Children of enlisted soldiers experience greater rates of neglect and maltreatment during periods of combat-related deployments, according to a study in the August 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.
Parental stress is believed to play an important role in child maltreatment, which includes neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Combat-related deployments have been associated with increased stress among nondeployed parents. Few studies have examined child maltreatment within U.S. military families, of which there were more than 1.1 million with children younger than 18 years in 2004, according to background information in the article.
Deborah A. Gibbs, M.S.P.H., of RTI International, Research Triangle Park, N.C., and colleagues examined the impact of combat-related deployment between September 2001 and December 2004 on 1,771 families of enlisted soldiers in the U.S. Army who had 1 or more substantiated reports of child maltreatment.
Of these families, the researchers found that a total of 1,858 parents maltreated their children, and that the rate of child maltreatment during soldier deployments was 42 percent higher than the rate of child maltreatment at times when soldiers were not deployed. The occurrence of moderate or severe maltreatment was about 60 percent higher during deployment vs. nondeployment; the rate of child neglect was almost twice as high when soldiers were deployed compared to when the soldiers were not deployed. In contrast, the rates of physical and emotional abuse were lower during deployment than during nondeployment.
Additional analyses found that the child maltreatment incidents during deployment and nondeployment differed in terms of the characteristics of the parent-offenders: the rate of child maltreatment by female civilians was more than three times greater during times of deployment. The occurrence of maltreatment during deployment also was elevated among male civilians but not significantly so. The rate of child neglect by civilian female spouses was especially elevated during the times that their soldier-husbands were deployed, being almost four times the rate of child neglect during other times. In addition, the occurrence of spouses� physical abuse of their children was elevated during deployments, nearly twice the nondeployment rate.
�� our research findings provide information that may help to inform policy and practice regarding child maltreatment, including the Army�s Family Advocacy Program and clinicians and child welfare professionals in communities with military populations. The findings confirm the need for supportive and preventive services for Army families during times of deployment,� the authors write.
The researchers add that the Army does offer a number of services to families to address these issues, including child care and support groups for spouses of deployed soldiers. �Nevertheless, the greater rate of child maltreatment associated with deployments suggests the need for enhanced support for civilian parents in terms of additional resources, more effective services, development of services that those parents at greatest risk will be likely to seek out and accept, and greater outreach to connect parents to services.�
Toronto - Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health has issued a Heat Alert for today. The Heat Alert will be in effect until further notice. During a Heat Alert the public is encouraged to call or visit friends and neighbours who are at risk of suffering health consequences because of hot weather. People at greatest risk include the elderly, infants and young children, the chronically ill, and those taking certain medications. Hot weather early in the season can have a more significant impact on vulnerable people as they have not yet adjusted to warmer temperatures.
The public is advised to “Beat the Heat” by taking these precautions:
- Drink lots of water and natural fruit juices
- Stay out of the blazing sun or heat
- Avoid strenuous physical activity outdoors
- Go to air conditioned places, including shopping malls or one of over 190 local library branches, or numerous air conditioned community centres located in each neighbourhood. Toronto’s civic centres are also available to the public as cooling places during Heat Alerts.
- Never leave the elderly, children or pets unattended in a car
- Landlords of buildings without air conditioning are encouraged to set up dedicated cool rooms and check on vulnerable tenants.
Many homeless shelters will also allow people to stay inside during the day to keep cool.
During Extreme Heat Alerts, the civic centres are operated as Cooling Centres where additional amenities are provided for those in need. Over 450 service providers and community partners implement hot weather response plans to assist vulnerable people during Heat Alerts and Extreme Heat Alerts.
Those in need of assistance may call the Red Cross Heat Information Line at 416-480-2615 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Boston (EON) - Rockstar is working on a brand-new exclusive franchise for the Sony PS3 console.
This is according to Sony America’s director of third party relations Michael Shorrock. He stated that the game is “not LA Noire.”
He stated that it is something totally new as it was revealed in Sony’s official US blog.
“Everyone knows to have success in this business you need to look ahead, identifying the talent and titles that are going to give consumers new kinds of gaming experiences that help set the bar for the rest of the industry.
“Rockstar has a heritage for doing just that. We have had incredible success with the GTA franchise and are happy to continue to offer those titles on our platforms, and even more excited about what’s to come from the current and future relationship between our companies.
