Getting something out of nothing: Analyzing patterns of null responses to improve data collection methods in sub-Saharan Africa

Careful development and adaptation of assessments is imperative for cultural psychological research. However, despite the best efforts, the use of assessments in new contexts can reveal atypical and/or unexpected patterns of performance. We found this to be the case in the testing of assessments to be used for a larger investigation of Specific Reading Disabilities in Zambia. In a sample of 207 children (100 female) from grades 2 to 7, we illustrated that assessment characteristics (i.e., stimulus type, answer choice, and response type) differentially impact patterns of responsiveness. The number of missing values was highest for assessments that (1) used written stimuli, (2) had an open-ended answer choice, and (3) required an action response. Age and socio-economic status explained some of the variance in responsiveness in selected, but not all assessments. Consideration of the impact of stimulus and response types when adapting assessments cross-linguistically and cross-culturally is essential

Fragments from a Work in Progress

A long time ago in a place far away, a place called Vietnam, I had to come to grips with the monkey. The monkey was not war. As a colored woman born in the forties, the monkey was life. Vietnam just forced me to look at it. Maybe it allowed me the opportunity. Who knows. Looking back at it has been almost impossible. You see, growing up my grandmother would always say when I wanted to explain something, Baby-darling, will talking about something that has already happened change it? Of course it wouldn\u27t change anything. Any fool knows that. Well, she would say, Then it\u27s not worth talking about. You\u27re just wasting time. So on I would go, never getting a chance to understand what had happened or trying to figure out if I could have changed it. War was like that. You see, it didn\u27t matter if I talked about it, nothing would change anyway. It had already happened. It was my belief that talking about it would only take up the time that I need to work on other things

"Nothing has convinced me to stop" Young people's perceptions and experiences of persistant offending

Nothing Has Convinced Me To Stop results from the former Scottish Executive tasking the project with consulting young people about persistent offending. The report explores the views and experiences of those living in residential care about how and why they persistently offend, what contributes to their offending behaviour escalating and what helps them to reduce it or indeed stop offending. The consultation focused on areas with high concentrations of 'persistent offenders' in residential care, consulting young people living in various settings - residential units, residential schools, secure units and young offender institutions