but with biological fathers and father figures as well. Ambiguities remain, however, suggesting that we need to know much more about the quality and longevity of the relationships between these men and both their partners and surrogate children to understand their roles and impact more fully.

A longitudinal examination of the associations between mothers' and sons' attributions and their aggression

This study tested an integrative, multipathway model designed to explain bidirectional effects of the attributions and coercive behaviors of mothers and sons in the context of a longitudinal study. Subjects were 246 mothers and sons who were 7-9 years of age. Mothers' and sons' attributions about one another's intent were significantly related to the aggressiveness of the behavior that each of them directed toward the other. Boys' earlier aggression did not significantly predict the mothers' subsequent attributions, whereas mothers' negative behavior indeed predicted subsequent negative attributions on the part of the boys. Even after considering children's earlier negative behavior, children's negative attributions about their mothers helped explain the aggressiveness of their subsequent behavior. The same was not true for mothers whose earlier attributions indirectly influenced their subsequent aggressive behavior.

Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances young children's responses to free-recall prompts in the course of forensic interviews

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (ages 4-12 years; M = 8.1 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's structured interview protocol, whereas the other children--matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses--were interviewed using standard interview practices. Protocol-guided interviews elicited more information using open-ended prompts and less information using option-posing and suggestive questions than did standard interviews; there were no age differences in the amount of information provided in response to open-ended invitations. In 89% of the protocol interviews, children made their preliminary allegations in response to open-ended prompts, compared with 36% in the standard interviews.

Agonist-promoted trafficking of human bradykinin receptors: arrestin- and dynamin-independent sequestration of the B2 receptor and bradykinin in HEK293 cells

In this study, we analysed the agonist-promoted trafficking of human B(2) (B(2)R) and B(1) (B(1)R) bradykinin (BK) receptors using wild-type and green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged receptors in HEK293 cells. B(2)R was sequestered to a major extent upon exposure to BK, as determined by the loss of cell-surface B(2)R using radioligand binding and by imaging of B(2)R-GFP using laser-scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy. Concurrent BK sequestration was revealed by the appearance of acid-resistant specific BK receptor binding. The same techniques showed that B(1)R was sequestered to a considerably lesser extent upon binding of des-Arg(10)-kallidin. B(2)R sequestration was rapid (half-life approximately 5 min) and reached a steady-state level that was significantly lower than that of BK sequestration. B(2)R sequestration was minimally inhibited by K44A dynamin (22.4+/-3.7%), and was insensitive to arrestin-(319-418), which are dominant-negative mutants of dynamin I and beta-arrestin respectively. Furthermore, the B(2)R-mediated sequestration of BK was completely insensitive to both mutants, as was the association of BK with a caveolae-enriched fraction of the cells. On the other hand, agonist-promoted sequestration of the beta(2)-adrenergic receptor was dramatically inhibited by K44A dynamin (81.2+/-16.3%) and by arrestin-(319-418) (36.9+/-4.4%). Our results show that B(2)R is sequestered to a significantly greater extent than is B(1)R upon agonist treatment in HEK293 cells. Furthermore, B(2)R appears to be recycled in the process of sequestering BK, and this process occurs in a dynamin- and beta-arrestin-independent manner and, at least in part, involves caveolae.

The Memorandum of Good Practice: theory versus application

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to evaluate the quality of investigative interviews in England and Wales since implementation of the Memorandum of Good Practice (MOGP), which specified how forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims should be conducted.

METHOD

Transcripts of 119 videotaped interviews of alleged victims between the ages of 4 and 13 years were obtained from 13 collaborating police forces. Trained raters then classified the types of prompts used by the investigators to elicit substantive information from the children, and tabulated the number of forensically relevant details provided by the children in each response.

RESULTS

Like their counterparts in the United States, Israel, and Sweden, forensic interviewers in England and Wales relied heavily on option-posing prompts, seldom using open-ended utterances to elicit information from the children. Nearly 40% of the information obtained was elicited using option-posing and suggestive prompts, which are known to elicit less reliable information than open-ended prompts do.

