Adult Authority Figures Research Articles

Child Sexual Abuse of Elite Athletes: Prevalence, Perceptions, and Mental Health

ABSTRACT Despite a series of high-profile media reports of sexual abuse in sport over the past few years, little research has been done to explore the scope of the problem in the United States. The current article reports on prevalence of child sexual assault in elite athletes in the United States. Using a retrospective web survey, adults answered questions on their experiences in sport. Of the 473 elite athletes surveyed, 3.8% (n = 18) reported being sexual assaulted as a minor in the sporting context. Of those reporting assault, most (61%) reported being abused by an adult authority figure (usually a coach) and 44% reported being assaulted by a peer. Abused athletes were significantly more likely to report having been diagnosed with a mental disorder (Fisher’s exact test; p < .001). The findings can be utilized to improve prevention and child protection measures and other safeguarding initiatives in sport.

Exploring children's understanding of law in their everyday lives

AbstractThis paper sets out the findings of an exploratory study that, drawing on the so-called ‘new sociology of childhood’, has theorised the child as a competent social actor and conjectured that, on this basis, whilst they might lack formal legal capacity, children may nevertheless possess legal capability. Taking a child-first (as opposed to a law-first) approach, the study has sought to assess children's legal understanding using digital gaming as a research tool. We have identified as an area of particular strength children's attitudes to gender equality, and we have determined that many children demonstrate competency to deal with consumer-related issues appropriately. However, at the other extreme, we have established that children demonstrate considerable uncertainty concerning the levels of force that adult authority figures are permitted to exercise over them. We have found in the course of this study that children are competent and willing to express their views on matters that concern them. However, they do not expect to be invited to do this in their day-to-day lives. Related to this we have found a vast lack of awareness among children concerning the rights afforded to them under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Young children consider individual authority and collective agreement when deciding who can change rules

Young children demonstrate awareness of normativity in various domains of social learning. It is unclear, however, whether children recognize that rules can be changed in certain contexts and by certain people or groups. Across three studies, we provided empirical evidence that children consider individual authority and collective agreement when reasoning about who can change rules. In Study 1, children aged 4–7years watched videos of children playing simply sorting and stacking games in groups or alone. Across conditions, the group game was initiated (a) by one child, (b) by collaborative agreement, or (c) by an adult authority figure. In the group games with a rule initiated by one child, children attributed ability to change rules only to that individual and not his or her friends, and they mentioned ownership and authority in their explanations. When the rule was initiated collaboratively, older children said that no individual could change the rule, whereas younger children said that either individual could do so. When an adult initiated the rule, children stated that only the adult could change it. In contrast, children always endorsed a child’s decision to change his or her own solitary rule and never endorsed any child’s ability to change moral and conventional rules in daily life. Age differences corresponded to beliefs about friendship and agreement in peer play (Study 2) and disappeared when the decision process behind and normative force of collaboratively initiated rules were clarified (Study 3). These results show important connections between normativity and considerations of authority and collaboration during early childhood.

