The effects of exposure to political and domestic violence on preschool children and their mothers.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exposure to political violence on preschool children and their mothers. We explored whether these dyads are different from dyads with no known history of exposure to violence and from mother-child dyads with known exposure to domestic violence. Specifically, we explored differences in mothers' psychological status (depression and anxiety), dyadic emotional availability (EA), children's social information processing, and children's social behaviour, in a sample of 216 dyads divided into three groups (exposure to political violence, no exposure to violence, and exposure to domestic violence). We found evidence to support our hypotheses that children exposed to domestic violence exhibit the highest levels of social maladjustment with smaller but still significant differences between children exposed to political violence and children in the comparison group. As expected, the lowest EA scores were found in the exposure to domestic violence group, followed by dyads in the exposure to political violence group. Dyads belonging to the comparison group (no exposure) exhibited the highest levels of EA. These findings contribute to our understanding of the meaning of exposure to political violence, as well as sharpen the difference between exposure to political and domestic violence.

Shared Decision Making for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services Before Discharge from Psychiatric Hospitals.

Shared decision making (SDM) is an effective health communication model designed to facilitate patient engagement in treatment decision making. In mental health, SDM has been applied and evaluated for medications decision making but less for its contribution to personal recovery and rehabilitation in psychiatric settings. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the effect of SDM in choosing community psychiatric rehabilitation services before discharge from psychiatric hospitalization. A pre-post non-randomized design with two consecutive inpatient cohorts, SDM intervention (N = 51) and standard care (N = 50), was applied in two psychiatric hospitals in Israel. Participants in the intervention cohort reported greater engagement and knowledge after choosing rehabilitation services and greater services use at 6-to-12-month follow-up than those receiving standard care. No difference was found for rehospitalization rate. Two significant interaction effects indicated greater improvement in personal recovery over time for the SDM cohort. SDM can be applied to psychiatric rehabilitation decision making and can help promote personal recovery as part of the discharge process.

The associations among maternal negative control, children's social information processing patterns, and teachers' perceptions of children's behavior in preschool.

The links between social information processing (SIP) and social behavior in preschool are well documented. However, the antecedents of SIP in that age group are less clear. A number of influential theoretical models suggest that a major contributor to SIP is the quality of the child's relationships with the parent. Therefore, we examined the links among quality of the mother-child relationships (measured via direct observations of dyadic play interactions), the child's SIP patterns (measured via direct interview with the child), and the child's perceived behavior in preschool (measured via teacher reports) in a sample of 218 preschool and kindergarten children and their mothers. Applying structural equation modeling, we found support for our theoretical model with a specific emphasis on the negative nature of this association. Specifically, we found a strong indirect path from maternal negative control to the teacher's negative perception of the child's behavior in preschool and kindergarten via less competent SIP patterns. This empirical path remained intact after controlling for various variables such as the family income, the mother's education level, and the child's expressive language abilities, thereby providing further support for the robustness of this association.

Look who's being left behind: educational interpreters and access to education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

For many deaf and hard-of-hearing students, access to the general education curriculum is provided, in part, by using the services of an educational interpreter. Even with a highly qualified interpreter, full access to the content and social life in a hearing classroom can be challenging, and there are many aspects of the educational placement that can affect success. The skills and knowledge of the educational interpreter are one critical aspect. This study reports results from a study of approximately 2,100 educational interpreters from across the United States. All the interpreters were evaluated using the Educational Interpreters Performance Assessment (EIPA), an evaluation instrument used to assess and certify classroom interpreters (see Schick, Williams, & Bolster, 1999). The results show that approximately 60% of the interpreters evaluated had inadequate skills to provide full access. In addition, educational interpreters who had completed an Interpreter Training Program had EIPA scores only .5 of an EIPA level above those who had not, on average. Demographic data and its relationship with EIPA ratings are explored. In general, the study suggests that many deaf and hard-of-hearing students receive interpreting services that will seriously hinder reasonable access to the classroom curriculum and social interaction.