We came across the discussion about the so-called duty to report (14 kap 1 § SoL) and we found some previous research, showing that preschool teachers are hesitant to report, and that they want real evidence that children are being mistreated, even though the duty to report clearly states that they have to report as soon as they suspect that a child is being mistreated. Our purpose became to study what tendencies and conditions preschool teachers and principals, placed in the municipalities of Hässleholm and Kristianstad, have to fulfil their duty to report according to the social services act, when there is a well founded suspicion that a child is being mistreated.  We split the purpose into the following research questions:     Do local guidelines about how preschool teachers should act when suspecting that a child is being mistreated exist, and are they being followed? To what degree does the staff has knowledge about these guidelines? How do preschool teachers experience the treatment from colleagues, principals and social welfare officers when they´ve done or wanted to do a report? How do preschool teachers experience the reactions of a report from custodians?   We did conversational interviews with two principals, one from the municipality of Hässleholm, and one from the municipality of Kristianstad. We also made focusgroup interviews with the staff, three persons each from one of their respective preschools. Our conclusion is that preschool teachers are unwilling to report mistreatment. They prefer to, together with the principal and other professional people in the municipality, attempt to solve the problems within the organization of the school. The teachers do not stand behind the report themselves, instead it´s the principal. Unless the principal, who´s not always around to see the children in first-hand, thinks that a report should be made, a report will not be done.  We also have seen that the view on reports is homogenous for all the staff within the same workgroup. The staff affects each other, thus creating a norm telling them how to act in situations concerning a mistreated child.

Objectives: Concerns have been raised that child welfare systems may inappropriately target poor families for intrusive interventions. The term “neglect” has been critiqued as a class-based label applied disproportionately to poor families. The objectives of the study are: to identify the nature and frequency of clinical and poverty-related concerns in child neglect investigations and to assess the service referral response to these needs; to examine the contribution of poverty-related need to case decision-making; and to explore whether substantiated cases of neglect can be divided into subtypes based on different constellations of clinical and poverty-related needs. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of data collected through the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS‑2008), a nationally representative dataset. A selected subsample of neglect investigations from the CIS‑2008 (N = 4,489) is examined through descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and two-step cluster analysis in order to explore each research objective. Results: Children and caregivers investigated for neglect presented with a range of clinical and poverty-related difficulties. Contrary to some previous research, the existence of poverty-related needs did not influence case dispositions after controlling for other relevant risk factors. However, some variables that should be, in theory, extraneous to case decision-making emerged as significant in the multivariate models, most notably Aboriginal status, with Aboriginal children having increased odds of substantiation, ongoing service provision and placement. Cluster analyses revealed that cases of neglect could be partitioned into three clusters, with no cluster emerging characterized by poverty alone. Conclusions: The majority of children investigated for neglect live in families experiencing poverty-related needs, and with caregivers struggling with clinical difficulties. While poverty-related need on its own does not explain the high proportion of poor families reported to the child welfare system, nor does it account for significant variance in case decision making, cluster analysis suggests that there exists a subgroup of “neglected” children living in families perhaps best characterized by the broader notion of social disadvantage. These families may be better served through an orientation of family support/family welfare rather than through the current residual child protection paradigm.

Body schema is indispensable for sensorimotor control and learning, but it remains unclear whether it is associated with cognitive functions. Data from patients with spatial neglect support this view; yet observations in healthy participants are inconsistent. Here I conducted two sets of experiments examining influences of trunk position: the first probed attention and spatial working memory using a change detection task and a two-back task; the second used different versions of the Posner paradigm to examine whether head-on-trunk position governs disengagement of attention. In none of the experiments did I observe that trunk turns altered performance in the left versus right visual field in an ipsiversive fashion as reported in neglect. Nevertheless, I found that trunk-right position improved performance at eccentric locations of the visual field. The data are inconsistent with previous findings of head-on-trunk effects in normal participants. Further studies are required to clarify these discrepancies.

Body schema is indispensable for sensorimotor control and learning, but it remains unclear whether it is associated with cognitive functions. Data from patients with spatial neglect support this view; yet observations in healthy participants are inconsistent. Here I conducted two sets of experiments examining influences of trunk position: the first probed attention and spatial working memory using a change detection task and a two-back task; the second used different versions of the Posner paradigm to examine whether head-on-trunk position governs disengagement of attention. In none of the experiments did I observe that trunk turns altered performance in the left versus right visual field in an ipsiversive fashion as reported in neglect. Nevertheless, I found that trunk-right position improved performance at eccentric locations of the visual field. The data are inconsistent with previous findings of head-on-trunk effects in normal participants. Further studies are required to clarify these discrepancies.

