this is the first study of its kind to show a high correlation between accelerometry, the BBS and TUG. Accelerometry could also distinguish between sway responses to differing balancing conditions and between fallers and non-fallers. Accelerometry was shown to be an efficient, quantitative alternative in the measurement of balance in older people.

Acknowledgements: This project was partially funded by grants from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Eastern Regional Health Authority. Thanks to all colleagues in the prison services, the community employment scheme, the wholesale company and the TCD research panel for their co-operation and assistance. Results. A secure adult attachment style was four times less common in the child sex offender group than in any of the other three groups. 93% of sex offenders had an insecure adult attachment style and the majority (59%) had a fearful-insecure attachment style. Compared with community controls, the child sex offender group reported significantly lower levels of maternal and paternal care and significantly higher levels of maternal and paternal overprotection during their childhood. Compared with all three comparison groups, the child sexual offenders reported significantly more emotional loneliness and a more external locus of control.With respect to anger management, the child sexual offenders' profile more closely approximated those of non-violent offenders and community controls than that of violent offenders. Conclusions.Insecure attachment was a vulnerability factor uniquely associated with child sex offending in this study. Compared with violent and non-violent offenders and community controls, the child sexual offenders evaluated in this study were also characterized by poorer psychosocial adjustment and an anger management profile closer to the normal range than that of violent offenders.Attachment Styles 4

The socio-economic effect of 156 hand injuries was studied prospectively. The average cost per injury was IR 474.28 pounds of the more serious injuries utilized two-thirds of the resources and resulted in 83% of the days lost from work. In the working population approximately 50% of hand injuries occurred at work. In assessing the economic impact of hand injuries, labour costs account for 55 to 65% of costs. Amputation and complicated laceration were the most costly and resulted in more days lost at work. Injuries at work result in greater costs because they involve more serious injuries, and because workers requiring manual skills need a higher level of hand rehabilitation to return to work. Unless the labour costs are taken into account, the true impact of hand injuries is greatly underestimated.

Purpose. This study was designed to explore relationships that exist among suicidal ideation, perceptions of the prison environment and problem‐solving deficits in an offender population. Method. Participants were 46 male offenders in two separate prisons in the Republic of Ireland. A semistructured interview ascertained demographic and personal history details. Participants were (i) non‐ideators with no previous parasuicide history (control group), (ii) non‐ideators with a past parasuicide history (past parasuicide group), and (iii) current ideators. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory II, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Suicidal Ideation Scale, Means‐Ends Problem‐Solving Scale and Prison Preference Inventory. Results. Participants in the current ideator and past parasuicide groups had significantly higher preferences for privacy and significantly lower preferences for social stimulation within the prison environment than did the control group. There were no significant differences in the number of problem‐solving means produced among the three groups. Participants in the control group offered significantly more active relevant problem‐solving means than did participants in the other two groups. The current ideator group produced significantly more passive relevant problem‐solving means than did the past parasuicide and control groups. Conclusions. The significant differences in perceptions of the prison environment may be indicative of different coping mechanisms used to adapt to time in prison. It is concluded that the lack of significant differences in the generation of passive relevant problem‐solving means are related to parasuicide history. The lack of significant differences in the number of problem‐solving means produced is accounted for by the prevalence of problem‐solving deficits among an offender population.

There were significantly (P < 0.01) more male than female farmers (73 vs. 27%) with a mean age of 63 years (ranging from 13 to 87 years). Average number of out-patient visits related to the injury was 3.6. Injuries involving livestock resulted in the majority of accidents (P < 0.05) with a significant rise in the number of visits with increasing age (P < 0.01) with older patients having more severe injuries. Soft tissue injuries and fractures were commonly encountered. Complex fractures were the slowest injury to heal requiring eight subsequent out-patient visits.

The reformulated learned helplessness model proposes that people who tend to make internal, stable, and global attributions in response to uncontrollable aversive events are more likely to develop depression. The present study sought to investigate the nature of the relationship between attributional style and depression in a male prison sample. One hundred and one adult male prisoners from four medium security prisons in Ireland completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire and measures of depression (BDI-II) and anxiety (BAI). Severity of self-reported depressive symptoms in the present sample was comparable to other prison and clinical samples, but higher than community samples. Participants were more severely affected by depressive symptoms than anxiety. The original attributional dimensions (i.e. internal, stable, and global) predicted a significant amount of variance in depression, but the model was not significant after controlling for anxiety. A subsequent regression model, comprising attributional dimensions for both negative events and positive events including a measure of ‘uncontrollability’, accounted for 35% of the variance in depression and the model retained significance while controlling for anxiety. An attributional model of depression may be relevant to the prison population and could provide a valid insight into the development and treatment of depressive symptoms in prisoners. The findings are interpreted in relation to previous research and implications for theory, clinical practice, and rehabilitation are discussed.

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