Child abuse reporting in British Columbia: Psychologists' knowledge of and compliance with the reporting law.

Despite mandatory reporting laws, research suggests that psychologists still commonly fail to report suspected child abuse. Psychologists from British Columbia completed a survey concerning their knowledge of, compliance with, and attitudes about reporting laws. Participants also responded to vignettes that varied the type of child abuse presented (i.e., physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect). Results showed that psychologists have a high level of knowledge of the reporting law; however, their knowledge did not influence their reporting behavior. Intention to report differed as a function of type of abuse, with the neglect and sexual abuse vignettes being most likely to be reported. Degree of certainty that abuse was occurring accounted for a substantial amount of the variance in reporting intention. Lack of evidence in detecting maltreatment was indicated as a significant barrier against the reporting of suspected child abuse. Implications for professional training, research, and legislative reform are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists' knowledge, opinions, and decision-making processes regarding child abuse and neglect reporting laws.

Mandated child abuse reporting laws have been in effect in the United States for more than 20 years, yet practitioners vary in their understanding and opinions of these laws. A sample of licensed psychologists were surveyed and reported being relatively well-informed. However, their performance on a knowledge measure suggests knowledge deficits and a tendency to overreport. Legal considerations encourage reporting, whereas beliefs that one can provide client treatment deter reporting. Opinions of the laws were generally favorable, with some concerns about child protection systems and the impact of reporting on the therapeutic alliance. Practice and policy implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Provision of confidentiality information and its relation to child abuse reporting.

A study of 204 psychologists in Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas, representing a survey response rate of 59.6%, indicated that respondents were inconsistent in their procedures for informing clients of confidentiality limits. The hypothesis that these procedures are related to child abuse reporting tendencies was partially supported. Although within-session (within-vignette) manipulation of the confidentiality information provided did not influence reporting tendency, the results indicated that clinicians who typically provided more frequent and more specific information about confidentiality limits were also more likely to report abuse presented in a vignette. In addition, clinicians' certainty of abuse, reporting history, and theoretical orientation were related to reporting tendency. Findings suggest the need to reassert the importance of the consistent provision of detailed information about confidentiality limits to clients early in therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presleep experience and home dream reporting: An exploratory study.

Investigated the effect of presleep stress on home dream recall for a total of 57 male undergraduates who rated themselves on a questionnaire as frequent or infrequent dream recallers. In the stress condition, Ss observed an accomplice being "shocked" for error on a sensorimotor test which Ss expected to be tested on in a few days. There was no difference in amount of home dream recall for the stress and control conditions. The prediction of more dream recall for frequent recallers and less dream recall for infrequent recallers in the stress condition was supported. The tendency toward more contentless and vague dream recall for the stress condition, especially for infrequent recallers, was discussed in terms of (a) the larger percentage of dreams scorable for hostility in the stress condition, and (b) the hypothesis that contentless dreams are correlates of repression. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supportive expressive therapy--Parent child version: An exploratory study.

Currently, there are no empirically supported psychodynamic treatments for disruptive behavior in young children. Supportive Expressive Therapy--Parent Child (SET-PC) is a newly developed brief psychodynamic psychotherapy that focuses on a parent's internal representations of self and others, particularly as they manifest in problematic parent-child relationships. It is a manualized dyadic therapy that uses videotaped parent-child play sessions followed by parent-therapist discussions. This exploratory study is the first randomized controlled study of SETPC. SET-PC was compared with the Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP; Webster-Stratton, 2001), an empirically supported group parent training intervention for child disruptive behavior. Treatment completers were 37 consecutive referrals of parent- child dyads (children ages 30-72 months) to an outpatient psychiatry clinic. SET-PC produced treatment outcomes that were equivalent to IYPP. Both treatments were associated with large effect sizes for decreases in externalizing behavior and for the positive quality of observed parent- child interactions and small effect sizes for improvements in parents' psychological functioning. Treatment gains were maintained at 1-year follow-up regardless of treatment condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Liability issues in child abuse and neglect reporting statutes.

For nearly 30 years, psychologists have relied almost exclusively on child abuse and neglect reporting statutes to understand the legal duty to report child maltreatment. Although these statutes go far in delineating the contours of reporting requirements, mandated reporters may further their understandings of their duties through knowledge of judicial interpretation of these statutes. Accordingly, this article reviews the liability provisions found in the 50 states' child abuse and neglect reporting statutes and summarizes relevant court findings. Courts seem motivated by 2 key considerations, namely, that statutes should be interpreted broadly and that states' interests in such reporting is compelling. These opinions offer practical guidance as well as information relevant to the debate on how these reporting statutes should be reformed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and life adjustment after spinal cord injury: An exploratory study.

