Background: Mental health is a priority for high schools, but extant programs often focus on symptom reduction rather than promoting adolescents' developmental assets. Objective: The goal of this study is to examine whether Art in Mind (AIM), a strengths-based after-school organized art activity tailored to fit the needs of adolescents with…

Introduction: The rising prevalence of depression and anxiety among adolescents is a public health concern. Early adolescence is a key developmental period to reduce risks for internalizing symptoms through primary prevention programs, yet additional research is needed on modifiable factors, such as coping skills, to target to mitigate risk…

As internalizing and externalizing problems often co-occur, the current study utilized a longitudinal dataset of 784 at-risk children (predominantly from low-income families and academically at-risk; 52.6% male) followed yearly from Grade 1 to Grade 12 to: (a) explore the heterogeneity in the codevelopment patterns of internalizing and…

Patterns of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and their association with other psychological difficulties were studied in a community sample of young Swedish adolescents, by a two-wave longitudinal design with a 1-year interval. Hierarchical cluster analysis at T1 identified eight NSSI subgroups in each gender, of which five were clearly replicated…

Background: Whereas much attention has been focused on adolescent risk behaviors such as substance use, much less has been devoted to self-injury in the general adolescent population. Purpose: This study had two purposes: (1) describe the prevalence of self-injury among early adolescents in the general middle school population, and (2) identify…

Describes study identifying themes that characterize experiences of young adults who made one suicide attempt between the ages of 20 and 24. Six major themes identified include: family experiences, adolescent interactions, emotional experiences, self-destructive behaviors, depression, and perception of control. Views suicide attempts as a…

Based on questionnaire responses, 139 ninth and twelfth graders were divided into low and high drug use groups. High use subjects viewed drug use as less harmful than did low use subjects and were less likely to view parents or the law as authorities concerning drug use. (BC)

This study of youths and high-risk behavior was designed to explore four issues: (1) the status of substance use and other at-risk behaviors among Iowa youth; (2) important trends in youth substance use and non-use behaviors; (3) major factors involved in encouraging non-use and health-promoting behaviors among Iowa youth; and (4) what the…

Examined psychiatrically disturbed adolescents' history of exposure to suicide attempts, completions, and other deaths in relation to attitudes about life and death. Explores the mediating processes involved in the impact of loss on suicidality. Concludes that a comprehensive history of loss and assessment of attitudes toward death are important…

Objective: To ascertain the association between pubertal stage and deliberate self-harm. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 12- to 15-year-olds in 300 secondary schools in the U.S. state of Washington in February-April 2002 and the Australian state of Victoria in June-August 2002. A total of 3,332 students in grades 7 and 9 provided complete data…

Relations of contraceptive behavior, problem behaviors, and health-protective behaviors were examined in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of sexually active adolescents. Findings demonstrate substantial organization among adolescent health and problem behaviors and suggest that contraceptive behavior should be conceptualized…

This report describes the results of two statewide surveys conducted during Spring, 1991: the 1992 Utah Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the 1991 Utah School Health Education Survey (SHES). Sixty-three schools were randomly selected to participate in the state-level YRBS, and all 311 public and private schools with students in grades 7…

This report describes the results of the 1993 Utah Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and summarizes results of the 1992 Utah School Health Education Survey. Many health problems experienced by youth are caused by a few preventable behaviors, such as alcohol abuse and unprotected sexual intercourse. Tobacco use, dietary patterns that cause disease,…