Describes the author's three-month career as a student teacher of social studies and art in an upstate New York high school. As his stint progresses, he realizes he cannot continue to rely on his old ways of thinking and functioning. He learns to handle a cooperating teacher's unrealistic expectations and to engage students with audiovisuals and…

Describes the coping responses of three administrators who dealt with various school tragedies, namely, a senior's suicide, a classroom hostage situation involving a bomb explosion, and a tornado that collapsed a cafeteria wall. A sidebar outlines one district's crisis plan. (MLH)

Purpose: This study used epidemiological data of older African Americans and Caucasians living in an urban community to compare those factors associated with active or passive suicidal ideation in each racial group. Design and Methods: Using 1990 census data for Brooklyn, New York, we attempted to interview all cognitively intact adults aged 55 or…

The author teaches at a small, rural school district (K-12 enrollment is 280) in New York's northern Catskill Mountains. According to him, there is no industry in this area and little in the way of commercial business, so when they need to raise money for "extra expenses," it requires a lot of effort. When the cost of publishing their…

In contrast to attempted suicide rates of 9-12% among adolescents in community-based studies, attempted suicide was reported by 39% of 138 self-identified gay and bisexual adolescent males presenting in a social service agency for lesbian and gay adolescents. Findings suggest that gay youths are at increased risk for attempting suicide. (TJQ)

Describes a Levittown (New York) elementary principal's strategy for handling a permanent school closure resulting from unfavorable demographic trends, rising taxes, and drastic cutbacks in state aid. All students were given tours of a newly created middle school or alternative elementary schools, and K-4 students participated in pen pal exchanges…

This study explores discrepancies in perceiving family conflict between HIV-infected parents and their adolescent children aged 12 to 22. A representative sample of 382 adolescent children and their HIV+ parents were recruited and assessed over 4 years. Relationships between discrepancies in perception and family demographics and the impact of…

The authors have found no study that addressed the influence of religious practices, biblical texts, and a spiritual environment on the dynamics of coping with crises often experienced by couples who are infertile and who transition into childlessness. Twenty-five couples from the greater New York area who were referred by religious leaders…

The Children's Museum of the Arts, located in SoHo, is a community center where children and families create together through involvement with the visual and performing arts. The families that participate in the programming offered by the Museum are living, and perhaps working and going to school, in the shadows of what used to be the World Trade…

This qualitative study examines the ways in which African American women use religion/spirituality to cope and to construct meaning in times of adversity. Content analysis of the narratives of a sample of African American women respondents (n = 23) revealed a set of eight nonoverlapping themes that explicate religiosity/spirituality's role in…

Background: The development of youth psychopathology may be associated with direct and continuous contact with a different culture (acculturation) and to distress related to this process (cultural stress). We examine cultural experiences of Puerto Rican families in relation to youth psychiatric symptoms in two different contexts: one in which…

One of a series, this background paper is intended to provide accurate, objective, and comprehensive information regarding the content and effects of new federal approaches to the funding and delivery of human services at the local level. Contents specifically focus on effects in Monroe County, New York, and concern a study of families losing…

To facilitate planning of services to low income, single-parent working women with young children, a client impact study was made of former recipients of Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) in Monroe County, New York. Those surveyed had lost their supplementary income and related benefits due to mandated eligibility constraints in the federal Omnibus…

The tragedy of September 11 had a special significance for the parents of the nearly 6,000 children who attended the seven public schools located in the World Trade Center impact zone. Healthy Schools Network has documented first hand accounts of the experiences of that day and its aftermath. In addition to extensive interviews, last winter a…

The NIMH Healthy Living Project (HLP), a randomized behavioral intervention trial for people living with HIV, enrolled 943 individuals, including women, heterosexual men, injection drug users, and men who have sex with men from Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, and San Francisco. The intervention, which is based on qualitative formative research…