Children?

The majority of eligible children cannot access early intervention services in Turkey, often because they are not assessed. The authors adapted the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) for Turkish children ages 3 to 72 months. Study participants consisted of 375 children who were classified as at risk for developmental delays, 564 children considered not at risk for developmental delays (both groups according to standardized assessments), and 39 children with known disabilities. The ROC analyses indicated that a two-domain criterion for classification would be used to classify children as at risk, unlike the original ASQ, which had a one-domain classification. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of ASQ were .94, .85, .97, and .75, respectively. Test-retest and interrater reliabilities calculated as overall percentage agreements were found to be 82% and 87%, respectively. The results demonstrated that the ASQ could be used to screen Turkish children who are at risk for developmental delays

Social-Emotional Problems

The applicability of the Age and Stages Questionnaires: Social Emotional (ASQ-SE; J. Squires, D. Bricker & E. Twombly, 2003) for Turkish children was examined. A total of 608 mothers completed the ASQ-SE's. Overall sensitivity and overall specificity were 83.7% and 89.9%, respectively. Test-retest reliability, assessed by classifying children as "at risk" or "not at risk" for social-emotional development, was 87%. The interrater reliability between mothers' and teachers' classifications was 83.6%. The results revealed that the psychometric properties of the ASQ-SE in Turkish children are comparable to those reported in Squires et al. Low levels of mothers' education, but not of the family income, were found to be linked to social-emotional problems. In the light of the findings it is concluded that the ASQ-SE can be utilized to screen the social emotional competencies and problems of Turkish children and to identify various risk and protective factors that affect social emotional development

Career Development and Educational Status of the Sexual Abuse Victims: The First Data from Turkey

Ulas-Kilic, Ozlem/0000-0002-2757-7905; Kocturk, Nilufer/0000-0001-6124-1842WOS: 000459009900015Child sexual abuse (CSA) is not only a serious danger for children and families, but it is also a problem that concerns society economically and spiritually. The aim of this study is to examine career choices and educational problems of individuals who have experienced CSA. Participants of this study consist of 73 CSA victims. The data have been collected via a telephone survey. According to the findings, 83.6% of the victims attended their formal education during the time they reported CSA, and only 38 participants (51%) continued into higher education. Also, it was determined that approximately 51% of them dropped out of school, and 72% of them experienced problems at school due to CSA. When the victims' reasons for dropping out of school were examined before and after CSA, it was seen that victims dropped out of school due to CSA (44.2%) mostly. In addition to these, it was found that approximately 25% of victims could not concentrate on classes, 56% of them had a drop in their academic success, 30% of them were reluctant to go to school or had absence, 25% of them repeated a grade, and 23% of them switched schools. Also, it was determined that 56.2% of the participants wanted to continue their education. Findings were discussed in the light of relevant literature

Factorial and diagnostic validity of the beck depression inventory-II (BDI-II) in Croatian primary health care

The aim of this study was to examine the factorial and diagnostic validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) in Croatian primary health care. Data were collected using a medical outpatient sample (N = 314). Reliability measured by internal consistency proved to be high. While the Velicer MAP Test showed that extraction of only one factor is satisfactory, confirmatory factor analysis indicated the best fit for a 3-factor structure model consisting of cognitive, affective and somatic dimensions. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis demonstrated the BDI-II to have a satisfactory diagnostic validity in differentiating between healthy and depressed individuals in this setting. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity were high with an optimal cut-off score of 15/16. The implications of these findings are discussed regarding the use of the BDI-II as a screening instrument in primary health care settings