Violence in relationships: A seventh grade inventory of knowledge and attitudes

The purpose of this research was to contribute to existing efforts of battered women's advocates, schools, and researchers by developing a valid and reliable inventory to evaluate educational interventions regarding violence in relationships. Content validity was established by national experts (N=32)solicited to complete an inventory rating scale and comment on the statements' ability to elicit early adolescents' knowledge and attitudes about violence in relation-ships. The revised inventory was tested with seventh grade health education students (N=99).The test-retest reliability criterion was .50. Spearman's rho correlations were .566 for the knowledge section and .669 for the attitude section. Knowledge and attitude sections were measured for internal con- sistency with Cronbach's alpha, with respective values of .3178 and .7207. Item analyses with Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests identified 11 knowledge statements and one attitude statement as significantly discriminating at both test and retest. Gender differences were noted and additional findings were reported. Recommendations for the further establishment of a valid and reliable inventory were made.     

Evaluation of Police Training on LGBTQ Issues: Knowledge,Interpersonal Apprehension,and Self-Efficacy

The present study evaluates outcomes of a five-hour training session to prepare law enforcement personnel (LEP) to work effectively with LGBTQ individuals and communities. The training was developed collaboratively with the local police department, an LGBTQ community organization, a group of diversity trainers, and the researchers. Approximately 120 LEP participated in the training, and 81 completed pre- and post-test assessments of knowledge, self-efficacy, and interpersonal comfort with LGBTQ people. Paired-sample t-tests demonstrated significant increases in knowledge and confidence in using LGBTQ-affirming tactics on the job. No significant differences were found in participants’ comfort in working with LGBTQ community members. Implications for LEP training on LGBTQ issues and research in assessing LEP for behavioral and affective change are discussed.     

How the Indashyikirwa Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Programme in Rwanda Influenced Parenting and Violence against Children

There is increasing interest in working at the intersections of intimate partner violence (IPV) and violence against children (VAC), especially in the family, yet few programmatic strategies exist or have been evaluated to assess the combined impact of strategies on both types of violence. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the influence that Indashyikirwa—a programme designed to reduce IPV in Rwanda— had on VAC in the families of couples participating in the programme. Indashyikirwa included a 21-session couples’ curriculum, safe spaces for IPV survivors, and community activism against violence. In addition to reductions in IPV, a randomized control trial found significant reductions in parent’s reports of children witnessing IPV, parents’ attitudes condoning harsh physical punishment of children, and parents’ use of corporal punishment as discipline. This paper uses qualitative data to better understand how and why the couples’ curriculum influenced parenting and VAC. Twenty-eight participants (fourteen male-female couples) were individually interviewed at three time points, once before and twice after the couples’ curriculum implementation. Six men and six women who completed the curriculum and subsequently carried out activism were also interviewed at two time points. The data were analyzed thematically. Pathways motivating couples’ attitude and behavior changes towards children included reflecting on the consequences of IPV for children and appreciating the benefits for children of non-violent, gender equitable households. This analysis suggests that working with co-habiting couples presents a viable strategy for working to prevent IPV, VAC and promote more gender equitable family dynamics.

     

Creative podcasting as a tool for legal knowledge and skills development

ABSTRACT

This article draws on the authors’ experience of introducing a student-led legal podcast in their law school in September 2017 to explore creative podcasting’s potential as a tool of legal knowledge and skills development. Drawing on the authors’ observations as the coordinators of the podcast, as well as a survey conducted amongst student participants, it considers the value of creative podcasting as a means of enhancing legal knowledge, aiding skills development, and fostering a feeling of collaboration and community. The article also reflects on the practical challenges associated with running a project of this type outside the school’s curriculum, focusing particularly on the challenge of encouraging student buy-in.     

Impact of the Mass Media in Changing Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women in Bangladesh: Findings from a National Survey

To date, there have been no nationally representative studies examining the influence of media on norms regarding violence against women (VAW) among the general population. Data for this study came from the 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys that completed 17,842 interviews with ever-married women. Results of logistic regressions showed that among the three media outlets (TV, radio, and newspaper), only TV had a very small significant effect on women’s attitudes towards VAW (r = .031; p < .01). Community gender norms mediate the effect of television on women’s support of gender equitable norms. Being younger, non-Muslims, educated, living in wealthy households, and having greater autonomy, were significantly associated with greater support for gender equitable norms. Since media did not have substantial influence on gender norms related to VAW, our findings implied that efforts to promote gender norms change in society need to consider other strategies.     

