It was found that Ss in all conditions showed significant pretest to post-test performance increases on the telephone skills tasks--suggesting that, for skill development tasks with retarded adults, demonstration and verbal summaries may add little to the practice experience and that group delivery of training procedures is cost-effective.…

A neuropsychological assessment stressing lateralized perceptual-motor and cogntive abilities was administered in two groups of hospitalized psychiatric patients (8 to 17 years old), 25 schizophrenics, and 25 nonpsychotics. The results supported the hypothesis that there may be left hemisphere dysfunction in schizophrenia; however, no single…

The Missouri Children's Picture Series, a nonverbal objective personality test, was administered to 119 normal elementary children and 77 institutionalized aggressive adolescents. Several of the test scales, particularly the aggression and maturity scales, differentiated significantly between the groups. IQ related to test scores only for the…

A senior center activities program was made accessible to nursing home patients through a project called Centercare. Nursing home patients (N=144) from seven different institutions made 4370 senior center visits over a 33-month period. Project results indicate a senior center can successfully provide the institutionalized elderly with social and…

When 69 young adults who had been incarcerated as youth were interviewed, 26 gave histories of abuse discrepant with data from records and interviews conducted in adolescence. In clarification interviews with 11 subjects, it was found that all had been abused despite either their adolescent records or follow-up interviews being discrepant.…

Examines institutionalization and marginalization in the context of the history of education. Contends marginality is a fluctuating concept. Introduces the concept of an intermediary zone between marginality and normal life defined as the area of fragile existence. Argues that studying the history of marginality can help researchers investigate…

Discusses the findings of a national survey of public libraries that focused on service to older adults. Areas discussed include services most frequently provided, services to the institutionalized, the impact of ageism on library policies, and the extent of cooperation with other agencies. (18 references) (CLB)

In a study of 53 psychiatric inpatients (ages 6-13), depressed children reported significantly more hopelessness, more negative self-perceptions, negative self-perceptions across a wider variety of domains, and more dysfunctional attributional styles than nondepressed controls. Additional results suggested that childhood depressive disorders may…

Evaluates the leisure perceptions held by adolescents in institutional settings. Neulinger's (1986) "What Am I Doing?" scale (WAID) is used to measure the differences between adolescents in therapeutic and nontherapeutic settings. Discusses whether the two cohorts differ in regard to their scores when concomitant variables are statistically…

Evaluation of 11 moderately/profoundly retarded residents receiving long-term thioridazine treatment found that ratings of hyperactivity and self-injury were significantly lower during the higher dose condition, that high-stereotypy subjects responded better to the drug than low-stereotypy subjects, but that no overall drug effects could be…

The study compared living conditions (e.g., place of residence, daily occupations, attendance at evening classes, recreational activities, and social contacts) of 43 probands with Down Syndrome and 55 control subjects of similar chronological age (mean age 17 years) living in Denmark. (Author/DB)

Cluster analysis was performed on the adaptive behavior scores of 2 samples of 200 institutionalized mentally retarded individuals. Three clusters were found to be stable across clustering methods, subject samples, and time points 3 years apart. Cluster membership was meaningfully associated with demographic characteristics and neurological and…

Courts in New York and Texas have imposed limits on psychiatric research involving involuntarily institutionalized patients as subjects, citing state and constitutional protection of privacy, due process, and equal protection. Some are concerned that mental health research and treatment will suffer. (MSE)

Forty-six institutionalized adults with mild or moderate mental retardation were administered the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (socialization domain), a subjective measure of quality of life, and a facial emotion recognition test. Facial emotion recognition, quality of life, and social skills appeared to be independent of one another. Facial…

Two experiments in training residents with severe disabilities in key use revealed increased ability to locate keys when reinforced for doing so and successful key use by 20 of 25 participants to open and lock their personal lockers. However, only 36 percent of participants were able to use their keys without prompts. (Author/DB)