This study identified the relationship between personality and multiple components of life adjustment after spinal cord injury (SCI). One hundred five men completed the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), a measure of personality. In general, the NEO-PI accounted for the greatest amount of variance of scales reflecting general adaptation. Of the global domains, only two scales were strongly associated with the SCI outcomes. Among the NEO-PI facet scales, Depression was correlated with the greatest number of outcomes, whereas Warmth, Positive Emotions, Actions, and Values were correlated with superior outcomes. These findings suggest that assessment of personality is an invaluable aid in predicting long-term outcomes after SCI and should remain a priority in diverse rehabilitation settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of gender and age on psychologists' reporting of child sexual abuse.

Psychologists evaluated the seriousness of a child sexual abuse incident in written vignettes, and they responded as to whether or not they would report the incident to protective services personnel. Data analysis revealed a significant main effect for the child's age as well as a significant 3-way interaction among the child's age, the gender of the alleged perpetrator, and the respondent's gender. Both female and male respondents viewed a perpetrator of their own gender with a young victim of either gender as the most serious scenario. In this sample, a significantly higher percentage of female respondents claimed to have failed to report an instance of suspected sexual abuse in actual clinical practice than the male respondents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mandatory reporting of child abuse: Legal, ethical, and clinical implications within a Canadian context.

Focuses on the legal, ethical, and clinical implications for Canadian psychologists of the child protection legislation that makes it mandatory to report suspected and known instances of child abuse. Provincial and territorial statutes and Canadian case law dealing with the duty to report are examined. The Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists of the Canadian Psychological Association (1991) and its proposed decision-making process for resolving ethical dilemmas in this area are applied to a review of the issues associated with this type of duty to report. Guidelines are proposed regarding how psychologists can best negotiate these dilemmas. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists' views: APA's advocacy of and resource expenditure on social and professional issues.

This initial pilot survey was designed to examine the degree to which a random sample of the 1984 American Psychological Association (APA) membership agreed or disagreed with the organization's involvement in societal or professional issues. In general, the data suggest that respondents supported APA's involvement in both types of issues. However, an analysis showed that the members who responded (or 38% of the sample) supported APA's involvement in professional issues significantly more than they supported involvement in social issues, independent of whether involvement meant simple advocacy or included resource expenditure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovered memories of child sexual abuse and liability: Society, science, and the law in a comparative setting.

Recognizing the influence of the American Psychological Association's Final Report (J. L. Alpert et al, see record 2000-13581-002) in setting the parameters for the ongoing debate on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, the authors describe how the law has responded to the force of the debate in the psychological literature and to the construction of childhood sexual abuse as a social issue. The article traces these developments both within the United States and elsewhere in the common law world. The authors, referring to, among other sources, the conclusions of the Final Report, address the liability of therapists whose patients recover memories of childhood sexual abuse. The conflicting body of law and the severe disagreement among commentators, as to both validity of clinical observations and broad social policy, discourage hope in a readily found consensus on therapists' liability. The authors argue, nevertheless, that careful legal and policy analysis allows for the formulation of an appropriate liability rule. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists' beliefs and clinical characteristics: Judging the veracity of childhood sexual abuse memories.

In recent years, concerns about the credibility of memories associated with childhood sexual abuse have prompted researchers and the public to scrutinize therapists' role in evaluating and treating patients reporting abuse histories. A national survey of 1008 psychologists was conducted examining factors associated with therapists' judgments and treatment decisions. Respondents were more likely to believe sexual abuse had occurred when the memory was continuous, the age of the memory first recalled was greater than 2 years, the memory was vivid, and the perpetrator was male. Moreover, therapists' judgments were influenced by their personal beliefs. Implications for clinical practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grandparents'' role in family systems with a deaf child. An exploratory study

Axonal transport of retrograde markers was used to study the distribution of projections from functionally diverse subcortical structures (the substantia nigra, the ventral tegmental area, and the amygdaloid body) in the caudate nucleus and putamen of the dog. Striatal structures were found to contain regions receiving projections from limbic structures or formations involved largely in motor acts. These structures also contained regions with concordant terminal fields from neurons of these and other functional structures. These results provide a morphological basis for interactions of information currents of different functional significance in the striatum, as well as providing a foundation for their functional heterogeneity. These allow a deeper understanding of their roles in the systems organization of behavior and integrative brain activity.     

