Self‐Harm in Young Offenders

The prevalence and correlates of self‐harm and suicidal behavior in 515 young offenders (mean age 17.3 years, SD = 1.7) serving community‐based orders (CBOs; n = 242) or custodial sentences (n = 273) in Victoria, Australia, are described. Results from structured interviews showed that 83 (16.1%) participants reported self‐harming in the previous 6 months, and this was more common among those serving custodial sentences than those serving CBOs (19.4% vs. 12.4%; OR 3.10, 95% CI: 1.74–5.55). Multiple incidents were more common in females and 24% (95% CI: 19–39) of participants who had self‐harmed reported having done so with suicidal intent. Self‐harm was associated with recent bullying victimization, expulsion from school, past year violent victimization, cannabis dependence, and risk‐taking behavior in the preceding year. The epidemiological profile of self‐harm in this population appears to be distinct from that seen in the general population. Young offenders who self‐harm are a vulnerable group with high rates of psychiatric morbidity, substance misuse problems, and social risk factors. They may benefit from targeted psychological interventions designed specifically to address impulsivity, delivered both within–and during the transition from–the youth justice system.     

Cross-fertilization versus transmission: Recommendations for developing a bidirectional approach to psychotherapy dissemination research

Psychotherapy researchers are increasingly engaged in collaborations with clinical practitioners and mental health administrators. Each party brings its own perspectives, values, and agendas to bear in these encounters. Viable research—practice collaborations depend on understanding and negotiating some of the tensions in these relationships. In this article, we discuss the contexts that prevail for various participants in a psychotherapy dissemination study as well as the values, goals, costs, and benefits related to research participation. This article is a collaboration among the researchers, mental health administrators, therapists, and clients involved in an ongoing treatment dissemination study. Our recommendations for research—practice collaborations are based on our experiences and dialogues over the course of this study.     

Driver fatigue among military truck drivers

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Transport Center is the largest and the most diverse transportation organization in Israel: three times as large as the largest commercial fleet in Israel, and military bases are spread all over the country. It also has the ability to regulate the drivers better: enforcing diet, hours of sleep, and working hours. The drivers are either permanently employed civilians, career service personnel, or mandatory service personnel. This employment status correlates with age, experience, carrier type, and several job characteristics (for example mandatory service drivers typically do not drive at night).The study consisted of a survey of 314 male drivers (30% of the entire base driver population). Despite the different environment, the military drivers display many characteristics and coping-behaviors characteristic of civilian drivers. Our results cast a doubt on the efficacy of enforcing night sleep and prohibiting night drives as an alternative to regulating hours of service. Our findings also reveal that it is insufficient to provide drivers with the time to sleep. One has to ensure that they also get a good quality of sleep. Implications for reducing fatigue in this environment are suggested. We identified the mandatory service drivers (young, less experienced drivers, lower military ranks) as a group of drivers that falls asleep more often and to a greater extent. They are particularly sensitive to sleep deficits and influenced by external events such as aggravation and boredom.It is important to provide drivers with more in-vehicle, accessible countermeasures to counter fatigue since they often do not stop, particularly in short-haul conditions. Since the radio has a high level of usage and acceptance among drivers, it could be exploited as an interactive communications system, as an educational medium, and as an image-enhancing device.     

Individuating quantities

Philosophical Studies - When discrepancies are discovered between the outcomes of different measurement procedures, two sorts of explanation are open to scientists. Either (i) some of the outcomes...     

The reliability and validity of Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices for Irish apprentices

The Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) is a 'test of a person's capacity at the time of the test to apprehend meaningless figures presented for his observation, see the relations between them, conceive the nature of the figure completing each system of relations presented and, by so doing, develop a systematic method of reasoning' (Raven et al., 1983, p. 2). It was developed in Britain in the mid-1930s (see Penrose and Raven, 1936) as a non-verbal measure of Spearman's 'g' factor, eduction of relations among abstract items.