John Doris

School Performance and Disciplinary Problems among Abused and Neglected Children.

This study investigated the relationship of child abuse and neglect to academic achievement and discipline problems in a school-age population. A representative community sample of 420 maltreated children in kindergarten through Grade 12 were matched with 420 nonmaltreated children in the same community

Substantiation of child abuse and neglect reports.

A representative sample of 796 sexual abuse, 198 physical abuse, and 880 child neglect reports in New York State in 1985 was examined to identify case factors that predict the substantiation of the reports following an investigation by child protective services. This issue has taken on added significance as the number of child maltreatment reports continues to rise, whereas the percentage of those being substantiated declines. Regression analyses revealed that reports from professionals were substantiated at a significantly higher rate than reports from nonprofessionals for all types of maltreatment. These analyses further revealed that part of the effect of source of report was due to differences between professional and nonprofessional reports in the types of actions taken after the report was received. The most important predictors of substantiation, after source of report, were the variables that reflected the case investigatory process. The data also showed that background characteristics, such as the childs ethnicity or the number of children in the household, had some impact on the outcome of the investigation and that this varied as a function of the type of maltreatment.

The nature and substantiation of official sexual abuse reports

A representative sample of 796 sexual abuse reports from New York State in 1985 was studied to explore factors associated with the decision to substantiate or unsubstantiate these reports. This study focused on the age, sex, and ethnicity of the subject child, and the source of the report as predictors of case substantiation. Substantiation rates tended to increase with the age of the child although this was more characteristic of reports involving female than male victims. Overall, reports involving female children were more likely to be substantiated than those involving male children. Ethnicity of the child showed no significant relationship to substantiation. Source of report, however, showed a strong relationship to case determination, with mandated reports found to be substantiated at a rate 13% higher than reports from non-mandated sources.

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure and Child Welfare Outcomes

This study examines the relationship between prenatal cocaine exposure and child welfare outcomes. Seventy-six infants positive for cocaine at birth were matched to 76 negative infants. With prenatal care and maternal use of alcohol and tobacco controlled, cocaine-exposed infants had significant decrements in birth weight, length, head circumference, and depressed 5-min Apgar scores. This confirmed the health risk of prenatal cocaine exposure for the sample. Three-year follow-up data were obtained from the State Central Register and foster care records. Adjusting for prior maternal involvement with child welfare services the study groups did not differ in incidents of child maltreatment or foster care placement. These findings suggest that prenatal cocaine exposure is not a marker for abusive parenting. However, from the perspective of a cumulative risk model, the identification of cocaine-exposed infants at birth can form the starting point for the development of appropriate diagnostic and follow-up services for mother and child.

Migrants and Maltreatment: Comparative Evidence from Central Register Data.

This paper reports the results of a series of studies on the abuse and neglect of migrant farmworker children. These investigations were conducted between 1983 and 1985 in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas. Names of approximately 24,000 migrant children obtained from annual migrant education censuses were individually cross-referenced with the appropriate state data bases to determine if they had been involved in a confirmed incident of maltreatment. The information acquired was converted to incidence estimates that were contrasted with the rates for all children in the respective states and were decomposed to identify high-risk cohorts within the migrant population. One finding common to all five assessments was that migrant children were significantly more likely to be maltreated than other children, although these incidence rates varied appreciably from one state to another. The emphasis of this paper is on the unique methodology employed in the research, issues pertaining to provisions for accessing central registers and protecting confidentiality of subjects, the generalizability of the findings, and cross-state incidence differentials for both migrants and children from nonmigrant families.

Brightness discrimination in infancy

Abstract Optokinetic nystagmus was elicited in 16 infants, 4 to 69 days of age, by a projected field of moving black and white stripes. The brightness of the field was varied and the minimum intensity eliciting a response was considered the threshold. In the technique used, variations in the intensity of the white stripe also involved variations in the relative intensity of white and black. Therefore, the Weber fraction as well as the difference between white and black stripes was calculated for each threshold. These two measures of threshold response were correlated with age. In both instances the relationship with age was strong and significant, indicating that brightness sensitivity undergoes rapid development in the first two months of life.

