Ethical structures and processes of corporations operating in Australia, Canada and Sweden : A longitudinal and cross-cultural study

Based on the ‘Partnership Model of Corporate Ethics’ (Wood, 2002), this study examines the ethical structures and processes that are put in place by organizations to enhance the ethical business behavior of staff. The study examines the use of these structures and processes amongst the top companies in the three countries of Australia, Canada, and Sweden over two time periods (2001–2002 and 2005–2006). Subsequently, a combined comparative and longitudinal approach is applied in the study, which we contend is a unique approach in the area of business ethics. The findings of the study indicate that corporations operating in Sweden have utilized ethical structures and processes differently than their Canadian and/or Australian counterparts, and that in each culture the way that companies fashion their approach to business ethics appears congruent with their national cultural values. There does, however, appear to be a convergence of views within the organizations of each culture, as the Swedish companies appear to have been more influenced in 2005–2006 by an Anglo-Saxon business paradigm than they have been in the past.

A qualitative examination of police officers' questioning of children about repeated events

For an offender to be convicted in relation to repeated child abuse, most jurisdictions require that each separate act be identified with reasonable precision with reference to time, place, or some other unique contextual detail (S v. R, 1989). The current study provided a qualitative examination of the way in which police officers assist children to identify and distinguish between occurrences of a repeated event. Field, as well as mock interviews (about an innocuous staged event) were examined, with child witnesses' ages ranging from 3 to 16 years. Overall, several problems in the questioning were highlighted. These included: over-reliance on specific questions, use of 'labels' for occurrences without inquiring as to whether these were unique, and frequent shifting of the focus between occurrences. The implications of these findings are discussed.

An examination of the types of leading questions used by investigative interviewers of children

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of leading questions used by a representative sample of investigative interviewers of children. In particular, it examined whether these interviewers use the type of questions that are known to elicit reports of false activities or events among child samples.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 82 police officers who were authorized to conduct interviews with alleged child abuse victims conducted individual mock interviews with children aged 5-7 years. The focus of the interviews was an event that was staged in the children's school a week earlier. Prior to the interview, each officer was provided with accurate and inaccurate information about the event, including details about an activity that did not occur. The officers' task was to elicit as detailed and accurate account of the event as possible using the techniques they would “normally” use in the field.
Findings – Although the officers refrained from using coercive interview techniques, two problematic types of questions were relatively common. These include: questions that presumed that an activity/detail occurred that had not been previously mentioned by the child; and questions that included highly specific details about an activity. Both of these techniques had featured in prior laboratory research on children's false event narratives.
Research limitations/implications – These results support the need for better training techniques for assisting officers to avoid the use of leading questions.
Originality/value – While it is well established that investigative interviewers do sometimes use leading questions when interviewing children, this is the first study to specify the incidence of various types of leading questions.of leading questions.

Designing effective training programs for investigative interviewers of children

'Best-practice' guidelines for conducting investigative interviews with children are well established in the literature, yet few investigative interviewers actually adhere to such guidelines in the field. One of the problems is that little discussion has focused on how such guidelines are learned and sustained by professionals. To address this concern, the current article reviews the key elements of interview training programs that are known to promote competent interviewing. These elements include: (i) the establishment of key principles or beliefs that underpin effective interviewing, (ii) the adoption of an interview framework that maximises narrative detail, (iii) clear instruction in relation to the application of the interview framework, (iv) effective ongoing practice, (v) expert feedback and (vi) regular evaluation of interviewer performance. A description and justification of each element is provided, followed by broad recommendations regarding how these elements can be implemented by police and human service organisations in a cost-effective manner.

A prospective examination of children's time spent outdoors, objectively measured physical activity and overweight

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether time spent outdoors was associated with objectively measured physical activity, body mass index (BMI) z-score and overweight in elementary-school aged children, cross-sectionally and prospectively over 3 years.
Methods: Three-year cohort study with data collected during 2001 and 2004. Nineteen randomly selected state elementary schools across Melbourne, Australia. One hundred and eighty eight 5–6-year-old and 360 10–12-year-old children. Baseline parent reports of children’s time spent outdoors during warmer and cooler months, on weekdays and weekends. At baseline and follow-up, children’s moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was objectively assessed by accelerometry, and BMI zscore and overweight was calculated from measured height and weight.
Results: Cross-sectionally, each additional hour outdoors on weekdays and weekend days during the cooler months was associated with an extra 27 min week^-1 MVPA among older girls, and with an extra 20 min week^-1 MVPA among older boys. Longitudinally, more time outdoors on weekends predicted higher MVPA on weekends among older girls and boys (5 min week^-1). The prevalence of overweight among older children at follow-up was 27–41% lower among those spending more time outdoors at baseline.
Conclusion: Encouraging 10–12-year-old children to spend more time outdoors may be an effective strategy for increasing physical activity and preventing increases in overweight and obesity. Intervention research investigating the effect of increasing time outdoors on children’s physical activity and overweight is warranted.

Discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments : predicting the health and health-related quality of life of children living in low-income, single-parent families

Objective Although the amount and frequency of child support payments received by single parents are often erratic and fluctuate, no study to date has quantitatively explored how the discrepancy between expected and actual payments relates to child health. This study aims to examine whether the discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments predicts a range of child health outcomes, including global health, health-related quality of life, involvement in activities and parental psychological distress.

Methods This study used results from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which included a sample of parents of children aged 4–5 years (n = 4983). The questionnaire was completed by the parent who spent the most time with the child and knew the child best. From the 4983 families, 332 low-income single parents reliant on welfare with a formal or informal child support order in place were identified.

