Treating depression in adolescence: A review of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatments

The literature of the last decade reveals a renewed interest in treating adolescent depression. Several treatments have been proposed that are derived from adult models, but few studies have evaluated their efficiency. Those that have been done, have typically used a cognitive-behavioral approach. This article reviews studies published from 1980 to 1994 on the efficacy of these programs. Groups of 6–10 adolescents were treated in these programs. Some programs also included treatment for parents. Treatments were multimodal, utilizing intervention strategies from cognitive and/or behavioral models of depression. Treatment components included relaxation, cognitive restructuring, self-control skills, and communication and problem-solving skills. Studies were most often done in school settings but only rarely in a clinical milieux. Depression measures included self-report questionnaires and semistructured interviews. Results suggest that short-term group cognitive-behavioral interventions are effective with early and late adolescents. Futhermore, depressive symptoms remained improved at follow-up. No single strategy, however, seemed to be clearly more effective than the others.Financial support for this work was provided by the Fonds institutionnel de recherche of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières.     

Perceptual Biases, Graffiti and Fraternity Crime: Points of Deflection that Distort Social Justice

Although the official, law-enforcement policy in Bloomington, Indiana, categorized graffiti as vandalism, prominently displayed graffiti produced by Indiana University's student organizations escaped criminalization. This article documents the differential, criminal justice treatment of graffiti vandalism based on the group producing it thereby reaffirming the existence of a class-based system of justice. This article also uncovers a hidden bias inherent in Chambliss' “The Saints and the Roughnecks” by arguing that university students, whose graffiti do not receive negative sanctioning, represent Saints at the college level who exhibit criminal behavior. University-level lessons about how the crimes of the privileged go unprosecuted or become transformed into civil rather than criminal events could very well pave the way for further crimes after graduation rather than the “Saintly” adulthood implied by Chambliss. More research into the alternate system of justice used with regard to university students could shed light on both the problems and possibilities encountered when implementing alternate systems of social justice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A preliminary study of the factors related to trauma in childhood sexual abuse

This study examined levels of depression, anxiety, and self worth in a sample of 75 sexually abused girls. The subjects had higher levels of anxiety and depression and lower levels of self worth than normal samples. Although multivariate analysis failed to find a relationship between abuse-specific variables and outcome when the variables were examined alone, significant interactions emerged. The interaction between the identity of the perpetrator and force was significantly related to levels of depression and self worth. Force was related to a less serious impact when the father was a perpetrator and more serious with a non-father perpetrator. The interaction of the perpetrator and whether the child was removed from the home was related to anxiety. When abused by a perpetrator who was not a father figure, those removed from the home had higher levels of anxiety. Trends in the data and significance of the research to intervention are discussed.