The one in five children growing up in poverty in America have elevated risk for socioemotional difficulties. One contributing factor to their elevated risk may be exposure to multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. This study demonstrated that 8- to 10-year-old, low-income, rural children (N = 287) confront a wider array of multiple physical (substandard housing, noise, crowding) and psychosocial (family turmoil, early childhood separation, community violence) stressors than do their middle-income counterparts. Prior research on self-reported distress among inner-city minority children is replicated and extended among low-income, rural White children with evidence of higher levels of self- and parent-reported psychological distress, greater difficulties in self-regulatory behavior (delayed gratification), and elevated psychophysiological stress (resting blood pressure, overnight neuroendocrine hormones). Preliminary mediational analyses with cross-sectional data suggest that cumulative stressor exposure may partially account for the well-documented, elevated risk of socioemotional difficulties accompanying poverty.

This study documents the development of an adult sex offender risk assessment tool. A sample of 494 sex offenders were followed for an average of 30 months. A risk scale was developed based upon criminal and therapeutic outcomes. The final risk scale included prior juvenile felony convictions, prior adult felony convictions, failure of the first or second grade, not being employed, victim being intoxicated, the perpetrator reporting not being sexually aroused during the crime, possession of a weapon during the crime, denial in therapy, sexual deviance in therapy, and motivation in therapy. The risk scale provided significant relative risk ratios against program failure at 12 and 30 months. Overall, those scoring high on the risk tool were 372% as likely to fail as those scoring low.