Interrater reliability of the active-knee-extension test for hamstring length in school-aged children.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the interrater reliability of the active knee-extension test (AKET) using a stabilizing apparatus to measure hamstring length. METHODS: One hundred one subjects (53 girls, 48 boys) ranging in age from 10 to 13 years with no known neuromuscular problems participated. The AKET was performed with subjects lying supine with the hip flexed to 90 degrees with a stabilization device attached to a plinth. Next, subjects were instructed to actively extend the knee until the rater detected myoclonus. Then, the rater flexed the knee until myoclonus subsided and the knee angle was measured with a blinded goniometer. This procedure was repeated by each of three raters. RESULTS: Data were analyzed using ICC (2,1) demonstrating good interrater reliability of 0.79. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the AKET, when used with the stabilizing apparatus, demonstrates good interrater reliability for children aged 10 to 13 years.

Psychological sequelae in adult females reporting childhood ritualistic abuse.

The present study sought to increase current scientific knowledge about the controversial issue of subjectively reported childhood ritualistic abuse by addressing several key unresolved issues. In particular, the possibility that those reporting ritualistic abuse may be characterized primarily by the severity of their abuse histories or the severity of their present psychological symptoms, rather than the veridicality of the ritualistic events, was explored. Adult female outpatients reporting childhood sexual abuse with ritualistic features were compared with a second group of women who reported childhood sexual abuse without ritualism. Measures included characteristics of childhood sexual and physical abuse, current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic status and symptom severity, and severity of current dissociative experiences. Women reporting ritualistic features scored significantly higher on measures of childhood sexual and physical abuse. Neither PTSD diagnostic status nor severity for PTSD nor dissociative experiences were significantly different between the groups. While preliminary in nature, these results suggest that it may be helpful to conceptualize reported childhood ritualistic abuse as indicative of the need to assess carefully for severe abuse and its predictable sequelae within existing traumatic victimization conceptual frameworks.

Posttraumatic stress disorder among battered women: risk and resiliency factors.

This study proposed that diagnosable levels of PTSD would be found among battered women and that the level of exposure to violence in the battering relationship would be an important contributing factor to the development of PTSD while other pre-trauma and post-trauma variables such as social support, intercurrent life events, religiosity, and developmental family stressors would also be related to PTSD symptom levels. Fifty-three battered women were given standardized self-report measures to assess these variables. As hypothesized, a significant proportion of battered women in the sample were diagnosed as PTSD positive. Multiple regression analyses revealed that violence exposure severity, recency of the last abusive episode, social support, intercurrent life events, intrinsic religiosity, and developmental family stressors predicted 43% of the variance in PTSD symptomatology.