Educators, particularly those who work with students outside the classroom, are trained to identify and correct problems. This approach typically addresses gaps in skills but does not identify and exploit personal strengths. In this article, the authors argue that institutions and the students who attend them would be better served by…

Objective: The Level of Stability Index for Children (LSIC) is a multidimensional, self-report, rapid assessment instrument for assessing emotional and behavioral tendencies children may exhibit toward self or others. The LSIC describes children's propensity toward depression, suicidal ideation, anger, and aggression. Method: Self-report survey…

Objective: To determine the concordance between the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) in diagnosing anxiety and depressive disorders. Method: Fifty women seeking psychiatric services for their children at two mental health centers in western Pennsylvania were assessed for anxiety and…

Evidence garnered by this study may help provide college counselors with a clinically useful model of codependency, informing their assessment and treatment planning of students who present with self-identified codependency characteristics. Specifically, codependence inclined students may exhibit tendencies toward self-defeating and covert…

In a sample of 99 sexually abused adolescent girls in the foster care system (64% in congregate living situations and 36% in family/foster care homes), nearly half were psychologically functioning well despite having experienced moderate-to-severe emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. It was hypothesized that these girls with resilient…

The current review aims to outline the existing understanding of sexual grooming. Issues of poor definition, the adoption of the term "grooming" and the prevalence of sexual grooming will be discussed. Consideration will be given to how prominent theories of child sexual abuse often neglect sexual grooming. This will be followed by a detailed…

This report extends by an additional 6 years the longitudinal research of Glidden and Schoolcraft, who found that adoptive mothers of children with intellectual disabilities displayed low depression at the initial time of adoption and thereafter, whereas birth mothers reported significantly higher levels when their children were first diagnosed,…

Every two hours and 15 minutes in the United States, a person who is under the age of 25 years old completes a suicide. As such, everyone must be on the watch for the signs of adolescent suicide, and everyone must know how to respond when they come face to face with it. All must confront this epidemic and provide space within schools for students…

In the present study we examined to what extent persons who attempt suicide describe their attempt in terms of social, joint processes. Psychotherapists interviewed 40 patients hospitalized in a general hospital for a few days after an attempted suicide. The content of the interviews was analyzed for the level of systemic processes the patients…

There is growing evidence that a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) moderates the impact of negative life events (e.g., childhood abuse) on the development of depression. However, it is unclear whether the gene x environment interaction predicts suicide attempts specifically. In addition, previous studies have not…

Aggression in a proportion of people with intellectual disabilities is often assumed to be due to social-cognitive deficits. We reported on two studies in which we compared the emotion recognition and perspective-taking abilities of 43 frequently aggressive individuals and 46 nonaggressive peers. No difference was found between the groups' ability…

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms are a focus of much research with older children, but little research has been conducted with young children, who account for about 50% of all pediatric burn injuries. This is a 3-year study of 12- to 48-month-old acutely burned children to assess acute traumatic stress outcomes. The aims were to…

Objective: Adolescent patients' conduct disorder and substance use disorder symptoms are "risky behaviors" with unpredictable rewards and punishments. The authors asked whether such youths also take excessive risks in new situations without prior learning, peer pressure, or intoxication. Method: Subjects were 20 adolescent patients in a program…

Objective: To investigate whether higher levels of negative and lower levels of positive behaviors could be observed in a sample of depressed preschoolers. Support for the validity of preschool depression is now available; however, objective evidence of negative behaviors among depressed preschoolers is needed. Method: A structured observational…

Objective: Adolescents constitute a high-risk population for traumatic physical injury, yet few longitudinal investigations have assessed the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms over time in representative samples. Method: Between July 2002 and August 2003,108 randomly selected injured adolescent patients ages 12 to 18 and…