Glossary Chapter 4 Adjudication A hearing where the alleged abuse or neglect is proven or discounted Antecedents The events occurring immediately before the behavior itself Associative play Play together, but is not organized Authoritarian parenting Parenting style that emphasizes control and conformity Authoritative parenting Parenting style that provides control and consistent support Behavior Any observable and measurable response or act. Behavior is occasionally broadly defined to include cognitions, psychophysiological reactions, and feelings, which may not be directly observable but are defined in terms that can be measured by means of various assessment strategies (Kazdin, 2001) Bodegas Grocery stores, that also serve as information centers in Latino communities Botanicas Latino shops that sell herbs as well as records and novels in Spanish Boundaries Invisible barriers that surround individuals and subsystems, controlling amount of contact with others Child neglect The failure of the child's parent or caretaker, who has the material resources to do so, to provide minimally adequate care in the areas of health, nutrition, shelter, education, supervision, affection or attention (Wolock & Horowitz, 1984) Club sociales Latino groups that provide recreation and links to community resources Como familial Special friends who furnish reciprocal support in Latino communities Compadrazo People who participate in baptisms, first communions, etc. and often serve as parent substitutes in Latino communities Conditioned stimulus Respondent behavior that occurs when a person learns to respond to a new stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response Consequences Something that is given or something that is withdrawn or delayed. Consequences are best described in terms of reinforcement and punishment Cooperative play A form of child play where children play with each other in order to attain a similar goal Corrupting form of emotional neglect Emotional neglect that encourages or supports illegal or deviant behaviors Differentiation A system's tendency to move from a more simplified to a more complex existence Displaced people Those people who have been uprooted within their own country Disposition A hearing where the court determines what is to be done with a child Emotional abuse Belittling, humiliating, rejecting, undermining a child's self-esteem, and generally not [conducive to] creating a positive atmosphere for a child (Cohen, 1992) Emotional neglect Passive or passive/aggressive inattention to the child's emotional needs, nurturing, or emotional well-being (Brassard, Germaine, & Hart, 1987) Entropy The natural tendency of a system to progress toward disorganization, depletion and, in essence, death Equifinality Many different means to the same end Extinction The process whereby reinforcement for a behavior stops, resulting in the eventual decrease in frequency and possible eradication of that behavior Extinction burst A brief increase in the frequency or intensity of a behavior when reinforcement initially is stopped Family structure The nuclear family as well as those non-traditional alternatives to nuclear family which are adapted by persons in committed relationships and the people they consider to be 'family' (Commission of the Council on Social Work Education, (2002) Feedback A system's receipt of information from an outside source about its own performance or behavior Homeostasis The tendency of a system to maintain a relatively stable, constant state of equilibrium or balance Ignoring form of emotional neglect Failing to respond to a child or simply pretending that the child isn't there Illegal aliens People who migrate illegally to another country Immigrants Individuals who have been granted legal permanent residence in a country not their own Incest Sexual activities between a child and a relative, defined fairly broadly as a parent, stepparent, parent's live-in partner or lover, foster parent, sibling, cousin, uncle, aunt, or grandparent (McAnulty & Burnette, 2001) Input The energy, information, or communication flow received from other systems Isolation form of emotional neglect A type of neglect that keeps the child away from a variety of appropriate relationships Learning theory Theoretical orientation that conceptualizes the social environment in terms of behavior, its preceding events, and its subsequent consequences Maltreatment Physical abuse; being given inadequate care and nourishment; deprivation of adequate medical care; insufficient encouragement to attend school consistently; exploitation by being forced to work too hard or too long; exposure to unwholesome or demoralizing circumstances; sexual abuse; and emotional abuse and neglect (Kadushin & Martin, 1988) Migrants People, usually workers, who have temporary permission to live in a country, but plan to return to their country of origin Modeling The learning of behavior by observing another individual engaging in that behavior National origin Individuals', their parents', or their ancestors' country of birth Negative entropy The process of a system toward growth and development Negative reinforcement Removal