CONCLUSION

Despite the clarity and specificity of the MOGP, its implementation appears to have had less effect on the practices of forensic interviewers in the field than was hoped. Further work should focus on ways of training interviewers to implement the superior practices endorsed by the MOGP and similar professional guidelines.

The human B1 bradykinin receptor exhibits high ligand-independent, constitutive activity. Roles of residues in the fourth intracellular and third transmembrane domains

The B1 bradykinin (BK) receptor (B1R) is a seven-transmembrane domain, G protein-coupled receptor that is induced by injury and important in inflammation and nociception. Here, we show that the human B1R exhibits a high level of ligand-independent, constitutive activity. Constitutive activity was identified by the increase in basal cellular phosphoinositide hydrolysis as a function of the density of the receptors in transiently transfected HEK293 cells. Several B1R peptide antagonists were neutral antagonists or very weakly efficacious inverse agonists. Constitutive B1R activity was further increased by alanine mutation of Asn(121) in the third transmembrane domain of the receptor (B1A(121)). This mutant resembled the agonist-preferred receptor state since it also exhibited increased agonist affinity and decreased agonist responsiveness. A dramatic loss of constitutive activity occurred when the fourth intracellular C-terminal domain (IC-IV) of the human B2 BK receptor subtype (B2R), which exhibits minimal constitutive activity, was substituted in either B1R or B1A(121) to make B1(B2ICIV) and B1(B2ICIV)A(121), respectively. Activity was partially recovered by subsequent alanine mutation of a cluster of two serines and two threonines in IC-IV of either B1(B2ICIV) or B1(B2ICIV)A(121), a cluster that is important for B2R desensitization. The ligand-independent, constitutive activity of B1R therefore depends on epitopes in both transmembrane and intracellular domains. We propose that the activity is primarily due to the lack of critical epitopes in IC-IV that regulate such activity.

The relationship between within-interview contradictions and eliciting interviewer utterances

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether interview practices associated with inaccurate reporting in laboratory analog contexts were also associated with inaccurate information in actual forensic contexts.

METHOD

The forensic interview of a 5-year-old girl, an alleged victim of sexual abuse, was analyzed to explore interview practices associated with the retrieval of contradictory information. Content analyses of the child's responses focused on: (1) new informative details about the reported incidents; (2) contradictory details; (3) "central" and "peripheral" details; and (4) the types of utterances used to elicit each detail.

RESULTS

The results illustrate how risky option-posing and suggestive utterances can be, as most (90%) contradicting details were elicited using option-posing and suggestive utterances and almost all (98%) of the contradicted and contradicting details were central, containing crucial information concerning the investigated allegation. No contradictory details were elicited in response to open-ended invitations.

CONCLUSION

The findings demonstrate that poor interviewing practices can be associated with high levels of internal contradiction and should be avoided by forensic interviewers. To avoid contaminating children's reports and increase the likely accuracy of the information retrieved, moreover, interviewers should elicit as much information as possible using open-ended utterances, which tap free-recall memory.

Accuracy of investigators' verbatim notes of their forensic interviews with alleged child abuse victims

Verbatim contemporaneous accounts of 20 investigative interviews were compared with audiotaped recordings thereof. More than half (57%) of the interviewers' utterances along with 25% of the incident-relevant details provided by the children were not reported in the "verbatim" notes. The structure of the interviews was also represented inaccurately in these accounts. Fewer than half (44%) of the details provided by the children were attributed to the correct eliciting utterance type. Investigators systematically misattributed details to more open rather than more focused prompts. These results underscore the superiority of electronic recording when the content and structure of investigative interviews must be preserved.

Enhancing children's narratives in investigative interviews

OBJECTIVE

To illustrate the amount of detail that can be elicited from alleged abuse victims using open-ended prompts by closely examining forensic interviews of a 5-year-old and a 15-year-old.

METHOD

Interview prompts in the substantive sections of two forensic interviews were characterized as invitations, cued invitations. directive or option-posing, and the number of details they each elicited was tabulated.

RESULTS

In both interviews, open-ended prompts predominated and were distributed throughout the substantive phases of the interviews. Most of the information obtained was elicited using open-ended prompts, which remained equivalently effective throughout the interviews. Reconstruction of the children's accounts illustrated how successive prompts continued to elicit information.

