Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Adolescents Attachment with Peers and Mother: The Mediating Role of Identity Synthesis and Confusion

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent in adolescents. Secure attachment with family and peers can reduce vulnerability to NSSI and can optimize the outcomes of developmental challenges such as identity formation. Problems experienced in these developmental processes and contexts can increase vulnerability to NSSI. Hence, the present study examined associations between attachment with mother and peers, identity formation, and NSSI, using self-report questionnaires in 528 high school students (Mean age = 15.0 years, SD = 1.84, 11–19 years, 50.4 % females). The lifetime prevalence of NSSI was found to be 14.2 %. Mediation analyses indicated that peer trust had a significant negative indirect effect on NSSI via identity synthesis and confusion. The positive association between peer alienation and NSSI was partially mediated by a lack of identity synthesis. Further, the pathways from maternal trust and alienation to NSSI were fully mediated by both identity confusion and synthesis. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

African-American and Latino Parents’ Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Adolescent Fighting and Its Prevention

Adolescent fighting affects 25 % of youth, with the highest rates among African-Americans and Latinos but little is known about parental views on youth fighting. The purpose of this study was to examine African-American and Latino parents’ perspectives on adolescent fighting and methods to prevent fighting. We conducted four focus groups with parents of African-American and Latino urban adolescents. Focus groups were stratified by race/ethnicity and fighting status. Groups were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed by three independent coders using thematic content analysis. Seventy-six percent of the 17 participants were female. Latino parents condoned fighting only as a last resort, and taught children about consequences of fighting, emotional regulation, and non-violent conflict-resolution strategies. African-American parents endorsed teaching non-violent strategies, but expressed some doubts about their effectiveness. African-American parents also suggested corporal punishment, but acknowledged that this may not be an optimal long-term strategy. Positive role modeling and involvement by teachers and other adults were cited as having important roles in fighting prevention. Suggested interventions included teaching adolescents non-violent conflict-resolution skills, anger management, and alternatives to fighting. Parents recommended that violence prevention programs incorporate the experiences of former fighters and be tailored to community needs. Study findings suggest that youth violence-prevention programs may benefit from addressing parental attitudes towards fighting and parent–child communication about fighting, teaching adolescents non-violent conflict-resolution skills, and tailoring programs by race/ethnicity. Promoting positive modeling and involvement by teachers and other adults also may be beneficial.     

Regional gray matter volume is associated with rejection sensitivity: A voxel-based morphometry study

Rejection sensitivity (RS) can be defined as the disposition that one tends to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. High-RS individuals are more likely to suffer mental disorders. Previous studies have investigated brain activity during social rejection using different kinds of rejection paradigms and have provided neural evidence of individual differences in response to rejection cues, but the association between individual differences in RS and brain structure has never been investigated. In this study, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to investigate the relationship between gray matter volume (GMV) and RS in a large healthy sample of 150 men and 188 women. The participants completed the RS Questionnaire and underwent an anatomical magnetic resonance imaging scan. Multiple regression was used to analyze the correlation between regional GMV and RS scores, adjusting for age, sex, and total brain GMV. These results showed that GMV in the region of the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus was negatively associated with RS, and GMV in the region of the inferior temporal gyrus was positively correlated with RS. These findings suggest a relationship between individual differences in RS and GMV in brain regions that are primarily related to social cognition.     

Counselor Education Doctoral Program Faculty Members’ Refereed Article Publications

This study investigated articles published in refereed journals by counselor educators (N = 378) employed by 55 doctoral programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. The counselor educators published in 321 different journals, and the variables that predicted publications rates included (a) year earned doctoral degree, (b) academic rank, (c) Carnegie category classification of current university, and (d) gender. Implications for counselor education and scholarly productivity are discussed.     

Cuckoo coloureds: Cacophonic auralities and hidden visibilities of so-called coloured identities in South Africa

Beginning with the association between “sounding out” and “voicing” this article begins with a tacit question of what musical metaphors might offer for thought concerning identity, and in particular the complex racial (mis-) or (dis-)identifications of so-called coloured people in South Africa. I tie the aurality of the cuckoo bird to the notion of something that pops out of invisibility and makes an irrelevant or silly kind of noise. In musical settings the cuckoo is often associated with a dissonant cacophony of multiple chiming (cuckoo) clocks and steeple bells. This offers a telling metaphor for the determination of coloured(ness) by white and black South Africans alike, for whom coloured is precisely the incomprehensible “other” whose voice cannot be heard clearly. At the same time, among so-called coloureds in South Africa, the metaphor of an internal cacophony refers to a resounding, but tragic noise created by the “sounding-out” or “voicing”, i.e. the aurality, of multiple narratives of what constitutes and nullifies coloured(ness) in South Africa. In other words, the cacophonic plurality of so-called coloured voices in society speaking simultaneously against one another in terms of self-determination also seems to be speaking beyond comprehension for most other South Africans. The ironic outcome of all of this noise is an extraordinary kind of silence.