London, Sept 20 (ANI): Publishers and Hollywood studios have begun a multi-million dollar bidding war for the rights to sex slave Jaycee Dugard’s horrifying life story.
Fresh details of the American Fritzl’s victim have emerged, including that in the early days of her captivity, the terrified schoolgirl was so hungry she ate bugs and worms in the rambling back garden where she was held in tents and lock-up sheds, reports The Daily Express.
She had to use a garden hose to shower outside, even in winters, say detectives guarding her and her two daughters, fathered by kidnapper Phillip Garrido.
However, the public apparently is desperate for the full story of how Jaycee, now 29, survived after being snatched on her way to a school bus stop when she was only 11.
A New York literary agent, who estimates the book and film rights to be worth up to 12million dollars, said: “You couldn’t dream up a script like this. Americans can’t wait to hear the story from the girl who lived it.”
A Hollywood studio producer said: “Everyone is in the market for this story. Poor Jaycee’s life may have been hell for 18 years but she’ll never want for anything for the rest of it.”
Garrido, a registered sex offender, has been linked to six child abductions and murders stretching back years within a 400-mile radius of the ramshackle home in Antioch, California, where Jaycee was held. (ANI)
Spanking found to have negative effects on low-income toddlers
Washington, September 16 (ANI): Spanking negatively affects the behaviour of toddlers in low-income families, according to a new study.
Published in the journal Child Development, the longitudinal study looked at how low-income parents discipline their young children.
It showed that spanking 1-year-olds leads to more aggressive behaviours and less sophisticated cognitive development in the next two years.
Verbal punishment, however, was not found to be associated with such effects, especially when it was accompanied by emotional support from mothers.
Besides, 1-year-olds’ fussiness predicted spanking and verbal punishment at ages 1, 2, and 3.
The study explored whether mothers’ behaviours lead to problematic behaviour in children, whether children’s challenging behaviours elicit harsher discipline, or both.
It looked at more than 2,500 exclusively low-income White, African American, and Mexican-American mothers and their young children, interviewing and observing them at home when the children were 1, 2, and 3 years old.
All participants’ family incomes were at or below the federal poverty level.
Using their own interpretations of spanking, mothers reported how often anyone in the home had spanked their children in the past week.
The study also looked at how often mothers verbally punished-scolded, yelled, or made negative comments-their children.
It showed that African American children were spanked and verbally punished significantly more than the other children in the study.
The authors speculated that that might be due to cultural factors, such as belief in the importance of children’s respect for elders and in the value of physical discipline to instil that respect.
Moreover, some African American mothers said that in preparing their children for a harsh, physically dangerous, and racially discriminating world, there was little room for error in their childrearing.
The study also shed light on information about the effects of such types of discipline.
“Our findings clearly indicate that spanking affects children’s development,” said Lisa J. Berlin, research scientist at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University and the study’s lead author.
Specifically, children who were spanked more often at 1 behaved more aggressively when they were 2, and had lower scores on tests measuring thinking skills when they were 3.
Similar findings were made even after taking into consideration such family characteristics as mothers’ race and ethnicity, age, and education; family income and structure; and the children’s gender.
The study also found that children who were more aggressive at age 2, and had lower cognitive development scores at ages 1 and 2, were not spanked more at ages 2 and 3.
“So the mothers’ behaviours look more influential than the children’s,” said Berlin.
Unlike spanking, however, verbal punishment alone didn’t affect either children’s aggression or their cognitive development.
Interestingly, when verbal punishment was accompanied by emotional support from moms, the children did better on the tests of cognitive ability. (ANI)