The experience of having a sibling with a mental illness affects well siblings in a myriad of ways (Marsh, 1998). In the present paper the term well siblings refers to those individuals who have a sibling with a mental illness but who do not have a mental illness themselves. They face unique stressors due to disruptions in the sibling relationship and in the family (Corrigan & Miller, 2004). The stressors commonly experienced by well siblings include stigma, objective and subjective burden, intense and conflicting emotions, disruptions in family of origin, interpersonal and intrapersonal difficulties, difficulties with the mental health system, and over reliance on maladaptive stress coping resources (Greenberg, Kim, & Greenley, 1997; Lukens, Thorning, & Lohrer, 2004; Marsh, 1998; Marsh & Dickens, 1997b; Riebschleger, 1991). Research describing disruptions in family of origin suggests that well siblings also are experiencing emotional neglect (Lukens et al.; Marsh; Marsh & Dickens). This paper presents a synthesis of literature on the stressors well siblings experience and their attempts at coping with stress. For this study, 133 participants completed 3 instruments: (a) demographics questionnaire, (b) the Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (Matheny, Curlette, Aycock, Pugh, & Taylor, 1987), a measure of perceived stress coping resources, and (c), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein & Fink, 1998), which includes an emotional neglect scale. Participants with siblings with a mental illness were compared with participants whose siblings do not have a mental illness. Results indicate significant relationships between well siblings and emotional neglect and between emotional neglect and effective stress coping. However no significant relationship was observed between well siblings and effective stress coping. Therefore, having a sibling with a mental illness seems a risk factor for emotional neglect, but is not itself a risk factor for poor stress coping. The present study suggests that it is emotional neglect which is a risk factor for poor stress coping. The clinical implications of these results are discussed as well as the research implications and limitations of the study.

Right parietal lesions often lead to neglect, in which patients fail to attend to leftward stimuli. Recent models of neglect suggest that, in addition to attentional impairments, patients demonstrate impairments of spatial remapping and/or spatial working memory (SWM). Although spatial remapping could be considered a kind of spatial memory process itself (i.e., updating remembered locations based on anticipated saccade outcomes), the two processes operate on very different time scales (milliseconds versus seconds). In the present study, the influence of saccadic and spatial remapping on SWM was examined in healthy individuals. An initial control condition, in which participants had to respond to a probe stimulus (i.e., “is the probe in the location previously occupied by the target?”) following a 1500 ms delay, was contrasted with conditions in which the fixation point moved (left, right, up, or down) at the onset of the delay. In a second version of the task, participants made covert shifts of attention at delay onset requiring covert spatial, rather than saccadic, remapping. In both tasks SWM performance was best when no remapping was required. Decrements in SWM were largest overall in the spatial remapping task, whereas for both saccadic and spatial remapping, a consistent cost was observed for remapping the target array into right visual space. Results are discussed in terms of hemispheric biases in attention and differences in performance for peripersonal versus extrapersonal space.

Right parietal lesions often lead to neglect, in which patients fail to attend to leftward stimuli. Recent models of neglect suggest that, in addition to attentional impairments, patients demonstrate impairments of spatial remapping and/or spatial working memory (SWM). Although spatial remapping could be considered a kind of spatial memory process itself (i.e., updating remembered locations based on anticipated saccade outcomes), the two processes operate on very different time scales (milliseconds versus seconds). In the present study, the influence of saccadic and spatial remapping on SWM was examined in healthy individuals. An initial control condition, in which participants had to respond to a probe stimulus (i.e., “is the probe in the location previously occupied by the target?”) following a 1500 ms delay, was contrasted with conditions in which the fixation point moved (left, right, up, or down) at the onset of the delay. In a second version of the task, participants made covert shifts of attention at delay onset requiring covert spatial, rather than saccadic, remapping. In both tasks SWM performance was best when no remapping was required. Decrements in SWM were largest overall in the spatial remapping task, whereas for both saccadic and spatial remapping, a consistent cost was observed for remapping the target array into right visual space. Results are discussed in terms of hemispheric biases in attention and differences in performance for peripersonal versus extrapersonal space.

