Effects of psychological problems,emotional dysregulation,and self-esteem on problematic Internet use among Korean adolescents

The aim of this study was to examine the direct effects of psychological problems and emotional dysregulation and the mediating effect of self-esteem on problematic Internet use (PIU) among adolescents in South Korea. This study was conducted as a secondary analysis with the data from “The 2013 Validation Study of K-Scale as a Diagnostic Tool” by the Korean National Information Society Agency (N = 351). Our structural equation modeling analyses revealed that psychological problems and emotional dysregulation affected PIU by mediating low self-esteem; however, the direct effects of psychological problems and emotional dysregulation were not demonstrated. Thus, this study empirically verified that the cognitive-behavioral model of PIU provides a theoretical framework to describe the pathway to PIU among Korean adolescents. The results suggest that preventing and intervening for PIU should include effective strategies that improve self-esteem for adolescents.     

The Relationship of Social Support to African American Caregivers' Help-Seeking for Emotional Problems

This study analyzes whether social support serves as a link to or substitute for formal services among African American female caregivers seeking help with emotional problems. It also analyzes other determinants of help-seeking. It relies on data from the Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health and Functioning Study and is guided by a modified version of the behavioral model of health services use. Using hierarchical binary logistic regression, analyses reveal that only age, stress, and support from fellow church members are statistically significantly associated with the likelihood of help-seeking. These results support the linking hypothesis, suggesting that the social support received by African American women caregivers in the context of their religious organizations helps to link them to services.     

Linguistic Acculturation and Context on Self-Esteem: Hispanic Youth Between Cultures

Immigrant adolescents must negotiate two cultures: the host culture and their native culture. This study explored how self-esteem is moderated by the effect of linguistic acculturation and context. An ordinary least-squares regression model, controlling for fixed effects, produced results supporting the hypothesis that linguistic acculturation moderates the effect of context on self-esteem. The self-esteem of Hispanic adolescents who were less linguistically acculturated was found to be more favorable when with family than with friends and the reverse was found for the more linguistically acculturated participants. Adolescents in the middle of the linguistic acculturation process had the widest variance in self-esteem between times they were with their families and times in other contexts; they experienced more positive self-esteem with anyone but family. Findings underscore the need to better understand the complex process of linguistic acculturation and its effects on self-esteem. This research also demonstrates the practical utility of a fixed-effects model for reducing bias in cross-cultural research.     

Help-seeking and coping strategies for intimate partner violence in rural and urban women

Women experiencing intimate partner violence may use a variety of help-seeking resources and coping strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine rural (n = 378) and urban (n = 379) women's help seeking, coping, and perceptions of the helpfulness of resources used in dealing with partner violence. Overall, results suggest that women from both areas utilized a variety of help-seeking resources and coping strategies in significantly different ways. Urban women used more help-seeking resources than rural women. Urban and rural women used different types of resources. Rural women perceived the justice system services as less helpful than urban women. Coping strategies and help seeking are related, with problem-focused coping associated with the use of more formalized help-seeking resources. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Psychological Well-Being and Adolescents’ Internet Addiction: A School-Based Cross-Sectional Study in Hong Kong

This study examines the correlations of adolescents’ self-esteem, loneliness and depression with their internet use behaviors with a sample of 665 adolescents from seven secondary schools in Hong Kong. The results suggest that frequent online gaming is more strongly correlated to internet addiction and such correlation is higher than other predictors of internet addiction in online behaviors including social interactions or viewing of pornographic materials. Male adolescents tend to spend more time on online gaming than female counterparts. In terms of the effect of internet addiction on adolescents’ psychological well-being, self-esteem is negatively correlated with internet addiction, whereas depression and loneliness are positively correlated with internet addiction. Comparatively, depression had stronger correlation with internet addiction than loneliness or self-esteem. A standardized definition and assessment tool for identifying internet addiction appears to be an unmet need. Findings from this study provide insights for social workers and teachers on designing preventive programs for adolescents susceptible to internet addiction, as well as emotional disturbance arising from internet addiction.     