“Rockstar really wanted to make a game that you can truly only do on PS3, harnessing the power of CELL and Blu-ray disc and this deal lets them do just that,” Shorrock declared.
Right now they’re not saying anything about it, but promised to “share more info as soon as we can”
Boston (EON) - Sony may be warming up to the idea of adult content on Blu-ray as they stated that they support the production of Blu-ray adut content in countries outside of Japan.
The Adult Treasure Expo 2007 in Chiba, Japan grew quite a large audience with many clamoring for high-definition porn which in the past has only been available on the HD-DVD format.
In Japan many companies cannot touch adult-related contracts and put them on Blu-ray so what many companies are doing is sending the discs to Taiwan to be pressed and then importing them back to Japan.
Mass production is going to start in August on adult content on Blu-ray format with many movies already out.
Many still believe that porn was the deciding factor in the past war between Betamax and VHS.
Boston (EON) - PopCap Games made the announcement on Monday that they have launched an iPhone version of their puzzler Bejeweled.
The iPhone version is available for free play from PopCap Games’ web site.
Bejeweled is one of the most popular puzzle games of all tiem and is really going to be pushing the idea of gaming on the iPhone as many development companies look at the device as a possible gaming platform on top of the internet, phone, and mp3 use.
The iPhone version of Bejeweled has been reworked for the iPhone display and controls.
Washington (EON) - The Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts spent the night at a hospital in Maine after suffering from a seizure.
This occured at his island vacation home in Maine. The 52-year-old became very sick on Monday and he fell to the ground when the seizure occured. He went through a full neurological exam at the hospital.
The seizure which is suffered was a “benign idiopathic seizure.”
This means that there was no explanation for the seizure as there was no tumor, stroke, or anything else which sparked it.
Roberts had a similar seizure episode back in 1993 as well.
Seoul (EON) - According to a Taliban spokesman another South Korean hostage was killed on Monday night.
The spokesman stated that the man named Song Kin-Shi was shot dead on Monday night due to the belief on the part of the Taliban that the Afghan government was not taking the negotiation talks, demands, and deadlines seriously.
The dead body was dumped near the Ghazni-Kandahar highway.
This was the second hostage out of the 23 hostages to be killed by the Taliban. This brings the hostage count of those alive and well at 21 as negotiations continue and deadlines keep on passing by.
The Taliban continue to insist on an exchange of Taliban prisoners for the hostages.
New Delhi (EON) - The famous Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to six years in jail on Tuesday for ilegally possessing firearms, as well as linking him to the 1993 bombing in Mumbai which killed 257 people.
Judge Promod Kode made the announcement in court to Sanjay and ordered him to serve out a 6-year jail sentence. The judge stated that the crimes by Sanjay were severe criminal acts.
He was found guilty of taking and storing weapons used in the Mumbai bombing from underground kingpins and keeping them in hiding.
The trial had gone on for 14-years and finally a sentence has come down. Sanjay made a plea to the judge to after the court announcement for the right to call his daughter and two sisters.
Tokyo (EON) - The Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe has stated that he will not resign even though many are calling for his resignation.
Opposition parties and independents won 75 seats in Sunday’s upper house election causing Abe’s party to lose control of the upper house. Final counting results revealed and confirmed their victory early on Monday.
The Democratic Party of Japan secured a total of 75 seats in the election on Sunday. 121 seats were up for grabs with voting. This means that after the final count they will have 137 out of the 242 seats giving them a majority.
Polls are showing that the majority of Japan want to see the Prime Minister Abe resign and do so pretty quickly. Whether he is going to listen to these calls for resignation remains to be seen but as of right now he doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
Washington (EON) - Indian Dr. Haneef was falsely held for 3 weeks in a jail in Australia on terrorism charges, he has stated he is going to fight for his right to work in Australia.
The 27-year-old doctor Mohamed Haneef is demanding that authorities in Australia apologize to India over the affair and that his visa be restored so that he can return to work in the country.
He stated that “I would like to return to Australia, I would like my visa back , I will fight for that. I enjoyed my time working at the Gold Coast Hospital and am saddened that until my visa has been returned that I am unable to return and work as a doctor there.”
Dr. Haneef was released as the case against him fell apart in court on Friday with no evidence of the claims.