Psychological distress in university students: A comparison with general population data

Objective: While the mental health of university students is recognised internationally as an important public health issue, more epidemiological data are needed that allows benchmarking with general population data. Methods: All enrolled students from two large Australian universities were invited to complete a web‐based survey. Anxiety‐mood disorders were assessed using the Kessler 10. A total of 6,479 students participated in the study with sociodemographics generally consistent with the university population. Results: The estimated prevalence for mental health problems was 19.2% with 67.4% reporting subsyndromal symptoms. These rates were significantly higher than the general population. Psychological distress was associated with disability and lower academic achievement. Predictors of distress included: full‐time status, financial stress, being aged between and 18 and 34 years, being female, and in a subsequent undergraduate year of their degree. Conclusions: The extremely high prevalence of mental health problems in university students provides evidence for this being an at‐risk population. Implications: The results highlight the need for universal early interventions to prevent the development of severe mental illness in university students.     

AN INTERNATIONAL LOOK AT SELECTION PRACTICES: NATION AND CULTURE AS EXPLANATIONS FOR VARIABILITY IN PRACTICE

A survey of 959 organizations in 20 countries was undertaken to assess whether differences in staffing practices are due in part to nation and culture. Cultural differences in uncertainty avoidance and, to a lesser extent, power distance, explained some of the national differences observed in the extensiveness of method use. Implications for understanding the best approaches to selection on a global basis are discussed.     

Helping women to resolve the home-career conflict

Counselors can no longer dodge the special demands of vocational decision-making with women by saying either “Sooner or later she will settle down and get married” or “A woman can do anything a man can do.” Counselors and educators can help to clarify the factors involved in the vocational choice process with high school and college girls, particularly where these factors differ from those affecting men. There is no need to wait for a woman to seek counseling in order to expose her to these factors; such clarification should be built into high school and college guidance programs for girls. Society will gain if women choose careers at a level commensurate with their potential.     

Taking the 10-Year-Old Offender to Jail: An Alternative to “Scared Straight”‘

Young boys ages 8–12 were taken to jail following law offenses. This program is contrasted to the Lifer's Program at Rahway State Prison.     

Going Beyond Cultural Sensitivity on the Road to Multiculturalism: Using the Intercultural Sensitizer as a Counselor Training Tool

Using the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 17 position paper on cross-cultural counseling competencies as an organizing framework, this article provides an overview of the various cross-cultural counseling training models and points to the need to go beyond sensitivity training to actually providing culture-specific knowledge in our training models. The Intercultural Sensitizer (IS) is presented as a training tool that can serve this need. The history, rationale, and development of the IS, previously called the Culture Assimilator, is described. Some illustrative critical incidents from the Asian American Intercultural Sensitizer are also presented. Finally, future direction for the use of the Intercultural Sensitizer as a training tool and potential problems are discussed. Este artículo usa la positión del APA Division 17 en competencias de consejería intercultural como un cuadro organizational para proporcionar un panorama de los diferentes modelos de preparación de consejería intercultural y para indicar la necesidad de llegar más alla que la preparación sensitiva para dar en realidad a los modelos de entrenamiento un conocimiento culturalmente específico. Se presenta El Sensibilizador Intercultural como un instrumento de entrenamiento para cumplir esta necesidad. Se describe la historia, razonadamente, y el desarrollo de El Sensibilizador Intercultural, anteriormente llamado Asimilador Cultural. También se presentan unos incidentes ilustrativos del Sensibilizador Intercultural Americo-asiatico. Finalmente, ademas de discutir la dirección futura para el uso de El Sensibilizador Intercultural como un instrumento de entrenamiento, se habla sobre los posibles problemas.     

The Counseling Profession's Response to Sex-Biased Counseling: An Update

Moore and Strickler summarize recent literature on sex bias in the counseling profession and challenge counselor educators to place increased emphasis in their training programs on sex equity.     

An Annotated Bibliography of the Remarried, the Living Together, and Their Children

This bibliography was developed by the Remarried Consultation Center of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services of New York City for our own use. Because there is a growing interest in remarriage and the new types of families this social phenomenon creates, we became convinced that the meager number of articles and books in this area would be of interest to others. We have focused our attention on the now common phenomenon of the remarried and those living together in a committed relationship situation. Some articles that were not designed as studies of remarriage situations are included because their content is pertinent to our subject. The bibliography is divided into six sections to facilitated reference use. It should be noted, however, that these sections are not rigid and that some items could readily have been included under two or more sections. Articles included cover publication dates through April 1978. The six sections are: I. Demography; II. Remarried Couples; III. Stepparents and Stepchildren; IV. Divorce as a Precursor to Remarriage; V. Children of Divorce in Relation to Remarriage; VI. Remarriage-Prophylactic and Therapeutic Aspects. Unfortunately we did not find sufficient material to warrant a section on theoretical aspects. We have tried to make this bibliography as complete as possible using two computer retrieval systems as well as our own search of the literature. If you are familiar with references we have missed, we should appreciate hearing from you.     

Body Poly-texts: Discourses of the Anorexic Body

It is now increasingly acknowledged that anorexia nervosa is a ‘culture-bound syndrome’ which must be understood within the context of an increasing idealization of female thinness and a high prevalence of dieting and body dissatisfaction, particularly amongst women and girls. Whilst this socioculturally-oriented perspective is important, it is also simplistic to conceptualize anorexia simply as a ‘slimmer's disease’. The ways in which contemporary Western culture is imbricated in anorexia are both complex and multiple. This paper uses a discourse-analytic approach, informed by feminist Foucauldian theory, to examine some of the multiple and often conflicting meanings and discursive constructions of the (female) anorexic body. The paper is based on a series of interviews conducted with 23 women (21 diagnosed as anorexic and 2 self-diagnosed). The analysis focuses on the explication of two discourses: a romantic discourse and a discourse of Cartesian dualism evidenced in the interviews. By contrasting the very different ways in which these two discourses constitute the anorexic body, this paper aims to provide thereby a socioculturally contextualized and gender-oriented account of the multiple discursive constructions of ‘anorexia nervosa’ and ‘anorexic’ bodies. Implications for psychotherapeutic interventions are discussed.     

Mental Imagery in Career Counseling and Life Planning: A Review of Research and Intervention Methods

The use of imagery in career counseling and life planning continues to increase just as the use of imagery in counseling and psychotherapy increases. The rationale for using imagery in career counseling and life planning is the same as in counseling and psychotherapy: It allows the client and counselor to bring into awareness unconscious material that is already influencing choices and makes this material usable in future planning. Imagey also allows the client to try on alternative roles. Several studies are cited that indicate that the imagery components of daydreams and fantasies are useful tools for career exploration and life planning when they are accessible to clients and properly processed. Relevant counseling applications and research studies are cited. Some recent tools for eliciting and processing these daydreams and fantasies are presented, and limits as well as benefits of techniques are discussed.