CONCLUSION

Well-framed open-ended prompts, including those that use details provided by the child as cues, elicit narrative accounts from children of all ages. Because such information is more likely to be accurate, investigators are urged to rely more extensively on open-ended prompts.

Effects of age and delay on the amount of information provided by alleged sex abuse victims in investigative interviews

A total of 145 children of 4 to 5, 6 to 7, 8 to 9, and 10 to 12 years of age were interviewed within 3 days, 1 month, 1 to 3 months, or 5 to 14 months after allegedly experiencing a single incident of sexual abuse. The proportion of substantive investigative utterances eliciting new details from the children increased with age and decreased after delays of more than 1 month. Age (but not delay) was also associated with the length and richness of informative responses to individual investigative utterances of all types. Children were more likely to provide new details in response to option-posing and suggestive prompts. As in previous field studies, interviewers employed few open-ended prompts, and thus only 5% of the information obtained was elicited using free-recall prompts.

Investigative interviews of child witnesses in Sweden

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the structure and informativeness of interviews with 4- to 13-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse in Sweden.

METHOD

Seventy-two alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed by six experienced officers from one police district in Sweden. Our evaluation focused on the structure of the interviews, the distribution and timing of the investigators' utterance types, and the quantity and quality of the information provided by the children.

RESULTS

Content analysis revealed that the interviewers relied primarily on option-posing and suggestive questions--together, these comprised 53% of their utterances--when interviewing the alleged victims. As a result, most of the details (57%) obtained from the children were elicited by option-posing and suggestive utterances. Only 6% of the interviewers' utterances were open-ended invitations, and these elicited only 8% of the information obtained.

CONCLUSION

The reliance on option-posing and suggestive prompts may have reduced the accuracy of the information obtained, thereby interfering with the investigations, and reducing the forensic admissibility of the children's statements. This suggests a continuing need in Sweden, as in other countries, for interview practices that enhance the quality of information provided by young victims.

Amphetamine-induced loss of human dopamine transporter activity: an internalization-dependent and cocaine-sensitive mechanism

The dopamine transporter (DAT) is a target of amphetamine (AMPH) and cocaine. These psychostimulants attenuate DAT clearance efficiency, thereby increasing synaptic dopamine (DA) levels. Re-uptake rate is determined by the number of functional transporters at the cell surface as well as by their turnover rate. Here, we present evidence that DAT substrates, including AMPH and DA, cause internalization of human DAT, thereby reducing transport capacity. Acute treatment with AMPH reduced the maximal rate of [(3)H]DA uptake, decreased AMPH-induced currents, and significantly redistributed the immunofluorescence of an epitope-tagged DAT from the plasma membrane to the cytosol in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Conversely, DAT inhibitors, such as cocaine, mazindol, and nomifensine, when administered with AMPH, blocked the reduction in [(3)H]DA uptake and the redistribution of DAT immunofluorescence to the cytosol. The reductions of [(3)H]DA uptake and AMPH-induced DAT internalization also were inhibited by coexpression of a dominant negative mutant of dynamin I (K44A), indicating that endocytosis modulates transport capacity, likely through a clathrin-mediated pathway. With this mechanism of regulation, acute application of AMPH would reduce DA uptake not only by direct competition for uptake, but also by reducing the available cell-surface DAT. Moreover, AMPH-induced internalization might diminish the amount of DAT available for DA efflux, thereby modulating the cytotoxic effects of elevated extracellular DA.

Fatherhood in the twenty-first century

The twentieth century has been characterized by four important social trends that have fundamentally changed the social cultural context in which children develop: women's increased labor force participation, increased absence of nonresidential fathers in the lives of their children, increased involvement of fathers in intact families, and increased cultural diversity in the U.S.. In this essay, we discuss how these trends are changing the nature of father involvement and family life, and in turn affecting children's and fathers' developmental trajectories. We end with an eye toward the twenty-first century by examining how the children of today will construct their expectations about the roles of fathers and mothers as they become the parents of tomorrow. This life-span approach to fatherhood considers the broader sociohistorical context in which fatherhood develops, and emphasizes the urgent need to consider mothers, fathers, and family structure in future research as we seek to understand and model the effects of parenting on children's development.

