Group counseling to enhance adolescents' close friendships

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of group counseling on adolescents' intimacy with a close friend. The study population was comprised of 174 residential and day students of seven ninth-grade classes in a residential school in Israel. All participants were socially disadvantaged, with a problematic family background. They were randomly divided into experimental and control conditions: group counseling versus an in-class enrichment program. School personnel in the helping professions conducted all counseling groups after receiving training and supervision. Results of the counseling intervention showed a significant late effect in intimacy growth with a close friend. None of the three covariates (gender, residency, divorce) had a significant impact on results. The results support, to some extent, the dual process model of relationship development.     

Computer game associating self-concept to images of acceptance can reduce adolescents' aggressiveness in response to social rejection

The experience of social rejection can lead to an aggressive response. However, the ability to maintain a sense of social connection may reduce the likelihood of this type of response. We tested a computer-based intervention designed to use simple learning principles to boost the sense of social connection and acceptance. Adolescents aged 9–15 (n=138) first completed a conditioning game on computer that repeatedly paired their own name with images of social acceptance (versus a control condition with no systematic pairing), and subsequently reported how aggressively they would behave in response to being rejected by a peer. Those completing the self-acceptance conditioning (particularly those low in self-esteem) reported less aggressive feelings and intentions.     

Using performance feedback to enhance implementation fidelity of the problem-solving team process

Implementation integrity is a potentially critical issue for problem-solving teams (PST) and most response-to-intervention models. The current study hypothesized that providing performance feedback, which has consistently been shown to increase implementation integrity, to PSTs would enhance the procedural integrity of the process. The PSTs for three elementary schools were provided performance feedback with a 20-item checklist created from the literature. A multiple-baseline design across schools revealed an immediate change in level after providing performance feedback. The resulting percentages of non-overlapping data were 90.9%, 90.0%, and 100%. However, PSTs still did not monitor student progress, assess the effectiveness of the intervention, or measure the integrity with which the intervention was implemented even after receiving feedback. Thus, providing performance feedback could be a method to increase the fidelity with which critical components of data-based problem-solving are implemented, but these data suggest the need for additional research.     

Children's and adolescents' aggressive behavior in context: The development and application of aggressive problem-solving strategies

Social-cognitive information-processing models have frequently been used as a reference in studying children's and adolescents' aggressive behavior. According to these models, aggressive behavior is considered to be one way for children and adolescents to cope with the social problems of everyday life. A high level of aggressive behavior is traced to deficiencies in processing social information (e.g., in encoding social cues, interpreting situations, adopting goals, producing strategies, and evaluating responses), leading to an increased likelihood of employing aggressive problem-solving strategies. Emotions and physiological factors are also suggested to contribute to the social-cognitive information-processing activities promoting aggression. The development of aggressively biased ways of processing social information is seen to be related to numerous biological and environmental factors.     

An investigation of Taiwanese early adolescents' self-evaluations concerning the Big 6 information problem-solving approach

The study developed a Big 6 Information Problem-Solving Scale (B61PS), including the subscales of task definition and information-seeking strategies, information access and synthesis, and evaluation. More than 1,500 fifth and sixth graders in Taiwan responded. The study revealed that the scale showed adequate reliability in assessing the adolescents' perceptions about the Big 6 information problem-solving approach. In addition, the adolescents had quite different responses toward different subscales of the approach. Moreover, females tended to have higher quality information-searching skills than their male counterparts. The adolescents of different grades also displayed varying views toward the approach. Other results are also provided.     

Evaluation of a social problem-solving skills program for third- and fourth-grade students

The effects of a social problem-solving (SPS) training program for entire classrooms of third- and fourth-grade children were examined in two studies. In the first study, experimental children showed significantly greater improvement in knowledge and performance of SPS skills than control children. However, both positive and negative effects of the intervention (varying by classroom) were found on measures of behavioral adjustment, self-efficacy, and peer acceptance at a 6-month follow-up. The second study compared two different intervention strategies: (a) SPS training with teacher-student dialoguing, peer pairing, and self-monitoring, and (b) SPS training with dialoguing only. It was found that children in both the experimental and control groups improved significantly in performance of SPS skills but no differences between the groups were found for changes in behavioral adjustment, self-efficacy, and peer acceptance. The limitations of cognitively mediated interventions for young children were discussed.     