Corporal Punishment: Examining Attitudes Toward the Law and Factors Influencing Attitude Change

There remains considerable societal support for child corporal punishment, despite much research about its ineffectiveness and potential harm to children. We examined attitudes toward Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code which gives parents the right to use reasonable physical force for discipline purposes. We also examined attitude change and predictors of this change. Participants (N?=?212) completed an on-line study, which found that 39.2 % disagreed with ending Section 43. Upon presentation of corporal punishment-related information, the majority (63.8–70.5 %) now indicated being in favor of ending Section 43. Attitude change was highest for information on the potential for child abuse. Socio-demographics (ethnicity, religion), childhood disciplinary experiences (non-punitive discipline), and discipline perceptions (parental warmth/involvement) predicted attitude change. Results indicate that providing information about corporal punishment is key to changing attitudes toward parents’ legal right to its use. Also, parental background and childhood discipline characteristics may differentially influence the amount of attitude change.     

Gender Role and Gender as Predictors of Behavior Problems in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are likely to develop behavior problems, but findings are mixed regarding whether girls and boys are differentially affected. Bem (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 634–643, 1975) argued that gender role is an important predictor of mental health, and this relationship may differ for males and females due to societal gender norms. Given the gendered nature of IPV, we examined whether gender role interacted with gender to predict behavior problems in IPV-exposed children (n = 176). Among four-year-old children, gender-typed gender roles were a risk factor for girls but not boys, and androgynous gender roles were protective for both boys and girls on average. However, post hoc analyses indicated the amount of IPV exposure mattered; androgynous girls exposed to chronic IPV had more behavior problems. Results illustrate the importance of societal and family gender norms in determining children’s risk for behavior problems following exposure to IPV.     

Women’s Knowledge of the Domestic Violence Legislation in Erbil,Iraq and their Response to Spousal Violence

This study assessed the knowledge of 82 married women about existing legislations and law enforcement structure in Iraqi Kurdistan region to combat violence against women and women’s response to spousal violence. A female physician interviewed the participants using a specially designed questionnaire. The women possessed good knowledge about the presence of legislation (76.8 %) and related law enforcement structure (70.7 % to 74.4 %) to combat violence against women, but they lacked adequate knowledge about how to contact the law enforcement agencies. Women’s response to spousal violence primarily included self-defense (37.8 %) or keeping silent (26.8 %), rather than seeking justice (4.9 %). Women’s educational status was positively associated with reporting violence to police (52.1 % vs 29.4 %, p = 0.041) and the health staff (62.5 % vs 35.3 %, p = 0.015). Further research is needed to explore the reasons behind women’s poor knowledge of the details of the existing law enforcement structure and women’s reluctance to seek justice.     

Reaching Out versus Lashing Out: Examining Gender Differences in Experiences with and Responses to Bullying in High School

The present study examines gender differences in bullying in high school. Unique contributions include comparisons of both victimization and perpetration rates across four subtypes of bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and cyber. Further, as we conceptualize bullying within the larger framework of literature on social rejection, we also address whether there are gender differences in experiencing social rejection–in the form of bullying–and responding with aggression, as opposed to asocial or prosocial behavior. The literature yields mixed findings across these three questions (i.e., gender differences in experiences with victimization and perpetration and responses to those experiences), suggesting sample variations (Archer Review of General Psychology, 8(4), 291–322, 2004; Archer & Coyne Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9, 212–230, 2005; Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little Child Development, 79, 1185–1229, 2008). Thus, we explored experiential differences in our sample, and hypothesized based on the tend and befriend model (Taylor et al., 2000) that girls would be more likely than boys to respond to bullying with prosocial behaviors. With regard to victimization and perpetration differences, we found that male students both experienced and perpetrated significantly more physical bullying. Boys were also significantly more likely to report experiencing verbal bullying than girls. No significant differences emerged for relational or cyber bullying. With regard to responses, social withdrawal was more common than aggressive responding, but consistent with the tend and befriend model, girls chose prosocial responses significantly more than boys, whereas boys were just as likely to choose antisocial responding as prosocial responding. These results suggest that gender should be considered in studies addressing the question of when experiences with rejection–in its many forms–results in antisocial versus prosocial behavior.     

“Knowledge and Death Penalty Opinion: The Marshall Hypotheses Revisited.”

