One in Ten

By National Children's AllianceSociety & Culture Science Social Sciences Kids & Family

One in Ten episodes

February 25, 2022The True Cost of Olympic Gold
In recent years, how we look at the Olympics and elite sports has begun to change—driven by cases like that of Larry Nassar, the team doctor who for years and years got away with sexually assaulting and sexually abusing girls and young women. Marci Hamilton, the founder and CEO of CHILD USA, a think tank dedicated to child abuse and neglect, lead a case autopsy, conducted by subject-matter experts to find out how this was allowed to happen. And how can we prevent it from ever happening again? The Game Over Commission explored the toxic culture of sports, which values medals and money over athlete well-being. Hamilton joined us to discuss what the commission discovered, and what must be done to allow children and young adults to experience the joy of sports without the danger of abuse. Take a listen.

Topics in this episode:

The Larry Nassar case (2:28)
Game Over Commission (3:44)
Toxic culture in elite sports (7:27)
The economics of sports and pressures on athletes (12:41)
Near-zero regulation (17:44)
What parents need to know (27:17)
Total power, zero oversight: Team doctors (29:17)
Best child protection policies? (38:55)
Bankruptcy used against victims (40:44)
Links:

Prof. Marci A. Hamilton at the University of Pennsylvania is the founder, CEO, and academic director of CHILD USA, a nonprofit academic think tank. She is the author of Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children.

The biographies of those who testified before the commission are available online, including those of Larissa Boyce and John-Michael Lander.

Footage of the hearings is also available on the CHILD USA site.

In January 2022, Game Over Commission released a case study on the abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar.

Bishop Accountability

AAU – Amateur Athletic Union

IOC – International Olympic Committee

NCAA – National Collegiate Athletic Association

USOC – U.S. Olympic Committee

USOPC – U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee

Listen to our earlier interview with Dr. Marci Hamilton, “Radically Vulnerable: Achieving Justice for Survivors,” Season 1, Episode 10 (September 30, 2019)