Results After controlling for income, the discrepancy between expected and actual child support predicted school functioning, conduct problems, total mental health problems and involvement in activities. Discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments did not predict the remaining health-related quality of life domains, mental health domains, global child health or parental psychosocial distress.

Conclusion This was the first study to examine how the discrepancy between expected and actual child support payments relates to child health, providing important data on the effectiveness of the child support system for children's well-being. These findings highlight the potential impact of the discrepancy on school functioning, conduct problems, total mental health problems and involvement in activities.

Gaining representations of children's and adults' constructions of sustainability issues

In this decade of Education for Sustainable Development, it is timely to consider the methodological issues associated with researching this topic not only with adults but also with the young children who, as members of the next generation, will experience the success or otherwise of current environmental sustainability efforts. We argue that it is important when making methodological choices to recognize that both the sustainability issues themselves and the way individuals learn about these issues, are socially and culturally constructed. In this article we are interested in ways of gaining representations of individuals' mental constructions of environmental sustainability issues. We recount experiences from two projects, one which used the approach of analyzing children's drawings to gain representations of how children in Mexico understand environmental issues and the other which employed adult participant-directed photography as the principal data collection method conducted mainly in the north of South Africa.

An evaluation of a self-intiated practice exercise for investigative interviewers of children

The current study extends debate and research on the important role of practice in promoting and sustaining complex skills in investigative interviewing. Specifically, we explored the use of self-initiated practice as one avenue for facilitating ongoing development of professionals who interview children about abuse. A group of 40 investigative interviewers were required to organise and administer their own practice opportunities and to document these sessions in a diary. The professionals were aware of the important role of practice and what constitutes best-practice interview guidelines; however no instruction was given about the desired format, structure and timing of the practice sessions. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed poor adherence to self-initiated practice, and the practice (among those who adhered to this model) had negligible impact on performance. Overall, these findings highlight the need for careful monitoring and evaluation of all interviewer practice tasks.

Family food environments as determinants of children's eating : implications for obesity prevention

The prevalence of childhood obesity is escalating rapidly and it considered to be a major public health problem. Diet is a recognised precursor of fatness, and current evidence supports the premise that in Westernised countries, the dietary intakes of children are likely to be important in obesity genesis. However, we have a relatively poor understanding of the environments in which a child’s eating is learnt and maintained. Much of the existing work in this area is based on small-scale or experimental studies, or has been derived from homogeneous populations within the USA. Despite these limitations, there is evidence that aspects of the child’s family environment are likely to be important in determining obesity risk in children. This thesis examines the impact of the family food environment on a child’s eating through two related studies. The first study, titled the Children and Family Eating (CAFÉ) study comprised three phases. Phase one involved qualitative interviews with 17 parents of 5-6 year-old children to explore parental perceptions regarding those factors in a child’s environment believed to influence the development of their child’s eating habits. These interviews were used to inform the development of quantitative measures of the family food environment. The second phase involved the development of a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) to assess dietary intake in 5-6 year-olds. The FFQ was informed by analysis of 1995 Australian National Nutrition Survey data. In the final phase the relationships between dietary intakes of 5-6 year-old children, and potential predictors of dietary intake were examined in a cross-sectional study of 560 families. Predictors included measures of: parental perceptions of the adequacy of their child’s diet; food availability and accessibility; child-feeding; the opportunities for parental modelling of food intake; a child’s television exposure; maternal Body Mass Index; and maternal education. Analysis of the CAFÉ data provides unique information regarding the relationships between a child’s family food environment and their food consumption. Models developed for a range of dietary outcomes considered to be predictive of increased risk for obesity, including total energy and fat intakes, vegetable variety, vegetable consumption, and high-energy (non-dairy) fluid consumption, explained between 11 and 20 percent of the variance in dietary intake. Two aspects of the family food environment, parental perception of a child’s dietary adequacy, and the total minutes of television viewed per day, were frequently found to be predictive of dietary outcomes likely to promote fatness in these children. The second study, titled the Parent Education and Support (PEAS) Feeding Intervention Study, was a prospective pre/post non-randomised intervention trial that assessed the impact of a feeding intervention to 240 first-time mothers of one-year-old children. This intervention focused on one aspect of the family food environment, child-feeding, which has been proposed as influential in the development of obesogenic eating behaviours. In this study, Maternal and Child Health Nurses (MCHNs), using a ‘Division of Responsibility’ model of feeding, taught parents to provide nutritious food at regular intervals and to let children decide if to eat and how much to eat. Thus parents were encourages to food their child without exerting pressure, or employing coercion or rewards (controlling behaviours). The aim was to influence parental attitudes and beliefs regarding child-feeding. Through the use of these feeding techniques, this intervention also aimed to increase the variety of fruits and vegetables a child consumed by teaching parents to persist with offering these foods, over the year of the intervention, in non-emotive environments. Fruits and vegetables were chosen in this intervention because they are likely to be protective in the development of obesity. Analysis of the PEAS data suggests that this low-level feeding intervention, delivered through existing Maternal and Child Health services, was modestly effective in changing parental attitudes and beliefs regarding the feeding of young children. Further, the validity of fruits offered to intervention group children increased. This thesis expands the existing knowledge base by providing a comprehensive analysis of the relative impact of aspects of the family environment on dietary intakes of 5-6 year-olds. Further, the analysis of a feeding intervention in first-time parents provides important insights regarding the potential to influence child-feeding and the impact this may have on the promotion of eating behaviours protective against obesity.