Help-seeking behavior among mental health practitioners

The purpose of this exploratory study was to collect self-report data on willingness to seek personal therapy among therapists in Utah, and to discover if group trends occur among marriage and family therapists, psychologists, and social workers. Self-report background characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, number of children, and practice site, served as independent viriables. Responses from 421 therapists were obtained from a mail survey. Results showed that number of children, years in private practice, number of client contact hours per week, gender, marital status, religion, profession, and practice site were significant in willingness to seek personal therapy. Specific gender data and differences across the professions are presented.     

Reviving the stalemated treatment through a self psychology re-analysis

Stalemated psychoanalytic treatment can be sustained for hears when patient and analyst work in an experience-distant analytic mode. When this occurs patients feel misunderstood, despairing and hopeless, yet, are unable to change their situation. The case of a patient who undertook a reanalysis with a self psychologist is presented to demonstrate how the empathic, experience-near treatment mode enabled the patient to overcome the stalemated problems of the first analysis. The experience of feeling understood was crucial for the deepening of the analytic work, for the furthering of the selfobject transference and for the working through of the fixations and arrests in development.Presented on November 2, 1990, at the Third National Clinical Conference of the Committee on Psychoanalysis of the National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work.     

Psychological maltreatment by siblings: An unrecognized form of abuse

Psychological maltreatment between siblings is one of the most common yet often underrecognized forms of child abuse. Whether it occurs in conjunction with other maltreatment or in isolation, sibling psychological abuse can have harmful effects on family members. Such impaired interactions are often indicative of larger problems within the family system. This article brings attention to an important family dynamic through the use of a case example, and offers suggestions for assessment and intervention approaches.     

A review of national school-age pregnancy and prevention information clearinghouses

School-age pregnancy is a major social problem that affects youth, families and communities. The complexities of school-age pregnancy demand that social work practitioners have knowledge across diverse fields and keep abreast of changing sociopolitical trends. Information clearning-houses have been developed to assist practitioners in their efforts to keep abreast of a particular field of practice. This paper identifies major national information clearinghouses that provide resources for practitioners who work in the field of school-age pregnancy and prevention.     

Depression and conduct disorder among hospitalized adolescents

The characteristics of fifty hospitalized adolescents diagnosed with either depressionor depression with conduct disorder were examined. Youths diagnosed with depression had significantly greater anxiety and significantly less peer popularity than youths diagnosed with depression and conduct disorder. Depressed youths also experienced significantly fewer behavior problems than youths diagnosed with depression and conduct disorder. Implications for the diagnosis and treatment of adolescent depression and conduct disorder are discussed.     

Factors associated with hispamic teenagers' attitude toward the importance of birth control

Attitudes of 240 female Hispanic teenagers in 1984-85 in New York City toward the importance of birth control (ATIBC) are examined as a reflection of the following: demographic factors, educational aspirations, maternal characteristics, religiosity, clarity of longterm goals, and perception of friends' behavior, i.e., the degree, formation, and variation of these factors. The nonrandom sample was recruited from pregnancy prevention classes. The questionnaire was available in English or Spanish. 9 research questions were of interest including whether girls in female-headed households were more likely to be sexually active and have higher ATIBC scores, whether Catholics will have lower ATIBC scores, whether spanish preference speakers have lower ATIBC scores, whether working mothers' children, or more highly educated mothers' children were more sexually active and have higher scores, whether religiosity lowers scores, whether higher educational aspirations increases scores, whether childrens' beliefs that most of the friends use contraceptive is related to higher cores, and whether clearer longterm goals are related to higher scores. The attitude scale was based on Kirby's and Cvetkovich and Grote's work and focused on peer influence, parental attitudes, and strength of intention to use contraceptives. Other measures are identified by specific questions, i.e., clarity of longterm goals is measured by the question: I have a clear idea of where I'm headed in the future, and I know what I want out of life. The results indicated that 4 variables were significantly associated with ATIBC scores: 1) lower scores were associated with teenagers who had mothers with low education (2nd-9th grades), and 2) teenagers who spoke Spanish best; 3) perceived importance of religion was significantly related to lower ATIBC scores such that great importance was related to low scores and little importance was related to high scores; and 4) teenagers' belief about their friends' potential use of birth control was significantly related such that if 75% of friends were thought to use birth control. These 4 predictors (primary language, mother's education, importance of religion, and friends' perceived birth control use) yielded an R of .55 and and R2 = .31. The strongest single predictor is friends' perceived birth control use at 15% and mother's education at 14%.     

Nonsuicidal Self-injury in a College Population: General Trends and Sex Differences

Abstract

Objective: To describe basic nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) characteristics and to explore sex differences. Methods: A random sample from 8 universities were invited to participate in a Web-based survey in 2006–2007; 38.9% (n = 14,372) participated. Analysis assessed sex differences in NSSI prevalence, practices, severity, perceived dependency, and help-seeking; adjusted odds ratios for NSSI characteristics were calculated by sex status. Results: Lifetime NSSI prevalence rates averaged 15.3%. Females were more likely than males to self-injure because they were upset (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3–2.1) or in hopes that someone would notice them (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.1–2.7). Males were 1.6 times (95% CI = 1.2–2.2) more likely to report anger and 4.0 times (95% CI = 2.3–6.8) more likely to report intoxication as an initiating factor. Sexual orientation predicted NSSI, particularly for women (Wald F = 8.81, p ≤ .000). Only 8.9% of the NSSI sample reported disclosing NSSI to a mental health professional. Conclusions: NSSI is common in college populations but varies significantly by sex and sexual orientation. NSSI disclosure is low among both sexes.