Behavioral Assessment and Treatment of Noncompliance: A Review of the Literature

Abstract Noncompliance is a common behavior problem exhibited by typically developing children, as well as individuals with intellectual disabilities, and is correlated with a number of psychiatric diagnoses later in life. We begin this manuscript by describing the definition and prevalence of noncompliance. We then review the assessment procedures that can be used to identify the variables contributing to noncompliance among children. Finally, we describe recent research on both antecedent and consequence-based treatments for noncompliance. A number of specific interventions, including advance notice, the high-p instructional sequence, prompting precursor behaviors, guided compliance, and differential reinforcement, are highlighted. Throughout the review, we provide specific recommendations for practice. Keywords: assessment, compliance, noncompliance, treatment ********** Noncompliance is defined as doing anything other than what has been requested by a parent or other adult authority figure within a specific time frame (Kalb & Loeber, 2003). Compliance is the inverse of this definition. Although the term noncompliance does not pass the dead man's test (i.e., "if a dead man can do it, it's not behavior"; Malott & Suarez, 2004, p. 9), it has a long history of use and will, therefore, be described in this review. Persistent noncompliance is correlated with a number of psychiatric diagnoses later in life (Kalb & Loeber, 2003), and has been consistently rated as a primary reason for referral by parents who seek outpatient behavioral or mental-health services (McMahon & Forehand, 2003). Even at pediatrician's offices, where parents seek general medical services, noncompliance is often a parent's top concern (McMahon & Forehand, 2003). Furthermore, noncompliance may be even more worrisome for parents of children with special needs (e.g., autism spectrum disorders) because it is correlated with poor academic progress among these children (Wehby & Lane, 2009). Finally, noncompliance is important because learning to comply with instructions is regarded by many as a behavioral cusp (Bosch & Fuqua, 2001), in that it is a skill that makes learning other skills possible. A post-instruction interval is typically included in the definition of compliance, which describes when children must initiate a response for their behavior to be considered compliant (Forehand, Roberts, Doleys, Hobbs, & Resick, 1976). Wruble, Sheeber, Sorensen, Boggs, and Eyberg (1991) analyzed the behavior of 15 nonreferred preschool children-mother pairs during parent-directed interaction and cleanup. The experimenters determined that on 85% of opportunities, children initiated compliance within 5.4 s of the parental instruction, and suggested the time of 5.4 s as the threshold for a child to be considered compliant. A more recent study by Shriver and Allen (1997) used procedures similar to Wruble et al. (1991), albeit with both referred (i.e., children who have received behavioral health services) and nonreferred children-mother pairs, and identified average initiation latencies of 5.9 s for the total sample, 5.4 s for referred children, and 6.71 s for nonreferred children. Taken together, the results from Wruble et al. (1991) and Shriver and Allen (1997) underscore the difficulty in determining a standard initiation latency for compliance. Due to this, many authors now use 10 s as the post-instruction interval. Although the prevalence of noncompliance has not been well documented, estimates suggest it is common. A review by Kalb arid Loeber (2003) estimated the prevalence of noncompliance in children and adolescents to be between 25% and 65%. Approximately 50% of parents of nonreferred 4- to 7-year-olds report noncompliance at home and approximately 85% of parents of referred 4- to 7-year-olds report noncompliance at home (McMahon & Forehand, 2003). These data suggest that noncompliance is ubiquitous, particularly among young children. …

Re-imagining Horror in Children's Animated Film

Re-imagining Horror in Children's Animated Film

Teen Dating Abuse: A Paradigm for Mental Health Counselors

Teen dating abuse (TDA) is a serious public health problem affecting almost half of all adolescents in the United States. Because of the developmental characteristics of adolescence such as identity confusion and rejection of adult authority figures, counseling adolescents who are experiencing TDA can be particularly challenging. This article describes the types of abuse, the early warning signs of abuse, and effective strategies that mental health counselors can use to counsel and educate teen victims of TDA and others.