Fatherhood in the twenty-first century

The twentieth century has been characterized by four important social trends that have fundamentally changed the social cultural context in which children develop: women's increased labor force participation, increased absence of nonresidential fathers in the lives of their children, increased involvement of fathers in intact families, and increased cultural diversity in the U.S.. In this essay, we discuss how these trends are changing the nature of father involvement and family life, and in turn affecting children's and fathers' developmental trajectories. We end with an eye toward the twenty-first century by examining how the children of today will construct their expectations about the roles of fathers and mothers as they become the parents of tomorrow. This life-span approach to fatherhood considers the broader sociohistorical context in which fatherhood develops, and emphasizes the urgent need to consider mothers, fathers, and family structure in future research as we seek to understand and model the effects of parenting on children's development.

Assessing the value of structured protocols for forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effectiveness of a structured interview protocol (NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol) operationalizing universally recommended guidelines for forensic interviews.

METHOD

The NICHD Investigative Protocol was designed to maximize the amount of information obtained using recall memory probes, which are likely to elicit more accurate information than recognition memory probes. Forensic investigators were trained to use the NICHD protocol while conducting feedback-monitored simulation interviews. The utility of the protocol was then evaluated by comparing 55 protocol interviews with 50 prior interviews by the same investigators, matched with respect to characteristics likely to affect the richness of the children's accounts. The comparison was based on an analysis of the investigators' utterance types, distribution, and timing, as well as quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the information produced.

RESULTS

As predicted, protocol interviews contained more open-ended prompts overall as well as before the first option-posing utterance than non-protocol interviews did. More details were obtained using open-ended invitations and fewer were obtained using focused questions in protocol interviews than in non-protocol interviews, although the total number of details elicited did not differ significantly. In both conditions, older children provided more details than younger children did.

CONCLUSION

The findings confirmed that implementation of professionally recommended practices affected the behavior of interviewers in both the pre-substantive and substantive phases of their interviews and enhanced the quality (i.e., likely accuracy) of information elicited from alleged victims.

Shared caregiving: comparisons between home and child-care settings

The experiences of 84 German toddlers (12-24 months old) who were either enrolled or not enrolled in child care were described with observational checklists from the time they woke up until they went to bed. The total amount of care experienced over the course of a weekday by 35 pairs of toddlers (1 member of each pair in child care, 1 member not) did not differ according to whether the toddlers spent time in child care. Although the child-care toddlers received lower levels of care from care providers in the centers, their mothers engaged them in more social interactions during nonworking hours than did the mothers of home-only toddlers, which suggests that families using child care provided different patterns of care than families not using child care. Child-care toddlers experienced high levels of emotional support at home, although they experienced less prompt responses to their distress signals. Mothers' ages were unrelated to the amounts of time toddlers spent with them, but older mothers initiated more proximity.

Fatherhood in the twenty-first century

The twentieth century has been characterized by four important social trends that have fundamentally changed the social cultural context in which children develop: women's increased labor force participation, increased absence of nonresidential fathers in the lives of their children, increased involvement of fathers in intact families, and increased cultural diversity in the U.S.. In this essay, we discuss how these trends are changing the nature of father involvement and family life, and in turn affecting children's and fathers' developmental trajectories. We end with an eye toward the twenty-first century by examining how the children of today will construct their expectations about the roles of fathers and mothers as they become the parents of tomorrow. This life-span approach to fatherhood considers the broader sociohistorical context in which fatherhood develops, and emphasizes the urgent need to consider mothers, fathers, and family structure in future research as we seek to understand and model the effects of parenting on children's development.

Assessing the accuracy of a child's account of sexual abuse: a case study

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the case study reported in this paper was to examine the accuracy of one child's account of a sexually abusive incident. The availability of an audio recording of the last in a series of abusive incidents enabled us to assess accuracy in greater detail than has hitherto been possible in forensic contexts.

