The religious needs and resources of psychiatric inpatients.

A recent survey of psychiatric research indicates religion has been given little attention, and when it has been considered, the measures have been simplistic. The present study was designed to describe the religious needs and resources of psychiatric inpatients. With the use of a multidimensional conception of religion and two established instruments, 51 adult psychiatric inpatients were surveyed about their religious needs and resources. For comparison, 50 general medical/surgical patients, matched for age and gender, were also surveyed. Eighty-eight percent of the psychiatric patients reported three or more current religious needs. Although there were no differences in religious needs between the two patient groups, there were significant differences in religious resources. Psychiatric patients had lower spiritual well-being scores and were less likely to have talked with their clergy. Religion is important for the psychiatric patients, but they may need assistance to find resources to address their religious needs.

Verbal abilities in healthy elderly adults.

The Multilingual Aphasia Examination, a short battery of language measures, was administered to 61 healthy, community-dwelling adults (42 female, 19 male) 70 to 90 years old, and their performances were compared with the norms for younger participants. The intent was to investigate the decline of verbal abilities with advancing age and to consider the implications of such a decline for the interpretation of the performances of other elderly individuals. A significant age-related decline in performance was found on only one (Sentence Repetition) of the nine tests. Of note, Sentence Repetition is also the only test that makes specific demands on both short-term memory and serial auditory information processing. The relative stability of verbal performances from the early adult years to the ninth decade suggests that the occurrence of defective performances in older individuals is more likely to reflect the presence of "age-associated" disease rather than "normal" aging. Further, the findings suggest that normative standards derived from the performances of unselected, representative samples of elderly adults may not be adequate bases for clinical interpretation.

Hospitalized psychiatric and medical patients and the clergy.

Earlier research suggested that persons in a community with significant psychiatric disorders seek relief from their clergy as often as from trained mental-health professionals. In this research, contacts with clergy about current hospitalization by matched samples of inpatient psychiatric (N=51) and medical/surgical (N=50) patients were compared, as were responses to structured interviews about the importance of religion, religious affiliation, and participation, spiritual needs, and spiritual well-being. The findings suggest that the two groups were similar in demographics, the degree to which religion was a source of strength and comfort in their lives, and percentages reporting as having a clergy person; the group of hospitalized psychiatric patients was significantly less likely, however, than the sample of medical/surgical patients to have discussed their current hospitalization with their clergy persons. Possible causes for this difference as well as areas of further research are discussed.

Psychological science and the use of anatomically detailed dolls in child sexual-abuse assessments.

Many devices are used in child assessment and treatment as communication aids, projective tools, and symbolic means of interaction. None are as hotly debated in their application among mental health professionals as dolls with genital details. Anatomically detailed (AD) dolls are often used in sexual-abuse evaluation and treatment with children, but such applications are controversial. This article is the product of a working group formed to review AD doll research and practice. This article reviews historical use of dolls in clinical inquiry and research on sexual behaviors in children, normative use of AD dolls in nonreferred children, differences in children's play behavior and emotional reactions to AD dolls, and memory and suggestibility issues relating to AD-doll use. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Preschool child development: implications for investigation of child abuse allegations.

Allegations of mistreatment by adults made by children of preschool age are often dismissed as fictitious with the suggestion that children of this age are prone to fantasy and unable to discriminate fact from fiction. This paper is intended to familiarize those with a general concern about child abuse with the research and theories in child development. Specifically, it reviews those aspects of normal child development which have direct relevance to the question of the veracity of reports made by children ages 2 to 5 years. Examination of the research on children's thought and language, memory and learning, fears, fantasy, and play, as well as the research on the influence of television on children of this age, led to the conclusion that preschoolers base their play on the reality of their experience.

Effective representation of children by the guardian ad litem: an empirical investigation.

Guardians ad litem (GALs), designated to represent children's best interests in civil abuse and neglect proceedings, fulfill the role with little direction. This project was designed to develop guidelines for GALs based on the available legal and social science literature as well as empirical surveys of both GALs and persons working closely with them. Data from interviews, questionnaires, and literature reviews were analyzed, and a comparison of the practice of GALs in Iowa with norms derived from the literature survey was made. A training manual was developed to help insure effective representation of children by GALs. This research represents one of the first to examine empirically the behavior of GALs and to make such a comparison with literature and statutes.

Interpreting children's labels for sex-related body parts of anatomically explicit dolls.

Sexually abused children are often said to use idiosyncratic terminology when referring to sexual body parts. Anatomic dolls are often used in sexual abuse investigations, especially of younger children, with both their behavioral and verbal responses used to draw conclusions about the likelihood of sexual abuse. However, there is little information available about the responses of nonabused children to these dolls. This study characterizes the terms nonreferred children use to label sexual body parts of anatomic dolls. The study involved 144 children ages 3 through 8 years who were asked for their names for specific body parts including anus, breast, buttock, penis, scrotum, and vagina. Responses for breast, buttock, and penis were more precise than for other body parts. More than half the respondents did not have labels for anus and scrotum. The "age" and "gender" of the dolls had little effect on the children's responses. Older children had more accurate terminology than younger children for sexually related body parts except for penis and anus. For the most part, the gender of the child or the interviewer had little influence on responses.

Interaction of normal children with anatomical dolls.

Anatomical (sexually explicit) rag dolls are frequently used in interviews of children suspected of being sexually abused. Abused children have been noted clinically to be aggressive and sometimes sexually precocious in their doll play, and testimony to that effect is often accepted in the courtroom as pertinent evidence. However, to date, normative data on the play behaviors with the sexually explicit dolls have been unavailable. This pilot study provides empirical information on the play interaction of a relatively large number of normal (nonreferred) children with anatomical dolls. One hundred forty-four children (ages 3 to 8 years) were observed in a playroom containing these special dolls during three conditions: (1) with an adult present, (2) without an adult, and (3) with the dolls undressed. The observations showed that nonreferred children found these dolls no more interesting than other toys. Little aggression and no explicit sexual activity were observed. In contrast to clinical observation of abused children, the doll play of nonreferred children is unlikely to be characterized by aggression or sexual concerns; thus these behaviors when observed in interaction with these dolls should be taken seriously.

Ideogram reading in normal and dyslexic children.

This study was concerned with the ideogram reading performances of groups of reading disabled and normal children. While adults with acquired alexia have associated defects in ideogram reading, all of the dyslexic children performed at normal adult levels. It was found that ideogram reading in control children is rather slow to develop, with only 7 and 8 year old subjects performing like normal adults; this is in contrast to other reading-related cognitive tasks in which normal performance develops earlier.

Color association performances of dyslexic and normal children.

The performances of normal and dyslexic children were evaluated on a test of nonverbal color association. All performances by developmental dyslexics were well within normal limits. In addition, all normal children age 6 and above performed at normal adult levels in color association.

Problems and conceptual issues in neuropsychological research in aging and dementia.

Neuropsychological investigation of old age and dementia faces all the problems associated with more general gerontological study. In addition, some specific difficulties in attempting to infer cerebral status from behavioral observation arise. These include uncertainty about the nature and course of normal aging, about the influence of disease and affective disturbance on performance, and about the significance of diverse interactive effects. Further, the concept of dementia requires clarification. These issues are addressed and their clinical implications discussed.