How to Be Yourself: Ideological Interpellation, Weight Control, and YA Novels

How to Be Yourself: Ideological Interpellation, Weight Control, and YA Novels Dorothy Karlin (bio) Ginny is too fat. Lia is too skinny. You, dear teen reader, may also have issues with your weight, and we have books for you, particularly if you are female. Read them! With their guidance, you will learn to take control of your weight, wresting it from the machinations and manipulations of adult authority figures and the media. Not only will you be happier and healthier, but you will also blossom into a productive member of society. If you have not encountered Ginny and Lia yet, they inhabit recent YA novels that seek to redress prevalent depictions of female teenagers. Virginia “Ginny” Shreves is the protagonist of Carolyn Mackler’s 2003 novel The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, and Lia is the protagonist of Laurie Halse Anderson’s 2009 novel Wintergirls. Slightly overweight, Ginny obsesses over her body and the reactions it engenders in family, friends, and classmates. Anorexic Lia obsesses over her body as well, monitoring her food intake and exercising compulsively. With their messages of body acceptance, these two novels seem to offer alternatives to much YA fiction, which frequently reinforces prevalent cultural messages valorizing thinness and equating larger bodies with moral transgression. On closer examination, however, both novels further the same ideological process they ostensibly criticize, working only to author an alternative template for its expression. These adult-authored books guide readers through a policing of their bodies, intervening between a girl and her appetites. Young adult literature often showcases ideological interpellation on a general scale, as adolescent characters become aware of social power structures [End Page 72] and learn how to operate within them. As Roberta Seelinger Trites writes, adolescent novels focus on protagonists who “learn to negotiate the levels of power that exist in the myriad social institutions within which they must function, including family; school; the church; social constructions of sexuality, gender, race, class; and cultural mores surrounding death” (3). While this negotiation requires intellectual compliance, ideology does not exist solely in ideas but in actions and practices as well. Ideological interpellation has a strong corporeal element, and with its ideological thrust, YA literature works to regulate how adolescents shape and then inhabit their bodies. Characters in young adult novels demonstrate how to affect—in a literal, bodily way—the “reproduction of submission to the ruling ideology” (Althusser 133). Typically written by adults, YA novels inevitably contain an adult viewpoint and agenda that Perry Nodelman has dubbed “the hidden adult.” The messages transmitted have physical ramifications, given that a focus on the body serves to make teen readers aware of their own physical presence outside of the imagined space of reading. For better or for worse, the novels ask readers to identify with the protagonists and to recognize certain eating practices and behaviours as unhealthy and unproductive. Considered as part of a broader ideological phenomenon, YA novels work alongside magazines and other media in targeting young girls and featuring pervasive, often explicit and decidedly gendered directives for makeup, clothing, exercise, and diet. Instead of including step-by-step instructions or glossy photographs of supposed ideals, YA novels provide models for behaviour by showing characters dealing with rules about self-presentation. In particular, such novels often regulate body size and appropriate eating; they reward characters who lose weight through dieting and, in doing so, work to circumscribe the corporeal experience of adolescence. In her 1998 article “The Portrayal of Obese Adolescents,” Rachel Beineke describes her search for protagonists that reflected her obese, female adolescent self. She discovered novels that target middle-grade audiences primarily but included some YA titles, among them Paula Danziger’s The Cat Ate My Gym Suit, Jan Greenberg’s The Pig-Out Blues, and Robert Lipsyte’s One Fat Summer. The plots of these novels resemble the narratives of recent YA texts such as Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, Sasha Paley’s Huge, and Donna Cooner’s Skinny: The novels look at the pressure families place on their children to lose weight and even those who neglect their children because they are overweight. The books also look at...

Coping with natural disasters in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: A study of elementary school teachers

The nation of Indonesia is in an area of geological instability, resulting in repeated and severe natural disasters including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Teachers, as adult authority figures and people with whom students spend a majority of their day, can play a major role in the lives of children in a disaster-prone community. Four years after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that devastated a primarily rural community in Central Java, we studied 43 elementary school teachers from six primary schools who are responsible for educating hundreds of students annually. First, we examined the relationship between post-earthquake distress and teacher beliefs about efficacy and teacher-reported classroom behavior. Second, we designed a brief psychosocial skills-based intervention to reduce teacher distress and support their capacity to reduce student distress and improve student achievement. Finally, we assessed the impact of this intervention on reducing teacher distress and on improving student behavior and school performance over time. Analyses revealed a significant relationship between teachers’ depression and self-reported negative classroom behavior, a significant relationship between teachers’ posttraumatic distress and general beliefs about teacher efficacy, and a significant drop in depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms from before to after the intervention. This research extends a growing body of research on the potential role of teachers in assisting students in coping with chronic stress in their community. Lessons learned from this program of research can inform schools, school personnel, and long-term community intervention efforts following disasters across the world.

