Trudy Festinger

Displacement or Post-Adoption Placement? A Research Note

The purpose of this research note is to propose the use of the term post-adoption placement, a neutral term, in lieu of adoption displacement, which has negative connotations, to describe a childs entry into foster or group care following adoption. Data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) are used to describe 2,642 previously adopted children who entered, and 3,166 previously adopted children who exited public foster and group care in federal fiscal year 2005 to their non-adopted counterparts, 249,562 and 229,409 respectively. The data support the argument that the neutral term is more appropriate because, although these placements can be upsetting, most previously adopted children are reunified with their adoptive parents if their adoptions have not been legally dissolved, or the children are re-adopted if their adoptions have been dissolved.

Adult Recall of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment: A Comparison of Five Scales

The goal of this study was to compare five scales of adult recall of childhood psychological maltreatment. The internal consistency, mean levels, intercorrelations, and associations with demographic variables were examined. Also examined was whether respondents were less likely to endorse items that were general and value laden as opposed to descriptive of specific behaviors. Results revealed high internal consistency, high intercorrelations, a relatively consistent pattern of associations with demographics, and support for the notion that items describing specific behaviors will be endorsed more readily than general value-laden items. Implications for future research in this area are discussed.

Immediate and follow-up effects of a brief disability curriculum on disability knowledge and attitudes of PM&R residents: A comparison group trial

Background: Humanistic attitudes are essential in physicians and therefore supporting them is a key component in graduate medical education (GME). The importance of a physicians attitude toward people with disability is especially relevant within the rehabilitation discipline, as prevailing attitudes and misconceptions can be potential barriers to successful diagnosis and treatment. Aim: This study was designed to examine the relationship between participation in a brief disability sensitivity training and knowledge of disability and attitudes of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) residents toward people with disability. Methods: A daylong training for residents consisted of lectures and a panel presentation that covered (1) disability facts, (2) personal stories of people with disabilities, and (3) medical evaluation of disability. The presentations were followed by a simulation experience where resident pairs (one assigned to a wheel chair, the other a “caretaker”) performed various tasks. This was followed by a group discussion of their experience. Three instruments were administered prior to the training: (1) a brief demographic questionnaire, (2) 30 multiple choice questions measuring various aspects of knowledge about disability, and (3) the Scale of Attitudes toward Disabled Persons, Form R (SADP). After the training experience, the knowledge instrument and the SADP were re-administered along with a series of items to measure various aspects of students’ satisfaction with the training. The three instruments described were re-administered 3 months post-training. Results: There was significant immediate gain in both the disability knowledge and the attitude scores among trainees as compared to a control group of physiatry residents in standard medical training. Knowledge gains of the disability sensitivity training group did not persist, but attitude toward disability gains remained at the 3 months follow up. Conclusion: After a brief curriculum in disability knowledge and sensitivity for PM&R physicians in training, there was a short-term improvement in disability knowledge and an improvement in disability attitudes sustained at 3 months.

Suicidal Thoughts in Adopted Versus Non-Adopted Youth: A Longitudinal Analysis in Adolescence, Early Young Adulthood, and Young Adulthood

Data from 3 waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative database, are used to test complex models addressing the developmental links between child adoption or non-adoption and suicidal ideation across adolescence, early young adulthood, and young adulthood. Diverse developmental dynamics are tested, while controlling for a variety of potential demographic confounds. Models are tested comparing kin and non-kin adopted youth to non-adopted youth, as well as the estimated effects of earlier versus later age at adoption to non-adoption. The models suggest modest differences in suicidal ideation during adolescence, early young adulthood, and young adulthood as a function of being adopted versus not-adopted and being adopted at age 4 years or later versus non-adoption.

Vision status among foster children in NYC: a research note.

Abstract A summary of the results of research on the vision status of foster children. Results indicate that the vision screenings being provided at mandated annual physical examinations are not sufficiently identifying childrens vision dysfunctions.

Mental Health Subgroups Among Vulnerable Emerging Adults, and Their Functioning

Objective: The present study aimed to (a) identify what mental health profiles exist among emerging adults with a history of childhood contact with Child Protective Services (CPS), and (b) examine whether the level of young-adult functioning varies across the profiles. Method: Latent profile analysis was conducted with a nationally representative sample of youths (mean age = 18.99, N = 1,179) who were tracked for an extended time following CPS investigation. Results: A five-profile solution—minimal symptoms, midlevel symptoms, multimorbid, trauma symptoms, and substance problems—provides the best fit for the data. Young-adult functioning levels vary across the profiles with the members of the minimal-symptoms profile functioning better in many domains compared with members of other profiles. Members of the minimal symptoms, the midlevel symptoms, and the multimorbid profiles scored the lowest, the midlevel, and the highest, respectively, across all mental health symptoms. These three profiles were estimated to comprise close to 90% of the study population. Conclusions: The mental health profiles among the study population correspond to symptom severity rather than to specific diagnostic categories. Policy and practice implications are provided.

Book Review: Families for Black Children: The Search for Adoptive Parents. An Experience SurveyFamilies for Black Children: The Search for Adoptive Parents. An Experience Survey. By HerzogElizabethfor Office of Child Development and The George Washington University.Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971. GPO number 1791-0157.

gested by Eriksons analysis, is that values change. The objective of a plan may no longer accord with prevailing values at a future time when it is realized. Value dissensus may be conceived as either synchronic or diachronic. Synchronic dissensus can be compromised, but it is impossible to give the people of the future a voice in decisions made today. Therefore, even democratic long-range planning processes are not really more democratic than oligarchic planning or no planning. For these reasons it is hard to escape the conclusion that the idea of democratic social planning is a contradiction, unless the planning follows a model of disjointed incrementalism with limited short-range objectives. This problem does not seem to concern the contributors to this book. They do not consider systematically the difficulty of reconciling social engineering and democracy, the criteria by which social planners are to define the good society, or the role of groups with divergent values in the planning process. Despite this limitation, the book is valuable. The emphasis in Bell and Maus model on images of the future as variables in social change is an important contribution.