Characteristics of Youth Remaining in Foster Care Through Age 19: A Pre- and Post-Policy Cohort Analysis of California Data

This study examined factors associated with youth remaining in extended foster care. Cohorts of youth in care in California at age 17 years were defined for the period from 2003–2012. Multivariable generalized linear models documented factors associated with remaining in care through age 19. Findings indicate that: a) the population of youth in care at age 17 has declined over time; b) youth in care at age 17 in 2012 were qualitatively different from those a decade earlier; c) a larger proportion of youth who do not exit to permanency are remaining in extended foster care; and d) although the characteristics of youth who remain in foster care as non-minor dependents continue to vary relative to those who age out, differences have diminished. Findings highlight the potential to target subgroups of youth who may benefit from the extension of care but are remaining in care at lower rates.     

Mentoring programs to affect delinquency and associated outcomes of youth at risk: A comprehensive meta-analytic review

Objectives

To conduct a meta-analytic review of selective and indicated mentoring interventions for effects for youth at risk on delinquency and key associated outcomes (aggression, drug use, academic functioning). We also undertook the first systematic evaluation of intervention implementation features and organization and tested for effects of theorized key processes of mentor program effects.

Methods

Campbell Collaboration review inclusion criteria and procedures were used to search and evaluate the literature. Criteria included a sample defined as at risk for delinquency due to individual behavior such as aggression or conduct problems or environmental characteristics such as residence in a high-crime community. Studies were required to be random assignment or strong quasi-experimental design. Of 163 identified studies published from 1970–2011, 46 met criteria for inclusion.

Results

Mean effects sizes were significant and positive for each outcome category (ranging from d?=?0.11 for academic achievement to d?=?0.29 for aggression). Heterogeneity in effect sizes was noted for all four outcomes. Stronger effects resulted when mentor motivation was professional development but not by other implementation features. Significant improvements in effects were found when advocacy and emotional support mentoring processes were emphasized.

Conclusions

This popular approach has significant impact on delinquency and associated outcomes for youth at risk for delinquency. While evidencing some features may relate to effects, the body of literature is remarkably lacking in details about specific program features and procedures. This persistent state of limited reporting seriously impedes understanding about how mentoring is beneficial and ability to maximize its utility.     

Discrepant Parent-Adolescent Reports of Parenting Practices: Associations with Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Discrepancies in multi-informant reports of parenting practices represent a meaningful clinical construct that can be harnessed to predict adolescent mental...     

Education. Period. Developing an acceptable and replicable menstrual hygiene intervention

This paper summarises pilot work by Irise International to develop an acceptable and replicable solution to menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in East Africa based around the manufacture of a reusable pad. The paper presents a theoretical justification for the approach and the results of pilot work used to develop it, including baseline menstrual hygiene practices and their relationship to school absenteeism in schoolgirls in western Kenya, the short-term impact of training girls to make a reusable product on school absenteeism using a partial preference, parallel group randomised control trial, and an assessment of the acceptability of the approach.     

The Effect of Previous Traumatic Injury on Homicide Risk

Research has reported that a strong risk factor for traumatic injury is having a previous injury (i.e., recidivism). To date, the only study examining the relationship between recidivism and homicide reported strong associations, but was limited by possible selection bias. The current matched case–control study utilized coroner's data from 2004 to 2008. Subjects were linked to trauma registry data to determine whether the person had a previous traumatic injury. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the association between homicide and recidivism. Homicide risk was increased for those having a previous traumatic injury (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.09–2.99) or a previous intentional injury (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.24–5.17). These results suggest an association between homicide and injury recidivism, and that trauma centers may be an effective setting for screening individuals for secondary prevention efforts of homicide through violence prevention programs.     

Walking the fiscal tightrope: local government budgeting and fiscal stress

This paper discusses the components of local government budget processes and their relationship to fiscal stress. While many cities and counties are suffering from stressful fiscal situations, leading in some cases to bankruptcy filings or other severe measures, their budgets have to be balanced, unlike the federal government and some state governments. Using survey data from a large number of jurisdictions, this paper shows how local governments have developed budget processes which respond to these changing fiscal situations. Governments use computers, collect and analyze many different types of information, and use budgetary information for other management purposes in order to improve productivity. Budget processes are providing good information to local government decision makers which is helping them respond constructively to the fiscal crises of the 1990s.     

Development at any cost: ICTs and people's participation in South Africa

SUMMARY

This article, which is based on empirical research, reveals the diametrically opposed approaches to persuasion of the National Party and the Progressive Federal Party during the 1987 electoral campaign in Umhlanga Rocks. The study concentrates mainly on the candidates, and it describes how they put their persuasion “into action’. Personal pre- and post-election interviews reveal, on the one hand, a candidate's inability to pinpoint and satisfy voters' needs and fears and, on the other hand, the opposing candidate's ability not only to recognise these aspects, but also to manipulate them to the best advantage. The necessity of co-ordinated electoral team work is also discussed.     

Sex offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of humanity,dominance, and displaying an understanding of cognitive distortions in police interviews: A vignette study

Abstract

Forty-three convicted sex offenders read each of four different offence vignettes that involved a man forcing a female victim into sex and the offender's subsequent police interview. The experimental manipulation involved giving participants each of four different scenarios concerning how the police interviewed the offender. These were interviews characterized by humanity, dominance, displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions, or a neutral, control interview. Participants were required to rate the interviews on a variety of dimensions, such as the offender's likelihood of confessing, and the fairness of the interview. Where participants were told the man had been interviewed with humanity and compassion, they rated the offender as more likely to confess and rated the interview as fairer than the other conditions. In contrast, participants rated the offender interviewed with a dominant approach as less likely to confess, and for this procedure to be less fair than the other conditions. Displaying an understanding of sex offenders’ cognitive distortions appeared to have had no influence on perceived likelihood of confessions but was perceived to make the crime appear less serious.     

Of guns and geese: a meta-analytic review of the ‘weapon focus’ literature

Abstract

Weapon focus is frequently cited as a factor in eyewitness testimony, and is broadly defined as a weapon-related decrease in performance on subsequent tests of memory for those elements of an event or visual scene concurrent to the weapon. This effect has been attributed to either (a) physiological or emotional arousal that narrows the attentional beam (arousal/threat hypothesis), or (b) the cognitive demands inherent in processing an unusual object (e.g. weapon) that is incongruent with the schema representing the visual scene (unusual item hypothesis). Meta-analytical techniques were applied to test these theories as well as to evaluate the prospect of weapon focus in real-world criminal investigations. Our findings indicated an effect of weapon presence overall (g= 0.53) that was significantly influenced by retention interval, exposure duration, and threat but unaffected by whether the event occurred in a laboratory, simulation, or real-world environment.