The pandemic of COVID-19 is continuously spreading, becoming a worldwide emergency. Early and fast identification of subjects with a current or past infection must be achieved to slow down the ...epidemiological widening. Here we report a Raman-based approach for the analysis of saliva, able to significantly discriminate the signal of patients with a current infection by COVID-19 from healthy subjects and/or subjects with a past infection. Our results demonstrated the differences in saliva biochemical composition of the three experimental groups, with modifications grouped in specific attributable spectral regions. The Raman-based classification model was able to discriminate the signal collected from COVID-19 patients with accuracy, precision, sensitivity and specificity of more than 95%. In order to translate this discrimination from the signal-level to the patient-level, we developed a Deep Learning model obtaining accuracy in the range 89-92%. These findings have implications for the creation of a potential Raman-based diagnostic tool, using saliva as minimal invasive and highly informative biofluid, demonstrating the efficacy of the classification model.
Students who experience maltreatment tend to underperform academically relative to their peers, requiring an understanding of academically-related mechanisms that are potential intervention targets. ...Academic engagement, a multidimensional construct that is influential in students’ investment in learning and the school context, is one such mechanism that has been associated with positive academic outcomes and develops through interactions between students and their environment.
The purpose of this study was to examine how maltreatment experiences and trauma symptoms were indirectly associated with academic achievement in adolescence through academic engagement.
The study was conducting on a subsample of 583 youths from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing II (NSCAW II) cohort.
Structural equation modeling was used to examine the indirect effect engagement on the relationship between maltreatment and trauma symptomology and academic achievement.
Academic engagement significantly mediated trauma symptoms and later standardized reading (β = −0.02; 95 % CI −0.04, −0.0004) and math (β = −0.02; 95 % CI −0.05, −0.0003) achievement test scores. However, similar mediating effects were not found for engagement on maltreatment and later standardized reading (β = −0.01; 95 % CI −0.03, 0.01) and math (β = −0.01; 95 % CI −0.03, 0.01) achievement test scores.
These findings suggest that variability in academic outcomes was indirectly associated with engagement but only for students who exhibited trauma symptoms rather than experiencing maltreatment alone. The findings suggest future researchers should consider engagement should as an academically-related mechanism to help students who were maltreated succeed academically.
Abstract Laying a strong foundation for emotional development in children birth to 5 is of critical importance, but the extent to which this is considered following child abuse and/or neglect, foster ...care placement, reunification, and potential re‐entry into foster care remains unclear. Using a convergent mixed methods design, we investigated perceptions among child welfare professionals given the contributing role they could play in both initiating provider–parent dialogue and connecting families with timely resources to better support early emotional development post‐abuse/neglect. Fifty eight child welfare professionals in an urban, Northeastern County of the USA participated (73% response rate). Survey data and focus group insights shed light on satisfaction with and roadblocks to supporting foster and biological parents in promoting emotional development. A low proportion of respondents offered advice on emotional development, referred families to relevant parent education, or perceived biological or foster parents as extremely prepared. Self‐reported likelihood of providing advice to families was positively associated with access to information on emotional development, years employed, and job satisfaction. Multilevel roadblocks were identified. Results inform systems‐level, family‐centred initiatives and information sharing to better support emotional development post‐abuse and/or neglect.
The United States continues to grapple with longstanding policies and systems that have adversely impacted historically marginalized communities who identify (and are racialized) as non-White. These ...stem from a legacy of structural and systemic racism, and the long-term consequences of sanctioned colonization. This legacy rests upon a field of scholarly research that is similarly fraught with white supremacy. As a field, we must examine the process of producing and publishing the body of evidence that has codified harmful policies and practices. Although racial and ethnic disparities have been discussed for decades in the child welfare and health systems, systemic racism has received comparatively little attention in academic research and journals. In this commentary, the authors detail concrete steps over the coming years that will advance diversity, equity, inclusion and justice through American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s (APSACs) flagship journal, Child Maltreatment. The journal is committed to anti-racist publication processes, such that the journal pledges to develop procedures, processes, structures, and culture for scholarly research that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all forms.
•Academic engagement can improve outcomes for children who have faced adversity.•Emotion regulation skills explained the effect trauma symptoms had on engagement.•Parent-child relations mitigated the ...effect trauma symptoms had emotion regulation.•Emotion regulation skills and parent–child relations could improve engagement.
Students who have experienced adversity tend to demonstrate poorer academic outcomes than their non-maltreated peers. Academic engagement, a multidimensional, motivational construct, associated with a myriad of positive academic outcomes is an important academically-related mechanism that can be leveraged to improve the outcomes of this population.
The present study aimed to better understanding of how engagement develops in the context of adversity by exploring the effects emotion regulation skills and parent–child relationships have on engagement development.
Analyses were conducted on 795 participants in the NSCAW dataset.
Path analysis was used to estimate mediation and moderated mediation models.
Emotion regulation skills significantly mediated the effect experiencing trauma symptoms had on engagement. Parent-child relationship quality moderated the mediation effect emotion regulation skills had on the relationship between experiencing trauma symptoms and engagement.