For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

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Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
48 min
February 10, 2022Sticks and Stones … But What If Words Do Hurt?
Over the past 18 months, systemic and structural discrimination have received widespread—and, let’s face it, much-needed—media attention and public discussion. But what hasn’t had the same level of attention is interpersonal discrimination. The nasty comments. The othering. The exclusion—not at the hands of a faceless bureaucracy, but in our own communities, between individual people. Now, many of us were raised with a sort of “sticks and stones can break our bones, but words can never hurt us” sort of bravado. But what if words, and actions, about our personal appearance, race, gender, and age did create long-term harm? What if instead of simple slights that we should shrug off, these were recognized as vulnerabilities for the development of mental illness or substance abuse in young adulthood? We spoke with Yvonne Lei, a medical student at UCLA and lead researcher on a study of interpersonal discrimination and its effects on young adults.
Topics in this episode:
Interpersonal discrimination (1:43)
Adolescents and interpersonal discrimination (6:47)
The ah-ha moment (12:39)
Research findings (14:33)
Frequency and cumulative effect (19:24)
Lasting effects (21:45)
Implications for health care professionals (25:53)
This is our workforce (28:10)
A call to action (32:24)
Links:
Yvonne Lei is a medical student at David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles
Lei, Yvonne, et al. “Discrimination and subsequent mental health, substance use, and well-being in young adults.” Pediatrics 148.6 (2021).
“Discrimination increases risk for mental health issues in young adults, UCLA-led study finds,” by Evelyn Tokuyama, UCLA Newsroom, November 7, 2021
Adam B. Schickedanz, MD
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
35 min
January 27, 2022How Accurate Is Memory After 20 Years?
Over the past two decades, and in many cases because of statute of limitations reform, many adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse have come forward to seek justice, disclosing painful memories of traumatic events from decades before. And while, thankfully, the general public has grown in its understanding of how and why abused children might delay disclosure well into adulthood, a question that frequently comes up in legal procedures is: How accurate and reliable are memories of events long past? We speak with renowned memory researcher Gail Goodman, who’s also the director of the Center for Public Policy Research at UC-Davis.
Topics in this episode:
Understanding trauma and memory (1:40)
Misperceptions (4:06)
Encoding traumatic memories (8:01)
Research on memories after 20 years (12:42)
Legal implications (30:25)
Public policy (35:04)
Future research (37:20)
Share this episode (41:04)
Links:
Professor Gail S. Goodman is director of the Center for Public Policy Research at the University of California, Davis.
Wu Y, Goodman GS, Goldfarb D, et al. “Memory Accuracy After 20 Years for Interviews About Child Maltreatment.” Child Maltreatment. December 2021. doi:10.1177/10775595211055184
Carole Peterson, Ph.D.
Mitchell L. Eisen, Ph.D.
Karen Saywitz, Ph.D.
National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Deborah Goldfarb, JD, Ph.D.
Julia (Yuerui) Wu
Kathy Pezdek, Ph.D.
National Institute of Justice
National Science Foundation
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.
Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
42 min
December 26, 2021Prevention, Healing, & Justice: A Blueprint for Action
We're all too familiar with the statistics and issues around child abuse in the U.S. But what do we really know about violence against children globally? Are there approaches other countries take that we should apply in our country? Are there successes we should emulate and pitfalls to avoid?
And what would it mean if thousands of organizations working to keep kids safe really banded together and demanded government changes to better support families and protect children? Together for Girls, National Children’s Alliance, survivor organizations, and many more are doing just that in the U.S. through the Keep Kids Safe Coalition and its blueprint for federal policy action. We're tackling all branches of government in a quest to eliminate sexual violence against children and youth. To find out how you can help, take a listen.
Topics in this episode:
Dr. Ligiero’s and Together for Girls’ core work (1:31)
Why the U.S. lacks comprehensive data (6:24)
Surprising results about boys (8:01)
Successful strategies, lessons learned (12:01)
Keep Kids Safe Coalition (20:50)
The blueprint for national action (29:20)
How you can get involved (44:13)
The end of season 3; see you in January (46:51)
Links:
Dr. Daniela Ligiero is the executive director and chief executive officer of Together for Girls, a global partnership working to end violence against children and adolescents
Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys from the CDC
The U.S. National Blueprint to End Sexual Violence Against Children and Adolescents is from the Keep Kids Safe Coalition at keep-kids-safe.org
Gender Policy Council
CHILD USA
November 30, 2021, article by Lizzie Johnson in The Washington Post about a coach accused of sexual abuse
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.
Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
48 min
December 09, 2021Do Anti-Poverty Programs Reduce Child Abuse?
We’re always very careful to say that poverty doesn’t cause child neglect and abuse. And we don’t want to conflate these things or have people think that we’re blaming people for being poor. Yet we do know that poverty—particularly chronic and extreme poverty—can create an environment in which neglect and child maltreatment can thrive. Given that connection, could investments in anti-poverty programs actually reduce child maltreatment?
This is a key question, especially given that rates of neglect have only seen modest reductions in the U.S. over the past 40 years. And it was what Dr. Hank Puls, professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, set out to research. Are we missing an opportunity to not only reduce poverty but also the suffering that comes from child maltreatment when we don’t invest heavily enough in these programs?
Topics in this episode:
A pediatrician determined to reduce child abuse (1:55)
State anti-poverty programs (3:24)
Costs and benefits (11:00)
Advocacy, and inequities (29:01)
What do child advocates need? (38:04)
Share this episode with a friend (45:52)
Links:
Hank T. Puls, M.D., is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
“State Spending on Public Benefit Programs and Child Maltreatment,” Henry T. Puls, Matthew Hall, James D. Anderst, Tami Gurley, James Perrin, Paul J. Chung. Pediatrics November 2021; 148 (5): e2021050685. 10.1542/peds.2021-050685
A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.
Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
47 min
November 25, 2021Multidisciplinary Teams: What's the Secret Sauce?
In today’s episode, we speak with Dr. James Herbert, senior research fellow at the Australian Center for Child Protection, the first Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) in Australia. Now, for those of us in the CAC movement or on multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), we sometimes take our work together for granted. The teamwork, the support—the conflict!—and the difficult decisions we make together to protect children. But imagine for a moment coming to that work completely fresh and as a research scientist, as Herbert did, and truly trying to unpack what makes it work.

