Social,Academic, and Behavioral Competence of Depressed Children: Relationship to Diagnostic Status and Family Interaction Style

This study compared the social adjustment and academic performance of 15 psychiatrically hospitalized children with depression to 14 children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 20 normal community children, ages 7–14. The relationship between children's interpersonal and academic competence and the quality of direct family interactions was also examined. Analyses revealed an association between children's adaptive functioning and both diagnostic status and family transactional processes, as assessed by two 10-minute conflict-solving tasks. Major findings were as follows: (a) depressed children and children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders received similarly low ratings of social competence in comparison to normal controls; (b) academic performance of depressed children was similar to normal controls and better than children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders; and (c) children with poorer social competence and more behavioral problems were more likely to have parents who showed negative affect during family problem-solving tasks. The implications of these results for understanding the relationship between psychiatric impairment and children's social and academic development were discussed.     

Dignity,discrimination, and context: New directions in South African and Canadian human rights law

Conclusion The current approaches to equality law in South Africa and Canada place these jurisdictions at the forefront of serious and comprehensive judicial at tempts to give effect to substantive equality. These attempts to overcome formalism are processes, judicially acknowledged as such, and as yet far from complete. At the conceptual center of the development of substantive equality is the legal realization of human dignity: not an abstract, individualistic notion, but a concept about the relation between the individual and state, and individual and group, which is circumscribed by concern, respect and consideration. But substantive equality is not possible only through the case law. The current issues surrounding intersectional discrimination and the contextual appreciation of a claimant’s circumstances are urgent reminders that the methods and remedies afforded by the structure of litigation of equality rights claims simply cannot accommodate many instances which call for relief. The fact that these inadequacies of court enforced claims are beginning to be laid bare by some of the problems being faced by the Courts in equality claims is perhaps not a failing of equality law and the concept of dignity, but its strength. The methodology of human rights litigation in countries like Canada and South Africa supports a dialogue between court and legislature. As substantive equality develops in these jurisdictions, the limits of judicial development will be challenged. That is ultimately to be welcomed, if the legislatures are responsive to the definition of human dignity and substantive equality in development judicially, and respond with efforts to support and promote these developments.     

THE ALIENATED CHILD:A Reformulation of Parental Alienation Syndrome

In this article, controversies and problems with parental alienation syndrome are discussed. A reformulation focusing on the alienated child is proposed, and these children are clearly distinguished from other children who resist or refuse contact with a parent following separation or divorce for a variety of normal, expectable reasons, including estrangement. A systemic array of contributing factors are described that can create and/or consolidate alienation in children, including intense marital conflict, a humiliating separation, parental personalities and behaviors, protracted litigation, and professional mismanagement. These factors are understood in the context of the child's capacities and vulnerabilities.     

Comparing the Scoring of Human Decomposition from Digital Images to Scoring Using On‐site Observations

When in forensic casework or empirical research in‐person assessment of human decomposition is not possible, the sensible substitution is color photographic images. To date, no research has confirmed the utility of color photographic images as a proxy for in situ observation of the level of decomposition. Sixteen observers scored photographs of 13 human cadavers in varying decomposition stages (PMI 2–186 days) using the Total Body Score system (total n = 929 observations). The on‐site TBS was compared with recorded observations from digital color images using a paired samples t‐test. The average difference between on‐site and photographic observations was ?0.20 (t = ?1.679, df = 928, p = 0.094). Individually, only two observers, both students with <1 year of experience, demonstrated TBS statistically significantly different than the on‐site value, suggesting that with experience, observations of human decomposition based on digital images can be substituted for assessments based on observation of the corpse in situ , when necessary.