The movie "Thirteen" examines the lives of two middle school girls on their journey to ultimate destruction. "Thirteen" is a frightening look at the main characters' downward spiral as they plunge into a dangerous world of drugs, alcohol, sex, and "blowing off" school work. This article presents a discussion by a counselor educator and a teacher…

In this article I explore some of the limitations of violence, in particular focusing on how it can possibly be undermined by dialogical action. Firstly, I argue that, although violence is at times justified by some people, its disrespectful use against innocent others, makes it illegitimate and therefore un-dialogical. Secondly, the use of…

Self-injurious behaviors were compared with tattooing and piercing in a college population. Findings indicate a high prevalence of self-injury. Students who self-injured were motivated by a desire to alleviate emotional pain; students who tattooed and pierced by self-expression. Students who self-injured scored higher than students who tattooed…

Cognitive-behavioral models suggest that certain cognitions and beliefs are functionally related to hair pulling in persons with trichotillomania (TTM), but little empirical data have been collected to test such claims. This study assessed dysfunctional beliefs about appearance, shameful cognitions, and fear of negative evaluation and their…

A decade ago, Bechara et al. [Bechara, A., Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. W. (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. "Cognition, 50," 7-15] published a paper in Cognition, introducing a Gambling Task which was designed to mimic everyday decision-making. Since then, the task has been…

Background: A comprehensive systematic review was performed to establish the current evidence base regarding the effectiveness of antidepressant medication for the management of behaviour problems in adults with intellectual disabilities. Method: An electronic search of PsycInfo, Embase, Medline and Cinahl databases was conducted spanning the time…

Fatal and nonfatal injuries due to suicidal behavior among younger adolescents are of growing concern for many communities. We examined the incidence and patterns of these injuries among persons aged 10-14 years using three databases, two national and a third from Oregon. Suffocation and firearm gunshot were the leading external causes of suicide;…

This study explored clinical and nonclinical predictors of inpatient hospital admission decisions across a sample of children in foster care over 4 years (N = 13,245). Forty-eight percent of participants were female and the mean age was 13.4 (SD = 3.5 years). Optimal data analysis (Yarnold & Soltysik, 2005) was used to construct a nonlinear…

This guide is designed to assist people with learning disabilities to recognize their disabilities and the connection between learning disabilities and substance abuse. It begins by defining learning disabilities and providing a self-test checklist for common signs and symptoms of learning disabilities. Difficulties with organization, memory,…

Patients' rights legislation makes the determination of possible danger to self and others extremely important for patients about to be discharged from mental institutions, especially patients who were admitted because of suicidal behavior. Because evaluation methods which rely on patient self-reports may be manipulated by clever patients, a new…

This report addresses the issues delineated by the 70th Texas Legislature in directing the Central Education Agency to study the problem of youth suicide. "Causes and Factors Contributing to Youth Suicide" presents data on national suicide rates for 15- to 19-year-olds and deaths by suicide in Texas for children between the ages of 5 and 19.…

A 13-item adult risk taking scale was selected by factor analysis and internal reliability testing from 25 items administered to 270 urban adults (56% Black; 33% White; 11% Hispanic/other) stratified by socioeconomic status. Chronbach's alpha equaled 0.77. Five items refer to risk of injury, five to risk of illness, one to gambling, and two to…

The literature review looks at self-injurious behaviors in handicapped students in terms of characteristics, prevalence, etiology (biological, psychological, and as learned behavior), and management including extinction, positive punishment, negative punishment, and reinforcement of other behaviors. Problems in areas of management, administration,…

The author discusses the adolescent experience and why adolescents engage in self-destructive behavior. He suggests some changes in the way that adults treat adolescents that could reduce adolescent behavior problems and self-abuse. (CH)

The author describes the formation of a citizens' group in Clarkesville, Tennessee, to educate the town's youth about the health risks of drug use. This group developed a curriculum entitled "I'm Special" designed to teach self-esteem and decision-making skills to fourth graders, to enable them to deal with peer pressure to try or use…