The Impact of Child Abuse Potential on Adaptive Functioning: Early Identification of Risk

Previous research has investigated the deleterious effects of child maltreatment on child development; however, little research has examined the development of children who live with caregivers who are at risk of maltreatment on child development outcomes. This study utilized self-report data from caregivers that included the Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI), Parenting Stress Inventory-Short Form (PSI/SF), and Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-2nd Edition (ABAS-II) for 116 children ages 3-12 from a rural, Appalachian community. Caregivers with lower child abuse potential, children who used fewer school services, older children, and caregivers with lower household income had better total adaptive skills. Caregivers with lower child abuse potential, children who used fewer school services and older children had better functioning on the academic skills subscale. Children who used fewer school services, were older, and had lower family income had greater self-care skills. Finally, children who used fewer school services had greater communication skills. Parent-child dysfunction was not related to child development outcomes. The findings demonstrate that educators are in a unique position to intervene and support children at risk of maltreatment.     

Food and the challenge to identity for post-war refugee women in Australia

Abstract

In many societies, feeding one’s family in traditional and culturally appropriate ways is an essential part of being a mother and a wife. For migrants, food can play an important role in the maintenance of tradition, culture, and identity. This paper uses archival evidence, media coverage, memoirs, and oral histories to explore how policies associated with food in migrant hostels impacted on, and interfered with, the central role of food in the commensal circle of the family, and in the identification of migrant women as wives, mothers, and cultural gatekeepers. We identify three main factors that contributed to this negative cultural impact: the preparation of quintessentially ‘Australian’ menus that were alien to most of the population; communal dining arrangements which disrupted the basic social activity of commensality; and the fact that there was no need for women to prepare food for their families, and no opportunity to do so since having private cooking facilities was illegal. The impact of these eating/dining experiences on women and their families was obviously profound: even today, the topic of food and enforced communal dining is among the first and most vivid of memories, typically negative, reported by those who transitioned through the hostels.     

Beyond compare? Women's movements in comparative perspective

Abstract. This article reviews a selected range of comparative political research on women's movements, a subfield of political science whose recent proliferation now positions it at the leading edge of women and politics scholarship. Recognizing that "women" as a category of research is of necessity heterogeneous and informed by differences of race, class, ethnicity, nationality, generation, and religion, the article argues that this complex intersectionality need not mean that women's movements are beyond the scope of comparative political research. Rather, as the research focus of women and politics scholars has become increasingly carefully specified, general patterns are evident in the research that should serve to advance the comparative study of women's movements and comparative political research more generally. The article focuses on definitional challenges and the limitations of conflating "women's movements", "feminist movements", and "women in social movements", and discusses four major research arenas within which cross–national commonalities among women's movements are evidenced. These include the relationship between women's movements and political parties; "double militancy" as a potentially distinctive collective identity problem for women's movement activists; the extent to which political opportunities for women's movements are (or can be) gendered; and the relationship between women's movements and the state. The article concludes with suggestions for future research in the subfields of comparative women's movements and comparative politics.     

United States of America

European Journal of Political Research -     

Review Essay: Legitimizing Legitimacy: Shaping a New Frontier of Research

Social Justice Research -     

Injuries due to deliberate violence in areas of Argentina. II. Lesions. Copenhagen Study Group

As part of a transcultural investigation of violent behavior in Argentina and Denmark, the lesions from accidents involving deliberate violence registered in the emergency wards of Hospital Fernandez and Hospital Pinero in Capital Federal Buenos Aires over a period of 13 and 17 months, respectively, were studied. Among the 281 victims entering the two emergency wards blunt violence without use of instruments was most often reported to be the violation method. Frequently indicated violation instruments against the male victims were batons (18.7%), sharp instruments (17.7%), and firearms (17.7%), the corresponding figures for female victims being 9.6%, 8.4% and 4.8%. The use of firearms and batons was considerably more pronounced in Argentina than in Denmark, particularly against male victims. A total of 373 primary and secondary diagnoses were reported from the patients, the most frequent diagnoses being contusions and open wounds in the head/neck region. Forty-three percent of the diagnoses were related to the head/neck region, being the most frequently injured region and the trunk the second most frequently injured region (30%). The degree of predominance of lesions in the head/neck region was much less than in the Danish material. Injuries of internal organs of the trunk were considerably more frequent in Argentina than in Denmark. Eighty-five percent of the victims had moderate or less serious lesions when assessed on the basis of the scores in the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), (score less than or equal to 2). The AIS scores of the lesions in female victims were on average only slightly higher than those recorded in the Danish study, while 16.1% of the male Argentinian victims had lesions scored greater than or equal to 3 compared to 1.8% in male Danish victims. The need for treatment and hospitalization was more pronounced than in the Danish study. It may be concluded that the frequency of serious cases of deliberate violence probably would decrease if more restrictive rules for the possessing of firearms were enacted and enforced.     

Science,technology, and congress

James E. Katz is a sociologist and a member of staff at Bellcore, the research and engineering arm of the regional telephone companies. Among his books are Presidential Politics and Science Policy;and Congress and National Energy Policy.He has served as a Senate staff member. Research for this article was supported by the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government.     

Husbands who harm: Predicting spousal violence by men

Previous research on spouse abuse has frequently focused on bivariate relationships between theoretically derived variables and marital violence. This study utilizes a multivariate approach in order to explore the independent and combined effects of several variables derived from the social learning and the frustration/strain perspectives on self-reported violence by husbands against wives. Data for married and/or cohabiting males are derived from a national stratified random sample of couples in the United States. Loglinear analysis is used to identify the main and interactive effects of age, occupational status, employment status, subjective economic strain, and observation of parental violence on reports of violence toward one's wife. Results indicate that age, occupational status, parental modeling and employment status affect the likelihood of violence. Employment status more strongly increases the likelihood of violence for younger men, as opposed to older men, which supports the strain perspective. The independent effect of the observation of parental violence lends support to the social learning approach. Social policy implications are discussed.