A critical review of child maltreatment indices: Psychometric properties and application in the South African context

The public and academic focus on child maltreatment and neglect and their prevention has spawned a range of surveillance instruments and mechanisms intended to identify child maltreatment and measure its magnitude. While such surveillance responses are obviously important for the prevention and management of child maltreatment and neglect, there appears to have been insufficient attention directed at examining their utility in the South Africa context. A review hereof is likely to offer insights to programme planners and child safety advocates working to mobilise political and community-level actions. Accordingly, the paper considers a sample of child maltreatment scales and measures and critically evaluates them in terms of their psychometric properties, as well as their application value for South Africa. Review findings indicate that despite an obvious lack of evaluative standards for assessing the psychometric properties of child maltreatment measures, those considered in this review appear to perform well with the study populations and in cross-cultural applications. It is suggested that following an appraisal of their linguistic and cultural appropriateness, and the adoption of suitable piloting procedures, the identified scales could be applied in South Africa with confidence in their measurement capabilities.Keywords: review, child maltreatment and neglect, indices, cross-cultural application, South Afric

Risk factors for female and male homicidal strangulation in Johannesburg, South Africa

Background. There is a paucity of research on homicidal strangulation by gender.Objectives. A sex-disaggregated and comparative research approach was used to investigate individual-level risk factors for female and male homicidal strangulation in Johannesburg, South Africa (2001 - 2010).Methods. Data were drawn from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System. Logistic regressions were used to examine associations between each of the independent variables and homicidal strangulation in females and males relative to all other female and male homicides, respectively.Results. The risk of fatal strangulation was high for both females and males aged ≥60 years, but markedly high only for male children and adolescents. Temporal risk for females was undifferentiated for day of the week, and the risk for males was high during weekdays. Females were more likely to be strangled in public places, and males in private locations.Conclusions. The study underlines the importance of disaggregating homicide by external cause and gender.

9Th Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference, Melbourne, Australia

No Abstract

Community Engagement: International Day of the Older Person 2009

No Abstract

Visually negotiating hegemonic discourse through Photovoice: Understanding youth representations of safety

Despite the immense communicative potential of visual methodologies, surprisingly few community-based research studies have meaningfully considered participants’ visual meaning-making processes. When working with youth participants from contexts with which researchers are unfamiliar, the use of visual methodologies and analyses is able to transcend much of the developmental and cultural barriers to communication that are inherent in many linguistically focused research methods. By employing a visual discourse analysis on six photographs captured by Ethiopian youth in a Multi-Country Photovoice Project on youth representations of safety, this study aims to showcase the value of analysing participants’ use of ‘alternative’ visual discourses. It was found that participants drew predominantly on two discourses, Humanising Capital and Unity, both of which resisted a number of Western hegemonic discourses surrounding youth constructions of safety. Participants’ visual constructions served as a meaningful mode of communication, as well as a relevant approach to facilitating youth ownership of meaning-making processes within community-based research.IS

Book Review: Peace, Conflict and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st Century

by D.J. Christie, R.V. Wagner and D. DuNann Winter (Editors) New Jersey, Prentice Hall Inc., 2001, 426 pp., ISBN 0-13-096821-

29th International Congress of Psychology

No AbstractAfrican Safety Promotion Vol. 6 (2) 2008: pp. 71-7

A critical review of child maltreatment indices: psychometric properties and application in the South African context

The public and academic focus on child maltreatment and neglect and their prevention has spawned a range of surveillance instruments and mechanisms intended to identify child maltreatment and measure its magnitude. While such surveillance responses are obviously important for the prevention and management of child maltreatment and neglect, there appears to have been insufficient attention directed at examining their utility in the South Africa context. A review hereof is likely to offer insights to programme planners and child safety advocates working to mobilise political and community-level actions. Accordingly, the paper considers a sample of child maltreatment scales and measures and critically evaluates them in terms of their psychometric properties, as well as their application value for South Africa. Review findings indicate that despite an obvious lack of evaluative standards for assessing the psychometric properties of child maltreatment measures, those considered in this review appear to perform well with the study populations and in cross-cultural applications. It is suggested that following an appraisal of their linguistic and cultural appropriateness, and the adoption of suitable piloting procedures, the identified scales could be applied in South Africa with confidence in their measurement capabilities. Keywords: review, child maltreatment and neglect, indices, cross-cultural application, South AfricaGuillermina Ritacco and Shahnaaz Suffl