Exposure to suicide: incidence and association with suicidal ideation and behavior: United States, 1994

Exposure to the suicide of another is common, but the magnitude and effects of such exposure are not well quantified. From a national random telephone survey of U.S. adults, we estimated the 12-month incidence of exposure to suicide and its association with suicidal ideation, planning, and behavior. Of 5,238 respondents, 342 (a weighted 7.0% representing 13.2 million persons) reported knowing a suicide decedent from the previous year. Univariate analysis showed persons reporting such exposure were significantly more likely to describe suicidal ideation and behavior than those unexposed; multivariate analysis showed no association. Though the risk related to suicide exposure may be small, given the magnitude of exposure, it may warrant intervention efforts because of its potential societal impact.     

Eating disorder diagnoses: empirical approaches to classification

Decisions about the classification of eating disorders have significant scientific and clinical implications. The eating disorder diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) reflect the collective wisdom of experts in the field but are frequently not supported in empirical studies and do not capture the disorders of eating experienced by most people with an eating disorder. Statistical approaches to classification such as latent class analysis and taxometrics can help to create a classification system with greater scientific validity and clinical utility. The field would benefit from direct empirical comparisons of different classification schemes with various clinical and scientific validators. Such studies would enable the creators of the next DSM eating disorder classification to increase understanding of the advantages and disadvantages associated with choosing various diagnostic criteria sets for the eating disorders.     

Social anxiety disorder in childhood and adolescence: descriptive psychopathology

Although the presentation of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adults is well documented, less is known about its clinical manifestation in children and adolescents. To date, most studies have included combined samples of children and adolescents despite the fact that this age range represents an extensive period of growth and development. This study compares and contrasts the clinical presentation of SAD among children (ages 7-12) and adolescents (ages 13-17). One hundred and fifty children (n=74) and adolescents (n=76) with a primary diagnosis of SAD participated in the study. The assessment battery included clinical ratings and behavioral observation as well as parental and self-report. The results indicate that, although the symptom presentation of children and adolescents with primary SAD shares many features, children tend to present with a broader pattern of general psychopathology, while adolescents have a more pervasive pattern of social dysfunction and may be more functionally impaired as a result of their disorder. These findings suggest that interventions for SAD need to carefully consider clinical presentation of the disorder as it manifests in childhood and adolescence.     

Retrieval Dynamics and Retention in Cross‐Situational Statistical Word Learning

Previous research on cross‐situational word learning has demonstrated that learners are able to reduce ambiguity in mapping words to referents by tracking co‐occurrence probabilities across learning events. In the current experiments, we examined whether learners are able to retain mappings over time. The results revealed that learners are able to retain mappings for up to 1 week later. However, there were interactions between the amount of retention and the different learning conditions. Interestingly, the strongest retention was associated with a learning condition that engendered retrieval dynamics that initially challenged the learner but eventually led to more successful retrieval toward the end of learning. The ease/difficulty of retrieval is a critical process underlying cross‐situational word learning and is a powerful example of how learning dynamics affect long‐term learning outcomes.     

Gender Differences among Self-Reported Genital Piercing Stories

Through the investigation of a rich, qualitative dataset of 484 self-reported genital piercing stories, we significantly expand an understanding of the characteristics, motivations, experiences, and outcomes of persons with genital piercings. While many of our findings confirm and elaborate prior research, some of our findings also challenge this research. In particular, we find that contrary to the expectations of prior research, there is: (1) little evidence to support the frequently made claim that genital piercings are pathological and (2) little evidence to support the alternatively framed claim that genital piercings somehow offer resistance to traditional gender and sexual norms. Instead, we argue that, by and large, genital piercings are just another mainstream and fairly conventional type of body decoration and adornment.     

Language Anxiety and Counseling Self‐Efficacy

A total of 120 master's‐level counseling students were given the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and the Counselor Self‐Estimate Inventory. Significance was found for all 3 hypotheses: (a) nonnative English‐speaking students have significantly more language anxiety than native English‐speaking students, (b) nonnative English‐speaking students’ language anxiety was negatively correlated with counseling self‐efficacy, and (c) native English‐ and nonnative English‐speaking students significantly differed in their perceptions of counseling self‐efficacy. Se administraron la Escala de Ansiedad en Clase de Lengua Extranjera y el Inventario de Autoestimación de Consejeros a un total de 120 estudiantes de máster en consejería. Se encontró significación para las 3 hipótesis siguientes: (a) los estudiantes cuya lengua nativa no es el inglés sufren un nivel considerablemente más alto de ansiedad a causa del idioma que los hablantes nativos de inglés, (b) la ansiedad a causa del idioma de los estudiantes cuya lengua nativa no es el inglés mostró una correlación negativa con la autoeficacia en consejería y (c) los grupos de estudiantes nativos y no nativos en inglés mostraron diferencias significativas en sus percepciones de autoeficacia en consejería.     

The Relationship between Anger Rumination and Aggression in Typically Developing Children and High-Risk Adolescents

This paper examines anger rumination as a risk factor of aggression in typically developing children and high-risk adolescents. Study 1 developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of a self-report measure of children’s anger rumination (Children’s Anger Rumination Scale; CARS) and its association with teacher- and peer-rated overt and relational aggression in school-aged children (n = 254, M age = 10.62). Findings offered support for the reliability and validity of the CARS as well as support for the hypothesis that children who ruminate to anger exhibit elevated levels of overt and relational aggression. Study 2 examined concurrent and prospective relationships between anger rumination and aggression and the moderating effects of trait anger in a sample of male juvenile offenders (n = 119, M age = 16.74). Latent growth curve analyses revealed that the interaction between trait anger and anger rumination predicted initial levels of aggression (i.e., intercept) and changes in aggression over time (i.e., slope). Juvenile offenders who were high in trait anger and ruminated in response to anger exhibited the highest initial levels of aggression. Contrary to our hypothesis, this group did not exhibit greater increases in aggression over time relative to others, but instead they had stably high levels of aggression at each time point. These findings suggest that cognitive-behavioral treatment strategies for aggression may be improved by educating youths about the contributory role of anger rumination in the development of aggression and providing them with adaptive alternatives to coping with feelings of anger.