Ethnic Peer Preferences Among Asian American Adolescents in Emerging Immigrant Communities

Growing diversity and evidence that diverse friendships enhance psychosocial success highlight the importance of understanding adolescents’ ethnic peer preferences. Using social identity and social contact frameworks, the ethnic preferences of 169 Asian American adolescents (60% female) were examined in relation to ethnic identity, perceived discrimination, and language proficiency. Adolescents with same‐ and mixed‐ethnic friends reported significantly greater ethnic centrality than those with mostly different‐ethnic friends. Adolescents with same‐ethnic friends reported significantly higher perceived discrimination and lower English proficiency than those with mixed‐ and different‐ethnic friends. Open‐ended responses were linked to quantitative data and provided further insight into specific influences on peer preferences (e.g., shared traditions, homophily). Results speak to the importance of cultural experiences in structuring the friendships and everyday lives of adolescents.     

The Relationship Between Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury and Family Functioning: Adolescent and Parent Perspectives

We explored parent and adolescent reports of family functioning, how this differed if the parent was aware that their child self‐injured, and how parental awareness of self‐injury was related to self‐injury frequency, self‐injury severity, and help seeking. Participants were 117 parent–adolescent dyads, in 23 of which the adolescent self‐injured. Adolescents who self‐injured reported poorer family functioning than their parents, but parents who did not know about their child's self‐injury reported similar functioning to parents whose children did not self‐injure. Parents were more likely to know that their child self‐injured when the behavior was severe and frequent. Help‐seeking was more likely when parents knew about self‐injury. Family‐based interventions which emphasize perspective‐taking could be used to effectively treat self‐injury.     

Psychological and Social Adjustment of Russian-Born and Israeli-Born Jewish Adolescents

This study compares the social, school, behavioral and psychological functioning of high school students who immigrated from the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) to that of Israeli-born children whose parents emigrated from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the sixties and the seventies. In most areas of life, no significant differences were found between the two groups. The majority of the Israeli-born and immigrant adolescents functioned well in terms of social and educational functioning and tended to avoid involvement in dangerous behavior, such as drug use and delinquency. Concerning psychological functioning, the results pointed to an interesting phenomenon: even though no significant differences were found between the two research groups, the adolescents in both groups expressed higher emotional distress when compared to norms of Israeli adolescents who are not of Russian origin. In addition, the results showed that among the immigrant adolescents, the longer they resided in Israel the more the economic status of their parents improved, their self-esteem rose, the more likely it was that their levels of somatization, paranoia and general emotional stress decreased. At the same time, however, the frequency of alcoholic consumption increased, the longer they lived in Israel. A discussion of the results sums up the article.     

ETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONALLY ADOPTED CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FAMILY THERAPISTS

The life story of the internationally adopted child tends to be an emotional one. How the story is tole and retold in the family can have lasting consequences for the child's adjustment and well-being. In telling the story, parents are faced with a qunique challenge: To what extent is it desirable to encourage their children, who adready struggle with identity issue related to adoption, to identify with their cultures of origin? Therapists working on these issues with multiethnic adoptive families can find little guidance in the family systems literature. To fill this gap, the present article reviews the literature on racial/ethnic identity development and the available research on ethnic identification, self-esteem, and the psychological adjustment of cross-ethnically adopted children and adolescents. Implications for practice include developmental considerations, identifying chldren and families at risk, and recommendations for those in need of intervention.     

Incorporating Struggles with Racism and Ethnic Identity in Therapy with Adolescents

Ethnic and racial minority adolescents enter therapy with the behavioral, emotional, social, familial, and educational problems common to clinical practice. However, therapy with these youth necessitates attention to the effects of racial discrimination on their psychological functioning and to matters of how their ethnic or racial identities are integrated. Of the myriad issues that become part of therapy with minority adolescents, the profound effects of racism and the process of ethnoracial identity development can be seen in adolescents' sense of self and behavior. Experiences with racism and with their own ethnic reference group and others may have led to distortions and partial understanding of their identities that may affect adaptation and functioning. In this paper, the author draws from experiences in clinical practice with minority youth to highlight issues of racism and ethnic identity emergent in treatment. Three cases illustrate discussions of struggles with racism and ethnic identity as they emerged in therapy. In each case, the struggles were made salient by the therapist's purposeful eliciting of them to clarify issues of transference, family relations, peer group relations, and achievement.     

