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Deinstitutionalisation, international adoption and the effects on the child
Full text linkThe primary question of this PhD study is the role of international adoption in
deinstitutionalising young children (under 5). From an attachment theory and the
child rights perspective, this PhD study first explored the potential problems with
the current practices in international adoption by comparing the conduct of
international adoption agencies operating on the internet. It found that at least 38%
of the agency websites examined were in breach of the UNCRC and the Hague
Convention. It then explored the relationship between international adoption and
institutional care and how international adoption may impact on the progress in
the deinstitutionalisation of children. Contrary to popular belief, the research
found that international adoption is associated with the increase or maintenance of
institutional care.
The study went on to examine the current practices in the deinstitutionalisation of
children in Europe, comparing them to a 10 Step good practice model for
transforming children's services. The results tentatively suggest that countries
with better community support services were more likely to meet the standards set
out in the model.
As child abandonment has been identified as one of the main reasons for the high
numbers of children in institutional care or placed for international adoptions in
the first place, a case study of Romania and a narrative literature review were
carried out to explore the extent of the problem and the preventive strategies. In
Romania, the main causes of child abandonment by the family were identified as;
very serious economical problems, mothers' lack of formal education, lack of
specialised services at the level of local communities, poor sexual education,
homelessness and teenage parenting. The rate of child abandonment in maternities
was calculated to be 1.8% of live births. A pilot study in three maternity units
found that the two that introduced social workers saw marked reduction in the
number of abandoned children whereas the number in the one without a social
worker remained the same.The literature review found that there has been a lack of clear definitions on this
social issue and a lack of unified recording system for abandoned children.
Therefore, it is difficult to estimate the true extent of the problem. Reasons often
observed for abandonment were poverty, young or single parenthood and the lack
of welfare and services for parents in serious financial difficulties or found it hard
to cope with the demands of the child(ren).
To explore possible effects community services have on deinstitutionalised
children, a follow up study of the children deinstitutionalised back into family
based care, the integral part of community services, were carried out in Romania.
Significant differences were found in all aspects of physical and psychology care
and carer sensitivity received by the children between children who grew up in
their own families, those who were deinstitutionalised into a foster or adoptive
family and those who were returned to their biological families. The results
showed that the quality of care received by fostered/adopted children was rated
the highest on all items. This tentatively suggests that children who were
de institutionalised and placed in foster and adoptive families are likely to receive
better quality of parenting and have a better chance of rehabilitation and catch up
with their peers. It may indicate that the selection process of surrogate families
has been relatively successful.
Finally, a systematic review comparing the psychosocial outcomes of
internationally adopted children to adopted or non-adopted children within the
host countries were carried out to shed light on the effects of international
adoption on children. The results indicate that internationally adopted children
who were not exposed to institutional care on a long term basis can recover well
from their early adverse experience and catch up with same age children in the
host countries in terms of development and cognitive functioning. However,
information on international adoptees prior experience was poorly reported and
difficult to verify. No study reported the assessment results that led to the decision
on international adoption. Thus, it is not possible to determine whether
international adoption was the most appropriate placement for those children
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Child Rights and International Adoption: A Response to Critics
No full textIn this commentary, Kevin Browne and Shihning Chou focus on the issues raised by the critical responses to their article in Adoption & Fostering (Chou and Browne, 2008).
The Relationship between Institutional Care and the International Adoption of Children in Europe
No full textThe study reported by Shihning Chou and Kevin Browne explored the link between institutional care for young children and international adoption, using a survey of 33 European countries. Official figures were available from 25 countries on the proportions of national versus international adoption within their own countries, together with the number of children under three in institutional care. Results indicate an association between international adoption (both incoming and outgoing) and a high number of young children in institutional care. The evidence suggests that, rather than reduce the number of children in institutions, international adoption may contribute to the continuation of this harmful practice. A child rights-based approach to providing alternative care for children separated from their parents is proposed
External workplace violence towards police officers: A scoping review
Full text linkExisting research on public violence against the police is limited. This scoping review aimed to offer an overview of the characteristics and the findings of existing primary research, identifying methodological and knowledge gaps to inform future research. It followed Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review guidelines, with a protocol established before the review started. Relevant citations were searched and screened based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data of the included publications were charted with a pre-defined template and then synthesized narratively. The initial de-duplicated electronic searches returned 796 citations. An additional 29 relevant citations were found through hand searching. Overall, 62 publications met the inclusion criteria. Areas covered included characteristics of victimized officers, perpetrators, and situations; impacts on officers and organizations; comparisons with other occupations; socio-political factors; and methodologies used. It was found that police officers face various forms of external workplace violence, including verbal abuse, threats, and physical violence, sometimes fatal. Most victim officers were younger males, with higher levels of victimization involving minor physical violence and verbal threats. Despite some common findings on situational and environmental correlates, there is no definitive profile of individuals who assault police officers or consistent predictors for serious violence. Research mostly used quantitative secondary analyses of organizational and government databases with limited primary research found. Research focused more on the extent and the correlates of external workplace violence than impacts, interventions, or prevention. Increased use of mixed-methods and qualitative research is suggested to better understand the phenomenon and develop appropriate prevention and welfare programs
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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