METHODS

Information given by the victim during an investigative interview was compared with an audio-taped record of the incident. Content analyses of the interview involved quantitative and qualitative analyses of the victim's account, and a qualitative analysis of the eliciting utterances. A CBCA analysis was performed on the victim's account to assess its purported credibility.

RESULTS

Over 50% of the informative details reported by the victim were corroborated by the audio-recorded account (of which 98% were central, i.e., allegation related and 64% were confirmed by more than one source (audio-recording, suspect, witness). A total of 10 CBCA criteria were present in the victim's free-narrative account of the last abusive incident.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings confirm that children can indeed provide remarkably detailed and accurate accounts of their experiences.

Culture and early infancy among central African foragers and farmers

Everyday infant experiences among the Aka hunter-gatherers and the neighboring Ngandu farmers were observed and compared. Twenty Aka and 21 Ngandu 3- to 4-month-olds and 20 Aka and 20 Ngandu 9- to 10-month-olds were observed for 3 hr on each of 4 days so that all 12 daylight hr were covered. The Aka infants were more likely to be held, fed, and asleep or drowsy, whereas Ngandu infants were more likely to be alone and to fuss or cry, smile, vocalize, or play. The amount of crying, soothing, feeding, and sleeping declined over time in both groups. Distal social interaction increased over time among the Ngandu but not among the Aka. Despite striking cultural differences on many variables, however, functional context systematically affected the relative prominence of the infants' behavior in both cultural groups.

Conducting investigative interviews of alleged sexual abuse victims

OBJECTIVES

There were two aims: First, to describe the factors that influence children's competence and second, to discuss ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the quality and quantity of information they obtain from alleged witnesses and victims.

METHOD

No new research is described in this paper. Rather, the authors provide a focused review of the relevant literature designed to be maximally useful for practitioners.

CONCLUSIONS

Children are often the only available sources of information about possible abusive experiences Research has shown that children can, in fact, be remarkably competent informants, although the quality and quantity of the information they provide is greatly influenced by the ways in which they are interviewed. This article describes ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the amount and quality of information they elicit from alleged victims.

Culture and early infancy among central African foragers and farmers

Everyday infant experiences among the Aka hunter-gatherers and the neighboring Ngandu farmers were observed and compared. Twenty Aka and 21 Ngandu 3- to 4-month-olds and 20 Aka and 20 Ngandu 9- to 10-month-olds were observed for 3 hr on each of 4 days so that all 12 daylight hr were covered. The Aka infants were more likely to be held, fed, and asleep or drowsy, whereas Ngandu infants were more likely to be alone and to fuss or cry, smile, vocalize, or play. The amount of crying, soothing, feeding, and sleeping declined over time in both groups. Distal social interaction increased over time among the Ngandu but not among the Aka. Despite striking cultural differences on many variables, however, functional context systematically affected the relative prominence of the infants' behavior in both cultural groups.

Assessing parent-infant interaction during the perinatal period. Some cautions

Pediatricians have recently been urged by professional groups to pay increased attention to parental behavior when serving and discharging newborns. These exhortations are well intended, but they may reflect a misunderstanding of developmental processes and foster a mistaken belief in the ease with which parenting problems can be identified and remedied. This article describes how early experiences affect children's development and then contrasts this view with a popular perspective based on misapplication of the medical model to the conceptualization of behavioral development.

Effects of introductory style on children's abilities to describe experiences of sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of two rapport-building techniques for eliciting information from children who made allegations of sexual abuse.

METHOD

Fourteen interviewers conducted 51 investigations of child sexual abuse with children ranging from 4.5 to 12.9 years of age. In 25 of the investigations, interviewers used a script including many open-ended utterances to establish rapport, whereas in 26 of the investigations the same interviewers used a rapport-building script involving many direct questions. Both rapport-building scripts took about 7 minutes to complete. All children were asked the same open-ended question to initiate the substantive phase of the interview.

RESULTS

Children who had been trained in the open-ended condition provided 2 1/2 times as many details and words in response to the first substantive utterance as did children in the direct introduction condition. Children in the open-ended condition continued to respond more informatively to open-ended utterances in the later (unscripted) portion of the interview. Two-thirds of the children mentioned the core details of the incident in their responses to the first substantive utterance and a further 20% mentioned core details more vaguely.

