The social construction of disability and the modern-day healer

Ramon Cuevas is a physical therapist and the founder of Cuevas Medek therapy (CME), a physical therapy for children with severe physical impairments. Since creating CME he has taught and practiced throughout the world. Families bring their children to see Ramon in his Chile office and elsewhere around the world to see him for therapy. I have conducted in-depth interviews with parents and Ramon, more than five weeks of participant-observation, and analyzed various online materials related to CME. I found that the community that is formed around these families and Ramon provides an excellent example of how disability is constructed in the social context. Secondly, I examined the relationship between Ramon and his clients, finding that through his close relationship with families and his charisma, he is able to successfully maintain this community which normalizes disability. This thesis adds to the growing literature on the social construction of disability and the field of knowledge on non-mainstream healers

A longitudinal analysis of the effect of disability type and emotional/behavior problems on different forms of maltreatment across childhood

Children are among the most vulnerable people in our population, especially those with disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems (EBP), and those who experience maltreatment. This dissertation increases our understanding of the complex relationships between disability, internalizing symptoms (IS), externalizing symptoms (ES), and maltreatment across developmental stages. Previous literature suggests that children with disabilities (CWD) are at a heightened risk for maltreatment (Spencer, Devereux, Wallace, Sundrum, Shenoy, Bacchus, and Logan 2005 ; Sullivan and Knutson 2000). Yet, recently the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) has challenged the notion that CWD are at increased risk, showing that for most types of maltreatment CWD are actually at lower risk. Research also suggests that the relationship between disability and maltreatment is far too complex to be understood using a cross-sectional design. Using the Longitudinal Studies Consortium on Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) data following children from birth through age 14, I use longitudinal growth modeling to predict maltreatment risk trajectories across childhood to determine how disability, internalizing symptoms (IS), and externalizing symptoms (ES) are related to risk for maltreatment. Findings indicate the importance of examining specific types of disabilities, internalizing symptoms (IS), externalizing symptoms (ES) and maltreatments separately and over time. Results suggest that children with learning disabilities are at increased risk for neglect across all of childhood to age 14 relative to their peers without learning disabilities. Children with a combination of both learning and intellectual disabilities are at increased risk for neglect and physical abuse at early ages but their risk dissipates over time. In addition, children with higher levels of internalizing symptoms are at lower risk of psychological maltreatment while children with high levels of externalizing symptoms are at high risk of psychological and physical abuse. Children with learning and intellectual disabilities are more likely to be exposed to multiple types of maltreatments at very young ages, while children with high levels of externalizing symptoms are at high risk of experiencing multiple types of maltreatment as they get older

Using Community-Engaged Research to Teach Information Literacy

Through a librarian-faculty partnership, we endeavored to teach information literacy through a large-scale applied learning project. We argue that a benefit of community-engaged research could be to teach information literacy, specifically dispositions that are difficult to teach in a traditional classroom context. We found that we were successful in helping students learn to consider contextual authority and to be more critical consumers of information as evidenced through both quantitative and qualitative data. We had mixed results on encouraging students to move away from defaulting to reliance on those sources they learned about as authoritative earlier in their education, though they were aware in most cases that these sources could also be biased and/or not the most appropriate source for the question

A Longitudinal, Multilevel Analysis of Homicide Against Children Aged 0–9 Years Using State-Level Characteristics: 1979–2007

Annually, over a thousand children are the victims of homicide in the United States Homicide among younger children, 0–9 years of age, is usually perpetrated by parents and caregivers. Researchers neither have tracked changes in the homicide rate among young children over time nor have they used theory to understand what factors may drive these changes. In this analysis of state-level data, we used longitudinal growth modeling and ecological theory to examine changes in homicide rate against children aged 0–9 years from 1979 to 2007. Our results indicate that states are relatively consistent, over time, in their homicide rates. Furthermore, a cultural context of criminal and risky behavior is positively associated with homicide against children. We discuss implications for future research and prevention

Child maltreatment rates assessed in a national household survey of caregivers and youth.

Abstract This paper reports on national estimates for past year child maltreatment from a national household survey conducted in 2011. It also discusses the validity of such estimates in light of other available epidemiology. The Second National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence obtained rates based on 4,503 children and youth from interviews with caregivers about the children ages 0-9 and with the youth themselves for ages 10-17. The past year rates for physical abuse by caregivers were 4.0% for all sample children, emotional abuse by caregivers 5.6%, sexual abuse by caregivers 0.1%, sexual abuse by caregivers and non-caregivers 2.2%, neglect 4.7% and custodial interference 1.2%. Overall, 12.1% of the sample experienced at least one of these forms of maltreatment. Twenty-three percent of the maltreated children or 2.8% of the full sample experienced 2 or more forms of maltreatment. Some authority (teacher, police, medical personnel or counselor) was aware of considerable portions of most maltreatment, which suggests the potential for intervention. Many of the study\u27s estimates were reasonable in light of other child maltreatment epidemiological studies, but comparisons about emotional abuse and neglect were problematic because of ambiguity about definitions

Youth exposure to violence prevention programs in a national sample.

Abstract This paper assesses how many children and youth have had exposure to programs aimed at preventing various kinds of violence perpetration and victimization. Based on a national sample of children 5-17, 65% had ever been exposed to a violence prevention program, 55% in the past year. Most respondents (71%) rated the programs as very or somewhat helpful. Younger children (5-9) who had been exposed to higher quality prevention programs had lower levels of peer victimization and perpetration. But the association did not apply to older youth or youth exposed to lower quality programs. Disclosure to authorities was also more common for children with higher quality program exposure who had experienced peer victimizations or conventional crime victimizations. The findings are consistent with possible benefits from violence prevention education programs. However, they also suggest that too few programs currently include efficacious components

Upset among youth in response to questions about exposure to violence, sexual assault and family maltreatment.

Abstract To assess whether youth are upset by being asked questions about sensitive kinds of abuse, victimization, family maltreatment, and sexual victimization in the course of standard epidemiological surveys. A national sample of youth aged 10-17 were interviewed on the telephone by experienced interviewers as part of the National Survey of Children Exposed to Violence. At the end they were asked whether answering questions had upset them. Of the youth interviewed, 4.5% reported being at all upset and 0.8% reported being pretty or a lot upset. However, only a minority of those upset, .3% of the total sample, said they would not participate again had they known about the content. But even in this group, the regret about participation was mostly due to the length of the survey, not the types of questions being asked. Thus, asking about exposure to abuse and sensitive kinds of victimization in standard interview surveys is associated with low levels of respondent upset due to the nature of the questions