Trajectories of Suicidal Ideation from Sixth through Tenth Grades in Predicting Suicide Attempts in Young Adulthood in an Urban African American Cohort

The trajectory of suicidal ideation across early adolescence may inform the timing of suicide prevention program implementation. This study aimed to identify developmental trajectories of suicidal ideation among an urban cohort of community‐residing African Americans (AA) longitudinally followed from middle school through early adulthood (ages 11–19 years). Subtypes based on the developmental course of suicidal ideation from late childhood through mid‐adolescence were identified using longitudinal latent class analysis (LLCA) with 581 AA adolescents (52.7% male; 71.1% free or reduced school meals). The developmental trajectories of suicidal ideation were then used to predict suicide attempts in young adulthood. Our LLCA indicated two subtypes (i.e., ideators and nonideators), with 8% of the sample in the ideator class. This trajectory class shows a peak of suicidal ideation in seventh grade and a steady decline in ideation in subsequent grades. Additionally, suicidal ideation trajectories significantly predicted suicide attempt. Results of these analyses suggest the need for suicide prevention approaches prior to high school for AA youth.     

Book reviews

John Herman Randall, Jr. Plato: Dramatist of the Life of Reason. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970. Pp. xiv, 274. Indexed. $7.50.

Gottfried Martin. General Metaphysics: Its Problems and Method. Translated by Daniel O'Connor. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1968. Pp. 1–368. Indexed. $8.50.

Nicholas Rescher. Essays in Philosophical Analysis. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1969. Pp. viii, 430. Indexed. $14.95.

Rollo Handy. Value Theory and the Behavioral Sciences. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1969. Pp. vii, 198. Indexed. $8.00.

Morris Lazerowitz. Philosophy and Illusion. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968. Pp. 1–262. Indexed. $7.25.

K. T. Fann, Ed. Symposium on J. L. Austin. New York: Humanities Press, 1969. Pp. 486. Indexed. $11.00.

Robert E. Butts. William Whewell's Theory of Scientific Method. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1968. Pp. 1–352. Indexed. $8.50.

Robert J. Fogelin. Experience and Meaning: Studies in Analytical Philosophy. New York: Humanities Press, 1967. Pp. xi, 187. Indexed. $6.50.

Harry G. Frankfurt. Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen: The Defence of Reason in Descartes's Meditations. Indianapolis: Bobbs‐Merrill, 1970. Pp. 1–193. Indexed. $7.95.

Maurice Merleau‐Ponty. The Visible and the Invisible. Followed by Working Notes, edited by Claude Lefort. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1968. Pp. 1–275. Indexed. $9.50.     

The effects of widowhood on physical and mental health, health behaviors, and health outcomes: The Women's Health Initiative.

This study examined whether widowhood was associated with physical and mental health, health behaviors, and health outcomes using a cross-sectional (N=72,247) and prospective (N=55,724) design in women aged 50-79 years participating in the Women's Health Initiative observational study (85.4% White). At baseline, married women reported better physical and mental health and generally better health behaviors than widowed women. Whereas women who remained married over the 3-year period showed stability in mental health, recent widows experienced marked impairments and longer term widows showed stability or slight improvements. Both groups of widows reported more unintentional weight loss over the 3-year period. Changes in physical health and health behaviors were inconsistent, with generally small effect sizes. Findings underscore the resilience of older women and their capacity to reestablish connections, but point to the need for services that strengthen social support among women who have difficulty during this transition.     

Knowledge and perceived risk of major diseases in middle-aged and older women.

Women's (N = 200; 41-95 years) knowledge of mortality risks and their perceived general risk, personal risk, control, and preventability of coronary heart disease (CHD) and breast, colon, and lung cancer were examined. Middle-aged (MA) women were more accurate in their mortality knowledge for MA men than for MA women and were more accurate for MA than for older (OA) men and women. OA women, in contrast, were least accurate in their mortality knowledge for OA women compared with all other target groups; only 34% knew that CHD is the leading cause of death in OA women. Participants also overestimated a woman's risk of death from breast cancer and underestimated the risk from lung and colon cancer. Ratings of perceived risk, control, and preventability varied as a function of disease. OA women in particular appear to lack knowledge regarding women's risk of major diseases. Results have implications for women's health behaviors and medical decisions.     

SELF-PERCEPTION IN WRITING: THE EFFECTS OF WRITING WORKSHOP AND TRADITIONAL INSTRUCTION ON INTERMEDIATE GRADE STUDENTS

This study compared the self-perception - specifically in terms of writing - of fourth- and fifth-grade students whose teachers used a writingworkshop approach with those whose teachers used a traditional approach. The measure used was the Writer Self-Perception Scale (Bottomley, Henk, & Melnick, 1997/1998). No significant differences were found between the scores of students who had been taught by the two teaching approaches. The findings of this study suggest that individual teachers are more important than strategies or approaches in affecting the writer self-perception of intermediate-grade children.     

Institutional Productivity Ratings and Publishing Trends in Nine Literacy Journals: 1972–2012

This study examined the productivity of faculty members who published in nine leading literacy professional journals from 1972–2012. Those universities with the greatest number of articles written by literacy faculty members are listed. This listing was also adjusted according to number of literacy faculty members at each institution, resulting in a productivity index that shows the average number of articles published per faculty member. Results from this study extend the work of four previous studies on institutional productivity in literacy journals.     

Some comments on selecting the best of several binomial populations or the bivariate normal population having the largest correlation coefficient

Using variance stabilizing transformations, this note describes approximate solutions to the ranking and selection problem of selecting the best binomial population or the bivariate normal population with the largest correlation coefficient.