No abstract

Each year, hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. are victims of child maltreatment. Experts recommend behavioral, skill-based parent training programs as a strategy for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. These programs can be enhanced using innovative technology strategies. This paper presents a brief history of the use of technology in SafeCare®, a home visiting program shown to prevent child neglect and physical abuse, and highlights current work that takes a technology-based hybrid approach to SafeCare delivery. With this unique approach, the provider brings a tablet computer to each session, and the parent interacts with the software to receive psychoeducation and modeling of target skills. The provider and parent then work together to practice the targeted skills until mastery is achieved. Initial findings from ongoing research of both of these strategies indicate that they show potential for improving engagement and use of positive parenting skills for parents and ease of implementation for providers. Future directions for technology enhancements in SafeCare are also presented.

Informed by the Big Five personality and General Aggression Model (GAD), this study sought to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and socio-demographic determinants of aggression among adolescents in Kenya. The respondents were adolescent girls aged 12-17 (n=86) admitted to the rehabilitation institutions. An adapted Aggression Questionnaire (A.Q.), the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and Socio-Demographic Questionnaires were used to gather data. Results showed a significant weak negative correlation between extraversion personality traits and physical aggression (r= -0.051, p>0.05), as well as a weak, but significant, negative correlation between extraversion personality traits and verbal aggression (r= 0.282, p<0.05). In addition, the agreeableness was not significantly correlated to physical aggression (r=0.001, p >0.05), while the neuroticism/emotional stable personality traits had a weak, but significant, negative association with physical aggression (r= -0.257, p<0.05), verbal aggression (r=-0.241, p<0.05) and hostility (r=-0.369, p<0.05. The findings imply that various personality types will respond aggressively or non-aggressively to situations. In this study, the adolescent girls who were in neuroticism personality type were more likely to display various forms of aggression compared to those who were in agreeableness, conscientiousness and opens types. Further, this study concludes that not all extraverted types are likely to become physically aggressive, although they are more likely to become verbally aggressive.