Now, we know that research has established that MDTs create better outcomes in child abuse cases. But what is that secret sauce that does make it work? How do teams make their decisions in these high-stakes cases? And what research is still needed to help us better leverage the combined knowledge and skills of the team? Most importantly, how does improving the understanding of the MDT model help us better serve abused children?

Topics in this episode:

Getting into child abuse research (1:33)
A lack of research on multidisciplinary teams (7:20)
Current research on MDT effectiveness (9:34)
Barriers to service (what caregivers say vs. what CACs say) (21:35)
Government funding for child advocates (27:47)
Other research needs (31:24)
The EU and the Barnahus model (42:47)
Our next episode (45:12)
Links:

James Herbert, Ph.D., is a senior research fellow at the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia

“Better together? A review of evidence for multi-disciplinary teams responding to physical and sexual child abuse,” Herbert, JL & Bromfield, L (2019), Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 228–15.

Barnahus model

For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
46 min
November 05, 2021Sexual Behavior in Youth: What's Normal? What's Not? And What Can We Do About It?
When we first met Dr. Jane Silovsky years ago, talking about youth with problematic sexual behaviors, it was a pervasive myth in the Children’s Advocacy Center world that CACs could not serve these kids. Somehow they weren’t our kids, somehow they weren’t deserving of help, or somehow they just weren’t ours to serve. But 25% to 30% of our cases each year involve sexually abusing or acting out on other kids. To make any difference at all in that work, we have to serve these kids. This is meaningful prevention work.
In today’s conversation, we explore what’s normal sexual behavior in youth—a tough question for any parent or any colleague. How do we identify and stop problematic sexual behaviors? What treatment actually works? How do we involve families in their own healing and success? And how do we get beyond billboards and bus kiosks to doing the kind of prevention work that actually matters?
Topics in this episode:
What is problematic sexual behavior?
What causes it?
Myths about problematic sexual behavior
The importance of caregivers
Demographics & treatment
Public policy and CAC advice
Put on your oxygen mask first
Available resources
Learn more
Links:
Jane Silovsky, Ph.D., is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She serves as the CMRI/Jean Gumerson Endowed Chair, director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, and director of the National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth
Barbara L. Bonner, Ph.D.
20-25% of cases at CACs involve a child hurting another child
David Finkelhor, Ph.D.
Resources for parents from the National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth
Elizabeth J. Letourneau, Ph.D.
Military Learning Family Network webinar series is publicly available
NCA’s resources on problematic sexual behavior in youth
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.
Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
44 min
October 08, 2021What’s Culture Got to Do With It? Everything.
Our guest today is Dr. Maegan Rides At The Door, the director of the National Native Children’s Trauma Center at the University of Montana. Now, many of us know at least some of the historical trauma faced by Native Americans and Alaska Native families, not just the genocide of the past, but also the boarding school abuses of the very recent past.
How does this impact children today? And how does racism, which is very much in the present, add to the trauma burden these children face? And how do we appreciate and recognize and leverage the incredible strengths and resiliency displayed by Native families multigenerationally? Most importantly, how do we craft culturally responsive services, not just in word and good intention, but in actuality, indeed?

