In a three-year study, each of 193 students was seen to employ lesson evading and lesson dissembling, as well as lesson engaging and lesson rejecting, in situations that were confusing, threatening, or boring. Choice of lesson tactic and frequency of employment varied widely. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.…

Surveys examined whether psychosocial factors (psychosocial distress, drug use, family stress, and school performance) would distinguish adolescents endorsing high suicide ideation from those who did not, focusing on potential school dropouts. High-risk students with suicide ideation had more psychosocial distress, drug involvement, family stress,…

Discusses stages of the grieving process and ways in which early childhood teachers and caregivers can help young children understand and cope with death. An annotated bibliography of children's books concerning death is provided. (BB)

Using data from 4,141 students tested in grade 7 and again as young adults, a theoretically informed model is proposed which specifies the effects of failing to finish high school on the latent construct "psychological functioning" in young adulthood. Results suggest that dropping out has a significantly negative effect on psychological…

Relationships between self-reported past and present physical activity levels and self-image, sense of mastery, gender role identity, self-perceived physical ability, and self-perceived attractiveness were studied for 149 female high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Results are discussed in terms of adolescent emotional health. (SLD)

The sociocultural context of the lives of five Hispanic American and five Anglo learning-disabled adolescents was studied over a school year to determine everyday stressors and coping strategies. In addition to the typical concerns of adolescents, cultural conflicts and learning handicapped status are major sources of stress. (SLD)

Considers the increase in research on adolescence, with attention to its transitional aspects during the adolescent period and as a bridge between childhood and adulthood. In addition, discusses the effort to examine interactional processes between parent and child and between environment and genes, with respect to the articles of this special…

Examined impulsive suicide attempts within a population-based, case-control study of nearly lethal suicide attempts among adolescents and young adults. Impulsive attempts were more likely among those who had been in a physical fight and less likely among those who were depressed. Findings suggest inadequate control of aggressive impulses as a…

The relations between motivational constructs, effort, self-efficacy and worry, and statistics achievement were investigated in a sample of 360 undergraduates in Malaysia. Both trait (cross-situational) and state (task-specific) measures of each construct were used to test a mediational trait (r) state (r) performance (TSP) model. As hypothesized,…

This chapter sets a context for the use of student development theory in student affairs work, summarizes several prominent theories, and offers examples of how the entertainment media can be used to facilitate understanding of these theories by both graduate and undergraduate students.

We conducted a psychological autopsy study to further understand youth suicide in Utah. While traditional psychological autopsy studies primarily focus on the administration of psychometric measures to identify any underlying diagnosis of mental illness for the suicide decedent, we focused our interviews to identify which contacts in the…

This study examined the generalizability of a self-report measure of psychache to an offender population. The factor structure, construct validity, and criterion validity of the Psychache Scale was assessed on 136 male prison inmates. The results showed the Psychache Scale has a single underlying factor structure and to be strongly associated with…

This paper reports findings from a qualitative investigation into the relationship between physical activity and mental health from the experiences of participants on exercise referral schemes. A grounded theory methodology was adopted which used focus groups and semi-structured interviews with participants from three exercise referral schemes in…

Objective: This study describes and compares the severity of DSM-IV symptoms in preschool children with diagnosed pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), clinic controls, and two community-based samples. Method: Parents (/and teachers) completed the early child inventory-4 (ECI-4), a DSM-IV-referenced rating scale for four samples: PDD (n =…

The quest for perfection has been anecdotally associated with great achievement and despair; with adjustment and maladjustment. No population has more frequently been associated with perfectionism than the gifted. This study was designed to (i) identify the types of perfectionism observed in a sample of Australian school students, and (ii) to…