Child sexual abuse is a problem with both a national and worldwide prevalence. In this review, the authors note that while empirical research has clearly shown the negative impact of child sexual abuse on social, psychological, and sexual functioning later in life, it has also been reported that some individuals remain asymptomatic despite a history of experiencing child sexual abuse. This implies that negative outcomes later in life are not inevitable and illustrates the critical need to elucidate how resilience may moderate the negative impacts of child sexual abuse. In addition to emphasising the role of resilience, this review also underscores the important role that cultural context plays in understanding child sexual abuse, as there are known risk factors and protective factors specific to different cultures. Similarly, one's culture may also influence whether abuse is reported and addressed, and the topic is given special attention in this paper because it is not widely discussed within the existing literature. The impact of child sexual abuse on mental health, sexual health, and social functioning is also discussed.

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The changing criterion design (CCD) has been a recognized format of single-case research for four decades. Published examples of the CCD have been limited and the structure of the design used in the literature has varied to a degree that might engender confusion. This review examines the structure of CCD studies published to date to identify prior implementation practices and identify best practices for future use.Keywords Single-case . Changing criterion design . Best practicesThe changing criterion design (CCD) utilizes step-wise benchmarks for manipulating a dimension (i.e., accuracy, frequency, duration, latency, or magnitude) of a single behavior already present in an individual's repertoire (Cooper et al. 2007). The design has been used with behaviors where an immediate, considerable increase or decrease may be difficult to achieve or undesired; therefore, gradual shifts toward a desired goal are applied.The CCD was first described in two books published in 1971: one a short description in a book by Hall, and the other a brief study reported by Weis and Hall which used the design to reduce daily cigarette smoking by a college student. A few subsequent studies utilized this design (i.e., Brown et al. 1974;Wallace and Davis 1974) prior to the seminal article by Hartmann and Hall (1976), which described the CCD in more detail and noted its similarity to a procedural description by Sidman (1960, pp. 254-256) in reference to the evaluation of irreversible behavior. Hartmann and Hall saw the CCD as a type of multiple baseline design that could be used with a shaping procedure. In response to the CCD as a multiple baseline design, Cooper et al. (2007) point out that the behavior being evaluated in a CCD is intentionally interdependent (unlike a multiple baseline design) which can lead to an exaggerated perception of experimental control. Conceptualizing this as an extension of the multiple baseline design adds confusion. Consequently, the CCD is best suited for the acceleration and deceleration of a behavior, but is versatile in the behaviors and populations it can be applied to. Despite this, the CCD has only rarely been mentioned as a research or intervention tool since Hartmann and Hall's article.Though not as experimentally robust as other designs (e.g., the multiple baseline design, which demonstrates experimental control through staggered, independent baselines), the CCD does achieve acceptable control through baseline logic and appropriate manipulation of design structure (see Table 1 for a simplified presentation of baseline logic of the CCD). With the CCD, a baseline serves as a measurement between the absence and presence of the independent variable, as do each criterion and its subsequent criterion. Therefore, when stable responding occurs at each step, (1) predictions about future responding can be made with each criterion, and (2) replications of intervention effect are observed repeatedly. Verification can be accomplished by varying the phase length or by reverting briefly to a previous cr...

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An intervention for noncompliance consisting of a series of requests promoting a high probability of compliance followed either 5 s or 20 s later by a request with a low probability of compliance was implemented with a preschool child with autism. Results indicated that applications of the request sequence with a shorter interprompt time resulted in higher rates of compliance, and longer interprompt times resulted in near-baseline rates of compliance.