The State of the Science conference was held in May, 2007 as part of the ongoing series of national conferences, "Building on Family Strengths," conducted by the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health at Portland State University. The theme of this State-of-the Science conference was "Effective…

An anonymous survey of health and sexual behavior statistics from adolescents in North Dakota is presented in this document. Seventeen thousand students from North Dakota schools in grades 9-12 participated in the survey. Survey questions were taken from the following categories: (1) safety; (2) suicide; (3) tobacco, alcohol and other drugs; (4)…

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that for every high school of 2,000 or more students in the United States, there is at least one successful suicide and thirty to fifty attempts each year. This report offers one state's examination of suicide and presents some effective responses to this problem. Discussed are those…

Recent statistics indicate that a high school of 2000 students will experience an average of one student suicide every four years. This paper reviews and synthesizes relevant information on issues in school response to student suicide and sudden death. Highlighted are risk factors that school personnel can identify in suicide-prone students,…

Suggestions to help school administrators develop and implement a systematic crisis response system are provided in this guidebook, which focuses on system organization rather than staff training. The guidelines are designed to help administrators prepare for, manage, and evaluate site-based responses to various crisis situations, specifically,…

The successes of the Japanese educational system have been widely praised by western educators in recent years. But this success appears to have a dark side; an educational framework that places students in fierce competition with one another and in which school-related violence and suicide occur with disturbing frequency. This paper focuses on…

This annotated bibliography is part of a series that offers a synthesis of knowledge on rehabilitation of Native Americans who are disabled. This volume of the series covers mental health issues and lists, alphabetically by author, a total of 65 books, dissertations, journal articles, and reports issued between 1967 and 1985. (JDD)

This digest considers how counselors and educators can cope with the emotional needs of suicide survivors and prevent future suicides among students. It discusses self-destructive tendencies in youth and behavioral manifestations of loss; offers suggestions to counselors for managing the first 48 hours following a suicide or loss and lists…

In the 1960s suicide was the fifth leading cause of death among adolescents. In the 1980s suicide is second only to accidents as a cause of adolescent death. In their 1966 study of 50 adolescents who had attempted suicide, Teicher and Jacobs conceptualized suicide as the end product of progressive isolation from meaningful relationships. From…

Most youth who commit suicide do not come to the attention of mental health authorities before their deaths. Therefore, there is a need for data based on the suicidal thinking and risk of nonclinical populations. In this study, 1,098 children and adolescents were tested in regard to suicidal thinking. Subjects read a scenario about a person in an…

Recognizing that writing suicide stories is hard for reporters, a study examined 1,010 suicide stories from the 1879-1900 era published in 12 newspapers from around the United States to determine how American journalists at other times carried out similar assignments. The newspapers examined were the Atlanta "Constitution," Arkansas…

A review of studies on black youth indicates a need for more attention to research concerns such as theory development, carefully constructed methodologies, and sensitivity to the interrelatedness among and between demographic variables. Some topics, like the well-adjusted black adolescent, are rarely handled in empirical studies. In this document…

Although no specific personality disorder seems responsible for suicide behavior, it has been suggested that hysterical personality could predispose to suicide behavior. Schizoid, anti-social and obsessoid rigid personalities have been linked to high risk suicide attempts. This study elicited response patterns and attitudes of South African…

A practicum was designed to train school counselors in recognizing the signs of suicide, assessing suicidal ideation, and managing a suicidal crisis. It was also designed to develop in counselors a more definitive idea of their role in a suicidal crisis. The primary goal was to increase counselors' confidence in their ability to assess and…

The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the complex and growing problem of adolescent suicide. The annotated bibliography consists of 7 articles on recent facts and data, 10 articles on causes determined by research, 11 items on indicators seen in adolescents, and 14 documents on how educators can help. A lack of secure social…