ABSTRACT
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate differences in the social play of maltreated and nonmaltreated preschool children and the effectiveness of a resilient peer treatment (RPT) for socially withdrawn victims of physical abuse and neglect. RPT is a peer-mediated classroom intervention based on a developmental-ecological model. It involves pairing withdrawn children with resilient peers in the natural classroom under the supervision of a parent assistant. Forty-six Head Start children, of whom 22 were maltreated, were randomly assigned to RPT and control conditions. Outcome variables were observational categories of social play and standardized teacher ratings. Before treatment, maltreated children were significantly more isolated and less interactive in peer play than nonmaltreated children. RPT resulted in a significant increase in positive interactive peer play and a decrease in solitary play for maltreated and nonmaltreated, socially withdrawn children. Moreover, treatment gains in social interactions were validated 2 months following treatment. Findings are discussed in terms of a developmental-ecological model.
Subject(s)
Child Abuse/psychology , Social Alienation , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Peer Group , Play and Playthings , Random Allocation , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
In the general population teenage pregnancies present an elevated rate of perinatal mortality compared with pregnancies of women in their 20s. In 2 large-scale university hopsital studies (American and Danish) the teenage pregnancies showed lower perinatal mortality than those of any other age group. This article attempts to determine the origin of these differing results. A comparative analysis was conducted, focusing on methodologies, subject characteristics, and treatment procedures involved in the 2 classes of studies, which involved representative populations and university hospital samples. The uniformly high quality medical treatment provides to all subjects in the university hospital samples contrasted with the uneven quality of treatment found in population studies constituted the most important difference. Since pregnant teenagers generally tend to be of lower socioeconomic status, they are likely to receive inferior medical care. It was argued that this factor could, to a large extent, be responsible for the elevated mortality rates found in teenage pregnancies in representative populations.
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Fetal Death , Infant Mortality , Mortality , Pregnancy Outcome , Social Class , Age Factors , Americas , Demography , Denmark , Developed Countries , Economics , Europe , Hospitals , North America , Population , Population Characteristics , Population Dynamics , Pregnancy , Reproduction , Research , Scandinavian and Nordic Countries , Socioeconomic Factors , United States , Universities , White PeopleABSTRACT
The spontaneously reported narrative fictions collected from 5- to 11-year-old children were examined for the presence of overt psychosexual elements. Two developmental hypotheses were advanced: (1) that the children's expressions would become more inhibited and therefore more indirect with age (Wolfenstein) and (2) that their expressions would not be more inhibited with age but simply more complex and wide ranging (Legman). The data are interpreted as supporting the latter proposition. The older children in the present sample give a wide-ranging display of psychosexual material stated just as directly as is the case with the narrower array for the younger children. Freud's dictum that the higher a joke rises in polite society the more indirect must be its form of expression is thus not supported in the present elementary school. The cultural relativity of the hypothesis is suggested. A folktale analysis of these materials shows that they are most appropriately described as typical of the "trickster" figure in folkloric genre. The Fucker appears to be a subcategory of this genre as well as an enduring folk figure.
Subject(s)
Fantasy , Imagination , Psychosexual Development , Age Factors , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
The rationale for using the high-risk-group research design in the search for the aetiology of schizophrenia is described. A longitudinal study is being made of three-year-old Mauritian children who underwent a variety of physiological and psychological tests. Groups of these children, selected on the basis of their responses to electrodermal stimulation, are now attending nursery schools established on the island as part of this study. A control group of children do not attend nursery school. It is intended to follow-up these children over the next two decades. Mention is made of the benefits of this research to the development of para-medical and educational services in a developing country.