An Analysis of the Relationship between Victimization and Violent Behavior at School

Previous studies have identified two subgroups of school violence victims: submissive and aggressive. Submissive victims are characterized by their withdrawal in violent situations, while aggressive victims combine hostile behavior with victimization. This study focuses on the second subgroup and aims to analyze possible factors influencing the transition from passive victimization to involvement in aggressive behaviors within the school context. To test these relationships, 1319 adolescents between 12 and 16 years of age were recruited from seven secondary schools in various Spanish provinces. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to analyze the data. Results supported Emler's theory, which posits that the victim's helplessness in situations of intimidation, along with disappointment resulting from a lack of expected protection from adult authority figures, may result in adolescents searching and developing an antisocial and non-conformist reputation that helps them defend themselves against future attacks. Practical implications of these results are further discussed.

Interpersonal Barriers to Stopping Animal Abuse

Research into bystander apathy has focused on the barriers to intervening when the perpetrators and witnesses of violence are strangers. Although violence also occurs in the presence of friends, family, and other close ties, it is unclear how these affiliations constrain the behavior of bystanders in these situations. To explore this question, qualitative interviews were conducted with 25 adolescents who were bystanders to animal abuse committed and/or witnessed by family members, friends, or known others. Most interviewees claimed that, despite feeling disturbed by the animal abuse, they did little if anything to stop the abuse and did not report it to adult authority figures. Friendship norms and breeches presented most interviewees with significant barriers that either stopped or tempered their interventions. Implications of these findings are discussed for educating adolescents to intervene on behalf of abused animals.

Cuando las víctimas de violencia escolar se convierten en agresores: “¿Quién va a defenderme?”

Estudios previos han identificado dos subgrupos de víctimas de violencia escolar: víctimas sumisas y víctimas agresivas. Las víctimas sumisas se caracterizan por su retraimiento ante la situación de violencia, mientras que las víctimas agresivas presentan un comportamiento hostil combinado con la situación de victimización. El presente estudio se centra en el segundo subgrupo y tiene como objetivo analizar posibles factores influyentes en el proceso que conduce del estado de victimización a la implicación en conductas agresivas en la escuela. La asunción de partida se fundamenta en la teoría de Emler que sostiene que el sentimiento de indefensión producido por la situación de victimización, junto con la decepción en las figuras adultas de autoridad ante su fracaso en la protección esperada, generan en el adolescente la necesidad de buscar una reputación antisocial y no conformista que le permita defenderse de los ataques venideros. Para poner a prueba estas relaciones, se ha utilizado una muestra compuesta por 1.319 adolescentes de entre 12 y 16 años. Los análisis estadísticos mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales muestran resultados en la línea de la argumentación de Emler. En la discusión se comentan las implicaciones prácticas de estos resultados.

The Reproduction of Inequalities Through Emotional Capital: The Case of Socializing Low-Income Black Girls

The concept of emotional capital suggests that adults transfer emotion management skills to children in ways that are consequential for the social reproduction of inequalities. Using ethnographic data from a popular after-school program, this study analyzes the emotional capital transmitted to low-income black girls by staff. They passed on four aspects of emotional capital: stifling attitude, being emotionally accountable for peers, sympathizing with adult authority figures, and emotional distancing from cultural “dysfunction.” Staff intended to teach girls to manage their emotions as a way to counteract racism, but the socialization largely promoted emotional deference, thereby reinforcing racialized, classed, and gendered ideologies.

Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Depressive Disorders

Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Depressive Disorders

From Snow White to Digimon

Parents, educators and social commentators have repeatedly claimed that passive media consumption can harm children. Building on recent attempts to understand how children actively interpret media, the authors use an interpretive model of socialization to analyze fieldnote excerpts from a Taiwanese kindergarten and first grade. Contrary to popular opinion, the findings demonstrate that young children did not simply internalize and reproduce the messages received from media or adult authority figures. Instead the authors found that children actively incorporated popular media into their peer cultures through knowledge displays, play planning episodes and collective play. Further, the children in this study used popular media to enact, explore and resist the Confucian values of being a good student, a good family member and a good peer.

Ethical issues in psychotherapy with adolescents.