Researching the effects of confidentiality law on patients' self-disclosures.

We hypothesized that conflicting research findings on the effects that confidentiality laws have on patients' self-disclosures reflect the fact that privacy is important only to some patients in some circumstances. Instead of asking whether privacy is always important, we posed the following question: What factors determine whether privacy is important? With 42 outpatients we found that self-disclosures about sensitive issues (e.g., child abuse, drug abuse) during intake were determined partly by how legally informed patients were and partly by how relevant and consequential the law was to their cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early and long-term effects of child sexual abuse: An update.

New research on the impact of child sexual abuse generally confirms the conclusions of an earlier review article by A. Browne and D. Finkelhor (see record 1986-14683-001) and extends findings into a few new areas. For example, more studies are now available concerning the impact of abuse on boys, but they have not found consistent gender differences. Some longitudinal studies have also been completed; they show a decline in symptomatology in the months following disclosure. Two areas of controversy are also prominent. One concerns how to explain the relatively substantial percentages of sexually abused children in most studies who have no symptoms on current diagnostic measures. The second concerns whether posttraumatic stress disorder is a useful conceptual framework for understanding the findings on the impact of sexual abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narcissism, shame, masochism, and object relations: An exploratory correlational study.

A correlational study with 701 students examined measures of narcissism, shame, masochism, object relations, and social desirability. Moderate correlations were found for narcissism, shame, object relations, and masochism. Narcissism divided into 2 different styles, a "phallic," grandiose style and a narcissistically vulnerable style. Shame primarily accounted for the differences in these styles, correlating negatively with the grandiose style, positively with the more vulnerable style. The narcissistically vulnerable style correlated more with the core pathology measures; that is, object relations and masochism. Social desirability did not mediate the relationship between grandiose narcissism and shame. Masochism was a better predictor of shame in women than was narcissism whereas there was little difference between masochism and narcissism for predicting shame in men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious life-styles and mental health: An exploratory study.

Conducted an intensive, case-by-case assessment of life-styles of a sample of religious students. We identified differing styles of religiousness and made comparisons by means of tests and interviews between subgroups whose subjects manifested differing religious life-styles. Those subjects with continuous religious development and mild religious experiences appeared to be healthier than those with discontinuous development and intense religious experiences; however, intense religious experiences tended to enhance the adjustment of those who experienced them. There was no evidence in the group as a whole for an overall negative or positive correlation between religiousness and mental health, but some modes of religious involvement appeared to be related to disturbance, whereas other modes appeared to be related to enhanced stability and resilience. Because causality in these relations remains uncertain, we generate hypotheses concerning further studies of life-styles and adjustment. We also discuss implications for student counseling and development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sibling loss and attachment style: An exploratory study.

Current conceptualizations do not adequately explain the particular relational difficulties experienced by young adults who have been faced with the death of a sibling. In this study, the authors explore interrelationships between attachment style, coping style, repressive defensiveness, and the loss of a sibling in childhood. The findings suggest that this type of stressor may result in different coping reactions than other stressors. In particular, sibling loss seems to stimulate greater support seeking than withdrawal, regardless of attachment style. Sibling loss can pose particular relational challenges for the developing child because of the traumatic impact on the primary caregivers. This fact makes it important for therapists to have an understanding of some of the potential consequences of this particular traumatic event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists' involvement in cases of child maltreatment: Limits of role and expertise.

As psychologists have become increasingly involved in the investigatory and adjudicative phases of child maltreatment cases and as criminal prosecutions have become increasingly common in such cases, the ethical problems facing psychologists have become more acute. Psychologists involved in cases of child maltreatment should remember their primary duty to promote human dignity. In that regard, care must be taken to protect the rights of the legal process, and keep implicit or express promises, including those emanating from professional roles. Psychologists must be careful to avoid intruding into the province of legitimate decision-making authorities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An object relations approach to the treatment of child abuse.

Describes 2 clinical examples of abusive mothers that illustrate the way in which the world of object relations was enacted by the Ss in their relationships with others and how this was worked within the treatment. The goal of psychoanalytic treatment was to diminish the Ss' needs to reenact the process of rejecting objects with their children. In one case, the use of countertransference feelings by the therapist led to increased insight and therapeutic change. In the other case, external factors, which led to stress, were diminished through different therapeutic interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)