Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M E Lamb

Publications and source records attributed to M E Lamb.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

Criterion-based content analysis: a field validation study.

Transcripts of forensic interviews with 98 alleged victims of child sexual abuse were scored for the presence or absence of certain criteria believed to be more characteristic of accounts concerning experienced than nonexperienced events. Other information regarding the events was independently evaluated by individuals unfamiliar with the children's accounts. As predicted, more of the CBCA criteria were present in accounts independently rated as Likely or Very Likely to have occurred (M = 6.74) than in accounts of events deemed Unlikely or Very Unlikely to have occurred (M = 4.85). In addition, several of the criteria were helpful in distinguishing between plausible and implausible accounts. The group differences were not as dramatic as those reported in earlier studies, however, and the results suggest caution regarding forensic application of the CBCA system.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Effects of introductory style on children's abilities to describe experiences of sexual abuse.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of two rapport-building techniques for eliciting information from children who made allegations of sexual abuse. METHOD: Fourteen interviewers conducted 51 investigations of child sexual abuse with children ranging from 4.5 to 12.9 years of age. In 25 of the investigations, interviewers used a script including many open-ended utterances to establish rapport, whereas in 26 of the investigations the same interviewers used a rapport-building script involving many direct questions. Both rapport-building scripts took about 7 minutes to complete. All children were asked the same open-ended question to initiate the substantive phase of the interview. RESULTS: Children who had been trained in the open-ended condition provided 2 1/2 times as many details and words in response to the first substantive utterance as did children in the direct introduction condition. Children in the open-ended condition continued to respond more informatively to open-ended utterances in the later (unscripted) portion of the interview. Two-thirds of the children mentioned the core details of the incident in their responses to the first substantive utterance and a further 20% mentioned core details more vaguely. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that children respond more informatively to an open-ended invitation when they have previously been trained to answer such questions rather than more focused questions. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of children to the goals and expectations of forensic interviewers. Structured interview protocols also increase the amount of information provided by young interviewees.

Child↗
PubMed1997

Effects of day care on the development of cognitive abilities in 8-year-olds: a longitudinal study.

In Göteborg, Sweden, 146 children (72 girls) were enrolled in a longitudinal study when they averaged 16 months of age. None of the children had experienced regular out-of-home care yet, but within 3 months, 54 entered center care and 33 entered family day care. Quality of home and out-of-home care environments, child temperament, and the development of verbal abilities were assessed regularly during preschool years. When they were 8 years old (2nd grade), cognitive ability tests were administered to the 123 children (65 girls) still in the study. Tested ability was related to the number of months children had spent in center-based day care before 3.5 years of age. Child care quality predicted cognitive abilities among children who had spent at least 36 months in out-of-home care during their preschool years. Both tested and rated cognitive abilities in 2nd grade were related to earlier measures of verbal ability and to paternal involvement during preschool years.

Aptitude↗
PubMed1997

Contexts as moderators of observed interactions: a study of Costa Rican mothers and infants from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.

20 first-born infants from low socioeconomic status (SES) families and 20 first-born infants from middle SES families in Costa Rica were observed for 12 hours when they were 14 weeks old. The goals of this study were the following: 1) to study the impact of length of observation and context on the authors measures of interactional engagement; 2) to compare the interactional experiences of the infants in the two groups in various functional (e.g. feeding, object play) and social (e.g. with mother, with mother and others) contexts. Attuned and disharmonious interactions, as well as the frequency of positive affect, soothing, and vocalization, varied considerably across the functional contexts. In addition, disharmonious interactions increased and interactional engagement decreased when mothers and infants were joined by others. Highly unstable measures of individual differences were obtained when observations were limited to 45-minute blocks, but stability increased considerably as the duration of the observations expanded. The groups did not differ with respect to amounts of time spent in various functional and social contexts, in attuned or disharmonious states, or in high levels of interactional engagement. Within some of the functional contexts, however, significant group differences in levels of attuned interactions, infant vocalization, and maternal response vocalization were found. Overall, functional and social contexts clearly moderated interactional experiences. SES effects on verbal and other interactional measures were limited to some contexts and may thus represent the infants' overall experiences quite poorly. Consequently, comparisons based on a single context may be inadequate for studies of subjects from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Investigative interviews of alleged sexual abuse victims with and without anatomical dolls.