Treating adolescents in psychotherapy presents a number of unique ethical challenges. Because many adolescents who enter treatment have not yet attained the age of majority, reside in families that include other people with emotional difficulties, attend school, become involved with community agencies (e.g., the courts), and must generally take direction from adult authority figures, the role of the therapist becomes particularly complex. The unique dilemmas include developing specialized clinical competence, treatment contracting, choice of treatment modality, direction of the therapeutic process, and confidentiality. This article discusses the range of ethical concerns involved in treating adolescents and suggests strategies for optimal ethical care.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Youth in South Africa

This article provides an overview of commercial exploitation, with a focus on commercial sexual exploitation of Black children and youth in South Africa. A literature review on research on the labor exploitation among youth globally and in South Africa and on the commercial sexual exploitation of South African youth is presented first. International and national policy proclamations related to South African youth are highlighted. Second, findings from a study of Black South African youth who engaged in commercial sexual activities in Cape Town are presented. Third, conclusions and recommendations to consider the complex social, educational, economic, and political aspects of child exploitation are offered. This includes implications for further research, policy, and programs to assist this group of youth and their families. The benefits of economic globalization, internationalization, and free trade have brought with them an unanticipated set of social problems. Among them is a dramatic rise world-wide in the incidence of child exploitation. Child sexual exploitation is one of the most virulent forms of this exploitation and includes child sexual abuse. Commercial sexual exploitation of children, is the other, and includes child pornography, juvenile prostitution, trafficking in children for sexual purposes, and child sex tourism (Estes, 2002). This article provides an overview of commercial exploitation of Black children and youth in South Africa, with an emphasis on commercial sexual exploitation. First, it includes a literature review in three areas: (a) labor exploitation among youth globally and in South Africa; (b) commercial sexual exploitation of South African youth; and (c) international and national proclamations related to South African youth. This includes abbreviated information from policy proclamations such as the South African Constitution, the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, World Declaration of the Survival, Protection, and Development of Children, and the Declaration and Agenda for Action by the World Congress against Commercial Exploitation of Children. Second, selected findings from ethnographic research on Black urban street youth who engaged in commercial sexual activities in Cape Town, South Africa, are presented. Third, conclusions and recommendations to consider the complex social, educational, economic, and political aspects of child exploitation are offered. Major findings indicate that limited knowledge about HIV/AIDS did not translate into safer sexual practices. This includes implications for further research, policy, and programs to assist this group of youth and their families. LITERATURE REVIEW Labor Exploitation among Youth Globally and in South Africa The International Labor Organization (ILO) in May 2002 found that 179 million children worldwide are exposed to the worst forms of child exploitation-labor, slavery, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography, drug trafficking, forced armed military conflict, and other illicit activities. These activities are self-explanatory although debt bondage may not be widely known. It refers to payment to an adult authority figure in a child's life in exchange for a child with the proviso that the child will have to earn the money back. The expectation of both child and parent (or guardian) is usually that the child will be released once the debt has been paid. Regarding child labor, the widespread exploitation of millions of children in the workplace has become a global concern resulting in a worldwide effort to abolish child labor. The ILO reports that 250 million children, globally, between the ages of 5 and 14 are forced to work. Child labor is most widespread in Asia, an area where nearly 153 million children, over half of the global total, are forced to work under hazardous conditions (Budlender & Bosch, 2002). South Africa has approximately 44 million people with one-third under 15 years of age, the age at which, legally a child in South Africa may begin work (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, n. …

The behavioral risks and life circumstances of adolescent mothers involved with older adult partners.

