Jan Rispens

Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse Victimization: A Meta Analysis of School Programs.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this article was to provide data about the effects of child sexual abuse prevention programs. A more specific aim was to estimate the contribution of potential moderator variables such as age, program duration, or sample size to effect size. METHOD A meta-analytic approach was used to calculate post-test and follow-up effect sizes of 16 evaluation studies of school programs aimed at the prevention of child sexual abuse victimization. Tests of categorical models were used in the analysis of moderator variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine their association with effect sizes. RESULTS Significant and considerable mean post-intervention (d = .71) and follow-up (d = .62) effect sizes were found, indicating that victimization prevention programs are successful in teaching children sexual abuse concepts and self-protection skills. Intervention characteristics such as duration and content of the program, and child characteristics such as age and SES were important moderators of effect size. CONCLUSIONS Our findings corroborate and refine the positive conclusions of traditional narrative reviews. Programs that focus on skill training, allowing sufficient time for children to integrate self-protection skills into their cognitive repertoire, are to be preferred. Future evaluation research should focus on transfer of training.

The Development and Adjustment of 7-year-old Children Adopted in Infancy

The present study (N = 159) provides evidence of an increased risk for behavior problems of infant-placed 7-year-old internationally, transracially adopted children in the Netherlands. However, parents reported more behavior problems for adopted boys than for adopted girls. Notably, about 30% of the adopted children were classified as clinical on the CBCL scale for total problems, which is a much larger percentage than the 10% found in the normative population. It was suggested that these results could be explained by the operation of multiple risk factors before and after adoption placement, e.g. the childs genetic disposition, pre-natal and pre-adoption care, or the childs cognitive understanding of adoption in middle childhood. Also, results suggest that maternal sensitive responsiveness in adoptive families declines in the transition from early to middle childhood. In contrast to the home setting, the adopted children showed favorable behavioral and socioemotional adjustment at school, while their academic achievement and intelligence were in the normal range or above average. In particular Korean children had high IQs: 31% of these children obtained an intelligence score above 120. It was suggested that adoptive parents seem to offer their children sufficient or even more than average cognitive stimulation. Furthermore, adopted girls scored higher in optimal ego-control, social competence, and peer group popularity than nonadopted girls from the general population: 30% of the adopted girls were rated as popular by their classmates, which compares favorably to the 13% found in the general school population.

Efficacy of an intensive home-based educational intervention programme for 4- to 6-year-old ethnic minority children in the Netherlands

This paper reports the results of an intensive home-based educational intervention programme for 4- to 6-year-old children at risk of educational failure. The programme, Opstap Opnieuw (“Step-up Anew”), was developed in the Netherlands as an alternative to the well-known HIPPY-programme, of which a Dutch version was carried out in the early 1990s for ethnic minority groups, without apparent success. Building on the basic intervention strategy of HIPPY (i.e., involving mothers and paraprofessional aides), a new curriculum was developed based on recent theoretical insights in cognitive and language development, and emergent literacy and numeracy. The programme was carried out with Turkish and Moroccan immigrant families. For the Turkish group, the results were partly positive: There were modest effects of the programme on cognitive development and emergent numeracy, small effects on Turkish language development, but no effects on Dutch language development. In contrast, for the Moroccan group the effects were disappointing. The results are evaluated with respect to recent insights into effective strategies and essential ingredients of early educational intervention programmes.

Differences between School Classes in Preschoolers' Psychosocial Adjustment: Evidence for the Importance of Children's Interpersonal Relations

We examined differences between school classes with respect to three aspects of psychosocial adjustment at school, namely the extent that children in the class liked to play with each other, the number of teacher-reported behaviour problems, and childrens feelings of wellbeing at school. The sample consisted of 1282 4- to 5-year-olds from 94 school classes and 51 schools, but due to nonresponse actual sample sizes were somewhat smaller for most analyses. Multilevel analyses showed that on average 87% of the variance was at the child level, 11% at the class level, and 3% at the school level. This indicated that a non-negligible amount of variance could not be accounted for by factors at the child level. Furthermore, this variance was mainly associated with differences between classes instead of differences between schools. A set of variables that pertained to sociodemographic characteristics of schools, school facilities, organisational aspects of classrooms, and the teacher did not provide an adequate explanation for the differences in adjustment levels. In contrast to these traditional variables, social network indices yielded substantial correlations, showed consistent trends across the different adjustment measures, and fulfilled the necessary requirement that to explain differences between school classes the predictor variables themselves should differ for classes within the same school. These results suggested that aspects of the interpersonal relations of children in the classroom such as proximity, integration, and the amount of contact could be determinants of differences between school classes in psychosocial adjustment.

The Irrelevance of IQ to the Definition of Learning Disabilities Some Empirical Evidence

The relevance of IQ to the definition of learning disabilities is a much-debated issue. In this article, the effect of not using IQ in the identification of children with reading disabilities is demonstrated. Two classification procedures, differing in their use of IQ, are compared. The first conclusion is that abandoning IQ in classification has a very limited impact on the number of children identified as reading disordered. Our data demonstrate that, if IQ is used, more high IQ children are classified. Another finding pertains to the effect of a restriction of IQ range. The number of children classified as reading disordered is a function of the IQ range.

