A comparison of diversity, frequency, and severity self-reported offending scores among female offending youth

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 24(3) of Psychological Assessment (see record 2012-04601-001). The article contained a number of errors which are corrected in the erratum.] Despite general consensus over the value of measuring self-reported offending, discrepancies exist in methods of scoring self-reported offending and the length of the reference period over which offending is assessed. This analysis compared the concurrent interassociations and longitudinal predictive strength of diversity, frequency, and severity offending scores measured over the past 6 months and diversity and severity scores measured "ever" between assessments. For violent offending, different scorings were highly correlated and equally predictive of adulthood offending. For nonviolent offending, there was significant continuity in diversity and severity-weighted diversity scores over the transition to adulthood but not in nonviolent frequency or severity-weighted frequency scores. Results support the use of offending diversity scores rather than offending frequency scores and highlight the importance of examining nonviolent and violent offending as separate constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Correction to oudekerk, erbacher, and reppucci (2012)

Reports an error in "A comparison of diversity, frequency, and severity self-reported offending scores among female offending youth" by Barbara A. Oudekerk, Monica K. Erbacher and N. Dickon Reppucci (Psychological Assessment, Advanced Online Publication, Jan 16, 2012, np). The article contained a number of errors which are corrected in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-00740-001.) Despite general consensus over the value of measuring self-reported offending, discrepancies exist in methods of scoring self-reported offending and the length of the reference period over which offending is assessed. This analysis compared the concurrent interassociations and longitudinal predictive strength of diversity, frequency, and severity offending scores measured over the past 6 months and diversity and severity scores measured "ever" between assessments. For violent offending, different scorings were highly correlated and equally predictive of adulthood offending. For nonviolent offending, there was significant continuity in diversity and severity-weighted diversity scores over the transition to adulthood but not in nonviolent frequency or severity-weighted frequency scores. Results support the use of offending diversity scores rather than offending frequency scores and highlight the importance of examining nonviolent and violent offending as separate constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Teaching Mindfulness for the Self-Care and Well-Being of Counselors-in-Training

ABSTRACT

The demands and expectations placed on counselors-in-training can make them susceptible to stress, burnout, and poor school-life balance. Therefore, counseling students could benefit from learning mindfulness techniques as self-care strategies that promote increased relaxation, coping, and stress prevention. This mixed-methods study examined graduate counseling students’ perceptions of mindfulness training to determine its impact on self-efficacy, mood, stress, and other areas of wellness. Participants reported enhanced relaxation, increased awareness of the need for self-care, better understanding of the connection between mindfulness and overall well-being, and an impact of mindfulness on other areas of their lives.     

Children's reasoning about evaluative feedback

Children's reasoning about the willingness of peers to convey accurate positive and negative performance feedback to others was investigated among a total of 179 6‐ to 11‐year‐olds from the USA and China. In Study 1, which was conducted in the USA only, participants responded that peers would be more likely to provide positive feedback than negative feedback, and this tendency was strongest among the younger children. In Study 2, the expectation that peers would preferentially disclose positive feedback was replicated among children from the USA, and was also seen among younger but not older children from China. Participants in all groups took the relationship between communication partners into account when predicting whether peers would express evaluative feedback. Results of open‐ended responses suggested cross‐cultural differences, including a greater emphasis by Chinese children on the implications of evaluative feedback for future performance, and reference by some older Chinese children to the possibility that positive feedback might make the recipient ‘too proud’.     

Counselling the (self?) diagnosed client: generative and reflective conversations

In this paper, we address the phenomenon of clients who present their concerns in the medicalised discourse of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (DSM-5). We contextualise this phenomenon, highlighting how a ‘diagnose-and-treat’ logic increasingly pervades everyday understandings and informs people's efforts to make sense of their concerns. We relate these cultural ways of sense-making to discursive counselling practice, noting possibilities for circumventing ‘discursive capture’ through reflective and generative dialogues. We then turn to two common ways in which clients present their concerns in counselling: (1) arriving self-diagnosed or diagnosed by another professional and (2) as a family in which parents present a child as having a mental disorder. We suggest ways of moving beyond medicalised discourse via resourceful and critically reflective conversations with clients.     

Longitudinal Associations between Violence and Suicidality from Adolescence into Adulthood

The link between violence and suicide is well documented. Previous studies, however, largely rely on cross‐sectional designs or only consider violence as an antecedent of suicide. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the longitudinal relationship between violence and suicide from adolescence into young adulthood. Data were derived from Wave II (1995–1996), Wave III (2001–2002), and Wave IV (2007–2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 8,966). We tested (2011–2013) a series of path analysis models in Mplus to determine the longitudinal associations between violence and suicidality. Results from the path analyses indicated that violence and suicidality mutually affect each other from adolescence into young adulthood. We found some evidence that the association between suicidality and violence was stronger for males compared to females, particularly in early and young adulthood. The current study confirms previous findings by demonstrating that violence is a risk factor for future suicide. We also extended the previous literature by demonstrating that a history of suicidality is associated with future risk for violence. Our findings highlight the importance of further integrating prevention efforts to reduce violence and suicidality during adolescence and early/young adulthood.     

The Deceiving Mirror. Altered Body Perception and Alexithymia in a Group of Sports Adolescents and Adults

Recent literature emphasizes an altered perception of the body in subjects practicing sport to pursue an ideal body image. Sometimes such bodily misperception is associated with the inability to recognize and express emotions, and addiction to sport. This research investigates the relationship between body image and alexithymia in a group of 363 sportive adolescents and adults, including 78 males and 285 females, aged 11 to 68?years. Participants completed the Anamnestic Data Questionnaire, Body Uneasseness Test, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Results highlight differences between adolescents and adults, especially about externally oriented thinking, concern for body image, and compulsive self-monitoring.     

Medical Conditions and Nearly Lethal Suicide Attempts

P hysical illness has been studied as a risk factor for suicidal behavior, but little is known about this relationship among younger persons. We conducted a population‐based, case‐control study in Houston, Texas, from November 1992 through September 1995. The final sample consisted of 153 case‐ and 513 control‐subjects aged 13 to 34 years. Case patients were identified at hospital emergency departments and met criteria for a nearly lethal suicide attempt. Control subjects were recruited via a random‐digit‐dial telephone survey. Case patients were more likely than controls to report having any serious medical conditions (crude OR = 3.23; 95% CI = 2.12–4.91). After controlling for age, race/ethnicity, alcoholism, depression, and hopelessness, the adjusted odds ratio for men was 4.76 (95% CI = 1.87–12.17), whereas the adjusted odds ratio for women was 1.60 (95% CI‐0.62–4.17), suggesting that young men with medical conditions are at increased risk for nearly lethal suicide attempts. Increased efforts to identify and appropriately refer these patients are needed.     

Investigating socio-emotional cognition in late preterm children: A case-control study

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate socio-emotional cognitive competence in late preterm and term born children. Late preterm children (n = 53; 5–10 years) and full-term control children (n = 53; 5–10 years) were evaluated on the four socio-emotional cognitive tests of the Intelligence and Development Scales (IDS): emotion recognition, emotion regulation, social understanding, and social behavioural competence. Compared to full-term children, late preterm children (LPT) performed significantly worse on the emotion recognition and social behavioural competence tasks, but otherwise, no significant differences were found in emotion regulation and social understanding tasks. These findings support the conclusion that late-preterm birth may be associated with negative, but selective, socio-emotional cognitive difficulties. Targeted interventions aimed to limit the incidence of these dysfunctions during childhood could be quite important for LPT children.