This study tests the three hypotheses derived from the written opinion of Justice Thurgood Marshall in Furman v Georgia in 1972. Subjects completed questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the fall a semester. Experimental group subjects were enrolled in a death penalty class, while control group subjects were enrolled in another criminal justice class. The death penalty class was the experimental stimulus. Findings provided strong support for the first and third hypotheses, i.e., subjects were generally lacking in death penalty knowledge before the experimental stimulus, and death penalty proponents who scored “high” on a retribution index did not change their death penalty opinions despite exposure to death penalty knowledge. Marshall’s second hypothesis--that death penalty knowledge and death penalty support were inversely related--was not supported by the data. Two unexpected findings were that death penalty proponents who scored “low” on a retribution index also did not change their death penalty opinions after becoming more informed about the subject, and that death penalty knowledge did not alter subjects’ initial retributive positions. Suggestions for future research are provided.     

Assessment of Perceived Parenting Behaviors: The Exposure to Abusive and Supportive Environments Parenting Inventory (EASE-PI)

Due to an awareness of the frequency of child abuse and lack of a single instrument to assess the extent of exposure to both the abusive and supportive environments provided by parents, a 70 item inventory (the EASE-PI) was developed that is a self-report on how both mother and father treated the respondent. A factor analysis, which was subsequently replicated, revealed three abusive factors (representing emotional, physical, and sexual abusiveness) and three supportive factors (love/support, promotion of independence, and positive modeling/fairness). The same factors emerged regardless of gender of respondent and gender of parent. The inventory provides a means to investigate the differential and interactive effects of exposure to emotional, physical, and sexual abusiveness and the possible mitigating effects of different types of supportive behaviors by each parent.     

Stability of self-control and gender

PurposesThis study provides a rigorous test of gendered nature of self-control stability hypothesis by examining the existence and persistence of gender differences in self-control, and gender differences in developmental patterns of self-control and in source of self-control.MethodsFive-wave longitudinal data of Korean youths from age 10 to 14 are analyzed. t-tests are conducted to examine whether males have significantly lower self-control than females and whether the self-control differences across two genders persist. To test gender differences in developmental patterns of self-control, growth mixture modeling is utilized. Finally, hierarchical linear modeling is used to examine gender differences in the relationships between social factors and self-control.ResultsThe study shows that gender differences in self-control persist over the short term but not over the long term, that males and females experience similar developmental patterns of self-control, and that similarities appear in the relationships between social factors and self-control across both genders.ConclusionsThis study provides partial support for Gottfredson and Hirschi’s arguments on persistent gender differences in self-control and parenting’s main effect on self-control, while strong relative stability is found. The findings indicate that the stability postulate and the relationships between social factors and self-control are applicable to both genders.     

Citizen's psychological knowledge,legal knowledge,and attitudes toward participation in the new Japanese legal system,saiban-in seido

A new procedure, saiban-in seido, was introduced in the Japanese criminal court in 2009.1 1. This article was written before the Saiban-in seido started. A mixed tribunal of three professional judges and six lay people selected from a list of voters deliberate the verdict in serious criminal cases such as murder, rape, and arson. This study researched lay people's attitudes toward the new system, their psychological knowledge (e.g. the reliability of eyewitness testimony) and legal knowledge (e.g. ‘presumed innocent’), and the relationship between attitude and knowledge. Study 1 examined the responses of 294 citizens to a questionnaire; 90 responses were examined in Study 2 (both samples consisted of two age groups, i.e. (1) 20s and (2) 40s and 50s, and two education levels, i.e. (1) college or below and (2) university or more. In both studies, respondents showed concerns about their lack of ability and knowledge to become a lay judge. Although legal knowledge was related to attitude – i.e. the more legal knowledge, the less negativity – no relationship was found between psychological knowledge and attitude. Relevant support for citizens to become lay judges was discussed.     

Long-term follow-up of a preschool experiment

Objectives

This study was designed to provide experimental evidence of the effects of a preschool program on young children living in poverty. It began as a program evaluation but now, half a century later, serves as a test of the long-term effects and return on investment of high-quality preschool education for young children living in poverty.

Methods

This study was conducted in the U.S., beginning in the 1960s, and has generated data on study participants from birth through 40, with new data now being collected at age 50. The study used random assignment procedures to assign 123 children to a preschool program and a control group who receive no preschool program.

Results

Program participants surpassed non-participants in intellectual performance at school entry, school achievement throughout schooling, commitment to schooling, high school graduation rate, adult employment rate and earnings, reduced childhood antisocial behavior, and reduced adult crime and incarceration. The program's return on investment was at least seven times as great as its operating cost.