of a negative event or consequence that serves to increase the frequency of a particular behavior Nonorganic failure to thrive syndrome A condition resulting from extreme neglect of infants who are below the fifth percentile in weight, and sometimes in height Onlooker play A form of child play when a child simply observes the playing behavior of other children Operant conditioning A type of learning in which behaviors are influenced primarily by the consequences that follow them (Kazdin, 2001) Outmarriage Union when children marry outside their ethnic community Output Energy, information, or communication emitted from a system to the environment or to other systems Parallel play Independent child play in a similar manner or with similar toys as other children Pedophile Someone who prefers children for sexual gratification Permissive parenting Parenting style that encourages children to be independent and make their own decisions Petition A written complaint being submitted to the court that the alleged abuse or neglect has occurred Positive reinforcement Positive events or consequences that follow a behavior and strengthen it Posttraumatic stress disorder A condition where a person continues to reexperience an excessively traumatic event like a bloody battle experience or a sexual assault Premack Principle The opportunity to engage in a high-probability behavior (a preferred behavior) as a consequence for a low-probability behavior (a less-preferred behavior) will increase the low-probability behavior, but never vice versa (Miltenberger, 2001) Primary or unconditioned reinforcers Rewards in themselves, without any association with other reinforcers Psychosocial dwarfism (PSD) A condition of infants suffering from extreme neglect; emotional deprivation promotes abnormally low growth. PSD children (18 months to 16 years) are also below the fifth percentile in weight and height, exhibit retarded skeletal maturation, and a variety of behavioral problems (Tower, 2002) Punishment The presentation of an aversive event or the removal of a positive reinforcer to decrease the frequency of a particular behavior Refugees People who have crossed national boundaries in search of refuge Reinforcement A procedure or consequence that increases the frequency of the behavior immediately preceding it Rejection form of emotional neglect The act of abandoning the child, failing to acknowledge the child, scapegoating the child [i.e., placing unjustified blame on a child for some behavior or problem or criticizing a child unfairly], and verbally humiliating the child Respondent conditioning The emission of behavior in response to a specific stimulus. Also referred to as classical or Pavlovian conditioning Reward Something that is given in return for a service or a particular achievement Secondary reinforcers Events or consequences resulting in values that are learned through association with other reinforcers Sexual abuse Any sexual activity with a child where consent is not or cannot be given.This includes sexual contact that is accomplished by force or threat of force, regardless of the age of the participants, and all sexual contact between an adult and a child, regardless of whether there is deception or the child understands the sexual nature of the activity. The sexually abusive acts may include sexual penetration, sexual touching, or noncontact sexual acts such as exposure or voyeurism (Berliner & Elliott, 2002) Shaping behavior The reinforcement of successive approximations, that is, small steps of progress, made toward the final desired behavior Social reinforcers Words and gestures used to indicate caring and concern toward another person Socialization The process whereby children acquire knowledge about the language, values, etiquette, rules, behaviors, social expectations, and all the subtle, complex bits of information necessary to get along and thrive in a particular society Sociogram A diagram illustrating the relationships of children toward other people Sociometry Technique for examining children's interaction, involving asking children questions about their relationships and feelings toward other people Solitary play Independent play, with no attention given to other children and what they are doing Subsystem A secondary or subordinate system System A set of elements that form an orderly, interrelated, and functional whole Talk story A manner of speaking that is common in Hawaiian communities, where a group of individuals all contribute to the reiteration or creation of a story by contributing small pieces Terrorizing form of emotional neglect Threatening and scaring the child Time-out A teaching treatment wherein previous reinforcement is withdrawn, with the intended result being a decrease in the frequency of a particular behavior; a form of extinction Token reinforcers Designated symbolic objects reflecting specific units of value that an individual can exchange for some other commodity that he or she wants Unconditioned stimulus Respondent behavior that is unlearned; a response is naturally emitted after exposure to a stimulus Unoccupied behavior A form of social play with little or no activity