Contextual Factors Related to African American Adolescent Career Development

African American adolescents’ career development has gained increased attention in light of various barriers affecting their educational and career development goals. The author examined relationships among career decision self‐efficacy, ethnic identity, and academic self‐concept of 104 African American high school students enrolled in Upward Bound programs. Participants responded to measures of career decision self‐efficacy, ethnic identity, and academic self‐concept. Results indicated that career decision self‐efficacy was significantly and positively correlated with ethnic identity and academic self‐concept. In addition, academic self‐concept was found to be a stronger predictor of career decision self‐efficacy than was ethnic identity. The results of this study may assist counselors, teachers, administrators, and parents to understand career decision self‐efficacy as it relates to ethnic identity, academic self‐concept, and demographic variables. This research supports the need for continued career‐related interventions within the schools designed to focus on factors related to ethnic minorities to help foster their career development.     

An Evaluation of Group Intervention Programs for Violent and Abusive Men

Using the Abusive Behaviour Inventory and Rosenberg's Self Esteem Questionnaire, we assessed the efficacy of six group intervention programs for abusive and violent men. We predicted that both physical and psychological abuse levels would be significantly lower and that self-esteem would increase significantly post-treatment. The six group programs, involving forty-five male participants overall, were conducted over ten to fourteen weeks in the Melbourne metropolitan area. Sixteen non-abusive male subjects were used as a comparison group. Results indicated that the programs were more effective than no treatment in significantly reducing psychological (but not physical) abuse and had no effect on self-esteem. No post-program differences were found between the comparison and treatment groups. We concluded that the programs had positive effects on the participants, particularly in the reduced levels of psychological abuse, and that self-esteem was not a meaningful factor in level of abusive behaviour. The relatively low mean preprogram score on the physical abuse sub-scale for the program groups may explain the lack of significant differences between the physical abuse pre-program and post-program scores.     

Observed Interactions Indicate Protective Effects of Relationships With Parents for Referred Adolescents

This study examined whether the quality of parent–adolescent interactions moderate the association between stressful life events and internalizing and externalizing problems in referred adolescents (N=101, M age 13.41 years, SD=1.81). Adolescents and their parents reported on psychological problems at the time of referral and 4 years later. At follow‐up parents reported on stressful life events and an interaction task was conducted to observe autonomy and relatedness promoting behaviors. For adolescents exposed to stressful events, levels of internalizing and externalizing problems went up except if observed parent–adolescent interactions were characterized by high autonomy and relatedness. The results implied that autonomy and relatedness protect adolescents against the deleterious effects of stressful life events. These findings build on previous research showing for psychologically vulnerable adolescents that parenting that promotes autonomy while maintaining relatedness is associated with resilience in times of stress.     

Reasons for Seeking Help for a Gambling Problem: The Experiences of Gamblers Who Have Sought Specialist Assistance and the Perceptions of Those Who Have Not

This paper presents reasons for help-seeking data as reported by users of a national gambling helpline (help-seekers, HS, n = 125) as well as data pertaining to perceived reasons for seeking help as reported by gamblers recruited from the general population (non-help-seekers, NHS, n = 104). All data were collected via a structured, multi-modal survey. Participants in both groups considered help-seeking to be motivated by multiple factors (mean of 6.8 and 10.6 responses, respectively). Responses indicative of financial concern were most frequently reported by both HS and NHS participants (82 & 90%, respectively). Over a third of HS participants (35%) also identified financial concern as their primary reason for seeking help and 50% of NHS participants perceived financial concern to be the primary motivator for seeking help in a problem gambling context. Common types of secondary influence (other than financial concern) included psychological distress (HS & NHS participants), problem prevention (HS participants), rational thought (HS participants), physical health issues (HS participants), and relationship issues (NHS participants). The implications for promoting greater or earlier help-seeking activity amongst problem gamblers are discussed.