Emotion regulation skills and parent–child relationship quality are potential intervention targets to improve engagement for students who have experienced adversity.
Implementing trauma-informed care (TIC) practices in educational settings requires preparing school staff to understand adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their impact to provide a restorative ...rather than a punitive response.
To assess learning outcomes of a TIC training delivered to kindergarten to 12-grade (K−12) staff.
A TIC training informed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) Framework was delivered August to December 2017 to twenty-seven K-12 staff in Southeastern U.S. Majority were women (93 %) aged 25 to 58 years; 52 % were White and 48 % were Black/African American (48 %).
Curricular content included an overview of ACEs; stress physiology; recognition of symptoms in self and others; strategies for response; and self-care. A post-training questionnaire with 11 learning statements was administered to assess participants' level of agreement with learning each concept using a 5-point Likert scale. Self-reflective narratives of challenging situations with students were also submitted and qualitatively analyzed for applications of TIC.
Between 62.9 % to 96 % of participants agreed/strongly agreed with learning new concepts related to ACEs and their symptoms. Qualitative data indicated that participants were able to recognize stress symptoms in students and in themselves and integrate strategies learned such as breathing and creating safe space to allow students to have voice and choice.
TIC training curriculum that includes ACEs and toxic stress science is a critical component that promotes recognition of trauma symptoms in themselves and others. Self-reflective practice using narratives is an essential training tool for implementing TIC.
Objectives:
Identifying children and adolescents within child welfare at risk for commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) can ensure referrals to appropriate services. However, screening measures to ...understand the prevalence of CSE are missing in child welfare. We evaluated the classification accuracy of a screener developed for the purpose of this study, guided by the Sexual Exploitation among Youth (SEY) risk assessment framework used in practice with child welfare–involved young people, (1) to identify young people at high versus low risk for experiencing CSE and (2) to estimate the prevalence of CSE risk for child welfare–involved children and adolescents.
Methods:
We used extant data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being study with a nationally representative sample of children and adolescents aged 11-17 years (n = 1054) investigated by child welfare from February 2008 to April 2009. The 26-item screener showed acceptable reliability (α = .73) and test-criterion validity evidence using a CSE proxy outcome (ie, narrowly defined as being paid for sexual relations). We used the receiver-operating curve to classify risk and calculate the optimal cutoff score.
Results:
Higher scores on the SEY screener (range, 0-20 points) increased the odds of experiencing CSE by 34%. The screener was good at discriminating CSE risk at the 6-point cutoff, with 26.7% of child welfare–involved young people identified as being at high risk for CSE.
Conclusions:
Given the absence of accurate prevalence rates of CSE risk in the population, a theoretical cutoff index using an established method can provide an objective decision on how to distinguish risk levels. Prevalence estimates for CSE risk highlight the need for systematic screening in child welfare to identify and provide services for young people at risk.
Currently, some trauma-informed education practices use “ACE scores,” a number that represents the sum of endorsed items from a survey derived from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study in ...1998. We caution that the survey provides limited information within education, and such scores have limited utility for designing and delivering individualized intervention to support students who have experienced adversity.
We sought to illustrate why ACEs are not well-suited for use in trauma-informed education, provide definitions for adversity-related terms from which a broader and common understanding of adversity can stem, and provide recommendations for integration of adversity-informed approaches to the educational context.
We compiled definitions of adversity-related constructs and made recommendations based on review of relevant research from the fields of psychology and education.
Rather than tailoring educational practices to specific children based on the “traumatic” events they experience, we recommend educators focus their efforts on building supportive classrooms geared toward supporting students with best practices drawn from the Science of Learning, and with the understanding that early adversity can influence heterogeneous trajectories in student development and behavior. In addition, further research on educational practices, including the use of a shared language for describing and defining adversity-related experiences, are the concrete steps needed to better support a goal of adversity-informed education.
Abstract Guided by bio-ecological theory, this study aimed to: (1) identify heterogeneity in the developmental patterns of emotion regulation for maltreated preschool-aged children; (2) examine the ...role of gender, language, placement instability, cognitive stimulation, and emotional support on patterns of stability and change of emotion regulation over time; and (3) elucidate the role of emotion regulation/dysregulation patterns on later academic achievement. This study utilized data from the first cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Results using LCA and LTA models indicated stability and change in emotionally regulated vs. emotionally dysregulated latent classes across 4, 5, and 6 ½ years of age. Placement instability significantly increased the likelihood of being classified as emotionally dysregulated at wave 1. Moreover, children classified as emotionally dysregulated by age 6 ½ scored significantly lower than children who were classified as emotionally regulated on measures of reading and math achievement by age 10. Based on these findings, placement stability at first contact with CPS should be promoted in order to prevent cascading negative effects on emotion regulation. Additionally, children who are more emotionally dysregulated by the time they transition to formal schooling should receive increased socioemotional and socioemotional learning supports.
PDF
