Abstract
Foster, adoptive, and kinship parents urgently need high quality in-service training to help them better understand and deal with serious behavior problems of children in their care. Parents are increasingly turning to the Internet for information, advice, support, and now, for formal training. Breakthroughs in technology have made the Web more accessible and more sophisticated, visually. For example, it is now feasible to use video or animation to model social skills, a mainstay of today's parent training interventions. The current study examined the effectiveness of two online courses - on lying and sexualized behavior - with a sample of foster parents from the Foster and Kinship Care Education Program of California Community Colleges. The intervention used interactive multimedia formats to present behavior problems, provide insights into their etiology, and offer parents practical steps to resolve them. Findings showed significant gains in parent knowledge for both courses, and in competency-based parent perceptions for the course on lying, with findings for the other course in the expected direction. Overall, user satisfaction and implementation fidelity were very high. Implications and future directions for this type of intervention are discussed.

To order a reprint, contact Children and Youth Services Review at http://www.childwelfare.com/kids/cysr.htm.

Abstract
The authors evaluated a home-based parent training program for foster parents delivered on DVD. The program, part of a series of interactive multimedia courses produced for both DVD and the Web, addressed serious anger problems in children. The approach is in response to the growing unmet needs among foster families and their agencies for in-service training that is relevant and accessible. In the study, a national sample of foster parents showed significant increases in knowledge about the clinical aspects of children's anger, as well as confidence in being able to effectively parent foster children with serious anger problems. Parent satisfaction with the program was also generally very high. The findings are discussed in relation to the potential for DVD and online training in foster care.

To order a reprint, contact Social Work Research at http://www.naswpress.org/publications/journals/swr.jsp.

Abstract
Most teens leaving the care of an agency are woefully unprepared and unsupported. Current approaches to aftercare are expensive and difficult to implement. This study evaluated a prototype version of Vstreet.com, an innovative Web site for at-risk youth designed to teach life skills and build community. Findings from a sample of youth in the Job Corps showed that the Web site was highly effective in increasing their knowledge of apartment hunting skills, feelings of peer social support, and intentions of staying in touch with their agency.

To order a reprint, contact Child Welfare at http://www.cwla.org/articles/cwjabstracts.htm.

Abstract
The authors evaluated a coeducational program for teenagers on preventing sexual coercion in dating situations. Students examined individual and social attitudes underlying coercive sexual behavior and learned communication skills aimed at preventing or dealing with unwanted sexual advances. Instruction was enhanced by video and an interactive video "virtual date." Outcomes were assessed using sexual attitude scales with a sample of 458 high school students. Student health education classes were randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control condition. Findings, based on a latent variable model of differential effectiveness, showed that students in the treatment group with initial coercive attitude scores at or above the mean benefited significantly more than students with the same range of scores in the control group.

To order a reprint, contact the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology at
http://www.apa.org/journals/ccp/.

Abstract
The psychometric properties of the Acceptance of Coercive Sexual Behavior (ACSB), a multimedia measure of adolescent dating attitudes, were examined. The ACSB is an interactive instrument that uses video vignettes to depict adolescent dating situations. Analyses of the measure's factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity were conducted with separate samples of male (n = 106) and female (n = 114) high school students. Validity was evaluated in relation to subscales on the Sexual Attitudes Survey and self-reports of dating and sexual experiences. Factor analyses on the ACSB yielded two factors, Coercion and Consent. The ACSB demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Advantages of using a multimedia assessment of sexually coercive attitudes with adolescents are discussed.

To order a reprint, contact Assessment at http://asm.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/12/2/162.

Abstract
Sixty-nine teenage child molesters received a 3-month regimen of vicarious sensitization (VS) within the context of a randomized wait-list control-group design. An adjunct to specialized cognitive therapy, VS is a form of conditioning, the aim of which is to decrease sexual arousal to prepubescent children. Perpetrators were alternately exposed to an audiotaped crime scenario designed to evoke deviant arousal followed immediately by an aversive video vignette. Aversive stimuli portray adolescent sex offenders contending with negative social, emotional, physical, and legal consequences of their crimes. Subjects received approximately 300 VS trials over 25 sessions. Results based on both phallometric and self-report measures showed significant decreas¬es in deviant arousal for youths who received VS. Wait-listed youths did not improve, despite continuing in weekly cognitive therapy. When VS was later administered to wait-listed youths, they, too, showed a significant treatment effect. Three-month-followup data indicated that gains were maintained.

To order a reprint, contact Journal of Interpersonal Violence at http://jiv.sagepub.com/.