Alcohol use and depression among African-American and Caucasian adolescents

The purpose of this study was to determine differences in reported alcohol use and depressive symptomatology among a sample of 524 African-American and Caucasian adolescents. Of specific interest was determining if ethnicity, gender, and age predicted severity of scores obtained on the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) and Adolescent Drinking Index (ADI). Extreme groups were formed using upper (> 75%) and lower (< 25%) quartiles. Three other groups were formed using each instrument's normatively derived cutoff scores: depressed only (RADS > 77), heavy drinking (ADI > 16) and mixed (RADS > 77, ADI > 16). Several results were obtained. First, Caucasians obtained significantly higher scores on the ADI than African-Americans, although no differences were obtained for the RADS. Females scored higher on the RADS but lower on the ADI than males. In terms of extreme scores, females were less likely to belong to the severe depression group, while older adolescents in general and African-Americans in particular had a greater probability of belonging to the heavy-drinking group. Finally, using RADS and ADI cutoff scores, females were less likely than males to belong to the depression only group as were African-Americans. Older adolescents, in general, and African-Americans in particular had a greater probability of belonging to the mixed group than did their counterparts.     

Optimistic bias among potential perpetrators and victims of youth violence

This study furthers the current understanding of optimistic bias regarding youth violence among high school students. Results from a survey of 387 urban high school students indicate a wide range of predictors of optimistic bias, including experience, demographics, and attitudes. Linkages to other developmental frameworks (personal fable and self-efficacy) suggest future directions for additional research.     

Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology: What’s the Question?

Alvin Plantingas Warranted Christian Belief is without questionone of the central texts of the Reformed epistemology movement. Critiques of Plantingas defence have been both multiple and varied. As varied as these responses are, however, it is my contention that many of them amount to the same thing. It is the purpose of this paper to offer an overview of the main lines of attack that have been directed as Plantingas project, and thereafter to show how many, if not most, of these objections can be understood as versions or aspects of the same criticism, what I call the Inadequacy Thesis.     

Association of parental depression with psychiatric course from adolescence to young adulthood among formerly depressed individuals

The authors examined whether parental major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with course of depression and other psychopathology among formerly depressed adolescents as they enter adulthood. The sample consisted of 244 individuals (age 24) in a longitudinal study who had experienced MDD by 19. Maternal MDD was associated with MDD recurrence, chronicity and severity, anxiety disorders, and (among sons only) lower psychosocial functioning in offspring between the ages of 19 and 24. Paternal MDD was associated with lower functioning. Sons of depressed fathers had elevated suicidal ideation and attempt rates in young adulthood. Recurrent paternal MDD was associated with depression recurrence in daughters but not sons. The impact of parental MDD on offspring could not be attributed to characteristics of the offspring's depression prior to age 19.