Protective factors, needed for personal resilience, vary from culture to culture. Resilience in Native Americans is examined via an interview with a Native American social worker who quit her job over an ethical conflict. The interplay of self-concept, family, and culture in young people's development of protective factors is examined.…

The president of the University of Miami (Florida) at the time of Hurricane Andrew discusses the challenges of coping with widespread campus destruction and the resulting organizational crisis, and offers guidelines for responding rapidly and effectively to the needs and concerns of various constituents. (MSE)

Individual effectiveness studies and reviews of studies are described for eight mental health service components for children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbances and their families. Components discussed include residential services, outpatient services, day treatment services, crisis and emergency management services, case…

Investigates experiences of Greek mothers who cared for a child dying of cancer. Highlighted some needs during the terminal period. Fifteen mothers were interviewed and both quantitative and qualitative procedures were used to analyze findings. Family networks played a significant role in supporting mother-child units, especially when death…

Structural equation modeling was used to examine relationships among prewar factors, dimensions of war-zone stress, and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology using data from 1,632 female and male participants in the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study. Discusses research findings. Recommends more attention be given…

Reports on a workplace child care center's support of a child with a birth defect. Discusses every child's need for a secure base, how routines add to security, how crises make one more self-aware, finding resources to assist staff, solving problems creatively, and being an advocate for the children and families. (DLH)

A study investigated the influence of self-concept and perceived family environment on psychosocial adjustment among 180 early-entrance college students (ages 14-17). Family cohesion, conflict, and expressiveness and overall self-concept were predictive of adjustment to college. Family cohesion, organization, control, conflict, and overall…

Self concept is deeply intertwined with one's racial socialization. Two incidents are recounted as turning points in this counselor educator's self-perception as a person having a racial identity and to her career development. Coping mechanisms are described. A safe atmosphere is essential to the exploration of feelings about race. (EMK)

Examined how attachment relationships and cognitive attributes and sociodemographic characteristics functioned as protective and risk factors across a range of violent behaviors. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health highlighted the importance of attachment to family and school as protective factors. While an intact family…

Given the prevalence of domestic violence and the likelihood that many victims will not receive services from specialized domestic violence providers, this article provides a framework for contextualized assessment that can be used by generalist practitioners. Drawing from stress and coping theory, the authors discuss the relevance of assessing…

The life-kills approach to smoking prevention was tested in this study. In total, 1024 pupils (mean age 11.4 years, SD = 0.90) from Austria, Denmark, Luxembourg and Germany were recruited as an experimental group, and a sample of 834 matched pupils served as a control group. While the pupils from the control group received no specific…

Preservice teachers get their first teaching position hoping to take the first step toward becoming professional educators and expecting support from experienced colleagues and administrators, who often serve as their mentors. In this article, the authors present the story of Kristine (a pseudonym), who works at a middle school in a large U.S.…

This article addresses the process by which children and adolescents cope with severe acute stress of parental loss from causes other than divorce or death. Participants were 60 children and adolescents from a residential treatment facility. Most had experienced neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, and their parents had their parential…

In this final article in the series of 3 on "Raising a Child with Epilepsy, Coping with Guilt," readers will discover how culture attacks the emotional well being of parents of children who have epilepsy. Guilt, like fear and stigma, unconsciously influences childrearing decisions for the worse. However, in the case of guilt, most of the damage…

We received 38 controlled studies of marital and family therapy (MFT) in alcoholism treatment. We conclude that, when the alcoholic is unwilling to seek help, MFT is effective in helping the family cope better and motivating alcoholics to enter treatment. Specifically, (a) Al-Anon facilitation and referral help family members cope better; (b)…