An evaluation case: The implementation and evaluation of a problem-solving training program for adolescents

This study recounts the implementation and evaluation of a problem-solving skills training program for adolescents. Sixty-six students from the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades of a local junior high school were identified by guidance counselors as needing problem-solving training—48 male and 18 female students between the ages of 11 and 16. The hypothesis that students included in the training sessions would demonstrate better problem-solving skills, a more internal locus of control, and a higher level of self-esteem than control group students was tested via a pretest-posttest Control Group Design. The results of a stepwise discriminant analysis of the data supported the hypothesis. An analysis of grade level differences indicated that the program had less effect on the seventh-grade training group. Implications for program modification and the limitations of the evaluation findings are discussed.     

Perception of Sexual Violence Against Women in Asian American Communities

Abstract

The study was a cross-sectional survey using a convenient sample of 186 respondents to examine the perception of sexual violence against women and help-seeking responses to sexual victimization among four Asian groups; Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian (Cambodian, Laotians, and Vietnamese). The authors examined respondents' perception of the severity of the problem of sexual violence against women for Asian American populations, the perceived relationships between perpetrators and victims, the preferred preventive measures, and help-seeking responses. Findings indicated a split opinion among the four Asian groups regarding the perceived severity of the problem. There was a perceived insignificant role of family members in inflicting sexual violence, a general tendency of not choosing an immediate, confrontative stance against the perpetrator to stop sexual violence, and a preference to utilize help from the private domain in situations of sexual victimization. In addition, findings of the study supported the role of shame in deterring individuals from seeking outside professional help and demonstrated the existence of inter-group differences among various ethnic groups. At the same time, findings of the study raise important questions pertaining to the role of family members in sexual victimization of women, changing perceptions, inter-group differences, and the importance of localized knowledge in generating intervention efforts. In addition, findings of the study challenge a simplistic view of the reluctance of Asian American populations to utilize outside professional help. Implications for developing culturally relevant interventions for prevention and treatment as well as future research are discussed.     

Career Decision Self‐Efficacy of Asian American Students: The Role of Curiosity and Ethnic Identity

This study examined the role of curiosity and ethnic identity in career decision self‐efficacy among Asian American college students. Given that curiosity can promote the process of exploring one’s possible future self, opportunities, and career goals, the authors hypothesized that curiosity would be associated with career decision self‐efficacy, directly or indirectly, through a sense of ethnic identity. Results based on data from 425 Asian American incoming first‐year college students suggest that students with high curiosity tend to present a stronger sense of competence in completing career decision‐related tasks. These findings also confirmed a hypothesis that ethnic identity mediates the association between curiosity and career decision self‐efficacy. Implications for future research and career counseling with Asian American college students are discussed.     

Predictors of Clinical Outcomes in Sexually Abused Adolescents

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional, case control study examines the association between child sexual abuse and interpersonal and intrapersonal outcomes among 54 adolescents, examining specific clinical measures (depression, anxiety, dissociation, and posttraumatic stress disorder, attachment patterns, self-esteem, self-disclosure, and family environment characteristics). The research results point to a correlation between sexual abuse and higher levels of the clinical measures. In addition, a correlation was found between sexual abuse and level of avoidant attachment, self-esteem, and family environment characteristics. Stepwise hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine how adolescent attributes predicted depression, anxiety, and dissociation beyond the prediction based on sexual abuse. A combination of self-esteem, anxiety attachment, and family cohesiveness made sexual abuse insignificant when predicting levels of depression, anxiety, and dissociation. This study contributes to characterizing the emotional, personal, and family attributes of adolescents who experienced sexual abuse. It also raises questions about the clinical outcomes usually associated with sexual abuse.