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This study evaluates the impact of a college-based dormitory program on transitioning youth with intellectual disabilities. A qualitative study, with interviews at pre and post, was conducted to evaluate the program's impact. Data were collected with semistructured interviews from young adults with intellectual disabilities who participated in a college-based residential program and their parents or guardians. Three general themes emerged from the data: Participants reported experiences that were (a) typical of normative life transitions, (b) typical of growing pains associated with significant life transitions and learning new skills, and (c) one step forward. Results indicate that the experience of living away from home for the first time was in some ways comparable to that of a typical college student. Improvement in life skills, including increased awareness of personal goals, enhanced vocational goals, increased maturity or assertiveness, was reported. Respondents were generally satisfied with the program.

Objectives: Characteristics of the child victim, perpetrator, and maltreatment incident were used to examine predictors of court involvement in cases of serious child maltreatment. Method: Cases were drawn from those reported to: child protective services (n = 225), "sheriff's office" ( n = 225), "prosecutor's office" ( n = 60), "and dependency court" ( n = 65). Logistic regression was used to calculate predicted probabilities of criminal court involvement and dependency court involvement Results: Cases involving female victims were more likely to be filed in criminal court, and sexual abuse had the highest likelihood of prosecution. Cases involving male perpetrators, older perpetrators, and multiple victims were more likely to be filed for prosecution. Physical neglect was the most common type of maltreatment to result in dependency court filings. Perpetrator gender had opposite effects in the two systems. Conclusion: Tracking cases even in the same jurisdiction is confounded by the lack of common identifiers across the agencies involved. (Contains 5 tables.)

Predictors of court involvement in cases of serious child maltreatment are examined by using characteristics of the child victim, perpetrator and maltreatment incidents. Physical neglect was the most common type of maltreatment to result in dependency court filings.

Pre/post designs that rely on self-report measures are potentially contaminated by response shift bias, a change in respondents' understanding of the phenomena being measured between the pre- and posttests. Retrospective pretests, or then tests, have been shown to be useful in identifying response shifts. Pre/post/then designs are highly utilitarian designs that have the potential of providing more accurate assessments of respondent change. This article reviews the literature on response shift bias and the utility of retrospective pretests in detecting such bias. Three studies that used the pre/post/then design to evaluate self-reported changes in caseworker abilities (knowledge or skill) relative to practice evaluation, basic interviewing skills, and/or assessment are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]