Design and operation of the National Survey of Children's Health, 2007.

OBJECTIVES: This report presents the development, plan, and operation of the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, a module of the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. This survey was designed to produce national and state-specific prevalence estimates for a variety of physical, emotional, and behavioral health indicators and measures of children's experiences with the health care system. The survey also includes questions about the family (for example, parents' health status, stress and coping behaviors, family activities) and about respondents' perceptions of the neighborhoods where their children live. Funding and direction for this survey was provided by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration. METHODS: A random-digit-dialed sample of households with children under age 18 years was selected from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. One child was randomly selected from all children in each identified household to be the subject of the survey. The respondent was a parent or guardian who knew about the child's health and health care. RESULTS: A total of 91,642 interviews were completed from April 2007 to July 2008. Nearly 80% of the interviews were completed in 2007. Interviews were completed in 66.0% of identified households with children. The weighted overall response rate was 46.7%. A data file has been released that contains demographic information on the selected child, substantive health and well-being data for the child and his or her family, and sampling weights. Estimates based on the sampling weights generalize to the noninstitutionalized population of children in each state and nationwide.

Design and operation of the Survey of Adult Transition and Health, 2007.

OBJECTIVES: This report documents the survey design and operating procedures for the 2007 Survey of Adult Transition and Health (SATH). Sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, SATH was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics as a module of the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey program. A follow-back survey design was used to attempt to locate and contact 10,933 eligible cases originally identified in the 2001 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN). These data examine the transition experience of adolescents as they switched from pediatric health care providers to those that treat adults only. Eligible persons were aged 14-17 years as of 2001, had at least one special health care need, and lived in English-speaking households. In 2007, these cases involved young adults aged 19-23. State estimates cannot be obtained from SATH. METHODS: Telephone numbers sampled in 2001 were dialed to locate the 2001 NS-CSHCN respondent. This person was asked for current contact information for the eligible SATH young adult to be contacted directly. Data were collected from June 12 through August 26, 2007. RESULTS: Although we were unable to contact 7409 (68%) of the 2001 parent/guardian respondents, almost all of the young adults we were able to contact participated (98%). The SATH public-use microdata file contains interview data collected in 2007 from 1,865 young adults, along with variables from the 2001 NS-CSHCN public-use file. The unweighted interview completion rate was 17.5%.

Design and operation of the National Survey of Adoptive Parents, 2007.

OBJECTIVE: This report presents the development, plan, and operation of the National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP), a module of the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. NSAP was designed to produce national estimates of the characteristics, health, and well-being of adopted children and their families, the preadoption experiences of the adoptive parents, and their access to and utilization of postadoption supports and services. Funding for the survey was provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Administration for Children and Families, both of the Department of Health and Human Services. METHODS: The National Survey of Children's Health, 2007 (NSCH) was a random-digit-dial telephone survey of households with children under age 18 years. In households with more than one child, one child was randomly selected to be the subject of the interview. Children identified as adopted, who did not live with a biological parent and who lived in households where English was spoken, were eligible for the NSAP follow-up interview. The NSAP interview was a call-back scheduled at the end of the NSCH telephone interview. Sampled children included those adopted from other countries, from the U.S. foster care system, and from private domestic sources. Respondents were either the adoptive mother or the adoptive father. RESULTS: A total of 2,089 NSAP interviews were completed from April 2007 to July 2008. The interview completion rate (i.e., cooperation rate) for eligible respondents was 74.4%. The overall response rate, taking into account nonresponse to NSCH, was 34.6%.

Design and operation of the National Survey of Adoptive Parents of Children With Special Health Care Needs, 2008.

OBJECTIVE: This report presents the development, plan, and operation of the National Survey of Adoptive Parents of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NSAP-SN), a module of the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The survey was designed to produce national estimates of the characteristics, health, and well-being of adopted children with special health care needs (CSHCN) and their families, the preadoption experiences of the adoptive parents, and their access to and utilization of postadoption services. Funding was provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Administration for Children and Families, both of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. METHODS: The National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs 2005-2006 (NS-CSHCN), a random-digit-dial telephone survey of households with children, included questions that identified whether the sampled child was adopted. Adopted CSHCN under age 18 in 2008 who lived in households where English was spoken were eligible for the NSAP-SN follow-up interview. The NSAP-SN interview was a follow-back telephone call 1 to 3 years after the original NS-CSHCN interview. Sampled children included CSHCN adopted from other countries, from the U.S. foster care system, and from private domestic sources. Respondents were either the adoptive mother or the adoptive father. RESULTS: A total of 1,007 NSAP-SN interviews were completed from February 2008 to July 2008. The interview completion rate (i.e., cooperation rate) for eligible respondents was 67.3%. The overall response rate, taking account of nonresponse to NS-CSHCN, was 37.7%.

Jurors' perceptions of adolescent sexual assault victims who have intellectual disabilities.

Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities are especially likely to be sexually abused. Even so, their claims are not likely to be heard in court, possibly because people assume that jurors will not believe them. We tested this assumption in a mock-trial study in which 160 men and women watched videotaped excerpts from an actual trial. As predicted, when the 16-year-old sexual assault victim was portrayed as "mildly mentally retarded" instead of as "having average intelligence," jurors were more likely to vote guilty and had more confidence in the defendant's guilt; considered the victim to be more credible and the defendant to be less credible as witnesses; and rated the victim as more honest, less capable of fabricating the sexual abuse accusation, and less likely to have fabricated the sexual abuse accusation. Men and women were affected similarly by the disability manipulation, but women were generally more pro-prosecution in their case judgments and perceptions than were men. Finally, jurors who had more liberal views toward persons with disabilities were more likely than other jurors to make pro-prosecution judgments on measures of guilt. Implications for psychological theory and the law are discussed.