Evidence-Based Suicide Prevention Screening in Schools

Screening for suicidality, as called for by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, is a major public health concern. As a place where adolescents spend a considerable amount of their waking hours, school is an important venue for screening adolescents for suicidal behaviors and providing preventive education and risk management. Social workers, as the largest occupational group of mental health professionals in the United States, have a significant role to play in the national strategy to prevent youth suicide, especially at the school level. This article reviews the literature on suicide prevention screening, warning signs, and risk factors to gain a better understanding of evidence-based screening strategies and discuss the implications for school social workers, counselors, and psychologists. It focuses on the identification of research-based information and explication of potential means for guiding preventive screening and clinical practice with suicidal adolescents.     

Marital Quality and Personal Well‐Being: A Meta‐Analysis

This study examines the association between marital quality and personal well‐being using meta‐analytic techniques. Effects from 93 studies were analyzed. The average weighted effect size r was .37 for cross‐sectional and .25 for longitudinal effects. Results indicate that several variables moderate the association between marital quality and personal well‐being, including gender, participants’ marital duration, source of measurement, data collection year, and dependent variable. These results suggest that longitudinal effects are more likely to be uncovered when using standard measurement and that future research should use samples homogenous in marital length. The longitudinal finding that the strength of the association is stronger when personal well‐being is treated as the dependent variable supports previous theorizing.     

Cumulative Response to Sequences of Terror Attacks Varying in Frequency and Trajectory

There is a paucity of research examining public response to the cumulative effects of multiple related extreme events over time. We investigated the separate and combined effects of frequency and trajectory of terrorist attacks. A scenario simulation of a series of gas station bombings in Southern California was developed to evaluate respondents' affect, risk perception, and intended avoidance behavior using a 3 (frequency; low vs. medium vs. high) by 3 (trajectory; increasing vs. constant vs. decreasing) factorial design. For each of the nine conditions, three videos were created to simulate news broadcasts documenting the attacks over a three‐week period. A total of 275 respondents were included in the analysis. Results from analysis of covariances (ANCOVAs) indicate that trajectory of the sequential attacks (increasing or decreasing in frequency) predicts negative affect, risk perception, and avoidance behavior. In contrast, frequency predicts neither negative affect, positive affect, risk perception, nor intended avoidance behavior. Results from structural equation modeling (SEM) further indicate that the effect of negative affect on behavioral intention is mediated by risk perception and the effect of trajectory on risk perception is partially mediated by negative affect. In addition, both ANCOVAs and SEM model results suggest that (1) females experience less positive affect and perceive more risk than males, (2) respondents with higher income perceive more risk, and (3) younger respondents are more likely to modify their behavior to avoid the risk of future attacks.     

Unfolding What Self-Compassion Means in Young Carers’ Lives

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal - Young carers (YCs) are children and youth who provide caregiving for family members who may experience an illness, disability, addiction, language...     

SCOAP3 and Open Access

SCOAP3 is an innovative Open Access initiative for publishing in high-energy physics. The model is viewed by many as a potential solution to multiple issues related to the financial crisis, the peer review system, scholarly communication, and the need to support institutional repositories. This installment of “The Balance Point” presents articles written by three Open Access advocates, outlining the SCOAP3 proposal, benefits of participation, and some of the roles libraries, publishers and scientists can play in making important changes to scholarly communication. Contributors discuss scalability and transferability issues of SCOAP3, as well as other matters of concern.     

Welfare Queens,Thrifty Housewives,and Do-It-All Mums

In this paper, we consider how the cultural politics of austerity within Britain plays out on the celebrity maternal body. We locate austerity as a discursive and disciplinary field and contribute to emerging feminist scholarship exploring how broader political and socio-economic shifts interact with cultural constructions of femininity and motherhood. To analyse the symbolic function of mediated celebrity maternity within austerity, the paper draws on a textual analysis of three celebrity mothers: Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, and Beyoncé. This analysis was undertaken as part of a larger qualitative study into celebrity culture and young people's classed and gendered aspirations. We show how these celebrity mothers represent the folk devils and fantasy figures of the maternal under austerity—the thrifty, happy housewife, the benefits mum, and the do-it-all working mum—and attempt to unpick what cultural work they do in the context of austerity within Britain. Through the lens of celebrity motherhood, we offer a feminist critique of austerity as a programme that both consolidates unequal class relations and makes punishing demands on women in general, and mothers in particular.     

Psychometric Confirmation of the Sexual Health Survey as a Useful Tool for College Health Professionals

Abstract

Objective: To conduct a confirmatory factor analysis on the 17-item Sexual Health Survey (SHS), a comprehensive instrument designed to be used with college students. Participants: College students (N = 515) aged 18 to 26 years enrolled at a Midwest public university October 2009. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was performed to test the stability of the constructs. Results: All factor loadings were significant (p < .001), ranging from .55 to .99 (standardized). The range of squared multiple correlations of items was .31 to .98, and the intercorrelations among the 5 factors were from ?.03 to .52. These small to moderate levels of intercorrelation support discriminant validity of 5 constructs. Conclusions: This study supports the 5-factor version of the 17-item SHS as a viable scale that can measure sexual health overall and 5 distinct areas. College health professionals should consider use of this scale for assessment purposes and evaluation of programmatic efforts.