Perspectives on the classification of specific developmental disorders

Foreword M. Rutter. Section 1: Introduction. Perspectives on the Classification of Specific Developmental Disorders: An Introduction J. Rispens, et al. The Role of SDD in Classification Systems: Historical Overview and Current Status J. Rispens, T.A. van Yperen. Criteria for Research and Clinical Practice: A Critical Discussion W. Yule, B. Maughan. Section 2: Specific Developmental Reading Disorders. The Validity of the Category of Specific Developmental Reading Disorder J. Rispens. What is Specific About the Specific Reading Disorder? H. Remschmidt, et al. The Role of IQ in the Diagnosis of Reading Disorders: The Quest for a Subtype Based on Aptitude Achievement Discrepancy K.E. Stanovich, L.S. Siegel. Section 3: Language Disorders. Is Specific Language Impairment a Valid Diagnostic Category? Genetic and Psycholinguistic Evidence D.V.M. Bishop. The Classification of Speech and Language Disorders H. Amorosa. Specific Language and Speech Disorder: Purifying the Concept T.A. van Yperen. Section 4: Developmental Motor Disorders. Developmental Movement Problems S.E. Henderson, A.L. Barnett. The Classification of Specific Motor Disorders: Implications for Intervention M.M. Schoemaker, et al. Theory-Based Diagnosis and Subclassification in the Developmental Coordination Disorder B.C.M. Smits-Engelsman, et al. On the Relevance of Specific Classifications of Disorders with Particular Focus on DCD, Developmental Coordination Disorder A.F. Kalverboer. The Future of the Concept of Specific Developmental Disorders: Summary and Conclusions T.A. van Yperen, et al.

Some Developmental Implications of Structural Aspects of Preschoolers' Relations with Classmates

Abstract To gain insight into childrens peer relations and their developmental significance, it is important to know not only how many relations children have but also to consider the structure of these relations. To demonstrate this, we used a multiple-study design in which we applied social network analyses to sociometric ratings and nominations from 1,082 4- to 5-year-old children in 83 school classes. Results showed that isolation in the classroom was more strongly associated with the choices that were given than those that were received. Gender plus the negative behavioral characteristics, aggressiveness and rejection, were the most important cues for social clustering. The structure of positive choices reflected the formation of friendship networks, whereas negative choices tended to be given directly to individual “problem” children. Finally, structure indices tapped aspects of childrens relations that were not reflected in the traditional two-dimensional classification system and provided additional explanatory power for predicting developmental outcomes.

The Role of SDD in Classification Systems: Historical Overview and Current Status

Categories of specific developmental disorders (SDD) are part of current classification systems such as ICD and DSM. The term SDD refers to impairments in three domains of development, namely language and speech (communication), scholastic skills, and motor coordination, that cannot be explained in terms of intellectual retardation, physical handicap, or adverse environmental conditions. The categories all share the same pattern of diagnostic criteria: A: The disturbance interferes significantly with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require language, speech, scholastic or motor ability. B: Performance in the developmental domain is substantially below what could be expected, given the person’s chronological age, measured intelligence, and (in case of learning disorders) age-appropriate education. In other words, there is a discrepancy between the observed and the expected performance. C: In the case of language difficulties, the disorder does not meet criteria for a pervasive developmental disorder. In the case of motor coordination problems, criteria for a pervasive developmental disorder are also not met, and the problems are not due to a general medical condition. D: In the case of learning difficulties: if a sensory deficit is present, the difficulties in learning are in excess of those usually associated with a sensory deficit. In the case of language disorders: if mental retardation, a speech-motor or sensory deficit, or environmentally deprivation is present, the language difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with these problems. In the case of motor disorders: if mental retardation is present, the motor difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with mental retardation. Furthermore, the disturbance is not due to a general medical condition and does not meet the criteria for a pervasive developmental disorder.

Het functioneren van zevenjarige kinderen die als baby uit het buitenland werden geadopteerd

SamenvattingIn de hier besproken studie (N = 159) vonden we een risico op gedragsproblemen bij zevenjarige interlandelijk geadopteerde kinderen die als baby in een Nederlands gezin werden opgenomen. De ouders meldden meer gedragsproblemen bij geadopteerde jongens dan bij geadopteerde meisjes. Opmerkelijk is dat ongeveer 30% van de adoptiekinderen op decbcl-schaal voor ‘totale gedragsproblemen’ geclassificeerd werd als ‘klinisch’, wat een veel groter percentage is dan de 10% die gevonden wordt in normatieve groepen. In tegenstelling tot de thuissituatie functioneerden de adoptiekinderen op school goed. Hun schoolprestaties en intelligentie lagen rond of boven het gemiddelde. Ook scoorden de geadopteerde meisjes hoger op optimale ego-controle, sociale competentie en populariteit dan niet-geadopteerde meisjes.

Using DSM diagnoses for clinical, research, and administrative purposes.

Abstract DSM data are often used to build statistics on the types of patients to whom mental health services are offered. These statistics are normally based on broad categories that cluster finer subcategories for specific diagnoses. These broad categories can be built in a number of ways. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the choices made in forming broad DSM categories, by observing the resulting differences in clinical health statistics. Results based on 3496 clinical cases show that DSM-III-(R) classifications can be presented in different formats, leading to different outcomes. To avoid wrong conclusions based on one format, DSM statistics should always be presented in varying formats.