Adolescent pregnancy: contributing factors, consequences, treatment, and plausible solutions

Adolescence, although not always necessarily a period of extreme stress, is a time of profound physical changes which increase the adolescent's awareness of and interest in sexual behavior. This issue of sexuality, which begins in early adolescence, creates new challenges to personal and gender identity formation as the person matures. Sexual maturation is a three-fold process, requiring growth in understanding of oneself as a sexual being, in the ability to handle interpersonal relationships effectively, and in the capacity to plan behavior in view of future outcomes and present problems. A current concern is that today's adolescents, including early adolescents, may be making important life choices such as parenthood before they are developmentally ready for such roles (Chilman, 1980). This paper deals with pregnancy in adolescents and modes of responding to this phenomenon by those in the counseling and other helping professions.     

Unilateral brain lesions and MMPI performance: a preliminary study.

Samples of 15 Ss with right- and 20 Ss with left-hemisphere brain lesions secondary to war-related penetrating missile wounds were matched for age, education, and recency of injury and evaluated with the MMPI. Right-hemisphere lesioned Ss produced a composite profile with all scales within normal limits. In contrast, the composite profile of left-hemisphere lesioned Ss showed significant elevations on the Sc, D, and Hs clinical scales, suggesting increased psychopathological responses in such Ss. Although the general configurations of the composite MMPI profiles in the two samples were similar, significant differences in the elevation of both validity and clinical scales were obtained. The results tend to support previous findings of a depressive-catastrophic reaction in patients with lesions in the dominant hemisphere, while not supporting the euphoric-indifference response in nondominant-hemisphere lesioned Ss.     

Associations and dissociations of transitive and intransitive gestures in left and right hemisphere stroke patients

The study investigated performance on pantomime and imitation of transitive and intransitive gestures in 80 stroke patients, 42 with left (LHD) and 38 with right (RHD) hemisphere damage. Patients were also categorized in two groups based on the time that has elapsed between their stroke and the apraxia assessment: acute–subacute (n = 42) and chronic (n = 38). In addition, patterns of performance in apraxia were examined. We expected that acute–subacute patients would be more impaired than chronic patients and that LHD patients would be more impaired than RHD patients, relative to controls. The hemisphere prediction was confirmed, replicating previous findings. The frequency of apraxia was also higher in all LHD time post-stroke groups. The most common impairment after LHD was impairment in both pantomime and imitation in both transitive and intransitive gestures. Selective deficits in imitation were more frequent after RHD for transitive gestures but for intransitive gestures they were more frequent after LHD. Patients were more impaired on imitation than pantomime, relative to controls. In addition, after looking at both gesture types concurrently, we have described cases of patients who suffered deficits in pantomime of intransitive gestures with preserved performance on transitive gestures. Such cases show that the right hemisphere may be in some cases critical for the successful pantomime of intransitive gestures and the neural networks subserving them may be distinct. Chronic patients were also less impaired than acute–subacute patients, even though the difference did not reach significance. A longitudinal study is needed to examine the recovery patterns in both LHD and RHD patients.     

The use of reaction time measures to evaluate nonword reading in primary progressive aphasia

We reported on a subject with nonfluent primary progressive aphasia (PPA), NL, who demonstrated an impaired ability to make rhyme judgments (Dowhaniuk, Dixon, Roy, Black, & Square, in press). Our hypothesis was that these deficits represent a precursor to phonological alexia. However, no definitive evidence supported the existence of a phonological reading impairment as NL made relatively few errors reading nonwords. To further evaluate NL's nonword reading, nonword and real word reaction times were compared. NL's reaction times were significantly longer for only nonwords compared to the slowest control subject. We then assessed the first two stages of processing involved in nonword reading (Coltheart, 1996). NL did not demonstrate deficits with graphemic parsing or phoneme assignment. His continuing problems with auditory rhyme judgments support the presence of a phonological processing deficit not specific to reading. We conclude that reaction time measures allow for the detection of subtle nonword reading deficits.     

The School and Community Study: Characteristics of Students Who Have Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities Served in Restructuring Public Schools

We present selected initial results from a study investigating the effects of school restructuring and reform activities on outcomes for students who are identified as having serious emotional and behavioral disabilities. A review of the literature revealed six key areas of reform for investigation: accountability, governance, parent involvement, includedness, curriculum and instruction, and pro-social discipline. Ten schools (five elementary, two K-8, one middle, and two high schools) actively engaged in school restructuring and reform efforts were selected to participate in the study, and their status related to these six areas is presented. Characteristics of the students identified as having emotional and behavioral disabilities and served in these schools in special education settings (N = 116) are described. Results from the administration of standardized assessments revealed that these students have significant levels of emotional and behavioral disabilities that impair their functioning at school and at home. Further, school staff are providing the majority of counseling services to these students during the school day, with non-school professionals providing services to 25% of the students.