CONCLUSIONS

These results demonstrate that children respond more informatively to an open-ended invitation when they have previously been trained to answer such questions rather than more focused questions. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of children to the goals and expectations of forensic interviewers. Structured interview protocols also increase the amount of information provided by young interviewees.

Effects of day care on the development of cognitive abilities in 8-year-olds: a longitudinal study

In Göteborg, Sweden, 146 children (72 girls) were enrolled in a longitudinal study when they averaged 16 months of age. None of the children had experienced regular out-of-home care yet, but within 3 months, 54 entered center care and 33 entered family day care. Quality of home and out-of-home care environments, child temperament, and the development of verbal abilities were assessed regularly during preschool years. When they were 8 years old (2nd grade), cognitive ability tests were administered to the 123 children (65 girls) still in the study. Tested ability was related to the number of months children had spent in center-based day care before 3.5 years of age. Child care quality predicted cognitive abilities among children who had spent at least 36 months in out-of-home care during their preschool years. Both tested and rated cognitive abilities in 2nd grade were related to earlier measures of verbal ability and to paternal involvement during preschool years.

Criterion-based content analysis: a field validation study

Transcripts of forensic interviews with 98 alleged victims of child sexual abuse were scored for the presence or absence of certain criteria believed to be more characteristic of accounts concerning experienced than nonexperienced events. Other information regarding the events was independently evaluated by individuals unfamiliar with the children's accounts. As predicted, more of the CBCA criteria were present in accounts independently rated as Likely or Very Likely to have occurred (M = 6.74) than in accounts of events deemed Unlikely or Very Unlikely to have occurred (M = 4.85). In addition, several of the criteria were helpful in distinguishing between plausible and implausible accounts. The group differences were not as dramatic as those reported in earlier studies, however, and the results suggest caution regarding forensic application of the CBCA system.

Effects of day care on the development of cognitive abilities in 8-year-olds: a longitudinal study

In Göteborg, Sweden, 146 children (72 girls) were enrolled in a longitudinal study when they averaged 16 months of age. None of the children had experienced regular out-of-home care yet, but within 3 months, 54 entered center care and 33 entered family day care. Quality of home and out-of-home care environments, child temperament, and the development of verbal abilities were assessed regularly during preschool years. When they were 8 years old (2nd grade), cognitive ability tests were administered to the 123 children (65 girls) still in the study. Tested ability was related to the number of months children had spent in center-based day care before 3.5 years of age. Child care quality predicted cognitive abilities among children who had spent at least 36 months in out-of-home care during their preschool years. Both tested and rated cognitive abilities in 2nd grade were related to earlier measures of verbal ability and to paternal involvement during preschool years.

Investigative interviews of alleged sexual abuse victims with and without anatomical dolls

Verbal and nonverbal responses by alleged victims of child sexual abuse were coded for length, amount of information, and the manner in which they were elicited by the interviewer. In 16 of the interviews, anatomical dolls were employed for the purposes of demonstration, whereas they were not used in another eight cases matched with respect to other characteristics of the children and the alleged events. Children interviewed with dolls provided an equivalent number of details and spoke as many words in the substantive portion of the interview as did children interviewed without dolls, and interviewers in the two groups used similar probes to elicit information. However, the average responses by the children were significantly longer and more detailed when dolls were not used. Children gave longer and more detailed responses to open-ended invitations when dolls were not used. Caution is necessary when interpreting these findings.

Effects of nonparental child care on child development: an update

OBJECTIVE

To review the published literature on the effects of nonparental and out-of-home care on infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

METHOD

Narrative literature review.

RESULTS

Although substantial controversy persists, the accumulated evidence suggests that nonparental care does not necessarily have either beneficial or detrimental effects on infants and children, although it can have such effects. In some circumstances, careproviders establish relationships with children that have significant effects on development, and this increases the importance of ensuring that careproviders are well trained, behave sensitively, and are stable rather than ephemeral figures in children's lives. Nonparental care is associated with behaviour problems (including aggression and noncompliance) when the care is of poor quality and opportunities for meaningful relationships with stable careproviders are not available, however.

