Restrictive Emotionality,Depressive Symptoms,and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among High School Students

Depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors are prevalent among youth today. The current study sought to further our understanding of the correlates of depression and suicidality by assessing the relationship between restrictive emotionality (difficulty understanding and expressing emotions) and depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation and attempts among adolescents. A large group of high school students (n = 2189, 58.3% male; 13–18 years of age) completed a self-report survey as part of a 2-stage suicide screening project. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between restrictive emotionality and depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. Those reporting high restrictive emotionality were 11 times more likely to have elevated depressive symptom scores, 3 times more likely to report serious suicidal ideation (after controlling for depressive symptoms), and more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt (after controlling for depressive symptoms) than those reporting low restrictive emotionality. Restrictive emotionality partially mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation and behavior. The pattern of association between restrictive emotionality and the outcome variables was similar for boys and girls. Restrictive emotionality is highly associated with elevated depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among high school students, and may be a useful specific target in prevention and treatment efforts.     

The legal role of medical professionals in decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment: part 1 (New South Wales)

This is the first article in a series of three that examines the legal role of medical professionals in decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment from adults who lack capacity. This article considers the position in New South Wales. A review of the law in this State reveals that medical professionals play significant legal roles in these decisions. However, the law is problematic in a number of respects and this is likely to impede medical professionals' legal knowledge in this area. The article examines the level of training medical professionals receive on issues such as advance directives and substitute decision-making, and the available empirical evidence as to the state of medical professionals' knowledge of the law at the end of life. It concludes that there are gaps in legal knowledge and that law reform is needed in New South Wales.     

The Relationship Behavior Networks of Young Adults: A Test of the Intergenerational Transmission of Violence Hypothesis

The purpose of this study was to determine how negative relationship behaviors are structured in the semantic networks of young adults from violent versus nonviolent homes. Participants included 110 students (72 females and 38 males) from a large Midwestern university who were enrolled in an introductory psychology class. They completed a sorting task that involved relationship behavior stimuli. As hypothesized, differences were found in the composite sorting patterns, as represented by multidimensional scaling (MDS) solutions, for three different groups categorized by their family-of-origin violence history (i.e., nonvictimized by/did not witness parental violence, None; victimized only, Victim; and both witnessed/victimized, Both). Interpretations of the MDS solutions revealed different associations between violent and nonviolent conflict behaviors for victimized versus nonvictimized individuals, suggesting different semantic associations for conflict for individuals in the two groups. In a second set of analyses, separate solutions were generated for perpetrating and nonperpetrating individuals from violent families. Perpetrator and nonperpetrator solutions were also found to differ significantly. These findings suggest that relationship-specific semantic networks are associated with both past and current experiences with violence. One interpretation of these findings is that cognitive differences, generated in the family of origin, may serve to perpetuate a cycle of violence in subsequent romantic relationships.     

A transcultural perspective on women and madness: The case of the mystical affliction

The paper seeks to examine spirit possession in women of traditional societies and syncretic subcultures as a symptom of personal maladjustment and as a form of social protest based on psychosocial, role-related pressures. This is accomplished by consideration of predisposing, precipitating and reactive factors involved in the possession reaction. Analysis of four case histories and availability of cross-cultural data indicate that the precipitation of pathological possession is rooted in the oppressive nature of the female role and that stresses experienced by traditional women are not unlike the difficulties of women in developed, industrialized societies. The possession response, however, is colored by traditional beliefs and superstitions; consequently, hysterical and anxiety symptoms are interpreted in light of the magical model of disease with the pathological reaction attributed to possession by malevolent spirits.