The prevalence and impact of child maltreatment and other types of victimization in the UK: Findings from a population survey of caregivers, children and young people and young adults

Objectives: To measure the prevalence of maltreatment and other types of victimization among children , young people and young adults in the UK; to explore the risks of other types of victimization among maltreated children and young people at different ages; using standardised scores from self-report measures, to assess the emotional wellbeing of maltreated children, young people and young adults taking into account other types of childhood victimization, different perpetrators, non–victimization adversities and variables known to influence mental health. Methods: A random UK representative sample of 2,160 parents and caregivers, 2,275 children and young people and 1,761 young adults completed computer-assisted self-interviews. Interviews included assessment of a wide range of childhood victimization experiences and measures of impact on mental health. Results: 2.5% of children aged under 11 years, 6% of children and young people aged 11 to 17 years had one or more experiences of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, or neglect by a parent or caregiver in the past year and 8.9% of children under 11 years, 21.9% of young people aged 11 to 17 years and 24.5% of young adults had experienced this at least once during childhood. High rates of sexual victimization were found, 7.2% of females aged 11 to 17 and 18.6% of females aged 18 to 24 reporting childhood experiences of sexual victimization by any adult or peer that involved physical contact (from rape to sexual touching). Victimization experiences accumulated with age and overlapped. Children who experienced maltreatment from a parent or caregiver were more likely than those not maltreated to be exposed to other forms of victimization, to experience non-victimization adversity, a high level of polyvictimization and to have higher levels of trauma symptoms. Conclusions: The past year maltreatment rates for children under age 18 were seven to seventeen times greater than official rates of substantiated child maltreatment in the UK. Professionals working with children and young people in all settings should be alert to the overlapping and age related differences in experiences of childhood victimization to better identify child maltreatment and prevent the accumulative impact of different victimizations upon children’s mental health

Parkinson\u27s diagnosis from the caregiver\u27s perspective

Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. The irreversible and accumulating disability experienced means that people with Parkinson’s progressively lose their autonomy, eventually requiring complete care. Consequently, Parkinson’s significantly impacts sufferers and the people who care for them. Informal care, predominantly provided by female spouses becomes exceptionally demanding over time, and caregivers experience significant morbidity. Stress manifests across all stages of the caregiving trajectory, with diagnosis reported as a particularly stressful period for caregivers; however, few attempts have been made to understand what makes it stressful. The current study explored female spousal caregivers’ subjective experience of the Parkinson’s diagnosis, and asked how the diagnosis could be enhanced to manage caregiver stress. The researcher interviewed nine female spouses of people with Parkinson’s using a semi-structured interview guide, and subjected the transcripts to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Participants’ perceived the diagnosis of Parkinson’s as an extended, temporal and psychologically complex process, of which the clinical diagnosis was only one aspect. Participants reflected that during the process their needs were unmet. The study underscored the importance of understanding the psychosocial impacts of change in the lives of female spousal caregivers during the transition to the caregiving role

Prime Ideals in Semigroups

The concept of prime ideal, which arises in the theory of rings as a generalization of the concept of prime number in the ring of integers, plays a highly important role in that theory, as might be expected from the central position occupied by the primes in arithmetic. In the present paper, the concept is defined for ideals in semigroups, the simplest of the algebraic systems of single composition, and some analogies and differences between the ring and semigroup theories are brought out. We make only occasional references to ring theory, however; a reader acquainted with that theory will perceive its relation to our theorems without difficulty, and a reader unacquainted with it will find that the logical development of our results is entirely independent of it

When the Balance Isn't Easy: A Case Study Exploring the Complications with Work-Life Balance Initiatives in the Australian Construction Industry

Studies of work and life balance often concentrate on the ways in which employees may require and use flexible work practices to cope with the demands of their other ‘non-work’ activities and responsibilities. This paper adds to our knowledge in this arena through presenting a case study of work-life balance. This case study focuses on managerial and employee issues in implementing organisational work life balance initiatives within the construction industry in Australia. For this case study, the workplace was an ‘alliance’ project, of four collaborating companies undertaking a large infrastructure project. The project management group determined that work-life balance was an important issue within the industry and consequently implemented a five-day instead of the industry standard six-day working week as a balance initiative for the workforce. A range of factors contributed to this five-day week initiative reverting to the original work schedule of a six-day working week. This paper explores these issues and analyses the competing priorities and demands of management in endeavouring to develop alternate strategies to maintain a positive work and life balance for employees. The analysis of this case suggests that management and employees were dedicated to improving work-life balance; however, a range of externalities resulted in not all initiatives being successful. Nevertheless, within the constrained choices, the management group instigated alternate initiatives

Child Abuse and Neglect in the UK Today

This report presents new research findings from the NSPCC on child maltreatment in the United Kingdom, looking specifically at the prevalence and impact of severe maltreatment. We found that the rates of child maltreatment reported by young adults aged 18–24 were lower in 2009 than in 1998, suggesting maltreatment may be less prevalent today. However, significant minorities of children and young people in the UK today are experiencing severe maltreatment and this is associated with poorer emotional wellbeing, self-harm, suicidal ideation and delinquent behaviour

Pictorial Representation and the Significance of Style

This thesis aims to show that the concept of style ought to be given greater significance in understanding depiction. I argue that if we want to understand pictorial representations we must remember that how they depict is crucial to understanding not only why they depict what they do, but also why we have the particular kind of experience that they engender. I develop and defend an account of artistic style that has its basis in the claim that individual style is the way in which an artist does something, where this way of doing something is highly personal. With this in place I explore and critically evaluate previous attempts at understanding pictorial representation, in particular the popular Resemblance View, further clarifying the phenomenon of seeing-in along the way. I then modify and develop an account of depiction which has its basis in the work of Flint Schier and Dominic Lopes, who argue for an ‘Aspect-Recognition’ theory of depiction. The Aspect-Recognition theory, I contend, can give us the beginnings of a story about depiction, but while it is pointing in the right direction, I show it is still inadequate. I then use the concept of style that I have developed and build upon the Aspect-Recognition theory to provide a better account; one that not only has explanatory force but also does justice to pictorial diversity and the phenomenology of pictorial experience. Finally, I put this view to work in resolving familiar problems in the philosophy of depiction, namely pictorial misrepresentation and pictorial indeterminacy. These remain the most persistent difficulties for other theories of depiction. Thus my view not only better describes the nature of pictorial experience more generally but is also much better equipped to make sense of curious phenomena in pictorial representation

Enhancing Cryptosporidium parvum recovery rates for improved water monitoring

AbstractWater monitoring is essential to ensure safe drinking water for consumers. However existing methods have several drawbacks, particularly with regard to the poor recovery of Cryptosporidium due to the inability to efficiently elute Cryptosporidium oocysts during the established detection process used by water utilities. Thus the development of new inexpensive materials that could be incorporated into the concentration and release stage that would control Cryptosporidium oocysts adhesion would be beneficial. Here we describe improved filter performance following dip-coating of the filters with a “bioactive” polyacrylate. Specifically 69% more oocysts were eluted from the filter which had been coated with a polymer than on the naked filter alone