There are many children in Sweden today, approximately 200 000, who have parents or a parent that abuses alcohol or other drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate how group leaders in support groups for children with addicted parents relate to this sort of support groups. What are their advantages and disadvantages, according to the group leaders? The method used was qualitative and the empirical material was collected through group interviews. We have interviewed eight persons who are social workers and the interviews were carried out at three work places. The analysis of the material takes a survey of previous written literature as the point of departure. The theoretical framework was eclectic, combining a child perspective with a holistic approach to the situation of children with addicted parents. The interview material was interpreted with the help of hermeneutic theory. Furthermore, Antonovsky’s salutogenic theory, system theory and theory on social change have been used in the analysis. The analysis shows that the group leaders’ position is that children that have parents or a parent, who abuse alcohol need support groups. The group leaders of support groups bring up that the most important thing for these children is to have other children that they can talk to and trust. However, it was clearly more difficult for the interviewees to discuss possible disadvantages. Drawing upon a holistic perspective, we argue that one disadvantage is how group leaders see children as individuals instead of seeing the family as a whole and the need to deal with the children’s main problem, their parents’ addiction. We also discuss the fact that it seems as if a case worker with overall responsibility rarely monitors the child’s situation. Drawing upon theories on social change we argue that although support groups may empower children to some extent, support groups cannot in themselves be regarded as a way of creating social change.

The aim of this study is to contribute knowledge about how preschool teachers reason around their role in the work with children being maltreated. The study has been based on the following questions: How do the preschool teachers identify children being maltreated ? How do the preschool teachers act after they have identified a child thats being maltreated? What difficulties experienced preschool teachers based on their professional roles related to child maltreatment? The method used in the study is a focus group interview, which is a kind of informal group discussion. The result shows that there are difficulties in the preschool regarding the work with children being maltreated. Some of the difficulties that the preschool teachers raised was the contact with the guardians, society’s negative perception of the social services, that all the notifications must go through the pre-school manager and that they don’t have so much experience of notifications. / Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur förskollärare i förskolan resonerar kring sin roll i arbetet med barn som far illa. Studien har utgått ifrån följande frågeställningar: Hur identifierar förskollärarna barn som far illa? Hur agerar förskollärarna när de identifierat ett barn som far illa? Vilka svårigheter upplever förskollärarna utifrån sin yrkesroll relaterat till barn som far illa? Metoden som använts i studien är en fokusgruppsintervju, det vill säga en slags informell gruppdiskussion. Resultatet visar att det finns svårigheter i förskolan kring arbetet med barn som far illa. Några av de svårigheter som förskollärarna lyfte var kontakten med vårdnadshavare, samhällets negativa syn på socialtjänsten, att alla anmälningar skall gå genom förskolechefen och att de inte har så stor erfarenhet av att en anmälan sker.

Conflicts can occur in a variety of brand-relationship contexts, whether pertaining to poor service or product failure or to companies’ violations in regard to moral or legal issues. Though addressing relationship conflicts has become a pervasive issue in brand-relationship research, little is known about factors influencing consumer responses to conflicts. The goal of this research was to address this issue by exploring how consumers utilize their emotional intelligence in coping with problems when conflicts arise. For this purpose, two experiments were performed in this study. The first experiment showed that consumer emotional intelligence (CEI) was critical in predicting coping responses. When encountering conflicts in relationships, consumers who were highly capable in CEI were more likely to direct their emotions positively and productively, and they were less likely to exit the relationships than were those low in CEI. The second experiment further investigated a moderator and mediator of the association identified in the first study. The study demonstrated that the type of conflict moderated the effect of CEI on coping behaviors; the CEI effect on intention to exit the relationship was more pronounced when a conflict had directly caused problems for individual consumers (vs. to society as a whole). The results further demonstrated that consumers’ appraisals of a company’s intention in regard to conflicts mediated the association between CEI and coping responses. Specifically, low-CEI consumers were more likely to attribute negative intentions to the company; therefore, they were more likely to exit the relationship than were high-CEI consumers. This research demonstrated that CEI is an important construct in explaining why some consumers react destructively to relationship conflicts whereas others do not. Findings of this research provide a greater understanding of the role of individual differences in the maintenance and dissolution of brand relationships. / text