Biomedical subjects

M Reitsma-Street

Publications and source records attributed to M Reitsma-Street.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1994

Community-based action research in a multi-site prevention project: challenges and resolutions.

This article examines the use of action research strategies over a four-year period in developing and evaluating a prevention program for children and their families. This research has taken place in a low-income multi-cultural neighbourhood in Sudbury. Strategies to foster participation and the practical relevance of findings are described, both for the initial proposal development stage, and for the period after a local program was funded as part of a multi-site evaluation project. After reviewing the challenges inherent in doing action research within a multicultural neighbourhood, and within a multi-site design, we discuss which strategies have worked, and what remains to be resolved.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed1986

Pregnancy and birth complications in antisocial adolescents and their siblings.

The authors compared the frequency of pregnancy and birth complications (PBC) from hospital records in antisocial adolescents and their same-sexed siblings who were relatively clear of antisocial behaviour. Probands, as a group, were not more likely to have had more PBC than their siblings, however, if there was a difference in complication frequency, it was usually the proband who was affected. The only effect of PBC within a pair was on the school performance and reading achievement of the proband. These results suggests that PBC may provide a marker for a subgroup of antisocial youth with a different etiology than similarly disturbed adolescents without PBC.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1985

Pairs of same-sexed siblings discordant for antisocial behaviour.

Seventy-one pairs of same-sexed biological adolescent siblings, discordant for antisocial behaviour and service contact, were compared using matched-pairs analyses along several dimensions which included developmental, family, psychiatric, educational, cognitive, pro- and antisocial behaviour. The antisocial youth had significantly more negative perception and experiences than their siblings, who experienced more protective influences. Earlier onset in the antisocial youth of activities such as smoking also significantly differentiated the pairs. The early temperament index alone correctly classified as proband and sibling 95% of the youth, using discriminant analysis procedures. The findings are relevant to the aetiology of antisocial behaviour and to possible treatment interventions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1983

Problems of studying antisocial behavior.

The importance of antisocial behaviour is underlined by the magnitude of the problem (largest category of emotional disturbance in youth) and by the poor psychosocial prognosis for the chronically affected child. The medical/psychological approach has pointed to the role of marital discord and parental psychopathology as significant features in the individual's environment predicting antisocial development. Conversely, sociology and criminology, which have begun with social theories, appear to have had less statistical success in accounting for aetiology. Definition of conduct disorder in terms of type, duration, frequency, and severity of anti-social behaviour is indispensible for the characterization of subgroups of affected children, and hence variables which protect against or accentuate risk factors. Prognosis depends among other things on age of onset (worse younger) and setting (home or community), implying that treatment programmes cannot be evaluated adequately without the differential characterisation of subgroups, their natural histories, and responsiveness to intervention. Although such data come from the study of individuals, case-by-case treatment runs the risk in certain groups of escalating anti-social behaviour. Thus community/youth oriented interventions, focusing on the remedial treatment of learning handicaps, improvement of non-school skills, may provide more promising points of attack. Incomplete knowledge of aetiology should not prevent action, provided the methodological issues raised serve as the basis for vigorous evaluation.

Adolescent↗