What Prevents Adolescents from Seeking Help After a Suicide Education Program?

Perceived barriers to help-seeking among adolescents attending a suicide education program were examined. A total of 854 high school students in Colorado completed one of two questionnaires, measuring barriers to help-seeking for self or friend. The most prominent barriers for self were: inability to discuss problems with adults, self-overconfidence, fear of hospitalization, and lack of closeness to school adults. The most prominent barriers for troubled friends were: friendship concerns, unapproachability of school adults, fear of friend's hospitalization, and underestimating friend's problems. Results reveal multiple constraints limiting the program's utilization, supporting the need for comprehensive system approaches to suicide prevention.     

The Systems Approach: A Technique for Establishing Counseling and Guidance Programs

Schools and agencies are under increasing pressure to demonstrate program effectiveness and be accountable in terms of cost to the consumer. Systems methodology, developed for use in other fields, may have the potential for program development in counseling. This article discusses some of the ways in which systems technology may be directly employed in a counseling setting.     

Preliminary Validity of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory with Taiwanese Clinic-Referred Children

The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) has previously been shown to be a psychometrically sound instrument used to assess disruptive behaviors in children in the United States and in other cultures/countries but not in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure and to establish the discriminative validity of the ECBI with two groups of Taiwanese children: 70 clinic-referred children with clinically elevated externalizing behavior problems and 70 community-based matched comparison children. Exploratory factor analyses resulted in a six-factor model for the clinic-referred sample and a five-factStrengths and Difficultieor model for the matched comparison sample, indicating that the ECBI is not unidimensional. Adequate convergent and divergent validity also were established between the ECBI Intensity and Problem Scales and another measure of child externalizing (for assessing convergent validity) and internalizing (for determining divergent validity) behavior. The results of the present study suggest that the ECBI is a valid measure of assessing externalizing behavior problems in Taiwanese children. Future research may seek to refine the factor structure of the ECBI in a Taiwanese sample. Future studies are also needed to examine other psychometrics of the ECBI, replicate this study with a larger sample, and establish its normative data in Taiwan.     

Dispersed and Undispersed Dependency

Abstract

This study was aimed at developing a measure of Kelly's concept of dispersion of dependency and providing evidence for its usefulness in differentiating degree of dispersion of dependency. Smith and Grassle's (1977) adaptation of Hurlbert's diversity index, a measure used by biologists to differentiate degrees of species diversity, was applied to dependency grids, specifically “being helped” grids. The diversity index was shown to be both useful in differentiating prototypes of relatively dispersed and undispersed grids and robust. Furthermore, evidence was provided for its predictive validity using predictions made by Kelly concerning dependency construing associated with differences in dispersion of dependency. Greater dispersion of dependency was related to making more discriminations about dependencies, and undispersed dependency was related to relatively impermeable and preemptive construing. Thus the measure was shown to be satisfactory for identifying dispersion of dependency, such that, used in this context, it could be aptly renamed the dispersion of dependency index.     

Examining School Attachment,Social Support,and Trauma Symptomatology Among Court-Involved,Female Students

Court-involved youth (i.e., youth in the foster care and/or juvenile justice systems), and particularly those in residential placement facilities, often present with trauma histories that can impede various areas of development and functioning. These traumatic histories can negatively impact academic performance and school success, leading to poorer outcomes later in life. In particular, female youth in these systems exhibit unique responses to traumatic experiences that further complicate healthy development. This study assesses female, court-involved students (n?=?141), exploring the relationship between school attachment and school involvement, school social support (from peers, teachers, and other staff), and trauma symptomatology among a sample of residential placement students exposed to a trauma-informed teaching intervention over the course of a school year. It was hypothesized that higher school attachment/involvement and social support would be associated with lower student trauma symptomatology. As expected, findings demonstrated that students in the sample had experienced high trauma exposure, as indicated by their high trauma symptomatology. Unexpectedly, they also had high school attachment. Furthermore, higher school attachment was associated with lower trauma symptoms among students. On the other hand, students reported lower levels of social support from classmates, which was associated with significantly higher trauma symptomatology. Implications for future research are addressed.     

Gender and motivation

The role of gender in shaping achievement motivation has a long history in psychological and educational research. In this review, gender differences in motivation are examined using four contemporary theories of achievement motivation, including attribution, expectancy-value, self-efficacy, and achievement goal perspectives. Across all theories, findings indicate girls' and boys' motivation-related beliefs and behaviors continue to follow gender role stereotypes. Boys report stronger ability and interest beliefs in mathematics and science, whereas girls have more confidence and interest in language arts and writing. Gender effects are moderated by ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and classroom context. Additionally, developmental research indicates that gender differences in motivation are evident early in school, and increase for reading and language arts over the course of school. The role of the home and school environment in the development of these gender patterns is examined. Important implications for school professionals are highlighted.