CONCLUSION

The effects of out-of-home care vary depending on the quality of care as well as the characteristics of individual children, including their age, temperaments, and individual backgrounds.

Birth management and perinatal care : Biosocial perspectives

In the past four decades, obstetric and neonatal care practices have changed dramatically throughout the western world. As a result, humans now confront unprecedented situations for which they have no biological preparation or cultural experience. In these special issues, an integrated view of the evolving practices of birthing and infant care are discussed from a variety of perspectives. Contributors attempt to show how understanding of the biomedical and psychosocial issues can be informed by cross-cultural and cross-species evidence concerning birth management, neonatal care, and early development. The individual contributions are summarized in this introductory article.

Maternal age, sociodemographics, prenatal health and behavior: influences on neonatal risk status

The effects on neonatal outcome of maternal age, sociodemographic status, and prenatal health and behavior were assessed in a representative national sample of youth (National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth). Primiparous women were categorized into four age-at-birth groups: 13 to 15 year old, 16 to 18 year old, 19 to 21 year old, and 22 to 30 year old. Younger mothers were lighter, gained less weight during pregnancy, and sought prenatal care later in their pregnancy. Neonates of the youngest mothers on average had lower birth weights, and shorter gestation periods. There were significant effects of maternal age, race, education, and pregnancy weight gain on the probability of giving birth to a premature or low-birth-weight infant. Our results also implicated the time of first prenatal care in the occurrence of premature delivery. We believe that interventions should emphasize the prevention of pregnancy in young adolescents and amelioration of the adverse prenatal conditions associated with living in lower socioeconomic conditions.

Inhibition: its stability and correlates in sixteen- to forty-month-old children

Inhibition was assessed in 144 Swedish children when they averaged 16 months of age using a composite measure tapping sociability toward strange adults, noninvolvement in peer play, and parental ratings of fearfulness. 91 children entered out-of-home care within 2 weeks of these initial assessments. Children were observed in this setting playing with peers; teachers and parents also rated children's adjustment to the out-of-home care settings. 1 and 2 years later, the children were assessed again, both at home and in the alternative care settings. Results showed that individual differences in inhibition were stable over the 2 years of the study. Inhibited children engaged in less high-quality peer play both at home and in the alternative care settings, and they were less able to play alone in their mothers' absence. On contemporaneous but not subsequent ratings, inhibited children had more difficulty adjusting to out-of-home care. Inhibition was not itself affected by out-of-home care experiences, and there were no sex differences in inhibition.

Association between parenthood and problem behavior in a national sample of adolescents

The association between problem behaviors and parental status was studied in a national sample of urban (n = 1263) and rural (n = 388) young women 15 to 17 years of age. When assessed according to age at childbearing, there was a clear association between problem behavior and the birth of a first child prior to age 19 years. The three parental status groups studied appeared ordered in risk, with school-aged mothers having engaged in the most problem behaviors, and followed, in turn, by young adult mothers (ie, those who had a child between 19 and 21 years of age), and then by women who had not had a child by age 21 years. Young urban women who engaged in three or more problem behaviors were more likely than women who claimed no involvement in problem behaviors to subsequently have a child prior to age 19 years. In addition, black adolescents reported fewer problem behaviors than did white adolescents. When individual behaviors were analyzed, school-aged mothers were more likely than either young adult mothers or nonmothers to have reported school suspension, truancy, runaway, smoking marijuana, and fighting. Although similar results were found in both samples, the effects appeared more consistent for young urban women. In future studies, researchers must determine whether adolescent mothers are at risk for parenting difficulties because of their previous involvement in problem behaviors.

Determining the need for a refresher course. Report of a study

This article describes findings from a survey of inactive nurses regarding their needs for a refresher course. The study revealed some general information about these inactive nurses. A large number of respondents indicated interest in home study options and requested information about continuing their academic studies.

