Jeffrey J. Haugaard

IS ADOPTION A RISK FACTOR FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS

The extent to which being adopted increases a childs risk for the development of adjustment problems has been debated for decades. Results from studies examining prevalence of adopted children and adolescents in outpatient and inpatient mental health treatment suggest that the risk associated with adoption is modest or nonexistent. This body of research is reviewed and critiqued. Two possible explanations for the apparent disparate findings of the clinically based and nonclinically based studies are explored: biases in referral for mental health treatment and the influence of the shape of the distribution of adjustment problems in the adopted and nonadopted populations. Implications for clinical practice and future research are explored.

Prevention of child sexual abuse. Myth or reality.

Programs to prevent child sexual abuse have proliferated as a result of increased public awareness and professional documentation of its incidence. We describe the content and format of these prevention programs in general and examine selected programs for effectiveness. Although there is limited evidence for an increase in knowledge for program participants, most evaluations suffer from basic design problems and present few results indicative of either primary prevention or detection. Overall, we argue that self-protection against sexual abuse is a very complex process for any child and that few, if any, prevention programs are comprehensive enough to have a meaningful impact on this process. Finally, we discuss several untested assumptions that guide these programs. We conclude that it is unclear whether prevention programs are working or even that they are more beneficial than harmful.

Long-Term Effects of Witnessing Marital Violence for Women: The Contribution of Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse

A sample of 313 college women completed a questionnaire about experiences with violence in childhood and adulthood and adult adjustment and relationship functioning. Nine percent of the women reported having witnessed some type of physical conflict between their parents. Witnessing marital violence was associated with other family mental health risks, childhood physical and sexual abuse, and adult physical assaults by strangers. Women who witnessed marital violence reported more symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder than other women, after family background and abuse variables were accounted for. Significant interactions between witnessing marital violence and childhood physical abuse were observed for measures of social avoidance and predictability in partner relationships, indicating that the effects of witnessing marital violence depended on the presence of childhood abuse. Implications of these results for research and interventions are discussed.

Adoption as a natural experiment

Adoption provides a unique opportunity for the study of child development. Because adopted children are raised in families in which they have no genetic relationship with their parents, and possibly none with their siblings, they provide a rare opportunity to study the relative importance of genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental influences on the development of child characteristics and behaviors. Because children are adopted from a variety of circumstances and at a wide range of ages, studies of adopted children and their families provide researchers the opportunity to examine the short- and long-term influences of a wide range of environments on childrens development. Because children are adopted into homes with a range of characteristics (e.g., multiracial homes), adoption provides the opportunity to study the range of influences of these homes on child development. Adoption research that focuses on each of these areas is reviewed in this article. We present conclusions about the value of adoption in psychological research and some reasons why many psychologists ignore the opportunities presented by studying adoptive families, as well as potential useful directions for future research with adopted children and their families.

Stalking and other forms of intrusive contact after the dissolution of adolescent dating or romantic relationships.

Social science research has recently begun to focus on stalking and other forms of intrusive contact occurring among adolescents and young adults. This article presents results from a survey of 681 undergraduates about their experiences with stalking or other forms of intrusive contact occurring after the end of a dating or romantic relationship. Twenty percent of the respondents had been the target of intrusive contact, 8% had initiated intrusive contact, and 1% had been the target of intrusive contact after one relationship and had initiated intrusive contact after another. More females than males were the target of intrusive contact; however, there were no sex differences associated with initiating intrusive contact. About 20% of the respondents had feared for their safety during the intrusive contact. Thirty-one percent of the respondents described the intrusive contact as having a decidedly negative influence on either their subsequent dating relationships or their lives in general.

Characteristics predicting children's responses to sexual encounters with other children.

The replies to a survey of more than 1,000 undergraduates concerning childhood sexual encounters are reported. Linear structural equation modeling is employed to analyze which characteristics of the sexual encounters with other children were associated with more positive or negative responses by subjects. Approximately 42% of the subjects reported a childhood sexual encounter with another child. Most encounters involved sexual kissing or exposing of genitalia, and they generally occurred with a friend. High levels of coercion from the other child to gain the subjects cooperation, homosexual encounters, and encounters with those other than friends predicted a more negative response. The type of sexual activity was not associated with response. Subjects who experienced a high level of coercion from another child reacted to their sexual encounter similarly to other subjects who had a sexual encounter with an adult, while those who experienced low levels of coercion rated their encounter with a child more positively.

Children's Definitions of the Truth and Their Competency as Witnesses in Legal Proceedings*

Young childrens competency as witnesses in legal proceedings has been debated during the past several years. This has been due in part to greater emphasis on prosecuting perpetrators of child sexual abuse and the consequent increase in the number of children being asked to testify at the trial of their alleged abusers. Little basic research has been done on one component of competency: childrens definitions of the truth and lies. In this article, federal and state rules of evidence and case law regarding childrens competency are reviewed. Previous investigations of childrens definitions of lies are then presented, followed by a description of a more recent experiment. The results of this experiment suggest that children do have definitions of the truth in one regard that make it appropriate for them to be considered competent witnesses. The results also raise concerns about young childrens eyewitness ability.

Child Maltreatment and Adulthood Violence: The Contribution of Attachment and Drug Abuse

This study examined the association between child maltreatment and adult violence in a high-risk sample of women with and without a history of cocaine abuse and the contribution of working models of childhood attachment relationships in understanding this association. Results indicated that whereas childhood physical abuse was associated with adult sexual victimization for cocaine-abusing women, sexual abuse was associated with both partner violence victimization and perpetration for comparison women. Insecure working models of attachment were associated with partner violence victimization for comparison women, independent of the effect of sexual abuse. These findings suggest the importance of research focused on understanding the processes by which child maltreatment may lead to later violence and that examines both childhood and adulthood experiences in understanding pathways to adult violence.

Stalking and Other Forms of Intrusive Contact among Adolescents and Young Adults from the Perspective of the Person Initiating the Intrusive Contact

As concern about stalking in domestic situations has heightened, increased attention has been paid to stalking and other forms of intrusive contact among adolescents and young adults. However, limited information about these relationships from the perspective of the person initiating the intrusive contact is available. This study describes the experiences of 52 undergraduates who acknowledged initiating intrusive contact after the breakup of a dating or romantic relationship. From a survey of 631 undergraduates, 7% of the females and 11% of the males initiated intrusive contact that lasted at least 2 weeks after the end of their relationship. Characteristics of the intrusive contact, the relationships in which it occurred, and those who initiated the intrusive contact are described.

Recognizing and treating uncommon behavioral and emotional disorders in children and adolescents who have been severely maltreated: reactive attachment disorder.

This article explores reactive attachment disorder, a disorder that has been linked to severe and chronic maltreatment. The fundamental concepts of attachment theory are reviewed briefly, and the two types of behaviors associated with reactive attachment disorder in children and adolescents are discussed. Treatment strategies are explored, including the controversial holding or rebirthing strategies.