Topics in this episode:
Child welfare needs to be culturally responsive (2:09)
Historical trauma and structural racism (5:47)
Cultural resiliency (11:44)
Expanding the original ACEs (17:07)
Recommendations (19:24)
Public policy (25:32)
Culture eats strategy for lunch (28:24)
Advice for CACs (35:30)
Share this episode! (39:05)
Links:

Maegan Rides At The Door, Ph.D., LCPC, is director of the National Native Children’s Trauma Center at the University of Montana College of Education. She is an enrolled member of the Assiniboine-Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation and a descendant of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
The NNCTC offers a number of resources on trauma.
Rides At The Door, Maegan, and Ashley Trautman. 2019. “Considerations for Implementing Culturally Grounded Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Services: Recommendations for Working with American Indian/Alaska Native Populations.” Journal of Public Child Welfare 13 (3): 368–78. doi:10.1080/15548732.2019.1605014.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) original study
RYSE Center

RYSE’s expansion of the ACEs pyramid is available online.
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. Or visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org. And join us on Facebook at One in Ten podcast.

Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
40 min
September 16, 2021Trauma and Resilience in Military Families
When we think of military families, we rightly think of sacrifice and duty. But do we also think about resiliency, perseverance, and a sense of community? The unique sense of identity that comes with military service comes with a complex set of supports and struggles for service members. Dr. Stephen Cozza, a researcher and professor at the Uniformed Services University, joins us to explore the unique strengths and challenges of military families. What are the risks and protective factors that we should be aware of in working with military families? How does the phases of deployment and re-entry create some points of unique vulnerabilities that we need to attend to? And at a time when many soldiers are returning, how can we support families?
Topics in this episode:
An interest in the impact of trauma on military families (1:23)
Protective factors (2:52)
Risk factors (8:37)
Support for military families (13:48)
Neglect (24:36)
Current research (33:26)
CAC-military partnerships (38:52)
Learn more about our work (47:07)
Links:
Stephen J. Cozza, MD, is a retired Army psychiatrist who served as chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Walter Reed and is now a researcher and professor at the Uniformed Services University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress
Attack on the Pentagon
Child development centers on military bases
2019 Demographics Profile of the Military Community 60% of children in the military are under 11 years old, and 40% are 5 years old or younger
Military OneSource
Family Advocacy Program (FAP)
New Parent Support Program
2020 U.S. Department of Defense report on FAP
NCA’s CAC-military partnerships program
CAC-military coverage map
For more information about National Children’s Alliance and the work of Children’s Advocacy Centers, visit our website at NationalChildrensAlliance.org. And visit our podcast website at OneInTenPodcast.org.
Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
48 min
August 31, 2021Taking Stock: The Plan to End Child Abuse Deaths, Five Years On
Nearly a decade ago, a coalition of national organizations including NCA began strategizing about how to end child abuse fatalities. We passed a bill that established a congressional commission, which issued a report in 2016. Now we're looking at the successes and challenges of that work. What's changed, or not, in five years? What about state reforms? Join us with Amy Harfeld from the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths and reporters Lia Russell and Caitlin Andrews.
Topics:
2016: The plan (1:45)
Transparency (18:05)
Public policy (23:56)
Advice for CACs (28:00)
A cluster of deaths (32:15)
Another wave of reform? (48:09)
Links:
Amy C. Harfeld, JD, national policy advocate and senior staff attorney, Children's Advocacy Institute; coordinator, National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths
Caitlin Andrews and Lia Russell, investigative reporters, Bangor Daily News
Within Our Reach: A National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, report from the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, March 17, 2016
State and local reforms
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act reauthorization
Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act
Family First Prevention Services Act
Maine ombudsman
“After a series of deaths, scrutiny starts again for Maine’s child welfare system,” Lia Russell, Bangor Daily News, June 26, 2021
“Legislative watchdog to probe issues raised by Maine child welfare ombudsman,” Caitlin Andrews, Bangor Daily News, August 11, 2021
Casey Family Programs
OPEGA
Visit us at NationalChildrensAlliance.org and OneInTenPodcast.org
Support the show
Did you like this episode? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
53 min