Liam O'Hare

The reliability and validity of the Family Affluence Scale

This article investigates the statistical reliability and validity of a commonly used proxy measure of childrens socio‐economic status, the Family Affluence Scale (Version II). The article is based on a secondary analysis of data taken from a stratified sample of 673 children aged 9–10 years selected from 35 schools. Reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and an exploratory factor analysis are used to assess the various aspects of reliability and validity of the Family Affluence Scale. The findings indicate that the scale has a number of strengths and weaknesses. Its major strengths are that it obtains direct responses from individual children and that it shows some construct validity as a measure of socio‐economic status not captured by other widely used indicators, namely: small area indices of deprivation and ‘eligibility’ for free school meals. However, its flaws include poor measurement reliability and variable construct validity. The article concludes that while the Family Affluence Sca...

A need to belong? The prevalence of experiences of belonging and exclusion in school among minority ethnic children living in the ‘White hinterlands’

Based on a survey of 711 children in Northern Ireland, this paper explores a range of aspects of experiences of belonging and exclusion in relation to school among three main minority ethnic groups: Irish Traveller, Chinese/Asian and European Migrant children. The study examines variations between each group and how they compare to the White settled population. The findings indicate that all three groups experience lower levels of belonging and higher levels of exclusion compared to their White, settled Northern Irish peers. The experiences of Irish Traveller children were the most negative. The article adds to the dearth of data on minority ethnic children living in mainly white regions in the UK and Ireland. It argues for the need to move beyond achievement gaps in assessing minority ethnic childrens differential experiences in education and highlights the potential of belongingness as a concept for the further study of differential patterns of need and processes of inclusion.

Skills and Attributes Developed by Psychology Undergraduates: Ratings by Undergraduates, Postgraduates, Academic Psychologists and Professional Practitioners

The question of graduate skills and attributes is increasingly central in higher education. In addition, the specification of both subject-specific and generic skills for each discipline was part of Quality Assurance Agencys (QAA) benchmarking exercise. This paper reports what skills and attributes are well developed in a psychology degree, through the ratings of four pertinent groups. Fifty student skills and attributes (derived from the QAA Graduate Standards Programme) were rated on a five-point scale by undergraduates (n = 30), postgraduates (n = 42), academic psychologists (n = 20) and professional practitioners (n = 18). Each person was asked to rate how well a psychology degree promoted the development of each skill/attribute. Factor analysis yielded three higher order groupings which were labelled: (i) thinking skills (including interpreting and evaluating information, testing hypotheses, critical reasoning); (ii) self-management skills (including time management, self-discipline, organising,); and (iii) corporate management skills (including managing people and resources, negotiating, networking). Analysis of variance showed that thinking skills were rated highest across all groups, followed by self-management skills. Corporate-management skills were rated as least well developed. However, skill development in general was considered just above average (rated 3.54 on a 5 point scale). For the most part, academics and practitioners rated skill development lower than the student groups. Academics rated thinking skills and professional practitioners rated self-management skills significantly lower than the student groups. All groups agreed that ‘corporate-management skills’ were least well developed in psychology undergraduate courses. The implications of these results for curriculum development, for developing awareness of skills and attributes and for communication between the different groups are discussed.

Summer Active Reading Programme : evaluation report and executive summary

This reports an efficacy trial of a reading for pleasure book-gifting and summer events programme at the transition from primary to secondary school. The trial involved 205 pupils transitioning from 48 primary schools to 10 secondary schools. A process evaluation comprising observations, questionnaires and focus groups examined engagement, stakeholders perspectives and fidelity of implementation.

A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluation of an After-School Prosocial Behavior Program in an Area of Socioeconomic Disadvantage

A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the effects of a prosocial behavior after-school program called Mate-Tricks for 9- and 10-year-old children and their parents living in an area of significant socioeconomic disadvantage. The children were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 220) or a control group (n = 198). Children were compared on measures of prosocial behavior, antisocial behavior, and related outcome measures. The trial found adverse effects on four outcomes among the intervention group compared to the control group: antisocial behavior increased on two different measures (d = 0.20) and (d = 0.18), child-reported liberal parenting increased (d = 0.16), and child reported authoritarian parenting also increased (d = 0.20). In addition, parental participation was significantly associated with several program outcomes. It was concluded, that group based after-school behavior programs may have the potential to cause iatrogenic effects and must be designed, piloted, evaluated and implemented with a high degree of care.

The reliability and validity of a child and adolescent participation in decision-making questionnaire

BACKGROUND There is a growing impetus across the research, policy and practice communities for children and young people to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Furthermore, there is a dearth of general instruments that measure children and young peoples views on their participation in decision-making. This paper presents the reliability and validity of the Child and Adolescent Participation in Decision-Making Questionnaire (CAP-DMQ) and specifically looks at a population of looked-after children, where a lack of participation in decision-making is an acute issue. METHODS The participants were 151 looked after children and adolescents between 10-23 years of age who completed the 10 item CAP-DMQ. Of the participants 113 were in receipt of an advocacy service that had an aim of increasing participation in decision-making with the remaining participants not having received this service. RESULTS The results showed that the CAP-DMQ had good reliability (Cronbachs alpha = 0.94) and showed promising uni-dimensional construct validity through an exploratory factor analysis. The items in the CAP-DMQ also demonstrated good content validity by overlapping with prominent models of child and adolescent participation (Lundy 2007) and decision-making (Halpern 2014). A regression analysis showed that age and gender were not significant predictors of CAP-DMQ scores but receipt of advocacy was a significant predictor of scores (effect size d = 0.88), thus showing appropriate discriminant criterion validity. CONCLUSION Overall, the CAP-DMQ showed good reliability and validity. Therefore, the measure has excellent promise for theoretical investigation in the area of child and adolescent participation in decision-making and equally shows empirical promise for use as a measure in evaluating services, which have increasing the participation of children and adolescents in decision-making as an intended outcome.