Perceptions of parenthood among adolescent fathers

To investigate perceptions of parenthood among adolescent fathers, we studied three groups of first-time fathers: adolescent fathers with adolescent partners (n = 21), adult fathers with adolescent partners (n = 14), and adult fathers with adult partners (n = 55). Subjects were interviewed during the immediate postpartum period and then again 3 months later. Group differences were noted concerning items related to paternal involvement, sex stereotypic behaviors, and stress, but not concerning preparation for parenthood. Fathers' perceptions appeared to be influenced by both their ages and those of the mothers as well as an interaction between these two fathers (adult fathers with adolescent partners v adult fathers with adult partners). Our results suggest that fathers with adolescent partners may benefit from interventions designed to promote more active involvement in parenthood.

Association between behavioral and school problems and fatherhood in a national sample of adolescent youths

The relation between fatherhood and behavioral and school problems was studied in a nationally representative sample of adolescent youths. Data were obtained from the National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth (NLSY). Of the 6400 youths interviewed in 1980, 367 (5.7%) reported that they had fathered a child before the age of 19 years. This group was compared with 1000 non-fathers selected at random from the same data set. The groups differed by race and family socioeconomic characteristics. Academic, drug, and conduct problems were significantly more common among adolescent fathers than among non-fathers. Race and family income, and fatherhood status were independently related to various problem behaviors. These results confirm previous findings demonstrating a relation between delinquency and adolescent fatherhood.

The medical and psychosocial impact of comprehensive care on adolescent pregnancy and parenthood

To assess the medical and psychosocial effects of services provided by a comprehensive adolescent pregnancy and parenthood program, 125 adolescents who received care from a comprehensive program were compared with 135 adolescents who received care from community health providers. Few differences were found in pregnancy outcome measures. At 12 and 26 months after delivery, however, the intervention group scored significantly better on composite measures encompassing medical, psychosocial, and parenting events than did the comparison group, even after accounting for possible confounding factors. This suggests that comprehensive care has little effect on pregnancy outcomes for those adolescents who are already receiving prenatal and nutritional services, but does have a significant effect on events occurring during the first and second postpartum years.

Judicial involvement and conduct problems of fathers of infants born to adolescent mothers

Data were obtained from retrospective review of 191 patient records to determine the extent and types of conduct problems among fathers of infants born to adolescent mothers. Ninety-eight fathers (51%) reported having committed a legal offense prior to the pregnancy. This rate appears substantially greater than rates of arrests of adolescents in the general population. When paired data for couples were analyzed, there was great similarity for severity of offense. Fathers, however, had committed more severe crimes than their partners. Male offenders came from families of lower socioeconomic status backgrounds and more single-parent families and were less frequently employed or in school (or graduated) than nonoffenders. They also had been more involved with various other problem behaviors, such as a previous pregnancy, drinking behavior, and behavior problems at school. There was a clustering of problem behaviors among offenders suggesting psychosocial maladjustment prior to the pregnancy. Our results suggest an association between fatherhood and delinquency among partners of adolescent mothers. It appears that these fathers form a heterogeneous group. Although some young fathers may be well adjusted, others have significant psychologic problems.

Husbands' and wives' adjustment to pregnancy and first parenthood

There are conflicting reports regarding type and extent of the change in couples' lives due to the arrival of a first baby. The present short-term longitudinal study of 39 volunteer couples had two major objectives: (1) to examine changes in couples' division of labor during the transition to parenthood, and (2) to investigate husband-wife differences in the associations between indices of marital and parental adjustment during the early postpartum months. Individual questionnaires and interviews were administered in couples' homes on three occasions: early pregnancy, late pregnancy, and 3-4 months postpartum. Repeated measure analyses of changes in feminine and masculine household tasks did not confirm a linear shift toward more sex-typed arrangement but rather demonstrated a curvilinear pattern with the least sex-typed arrangements occurring in late pregnancy. These results indicate that the pregnancy period needs to be viewed as a time of changes in instrumental roles. There were several wife-husband differences in associations between marriage quality and parenting in the postpartum period. Notably, greater involvement with the baby was positively associated with paternal adjustment but negatively related to wives' marital adjustment. These findings underscore the complex associations among husbands' and wives' household roles, marital adjustment, involvement with baby, and adjustment to parenthood.