A review of the epidentiological research on child sexual abuse. Community and college student samples

This article is the first of two consecutive reviews on the major empirical studies which have been carried out in an attempt to estimate the prevalence of child sexual abuse among females. The research is structured in terms of three sample categories: (a) probability and non-probability samples of the general population; (b) college student samples; and (c) clinical inpatient and outpatient samples. This part of the review deals with (a) and (b) and highlights a number of unresolved methodological issues which may contribute to the variance in reported prevalence rates. These include a myriad of definitions of child sexual abuse and different methods of eliciting information on possible histories of abuse. Despite these problems. taken as a whole the prevalence studies indicate the significant numbers of people who have experienced abuse and who are willing to disclose aspects of these abusive experiences.     

Adaptation of the short version of the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-12) into Spanish / Adaptación al español de la versión reducida del Cuestionario de Capital Psicológico (PCQ-12)

Psychological capital (PsyCap) has been a topic of increasing interest in the last decade. However, there is a lack of validated instruments in Spanish to map PsyCap and its consequences for individuals’ well-being. Consequently, the goal of this study is to adapt the 12-item short version of the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-12) to the Spanish context by analysing its internal consistency and reliability, factor solution and external validity. Results indicated that the PCQ-12 exhibited good Cronbach’s alpha (.87) and omega coefficient (.93) values in a sample from a vehicle inspection company (n = 798). As expected, results also revealed that a second-order factor structure provided the best fit. Moreover, PsyCap is associated with increased job engagement (β = .579; R²_adjusted = .333), decreased job burnout (β = ?.409; R²_adjusted = .166), and lower psychological distress (β = ?.349; R²_adjusted = .121) (all p < .01), which provided additional support for using the PCQ-12 in the Spanish context. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

The Politics of Ideals of Care: Danish and Flemish Child Care Policy Compared

Most European welfare states today have said farewell to themale breadwinner–female caretaker model. Still, childcare policy has a different pace and shape in each country.This article studies the (late) origins as well as the diversityin Danish and Flemish (Belgian) child care policy. In Denmark,a universal child care provision was made possible because ofthe advocacy coalition of women with social pedagogues. Theypromoted the ideal of professional care. To combat the idealof full-time motherhood, the Flemish Catholic women’smovement strived for subsidizing childminders—the idealof surrogate motherhood—supported by the Christian DemocraticParty. Both strategies led to comparatively high levels of childcare provisions, but also to very different contents and shapes.In short, one of the factors that shaped child care policy isthe promotion of different (moral) ideals of care by the women’smovement, together with other—often more powerful—allies,and backed up by parental preferences.     

Discussion on the paper “On simulation and properties of the stable law” by L. Devroye and L. James

We congratulate the authors for the interesting paper. The reading has been really pleasant and instructive. We discuss briefly only some of the interesting results given in Devroye and James (Stat Methods Appl 2014) with particular attention to evolution problems. The contribution of the results collected in the paper is useful in a more wide class of applications in many areas of applied mathematics.     

Wozu keine Wertsch?tzung?

The article follows the question why it is likely to find the request for more appreciation in most organizations, while everybody seems to agree that amelioration in this regard would be of help. To find an answer it uses empirical data to illustrate what most employees actually mean when they formulate their request for appreciation. This analysis offers some reasons why appreciation is less likely in organizations and gives first hints to reframings and questions that could be of help in coaching and supervision processes. It is followed by an interpretation of the communicated lack of appreciation based on social systems theory. It will reveal the benefit of this apparently unsolvable bad state of affairs and draws further consequences for coaching and consulting.     

Evaluating positive leadership: pilot study on the psychometric properties of a reduced version of the Positive Leadership Assessment Scale / Evaluando el liderazgo positivo: estudio piloto de las propiedades psicométricas de una versión reducida del Positive Leadership Assessment Scale

Positive leadership is considered a fundamental factor which contributes significantly to the development of healthy organizations. Positive leadership has been address via other leadership models, primarily transformational and authentic leadership, with which some affinities have been established. Although there is a large body of literature on positive leadership, especially related to its practical aspects, the construct is not properly delimited and there are only a few relevant contributions on how to measure it. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a pilot study to examine the psychometric properties of a reduced version of the PLAS (Positive Leadership Assessment Scale). Results from a confirmatory factorial analysis show that a five-correlated factors model achieves a good fit with the empirical data (on a sample of Spanish students). Likewise, this study also offers a range of evidence of validity, showing a relationship with the constructs of both transformational and authentic leadership and engagement.     

School anxiety and depression among immigrant youth in America: Differences by region of birth and language proficiency

This study sought to examine school anxiety and depression by parents’ immigrant status and identify differences by region of birth and language proficiency. Data were used from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort, a nationally representative and longitudinal study of students in the United States. The analytic sample included 6,156 youth. Linear regression models predicted school anxiety and depression of American eighth grade students from English proficiency and parents’ region of birth. Controlling for demographic covariates, there was no significant difference in school anxiety or depression between youth with American‐born parents and those with parents born in any major world region. With the inclusion of an interaction between language proficiency and region of birth, children with limited English proficiency from Europe (B = 2.86, 95% CI = 2.16, 3.55), Central America (B = 1.52, 95% CI = 0.73, 2.31), Asia (B = 1.48, 95% CI = 0.55, 2.40), and South America (B = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.08, 1.61) had significantly heightened school anxiety compared to native‐English speakers with native‐born parents. When considering sources of school anxiety, it was revealed that over 60% of these youth worried about doing well in school. Future research should explore interventions to increase English proficiency and ease school‐related stress among children of immigrants.