Child maltreatment among U.S. east coast migrant farm workers

This paper reports findings from a study that was conducted in 1983 to determine the incidence and patterns of child maltreatment among migrant farm worker families who reside in or travel through the Atlantic coastal region known as the Eastern Stream. These results are based on responses to a multipurpose mailed questionnaire that was administered to a sample of 2,207 migrant educators. Educational personnel from 14 of the 22 Eastern Stream states participated in this survey, which was designed to elicit information on the incidence of maltreatment in this population. The survey considered 13 different indicators of child abuse and neglect and six maltreatment forms. Another segment of the instrumentation secured information on the migrant population with which the respondents had direct contact so that an incidence rate could be formulated. The study conclusively established that the incidence of child maltreatment rate among migrant farm worker families, as perceived by migrant educators, was substantially higher than the rate observed for the population as a whole or even for families with approximately the same socioeconomic status. Comparative data are presented to place this primary research result in perspective and a more precise overall incidence estimate is derived. Differential rates of abuse and neglect within the migrant population and the factors that contribute to them are also considered.

Differential brightness thresholds in infancy

Abstract Differential brightness thresholds in infants were investigated by elicitation of optokinetic nystagmus to a moving field of alternate light- and dark-grey stripes. The contrast between the light and dark stripes was varied on successive trials by changing the brightness of the lighter stripes. The smallest contrast which elicited nystagmic movements of the eyes and the largest contrast which failed to elicit these pursuit movements were recorded for each infant. The differential brightness threshold or Weber fraction was assumed to lie midway between these minimal suprathreshold and maximal subthreshold contrasts. Using this procedure with ten neonates, from 1 to 4 days of age, and 10 older infants from 45 to 113 days of age, the average Weber fractions were .50 and .26, respectively. This difference, significant at the .001 level, was taken as evidence for the rapid development of brightness discrimination in the first months of life.

Commentary on criteria-based content analysis

Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) may be viewed as an attempt to construct a standardized procedure for determining the evidentiary value of a testimonial statement. Its theoretical basis is the “Undeutsch Hypothesis” that asserts that truthful accounts differ “significantly and noticeably” from false accounts and that these differences can be defined in terms of explicitly stated criteria. In his interesting and authoritative account of the development of Statement Reality Analysis-of which CBCA forms a part-Professor Udo Undeutsch asserts that: “The scientific assessment of the truthfulness of a testimonial statement rests on two pillars: the interview and the analysis of the obtained statement. Together they form one methodological whole.” (1989, p. 116). Relevant to the first pillar, Lamb, Sternberg, & Esplin (1994) have summarized much recent research on the interviewing of children and, basing themselves on that research and their own clinical experience, have presented a thoughtful set of recommendations for obtaining accurate information from the child utilizing forensically defensible interviewing techniques. These recommendations would receive further support from the extensive review of the research literature on the suggestibility of children provided by Ceci and Bruck (1993a) and by their more recent account of the policy implications of this research as it effects the conduct of interviews and the court testimony of experts related to such interviews (Ceci & Bruck, 1993b). Thus, there is growing acceptance in the field that although children-even pre-school children-can provide informative and credible information regarding abusive situations there is need for careful, systematic, non-suggestive, and well-documented interviews conducted by thoroughly trained and sensitive investigators. Such acceptance would support the first of Undeutsch’s two methodological pillars. The second pillar is the analysis of the obtained statement, which brings us to a consideration of CBCA. As Undeutsch indicated in his 1989 article, the analysis of statements for their credibility is for all of us a part of everyday life. What was unique and innovative for the forensic psychologists practicing in the European courts in the 1950s and

Science, Action, and Values in Familial Retardation

the interactions of science, value systems, and social action programs, especially in the area of mental retardation. They have made the point that science never directly dictates a social action program. That is, scientific facts and theories about the nature of man and his environment do not in themselves dictate how we solve social problems. It is only when those facts and theories are placed in the perspectiveof a valuesystem that they suggest solutions to our problems. In fact, whatever our society chooses to define as a social problem is in itself determined by our value systems. Sarason & Doris further stated that in this age of high prestige for expertise and science, there is the danger that when we call upon an expert or scientist to solve our social problems, we may not distinguish between his expertise and his value system. In fact, the expert or scientist himself is seldom consciously aware of this distinction or, i f he is, he considers it unimportant or irrelevant to the issue at hand. At any rate, he seldom publicly makes this distinction evident. Instead, his value system is more or less implicitly embedded in his assumptions, his arguments, and his conclusionsthe latter being expressed as his recommendations for action. Therefore, it is incumbent upon a public clamoring for action on its social problems, and listening eagerly to all proposed solutions, to be constantly alert to the distinction between the knowledge of facts and theories that the expert or scientist applies to the problems of society and the value system by which he selects and applies them. Should thevalue system change, the facts and theories selected may change or be reinterpreted to suggest Science, Action, and Values in Familial Retardation JOHN DORIS, Ph.D. Cornell University