Suicide Ideation Among College Students Evidencing Subclinical Depression

Abstract

Identifying elevated suicide ideation in college students is a critical step in preventing suicide attempts and deaths by suicide on college campuses. Although suicide ideation may be most prominent in students with severe depression, this should not suggest that only students with severe depression experience significant risk factors for suicide. Objective: The purpose of these 3 studies was to explore the relation between suicide ideation and severity of depressive symptoms in college students. Participants: In each study a sample of college students were recruited for participation. Methods: Participants completed self-report assessments of depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Results: The results of these studies suggest that although the greatest elevation in suicide ideation occurs at the highest depressive symptoms, significant suicide ideation is also experienced by college students with mild and moderate depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The implications of these findings for the assessment of suicide ideation are discussed.     

Predicting Future Excess Events in Risk Assessment

Risk characterization in a study population relies on cases of disease or death that are causally related to the exposure under study. The number of such cases, so-called "excess" cases, is not just an indicator of the impact of the risk factor in the study population, but also an important determinant of statistical power for assessing aspects of risk such as age-time trends and susceptible subgroups. In determining how large a population to study and/or how long to follow a study population to accumulate sufficient excess cases, it is necessary to predict future risk. In this study, focusing on models involving excess risk with possible effect modification, we describe a method for predicting the expected magnitude of numbers of excess cases and assess the uncertainty in those predictions. We do this by extending Bayesian APC models for rate projection to include exposure-related excess risk with possible effect modification by, e.g., age at exposure and attained age. The method is illustrated using the follow-up study of Japanese Atomic-Bomb Survivors, one of the primary bases for determining long-term health effects of radiation exposure and assessment of risk for radiation protection purposes. Using models selected by a predictive-performance measure obtained on test data reserved for cross-validation, we project excess counts due to radiation exposure and lifetime risk measures (risk of exposure-induced deaths (REID) and loss of life expectancy (LLE)) associated with cancer and noncancer disease deaths in the A-Bomb survivor cohort.     

The Meanings of a Star: Interpreting Music Fans' Reviews

This article both elaborates on and empirically supports Norman Denzin's thesis on the political aesthetics of interpretation. Through a reading of consumer reviews, I discuss both the image and the music of the contemporary pop star Avril Lavigne by combining analytic tools derived from dramaturgy and social semiotics. Specifically, I present consumer reviews of Avril Lavigne's public persona as interpretive acts that decode the practices of production, distribution, and consumption of her alleged subcultural authenticity. I discuss the importance of understanding interpretation as a practice of cultural resistance against the pervasive force of consumerist ideologies and hegemonic mass media discourses. In addition, I reflect on the usefulness of a symbolic interactionist approach to a cultural studies based on Peircean semiotics and Goffmanian dramaturgy. We are losing control of the very means of cultural production itself. … More and more culture becomes an adjunct of marketing, or of the bureaucratic ethos, or of both. — C. Wright Mills (1963 :226)     

Considerations in the Evaluation of the Short Term Program—The Barwon Experiment

Evaluation of welfare projects is a difficut and demanding process. There are particular difficulties and considerations associated with an evaluation of the short term program—which for the purpose of this article is defined as one established with an initially guaranteed life of up to twelve months. The author examines some of the issues and practical considerations which emerged during the evaluation of one such program, the Barwon Regional Family Aide Scheme, and presents the model which was developed.     

Navigation, interaction and bridge team work

During the course of this paper we explore the interaction of seafarers engaged in navigation on the bridge of a merchant ship. More specifically we examine how ‘bridge teams’ utilise a range of practical conversational methods and devices in carrying out the days work within a context where temporal and spatial considerations are paramount. Utilising the principles of ethnomethodologically informed conversation analysis we analyse transcribed materials gathered from a working bridge. The business of bridge team‐work is the generation of a mutual frame of navigational perspective and decision making. A central aspect of this interactional accomplishment is a confirmatory form of talk that is utilised in order to avoid confusion and maritime disaster. The paper also explores empirical examples of interaction and identifies the way in which bridge team‐work is accomplished, organised and sustained. The paper suggests how consideration of these features may inform further enquiry and modify training practice.     

Emerging Hispanic English: New dialect formation in the American South

Although stable Hispanic populations have existed in some regions of the United States for centuries, other regions, including the mid‐Atlantic South, are just experiencing the emergence of permanent Hispanic communities. This situation offers an ideal opportunity to examine the dynamics of new dialect formation in progress, and the extent to which speakers acquire local dialect traits as they learn English as a second language. We focus on the production of the /ai/ diphthong among adolescents in two emerging Hispanic communities, one in an urban and one in a rural context. Though both English and Spanish have the diphthong /ai/, the Southern regional variant of the benchmark local dialect norm is unglided, thus providing a local dialect alternative. The instrumental analysis of /ai/ shows that there is not pervasive accommodation to the local norm by Hispanic speakers learning English. There is, however, gradient, incremental adjustment of the /ai/, and individual speakers who adopt local cultural values may accommodate to the local dialect pattern.     

Reframing recreation as a public policy priority

Recreation has the potential to be an important public policy priority; however, it must be reframed to address critical policy priorities. Few policymakers understand the value and benefits of recreation, requiring practitioners and advocates to closely connect recreation to issues of concern to policymakers. A significant policy opportunity to expand recreational opportunities for children and youth lies in the area of education, including the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. By educating policymakers on the myriad outcomes that can result from quality recreational experiences, including the ways in which recreation can support the education of children and youth, solid,incremental progress can be made in positioning recreation as a public policy priority.     

Toward relationship-based child welfare services

A relationship-based theoretical framework for child welfare services is proposed. Research literature is reviewed relative to attachment theory, relationship quality of maltreated child-parent and maltreated child-surrogate parent dyads, and effective child-parent and child-surrogate parent relationship-enhancing interventions. Authors recommend that establishment or repair of a protective, emotionally responsive positive child-parent or child-surrogate parent relationship be the central focus of child welfare services. A model is offered as a conceptual foundation for measures to be used in federal Child and Family Services Reviews.