To investigate behavioral risks and life circumstances of adolescent mothers with older (> or =5 years) adult (> or =20 years old) vs. similar-aged (+/-2 years) male partners at 12 months' postpartum. Nine hundred thirty-one adolescent females were interviewed after delivery and were mailed surveys to complete at 12 months' postpartum. Analysis by chi(2) and t test was used to identify differences in behavioral risks (planned repeated pregnancy, substance use, and intimate partner violence) and life circumstances (financial status, school enrollment, and social support) for adolescent mothers with older adult vs similar-aged partners. Additional stratified analyses were conducted to evaluate the extent to which living with an adult authority figure or being with the father of her infant born 12 months previously might alter observed relationships. At 12 months following delivery, 184 adolescent mothers (20%) reported having an older adult partner, whereas 312 (34%) had a similar-aged partner. The remaining adolescent mothers (n = 239) were excluded from further analyses. Adolescent mothers with older adult partners were significantly less likely to be employed or enrolled in school and were more likely to report planned repeated pregnancies. These adolescent mothers also received less social support. No differences were observed in intimate partner violence or the mother's substance use. Adolescent mothers with older adult partners who did not live with an adult authority figure seemed to be at greatest risk. The negative educational and financial impact of coupling with an older vs. similar-aged partner seems greater for those mothers who no longer reside with an adult authority figure. These adolescent mothers are also at greater risk of planned rapid repeated pregnancy. Given their limited educational attainment and family support, a subsequent pregnancy may place these young women at considerable financial and educational disadvantage.

Culture, Coping, and Context: Primary and Secondary Control among Thai and American Youth

Do cultural values and traditions influence the development of coping styles ? To address this question, we compared self-reports of coping by 6-14-year-olds in Thailand and the U.S. One hundred and forty-one children were interviewed about six common stressors: separation from a friend, injection in a doctor's office, adult anger, peer animosity, school failure, and physical injury. Children's self-reported coping methods were coded as overt or covert. Coping goals were coded as reflecting primary control (attempts to influence objective conditions), secondary control (attempts to adjust oneself to objective conditions), or relinquished control. Although findings revealed numerous cross-national similarities, there were also multiple main and interaction effects involving culture, suggesting that sociocultural context may be critical to our understanding of child coping. Consistent with literature on Thai culture, Thai children reported more than twice as much covert coping as American children for stressors involving adult authority figures (i.e. adult anger, injection in doctor's office). Thai children also reported more secondary control goals than Americans when coping with separation, but American children were five times as likely as Thais to adopt secondary control goals for coping with injury. The findings support a model of coping development in which culture and stressor characteristics interact, with societal differences most likely to be found in situations where culture-specific norms become salient.

Children's and Adults' Attributions of Emotion to a Wrongdoer: The Influence of the Onlooker's Reaction

We report three investigations in which participants attributed emotions of happy, sad, or scared to a wrongdoing story character who was seen by an adult authority figure, and a fourth in which participants were free to attribute any emotion. In study 1, 7-year-olds were no more likely to attribute sadness rather than fear to a wrongdoer when the witness was disappointed rather than cross, showing no support for the suggestion that during development, attributions of sadness based on others' disapproval replace attributions of fear based on expected punishment. In studies 2 and 3, 5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds and young adults gave more attributions of happy to a wrongdoer when the witness was mistakenly pleased, rather than appropriately disapproving, and more of scared in the latter case. Attributions of sadness were more commonly given by 7-year-olds when the witness was disapproving rather than mistakenly pleased, but the reaction of the witness made no difference to the incidence of sad attributions among 10-year-olds and young adults, consistent with the expectation that their attributions were based only on the morality of the act rather than on the reaction of others. However, at most about half the oldest children and the adults gave attributions of sad, suggesting that the actual reaction of a witness remains an important influence into adulthood. Even when young adults could attribute whichever and however many emotions as they wished to the wrongdoer, nearly one-third failed to attribute any moral emotion such as regret, shame, or guilt.

Health care needs of homeless adolescents.

Most homeless teenagers are running away from abusive or violent home situations. Many of the daily survival tactics employed by runaways put them at risk for a variety of medical problems, including sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis, tuberculosis, trauma, accidents, and HIV infection. Mental health issues of depression, low self-esteem, hostility, and suicidal behavior or ideation are common and may be compounded by drug abuse or addiction. Barriers to obtaining care for the uninsured homeless teenager encompass confidentiality issues, minor status, and general distrust of adult authority figures. To improve the health care of homeless adolescents, practitioners must encourage research and data collection while supporting and providing accessible medical outreach programs and mental health services.