Objective: The validity and clinical utility of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire-Junior, and Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) were examined longitudinally among suicidal adolescents. Method: Between 1998 and 2000, 289 psychiatrically hospitalized, suicidal youth, ages 12 to 17 years,…

In a community sample of 116 children, assessments of parent-child interaction, parent-child attachment, and various parental, child, and contextual characteristics at 15 and 28 months and at age 5 were used to predict externalizing behavior at age 5, as rated by parents and teachers. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and path analysis…

Studies using fear-conditioning paradigms have found that anxiety patients are more conditionable than individuals without these disorders, but these effects have been demonstrated inconsistently. It is unclear whether these findings have etiological significance or whether enhanced conditionability is linked only to certain anxiety…

The importance of ascertaining and effectively treating psychological problems in children is difficult to overstate. Since compliance is particularly important, the psychological factors associated with caretakers' compliance regarding children's psychotherapy were examined here. Data were collected on the 85 primary caretakers of 85 children who…

Many social policies rely on assessments of violence potential in their implementation. Decisions concerning such civil matters as involuntary institutionalization and level of institutional custody, and criminal matters such as type or length of sentence and the granting of bail often rely on estimates of the potential that an individual will be…

Administered the Brief Symptom Inventory to married residents (N=106) of a retirement community. Three scales (Anxiety, Interpersonal Sensitivity, and Paranoid Ideation) provided maximum separation between males and females. Concludes that with marital status, education, and health controlled, male and female elderly show distinct patterns of…

Fifth- and sixth-grade students (N=600) were assessed regarding smoking activity, parents' smoking, four dimensions of self-esteem, and attitudes toward school. Multivariate analyses showed students were more likely to begin smoking if they had parents who smoked, had low self-esteem, and disliked school and feared failure. (Author)

Studied whether smokers and nonsmokers hold systematically different attitudes on tobacco smoking. Smoking-related Likert type attitude items were selected for analysis from a longer questionnaire. Results indicated both smoking and nonsmoking college students expressed highly similar unfavorable attitudes toward smoking but nonsmokers expressed…

Hypothesized that selected personality variables, could positively predict loneliness; and self-esteem and extraversion could negatively predict loneliness scores. Studied two groups of subjects: Iranian college students in American colleges and Iranian students in Iranian universities. Results confirmed the directions stated in the research…

Psychological predictors of self-concept, behavior problems, and social competence of 55 siblings of developmentally disabled children were compared with those in 55 siblings of nondisabled children. Distinct psychological predictors for children with developmentally disabled siblings included parental stress and resources, perceived family social…

This study evaluates the ability of the hopelessness theory of depression's etiological chain to account for this relation in a sample of 297 undergraduates. Results indicated that emotional, but not physical or sexual, maltreatment was uniquely related to average levels of suicidal ideation across a 2.5-year follow-up. (Author)

This paper reports data on the psychometric relationship between personality traits (Big Five), and preference for particular assessment methods in an Australian sample of University students (N=125). Reliability analysis showed that participants tended to have consistent attitudes toward assessment methods, across disciplines (e.g., History,…

The freshman year represents a stressful transition for college students. Despite a multitude of social, academic, and emotional stressors, most college students successfully cope with a complex new life role and achieve academic success. Other students are less able to successfully manage this transition and decide to leave higher education…

The authors examined the role of undesired self-discrepancies in predicting emotional distress among Asian and European Americans, whether undesired self-discrepancies are stronger predictors of distress for Asian than for European Americans, and whether optimism and pessimism mediate the relations between ideal, ought, and undesired…

In this study I develop theoretically the role of emotions in identity theory by examining individuals' emotional reactions to identity nonverification (in a positive and a negative direction) and identity verification, which occurs once versus repeatedly, and which is perpetrated by a familiar other compared with an unfamiliar other. Predictions…