Verbal and nonverbal responses by alleged victims of child sexual abuse were coded for length, amount of information, and the manner in which they were elicited by the interviewer. In 16 of the interviews, anatomical dolls were employed for the purposes of demonstration, whereas they were not used in another eight cases matched with respect to other characteristics of the children and the alleged events. Children interviewed with dolls provided an equivalent number of details and spoke as many words in the substantive portion of the interview as did children interviewed without dolls, and interviewers in the two groups used similar probes to elicit information. However, the average responses by the children were significantly longer and more detailed when dolls were not used. Children gave longer and more detailed responses to open-ended invitations when dolls were not used. Caution is necessary when interpreting these findings.

Child↗
PubMed1996

Effects of nonparental child care on child development: an update.

OBJECTIVE: To review the published literature on the effects of nonparental and out-of-home care on infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. METHOD: Narrative literature review. RESULTS: Although substantial controversy persists, the accumulated evidence suggests that nonparental care does not necessarily have either beneficial or detrimental effects on infants and children, although it can have such effects. In some circumstances, careproviders establish relationships with children that have significant effects on development, and this increases the importance of ensuring that careproviders are well trained, behave sensitively, and are stable rather than ephemeral figures in children's lives. Nonparental care is associated with behaviour problems (including aggression and noncompliance) when the care is of poor quality and opportunities for meaningful relationships with stable careproviders are not available, however. CONCLUSION: The effects of out-of-home care vary depending on the quality of care as well as the characteristics of individual children, including their age, temperaments, and individual backgrounds.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1990

Maternal age, sociodemographics, prenatal health and behavior: influences on neonatal risk status.

The effects on neonatal outcome of maternal age, sociodemographic status, and prenatal health and behavior were assessed in a representative national sample of youth (National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth). Primiparous women were categorized into four age-at-birth groups: 13 to 15 year old, 16 to 18 year old, 19 to 21 year old, and 22 to 30 year old. Younger mothers were lighter, gained less weight during pregnancy, and sought prenatal care later in their pregnancy. Neonates of the youngest mothers on average had lower birth weights, and shorter gestation periods. There were significant effects of maternal age, race, education, and pregnancy weight gain on the probability of giving birth to a premature or low-birth-weight infant. Our results also implicated the time of first prenatal care in the occurrence of premature delivery. We believe that interventions should emphasize the prevention of pregnancy in young adolescents and amelioration of the adverse prenatal conditions associated with living in lower socioeconomic conditions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Inhibition: its stability and correlates in sixteen- to forty-month-old children.

Inhibition was assessed in 144 Swedish children when they averaged 16 months of age using a composite measure tapping sociability toward strange adults, noninvolvement in peer play, and parental ratings of fearfulness. 91 children entered out-of-home care within 2 weeks of these initial assessments. Children were observed in this setting playing with peers; teachers and parents also rated children's adjustment to the out-of-home care settings. 1 and 2 years later, the children were assessed again, both at home and in the alternative care settings. Results showed that individual differences in inhibition were stable over the 2 years of the study. Inhibited children engaged in less high-quality peer play both at home and in the alternative care settings, and they were less able to play alone in their mothers' absence. On contemporaneous but not subsequent ratings, inhibited children had more difficulty adjusting to out-of-home care. Inhibition was not itself affected by out-of-home care experiences, and there were no sex differences in inhibition.

Child Day Care Centers↗
PubMed1990

Association between parenthood and problem behavior in a national sample of adolescents.