Habituation to a stressor predicts adolescents' adiposity

Background and Objectives: Stress is associated with gains in adiposity. One factor that determines how much stress is experienced is how quickly an adolescent reduces responding (habituates) across repeated stressors. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of body mass index (BMI) percentile and the rate of habituation to a stressor. Design: Thirty-four adolescents completed anthropometric measures and a habituation protocol using a within study design. Methods: The habituation protocol measured the rate of decline in perceived stress and heart rate (HR) across four, two-minute serial subtraction trials. Results: Multivariate linear regression revealed the habituation rate of the HR predicted BMI percentile after adjusting for gender, socioeconomic status, and initial HR (β?=?17.2, p?Conclusions: Slower habituation to a laboratory stressor was associated with greater BMI percentiles in adolescents.     

Evaluation of a planned behavior theory-based intervention programme to promote healthy eating

The objective of the study was to test the effectiveness of an intervention program based on the theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior, with the addition of attitude strength and role identity. The aim was to alter adolescents' healthy eating attitudes and behaviour. In the sample were 335 high school students, who were divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention lasted 12 weeks and included posters and lectures promoting healthy eating. The measures included a questionnaire assessing the hypothesis and a food frequency questionnaire which measured eating habits. Analysis showed the intervention was effective in proving attitudes toward healthy eating and attitude strength, intention, perceived behavioral control, and healthy eating behaviour, but not effective in predicting subjective norms and role identity. Results provide evidence that intervention changed attitudes toward a behavior in a school setting.     

Getting engaged: A case study and a model of the engagement period as a process of conflict-resolution

This paper addresses the problem of why so many marriages end in divorce. It develops a preventative approach to marital breakdown by proposing pre-marital counselling as a resource to be made widely available to couples. The key psychological issues which a counsellor could use as the backbone of any such counselling or therapeutic work are outlined. It is suggested that these issues are part of the psychological ‘working-through’ period during an engagement, when the couple are preparing for marriage. The psychological difficulties that an individual may be struggling with are illustrated via an account of psychodynamic psychotherapy with a young woman during the year of her engagement.     

Motivations for adolescents' first visit to a family planning clinic

Although family planning clinics routinely gather data on referral sources and primary reasons for visits, little is known about the "precipitating events" which motivate young women to make an appointment or show up at a clinic on a given day. In this study, 150 new patients at a large urban clinic were interviewed to determine what events or advice specifically led to their decision to approach a family planning clinic for the first time. The roles of pregnancy scares, advice from significant others, and situational factors in motivating service use are presented along with a discussion of the program implications of these findings.     

Development and administration of a measure to assess adolescents' participation in leisure activities.

This paper describes the development and administration of a measure (a self-report questionnaire) to assess the participation of adolescents in leisure activities. Questionnaire items were generated through a content analysis of focus group interviews with 130 young people aged 12 to 18 years. Specifically, the activities of approximately a thousand adolescents were investigated through a three-factor leisure typology--achievement, social, and time-out leisure--together with the leisure parameters of enjoyment, freedom of choice, and frequency of participation. Further, leisure engagement was examined based on gender and age (i.e., changes in activity participation across the adolescent years). The results are discussed in terms of the practical and theoretical implications of the relationship between gender and age in leisure activity participation.     

Evaluation of a home-based language training programme with severely mentally handicapped children

A home-based Language Training Programme was carried out with pre-school and school-age severely mentally handicapped children, over a 16–18-month period. Compared to control groups, the experimental groups did not show significantly greater progress on normreferenced measures of language development, although all groups showed significant improvement over time. The implications of these findings are discussed in the light of a number of methodological problems with the study.     

Borderline and psychotic adolescents' relationship to their parents: a therapeutic point of view

This study investigated the parents of 100 psychotic and borderline adolescents, and their relationships with their adolescent children. The incidence of psychiatric disorders among the parents, and the incidence of one-parent homes, as well as the divorce rate of biological parents, are given. A direct assessment of the number of pathological relationships between adolescents and parents, defined from a therapeutic point of view, was also made. Examples are given of parental pathology or marital discord concealed in the adolescents' pathology, or in the parent-adolescent relationship. It was concluded that the assessment of parents and their relationships with the adolescents is important for the treatment of the adolescent.     

Suicidal Children's and adolescents' responses to early memories test

Early memories were administered to 59 hospitalized suicidal and nonsuicidal children and adolescents. Three groups were formed: Talkers, those who had made serious threats to end their lives; attempters, who acted intentionally to end their lives; and nonsuicidal controls. The early memories were administered by a procedure developed by the author and then rated on a number of variables. Both suicidal groups gave significantly more early memories than the controls. Attempters depicted themselves more often with another person in their earliest early memories. Talkers differed from the other two groups on several variables suggesting higher ego development and better object relationships. The results encouraged further research with early memories as a tool for understanding psychopathology.