The present investigation examined the developmental course(s) of lifetime cigarette use and panic attack comorbidity. Participants included 4,409 adults, ages 15 to 54 years of age (M[Age] = 33.1, SD = 10.7, N (females) = 2,221) from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). The primary objective of the present investigation was to better understand…

In this article, the author describes how researchers study the adolescent brain--a subject of inquiry that did not exist a generation ago. Any parent of a teenager knows that adolescents often have difficulty navigating through their world. Now scientists are starting to find out why. Peering into the minds of maturing youngsters, researchers are…

Objective: To determine whether childhood-onset bipolar disorder (BP) is associated with an increased psychiatric family history compared with adolescent-onset BP. Method: Semistructured psychiatric interviews were conducted for 438 youth with BP spectrum disorders. To evaluate the effects of age at onset and psychiatric family history, the sample…

New Jersey children and families begin this new decade with the state and nation in an economic downturn that has been marked by widespread job losses, an increased rate of child poverty and a growing number of households without enough to eat. These challenges are reflected in the measurements of child well-being in this report. "New Jersey…

There appears to be an association between substance use and pathological gambling disorders in the research. This will present concerns for clinicians in substance use treatment programs as clients present with the co-occurring disorders. This exploratory study provides descriptive information learned from calls made to a problem gambling…

The drug court model assumes that most drug offenders are addicts, and that drug use fuels other criminal activity. As a result, drug court clients must satisfy an intensive regimen of treatment and supervisory obligations. However, research suggests that roughly one third of drug court clients do not have a clinically significant substance use…

Although some consider the 12-step method of Alcoholics Anonymous to be the treatment of choice for people struggling with substance abuse, differing approaches have been developed within the area of addictions. Motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2002), enacted within a stages-of change model (DiClemente & Velasquez, 2002), seeks to…

Prior research has consistently demonstrated an association between substance use and involvement in violence among individuals with mental illness. Yet little is known about the temporal quality of this relationship, largely because longitudinal data required to address this issue are not readily available. This study examined the relationship…

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has published the "Data Book" for each of the past 24 years, tracking the well-being of America's children nationally and by state. To take advantage of the tremendous growth in research and data on child development, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has improved how they measure child well-being and rank…

Written for 12 to 14 year olds. The 25 activities use hands-on experience to facilitate youth learning, including concepts review and learning assessment at each chapter's end. A retrospective impact evaluation is included in the appendices along with additional resources, glossary, training outline and teaching tips. An accompanying cd-rom…

This study examined the extent to which antisocial behavior, parenting, and school connectedness moderated the association between peer deviancy in preadolescence and externalizing problems in early adolescence. The participants included 500 boys and girls, most of them African Americans. Peer deviancy was measured with teacher reports of…

This qualitative study used data from the Social Enterprise Intervention (SEI) pilot study, a comprehensive vocational training program with integrated clinical services for homeless youth. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 homeless youth participating in the SEI study to explore their perceptions of family environment characteristics and…

In 2004 South Africa embarked on a mission of reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions university. The democratic country's universities and technikons, which were incorporated with others and thus no longer exist, will be mentioned…

This random assignment study compared women in a prison Therapeutic Community (TC) program with those in a cognitive-behavioral intervention. Over two thirds of study subjects received a lifetime diagnosis of severe mental disorder, nearly one-half received a diagnosis of PTSD, and virtually all reported exposure to trauma. Preliminary analysis (n…

The strengths of Black youths lie in their abilities to resist the barriers that they encounter in the various environments in which they exist. Yet the media and social science literature have defined the youths in terms of the pathology of their environments rather than focusing on the assets that Black youths use in such environments. Thus,…