The association between problem behaviors and parental status was studied in a national sample of urban (n = 1263) and rural (n = 388) young women 15 to 17 years of age. When assessed according to age at childbearing, there was a clear association between problem behavior and the birth of a first child prior to age 19 years. The three parental status groups studied appeared ordered in risk, with school-aged mothers having engaged in the most problem behaviors, and followed, in turn, by young adult mothers (ie, those who had a child between 19 and 21 years of age), and then by women who had not had a child by age 21 years. Young urban women who engaged in three or more problem behaviors were more likely than women who claimed no involvement in problem behaviors to subsequently have a child prior to age 19 years. In addition, black adolescents reported fewer problem behaviors than did white adolescents. When individual behaviors were analyzed, school-aged mothers were more likely than either young adult mothers or nonmothers to have reported school suspension, truancy, runaway, smoking marijuana, and fighting. Although similar results were found in both samples, the effects appeared more consistent for young urban women. In future studies, researchers must determine whether adolescent mothers are at risk for parenting difficulties because of their previous involvement in problem behaviors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Social development.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Child Development↗
PubMed1989

Perceptions of parenthood among adolescent fathers.

To investigate perceptions of parenthood among adolescent fathers, we studied three groups of first-time fathers: adolescent fathers with adolescent partners (n = 21), adult fathers with adolescent partners (n = 14), and adult fathers with adult partners (n = 55). Subjects were interviewed during the immediate postpartum period and then again 3 months later. Group differences were noted concerning items related to paternal involvement, sex stereotypic behaviors, and stress, but not concerning preparation for parenthood. Fathers' perceptions appeared to be influenced by both their ages and those of the mothers as well as an interaction between these two fathers (adult fathers with adolescent partners v adult fathers with adult partners). Our results suggest that fathers with adolescent partners may benefit from interventions designed to promote more active involvement in parenthood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The medical and psychosocial impact of comprehensive care on adolescent pregnancy and parenthood.

To assess the medical and psychosocial effects of services provided by a comprehensive adolescent pregnancy and parenthood program, 125 adolescents who received care from a comprehensive program were compared with 135 adolescents who received care from community health providers. Few differences were found in pregnancy outcome measures. At 12 and 26 months after delivery, however, the intervention group scored significantly better on composite measures encompassing medical, psychosocial, and parenting events than did the comparison group, even after accounting for possible confounding factors. This suggests that comprehensive care has little effect on pregnancy outcomes for those adolescents who are already receiving prenatal and nutritional services, but does have a significant effect on events occurring during the first and second postpartum years.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Association between behavioral and school problems and fatherhood in a national sample of adolescent youths.

The relation between fatherhood and behavioral and school problems was studied in a nationally representative sample of adolescent youths. Data were obtained from the National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth (NLSY). Of the 6400 youths interviewed in 1980, 367 (5.7%) reported that they had fathered a child before the age of 19 years. This group was compared with 1000 non-fathers selected at random from the same data set. The groups differed by race and family socioeconomic characteristics. Academic, drug, and conduct problems were significantly more common among adolescent fathers than among non-fathers. Race and family income, and fatherhood status were independently related to various problem behaviors. These results confirm previous findings demonstrating a relation between delinquency and adolescent fatherhood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Judicial involvement and conduct problems of fathers of infants born to adolescent mothers.

Data were obtained from retrospective review of 191 patient records to determine the extent and types of conduct problems among fathers of infants born to adolescent mothers. Ninety-eight fathers (51%) reported having committed a legal offense prior to the pregnancy. This rate appears substantially greater than rates of arrests of adolescents in the general population. When paired data for couples were analyzed, there was great similarity for severity of offense. Fathers, however, had committed more severe crimes than their partners. Male offenders came from families of lower socioeconomic status backgrounds and more single-parent families and were less frequently employed or in school (or graduated) than nonoffenders. They also had been more involved with various other problem behaviors, such as a previous pregnancy, drinking behavior, and behavior problems at school. There was a clustering of problem behaviors among offenders suggesting psychosocial maladjustment prior to the pregnancy. Our results suggest an association between fatherhood and delinquency among partners of adolescent mothers. It appears that these fathers form a heterogeneous group. Although some young fathers may be well adjusted, others have significant psychologic problems.

Adolescent↗