Conclusions

While these powerful results have been found not only in this study but in several similar studies, they have not been found in studies of larger preschool programs, such as the Head Start Impact Study. This discrepancy suggests that differences between the two types of programs account for the better results found in studies such as this one. Among these differences are highly qualified teachers, a valid child development curriculum, extensive engagement of parents, and regular assessment of program implementation and children's development     

Evidence for hypnotically refreshed testimony

The evidence for differences in recall accuracy for hypnotized vs. nonhypnotized eyewitnesses in forensically relevant settings was examined through a meta-analytic review of 24 research studies. Recall accuracy for nonleading questions after a 1- to 2-day delay favored the hypnotized subjects (d=.46); however, less accurate recall was evidenced for hypnotized subjects following a delay of less tan 24 hours (d=?.29) or a one-week delay (d=?.24). The recall of hypnotized subjects also displayed more intrusion of uncued errors and higher levels of pseudomemory. Hypnotized subjects also expressed higher levels of confidence in recall accuracy compared to nonhypnotized subjects. Caution is urged regarding use of hypnotically refreshed memory.     

Does Training and Documentation Improve Emergency Department Assessments of Domestic Violence Victims?

This study aimed to determine whether training and documentation led to improved assessment of female victims of assault due to domestic violence presenting to an emergency department. Eighty clinical records were audited using a valid and reliable audit tool over four time periods for variables including history, risk assessment, and examination. Documentation differed across the four groups (p?=?0.011). Between group analysis found there was a difference (p?=?0.055) between Groups 1 (before training) and 2 (after training), and Group 3 (with a specialist form in place), and there was a difference (p?=?0.009) between Groups 1 and 4 (8 years later). Training alone did not lead to change. Introducing specialist documentation with training was associated with an improvement in the standard of clinical assessment of female victims of assault due to domestic violence and this change increased over time.     

Witnessing spouse abuse and experiencing physical abuse: A “double whammy”?

Child witnesses to parental violence, both abused (N =40) and nonabused (N =44), who were temporarily residing in a battered women's shelter were compared with children from a similar economic background (N =66) on measures of anxiety, depression, and behavior problems. Mothers of the three groups of children (comparison, witness, abused/witness) across the age range from 4 to 12 years completed a behavior problem inventory; the youngsters responded to paper-and-pencil self-report measures. Results indicated that the abused/witness children were manifesting significantly more distress on the behavior problem measure than the comparison youngsters, with the witness children showing a moderate amount and the comparison children the least. However, these patterns were mediated by the age of the child. Implications of these differential findings are discussed.     

School Leaders’ Experiences on Dealing with Students Exposed to Domestic Violence

School leaders’ experiences and perceptions of students’ domestic violence experiences and trauma-informed school interventions have been overlooked. This semi-structured qualitative study aimed to investigate three areas regarding school leaders’ perceptions regarding domestic violence-exposed students: 1) the experiences of school leaders in dealing with these students; 2) the barriers and strengths associated with managing these students; and 3) school leaders’ recommendations for overcoming any barriers related to this issue in schools. Interviews conducted with 15 school leaders were analysed using thematic analysis. School leaders were found to be instrumental in influencing school culture and support systems surrounding students’ exposure to domestic violence. However, school leaders provided mixed reports regarding the adequacy of resources for domestic violence-exposed students. Recommendations suggested by school leaders included more domestic violence specific training for school staff and training delivery methods that were more sensitive for staff who have personal experiences with domestic violence. School leaders expressed great concerns for teachers, particularly less experienced teachers, regarding their knowledge and skills to assist students who disclose family violence.

     

DIRE ET SE DIRE AU FÉMININ

The decree of 21st of June 1993 sets out how to express the female gender in profession names and function titles in official and administrative publications of the Communauté française de Belgique. It has helped to change mindsets. The guide Mettre au féminin (“Express the female gender”) allows civil servants to fulfil the requirements of the decree and helps promote the usage of the female gender in the French language. First published in 1994, it has been reviewed and re-edited in 2005. Even if the visibility of women in language usage is on the increase, it faces not so much linguistic but ideological obstacles. Le décret du 21 juin 1993 installe la féminisation des noms de métier et des titres de fonction dans les textes officiels et administratifs de la Communauté française de Belgique. Il aide les mentalités à progresser. Le guide Mettre au féminin permet aux fonctionnaires de respecter le décret et sert à promouvoir l’emploi du féminin dans l’usage de la langue française. Paru en 1994, il est mis à jour en 2005. Même si la visibilité des femmes dans l’emploi de la langue augmente, elle rencontre des obstacles non pas linguistiques mais idéologiques.