Demographic variables and microCog performance: relationships for VA patients under treatment for substance abuse.

The associations of demographic variables with cognitive performance, as measured by the MicroCog ability domain scores, were assessed with 222 substance abusers who were patients in a VA medical center. Analysis indicated that age was negatively related to all five outcomes scores, and education was positively related to measures assessing Attention/Mental Control and Reasoning/Calculation. These findings are consistent with past theoretical and applied research. The demographic variables, as a group, accounted for a total of 17% to 37% of the variance in the five domain scores.

When educators confront child abuse: an analysis of the decision to report.

Five scenarios of child abuse were used to study the recognition and reporting of child abuse in a sample of 664 teachers, counselors, school psychologists, principals, and district superintendents. The following results emerged: (a) Reporting tendency varied by type of abuse described, forming a 3-level hierarchy; (b) reporting tendency and reporting rate were unrelated to the gender of the victim or respondent; (c) reporting tendency was unrelated to the profession of the educator (i.e., principal, counselor, etc.), though certain types of abuse were suspected and/or reported significantly less often by classroom teachers; (d) for each scenario a linear composite of decisional items discriminated Reporters from Nonreporters with 75% to 84% accuracy. Most salient in distinguishing Reporters from Nonreporters were issues involving quality of suspicion and the respondents belief that schools should be a first line of defense against abuse and neglect; (e) educators were uniform in their high level of awareness of mandatory reporting laws; (f) educators preparedness to detect child abuse differed by profession, but most desired additional training. The implications of these findings are reviewed and suggestions made for revisions to social service policies and training for educators.

Proposed revisions to mandatory reporting laws: an exploratory survey of child protective service agencies.

Mandatory reporting laws have created a difficult dilemma for many mental health providers (MHPs). Professional ethics, confidentiality, and the best interests of the client are often seen as conflicting with the legal obligation to report child abuse. The receptivity of child protective service (CPS) agencies to three alternative MHP reporting strategies was assessed in a national survey. The results indicate strong support for the current model of reporting and marginal support for alternatives that supply the MHP and the family with more latitude in determining when to report and how reports are handled. The results are discussed in relation to what many MHPs see as the need for more integrated, flexible, and cooperative approaches to the protection of abused and neglected children.

Child abuse and the limits of confidentiality: forewarning practices.

Confidentiality is widely considered to be of great importance in psychotherapy. With few exceptions, the breaching of confidentiality is an ethical violation and grounds for litigation. One such exception is the mandated reporting of known or suspected child abuse, representing a legally sanctioned limitation of confidentiality. Because clients generally expect unlimited confidentiality in therapeutic relationships, many therapists have begun to "forewarn" clients as a matter of informed consent. This research report: (a) briefly reviews issues surrounding mandatory reporting and confidentiality as they relate to forewarning, (b) defines and discusses forewarning as contrasted with "informing," (c) examines state statutes, case law and ethical guidelines relevant to forewarning, and (d) presents a survey of 428 mental health providers (MHPs) on their forewarning practices in which 36.9% forewarned all clients, 36.4% informed clients only upon suspicion of abuse, and 20.6% informed only after receiving a disclosure of abuse. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Topic control as relational control and its effect on the outcome of therapy.

The concept of relational control was measured using the index of Topic Control to investigate Haley's assertion that successful therapy is characterized by the therapist controlling the definition of the therapeutic relationship and defining it as a complementary relationship in which the therapist is in a "one-up'' position. Following Haley's assertion, it was hypothesized that: (a) across a sample of successful therapeutic dyads, therapists exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control than clients; (b) across a sample of successful and unsuccessful therapists, successful therapists exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control than unsuccessful therapists; (c) across a sample of successful and unsuccessful clients, unsuccessful clients exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control than successful clients; and (d) across a sample of unsuccessful therapeutic dyads, clients exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control than therapists. Analysis of therapist-client transactions for Topic Control was conducted by trained raters across 18 full-case transcripts of actual therapy interviews. The same transcripts were also analyzed by trained raters with respect to clients' change over the course of treatment. The results did not support the notion that across successful dyads therapists exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control than clients; and they did not support the hypothesis that across successful and unsuccessful therapists, successful therapists exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control. Also, there was no support to show that across successful and unsuccessful clients, unsuccessful clients exhibit a greater measure of Topic Control. Finally, the results did not support that across unsuccessful dyads, clients exhibit greater Topic Control than therapists.

Training counseling and problem-solving skills with university students.

Often nonprofessionals lack specific instruction in relevant counseling and problem-solving skills. The effects of training procedures on counseling and problem-solving behaviors were examined experimentally with university students. The procedures involved the use of behavioral specifications, rationales, situational examples, study guides, and practice plus feedback on performance. Following training, the average percentage of occurrence of counseling and problem-solving behaviors increased to 89%. Generalization data in sessions with actual clients and expert ratings of the overall quality of counseling provided evidence of generalization to other settings and other evaluative dimensions of counseling and problem-solving performance.