Differences in pragmatic communication skills of adults with intellectual disabilities and dual diagnoses.

Introduction: Pragmatics includes a set of skills related to language structure and meaning that allow the speaker to use the language appropriately and in accordance with different communication situations. The aim of this research was to determine the differences in pragmatic communication skills of adults with intellectual disabilities, dual diagnoses, and typical development, and to determine the effects of gender, age, the level of intellectual functioning and speech comprehension on their achievements on two assessment instruments. Methods: The sample included 180 adults (60 typically developing participants, 60 with intellectual disabilities, and 60 participants with dual diagnoses). We used two instruments to assess pragmatic communication skills - Communication Checklist - Adult, CC-A, and the Assessment Battery for Communication, ABaCo. In order to test the differences between the three groups of participants, we used canonical discriminant analysis. Results: Discriminant analysis revealed two significant canonical functions. Function one (speech comprehension and the level of intellectual disability, social engagement, and paralinguistic scale) differentiates between typically developing participants and participants with dual diagnoses the most. The second canonical function (language structure, linguistic scale, paralinguistic scale, extralinguistic scale, and context scale) differentiates between participants with intellectual disabilities and participants with dual diagnoses the most. According to the results, age did not affect pragmatic achievements. Discussion: Pragmatic skills are very complex, and different instruments measure different dimensions of these abilities. The results of this research lead to the conclusion that we can differentiate between the pragmatic abilities of typically developing people, people with intellectual disabilities, and those with dual diagnoses with the help of the ABaCo battery and the CC-A questionnaire.

Students' and teachers' perceptions of aggressive behaviour in adolescents with intellectual disability and typically developing adolescents.

This study investigated aggressive behaviour in Serbian adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) compared to typically developing peers. The sample consisted of both male and female adolescents aged 12-18 years. One hundred of the adolescents had ID, and 348 adolescents did not have ID. The adolescents were asked to complete the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), and their teachers provided ratings of aggression for the adolescents using the Children's Scale of Hostility and Aggression: Reactive-Proactive (C-SHARP). Results indicated that adolescents reported a higher prevalence of aggressive behaviour than their teachers. Reactive aggression was more prevalent than proactive aggression in both subsamples. In the subsample of adolescents with ID, there were no sex or age differences for aggression. However, in the normative subsample, boys and older adolescents scored significantly higher on aggression. According to adolescent self-reports the prevalence of aggression was higher in adolescents without ID, while teachers perceived aggressive behaviour to be more prevalent in adolescents with ID. Scientific and practical implications are discussed.

Criminality of women: psycho-social dimension.

UNLABELLED: Objective of the study is an attempt to determine main psychological features and family functioning properties of sentenced women, as well as possible differences in these characteristics compared to the normal population. METHODOLOGY: The study included 108 women classified into two exclusive groups. The group of tested convicts (N= 62) included women serving their sentences in the Women prison in Pozarevac, and within this group we distinguished 4 subgroups according to the type of the crime commited. A control group (N= 46) consisted of women employed in Belgrade industrial complex "Sport". The tests were carried out by applying the self-estimation questionnaire on certain aspects of family functioning, FACES version III of the Olson's circumplex model and a standardised version of MMPI 201. RESULTS: The results indicate that there is a difference between the control and the convict grous, both in family dynamics and in psychological characteristics. By studying the family functioning, we established the existence of statistically significant differences in the following aspects: more frequent presence of violenc and socio-pathological behaviours, with a lower level of cohesion in the families of the female convicts. In comparison with the control group, which founds itself within the average limits, the female convicts are characterized by certain personality features, which may serve as a basis for their classifying into certain psychological profiles. CONCLUSION: The results of our study reveal the necessity, both in studying the etiology of female criminality, and in prevention, diagnostics, planning and completion of rehabilitation treatment, of paying a special attention to the determination of the influence of family circumstances as well as psychological characteristics of this population.