The use of scales to measure constructs in populations or contexts other than that in which they were established is highly controversial. Despite this, the use of scales without reference to “local” psychometric data is still widespread. In this study we examined the factor structure of the short 21-item form of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21), when it was applied to adolescent samples recruited from high schools in Australia (N = 371), Chile (N = 448), China (N = 558), and Malaysia (N = 388). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the purported three-factor structure of the DASS-21 was supported in each location with structural invariance across locations. While convergent and divergent validity studies are required to support this finding, the DASS-21 appears to be suitable for use with adolescents in these locations.

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Child abuse is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, which is influenced by variables from the family system and the social context. One of the central problems of research on child abuse is conceptualizing the phenomenon. This article presents and discusses results of a qualitative study on child abuse conceptualization. The first part includes a review of the main difficulties involved in defining what is meant by child abuse that have been reported in the literature. Specifically, the following issues are analyzed: (a) methodological difficulties, (b) historical and cultural issues, (c) viewpoints from different disciplines, and (d) implications for assessing the problems magnitude. The second part includes a description of the qualitative method used and the main findings of the study, which was targeted at inquiring about child rearing patterns and conceptualizations of child abuse in Temuco; as perceived from the perspective of professionals and community members. The main findings are presented in five categories: (a) child rearing patterns of good treatment, (b) prevailing values, (c) physical abuse, (d) emotional abuse, and (e) sexual abuse. Lastly, the findings are discussed taking into account results from international research in the area and implications from social intervention policies.

El presente artículo muestra los resultados de una investigación que describe y modela las variables que diferencian a adultos con historia de violencia en la infancia que maltraten a sus hijos en el presente y aquellos que teniendo la misma historia, no maltratan a sus hijos en la actualidad (resilientes al maltrato físico severo).Los resultados encontrados apoyan lo planteado en la literatura respecto a los resilientes al maltrato físico en las siguientes líneas: (a) presentan niveles anímicos más estables (b) menores estresores ambientales. No obstante lo anterior, desde la perspectiva de los autores es necesario realizar nuevos estudios para establecer mayores niveles de seguridad de las tendencias observadas de los sujetos resilientes al maltrato físico y establecer un modelo de mayor fortaleza metodológica.

Aims To comprehensively review enacted and proposed alcohol laws and existing impact evaluations of national alcohol policies in Chile. Methods We searched enacted laws in the Chilean National Library of Congress, proposed laws in the websites of the House of Deputies and Senate and impact evaluations in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Scielo, JSTOR, Epistemonikos and OpenGrey from inception to February 2019. Eligibility criteria included enacted laws and proposed laws on national alcohol policies and research studies evaluating the impact of national alcohol policies. One author screened enacted laws and proposed laws; two authors independently screened research records. We included any national alcohol policy intervention and classified policies according to 10 World Health Organization (WHO) alcohol policy domains. We used the Cochrane EPOC Review Group criteria to assess risk of bias of research records. We registered the review protocol in PROSPERO, registration record CRD42016050156. Results We identified and screened 229 enacted laws, 138 proposed laws and 1538 research records. Of these, 72 enacted laws, 118 proposed laws and three research articles were eligible for synthesis. We found enacted policies in all WHO alcohol policy domains. Regarding the most cost‐effective policies, Chile has made limited use of taxation, has not regulated alcohol marketing and has weakened alcohol availability regulation. We found a large number of proposed laws, 79% of which would strengthen alcohol control. The few impact evaluation studies examined drink‐driving policies and found a short‐term reduction of alcohol‐related injuries and deaths. Conclusions Chile has enacted alcohol policies in all World Health Organization policy domains, but has not adopted policies with highest likely cost‐effectiveness. Only the impact of drink‐driving policies has been evaluated.