Highlights of Fifteenth Day Enrollment for the Spring Term 2020

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Mandatory reporting: A study on the effect of universal mandated reporting

Scandals at Penn State and Syracuse University have the world talking about mandatory reporting. There no debate in the academic community concerning the detrimental effects of child maltreatment and neglect, but the debate concerning mandatory reporting is ongoing. This study looks at the effectiveness of universal mandatory reporting of child maltreatment versus the current statute of mandated reporting for only certain professions in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. When Pennsylvania changed its legislation to a universal mandatory reporting law, it experienced a great increase, of 500%, in the number of substantiated reports of child maltreatment. While this increase was substantial, because of the low rates of substantiated reports in Pennsylvania to begin with, this increase did not prove to be statistically significant. Also, negative outcomes such as unreasonable financial expenditure and possible negative side effects for children involved in unsubstantiated reports detract from the illustration of the effectiveness of universal mandatory reporting. However, this study demonstrates that a policy change concerning mandatory reporting could detect more cases of child maltreatment and help put a stop to child abuse

Reporting Error in Aircraft Maintenance: are engineers reporting safety concerns? : A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Aviation At Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Aviation accidents seldom occur as the consequence of an isolated incident, but as the result of a series of contributing factors. The industry has focussed on detecting and predicting these casual factors to support accident prevention. However, the complexity of aircraft maintenance errors makes them somewhat harder to capture. One method adopted to support error identification is error-reporting systems. The primary aim of study was to identify if reporting systems were being utilised by maintenance personnel. The secondary aim was to distinguish the factors that contribute to maintenance personnel rejecting reporting systems as a supportive tool. This was achieved through an online questionnaire. Due to a lack of research on error reporting and usability of reporting systems by aircraft maintenance personnel it proved difficult to use an existing survey, so survey questions were developed from an extensive literature review and a focus group made up of front-line personnel. Survey questions focussed on reporting system design, company attitude, error recognition and finally maintenance personnel personality patterns. Results showed several issues affected reporting system usage including lack of company support, inadequate training, and lack of feedback. Perhaps the most significant discovery were engineers believing that they would report error, but were inadequately able to recognise error. Although regulatory authorities and organisations themselves are seeing the benefits of a positive reporting culture the current study showed there are still significant issues with current reporting systems, without these inhibiting factors being addressed the industry cannot solely rely on self-reporting to manage error

Readability of PBE reporting

The standardisation of Public Benefit Entities reporting has developed since 1992. Beneficial PBE reporting requires representations of position and performance, congruent with the Qualitative Characteristics of the conceptual framework. Non-regulation, optional adoption and sector-neutral standards led to issues of erroneous, complicated and misleading language in past reports. After calls for change, sector specific regulations and a tier system was introduced to address negative impacts on PBE reporting, and catering to different PBE types or users. This study aims to investigate if current reporting is meeting expected outcomes of regulation, specifically: Has the 2015 adoption of sector-specific standards impacted the readability of New Zealand PBE's annual reports? Data was collected by a convenience sample of PBE compliant annual reports and the corresponding sector-neutral report. These reports were converted, cleaned and measured for readability (by applying Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level and passive sentences measures). The resulting data was analysed with a Paired t-Test for a significant difference. FRE results indicated 93% of reports were tougher than ‘slightly difficult to read’. Most reports indicated a difference of one point or more, 53% of reports improved, while, 33% of reports declined after implementing the PBE regulations. This study concludes sector specific standards have not resulted in a consistent, statistically significant, difference in PBE for any readability measures studied. The use of jargon and the lack of specificity in readability measures are possible limitations of this research. However, for PBE’s to deliver efficient annual reports for users, further changes may be needed

Suicide contagion : is the media placing the public at risk? An analysis of suicide reporting in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The media’s reporting of suicide has been shown to increase subsequent community suicide rates through a process called suicide contagion. It is not necessarily the reporting of suicide that causes suicide contagion, but rather it is the manner in which it is reported. As a result, within New Zealand a number of legislative (the Coroners Act, 2006) and industry guidelines (Reporting Suicide: A resource for the media, 2011) have been introduced to decrease any risk of suicide contagion. The aim of the present study was to investigate how suicide is portrayed in newspapers, examine whether suicide reporting has changed between two timeframes, and explore journalists’ beliefs and behaviour about suicide reporting. The present thesis is divided into two parts. Study One uses quantitative and qualitative methods to compare and contrast all suicide newspaper articles from leading New Zealand newspapers from 12 month periods in 1997 (pre-suicide guidelines) and 2009 (post-suicide guidelines). The results revealed that reporting quality had improved where there was a decrease in the occurrence of elements known to contribute to suicide contagion. However, despite reporting quality improving the study identified that articles continued to include a number of areas where suicide reporting could be improved upon. Study Two complemented Study One by interviewing journalists about their knowledge of contagion, reporting practices and barriers and difficulties in suicide reporting. The rhetorical analysis demonstrated that participants argued that evidence for suicide contagion was inconclusive and problematic. This had important implications as the media argued their reporting was to a high standard and consequently did not view reporting guidelines or the Coroners Act as necessary. As a result, participants largely avoided these restrictions and viewed them as a threat to media freedom. Together these studies demonstrated that suicide reporting quality can still be improved, however, in order to improve writing styles, implementing suicide guidelines does not appear enough. Instead, this study demonstrates that it is necessary to increase media awareness of suicide contagion, so the media understand the importance of applying reporting guidelines