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In this audio essay, the author/speaker contemplates the perceived relationship between the voice and the speaker—the person in the voice—and asks the following questions: What does it mean when we...

Background and objectives Substance use behaviors have been identified as a risk factor that places juveniles at greater risk for engaging in delinquent behaviors and continual contact with the juvenile justice system. Currently, there is lack of research that explores comorbid factors associated with substance use, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, that could help identify youth who are at greatest risk. The aim of the present study was to examine if PTSD symptomology moderated the relationship between substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms and externalizing behaviors and commission of a violent crime; hypothesizing that risk would be heightened among youth with elevated SUD and PTSD symptomology compared to those with elevated SUD symptoms but lower PTSD symptoms. Method The study included 194 predominantly male (78.4%), non-White (74.2%) juvenile justice youth between the ages of 9-18 (M = 15.36). Youth provided responses to assess PTSD symptoms, SUD symptoms, and externalizing behaviors. Commission of a violent crime was based on parole officer report. Results Findings indicated that SUD symptomology was associated with greater externalizing behaviors at high levels of PTSD symptomology. At low levels of PTSD symptomology, SUD symptoms were inversely associated with externalizing behaviors. An interactive relationship was not observed for commission of violent crimes. Conclusions Findings suggest that the association between SUD symptoms and externalizing behaviors among juvenile offenders may be best explained by the presence of PTSD symptomology. Scientific significance Addressing PTSD rather than SUD symptoms may be a better target for reducing risk for externalizing behaviors among this population of youth (Am J Addict 2019;28:29-35).

Research shows that racial discrimination results in adverse behavioral health outcomes for African American young adults, including risk for depression, anxiety, and substance use. Although high levels of mindfulness have been shown to reduce risk for such health outcomes, it is unknown whether mindfulness can reduce risk as a consequence of racial discrimination, particularly among African Americans. Three-hundred and eighty-eight African American young adults between the ages of 18–24 (M=20.6, 62% female) completed measures assessing past year experiences of racial discrimination, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, alcohol use, and trait mindfulness. A positive correlation was found between racial discrimination and the behavioral health outcomes, as well as a negative correlation between mindfulness and the behavioral health outcomes. Moreover, mindfulness was found to significantly moderate the effect of racial discrimination on mood symptoms. Although mindfulness was found to lessen the effect of racial discrimination on alcohol use, this difference was not statistically significant. In line with previous literature, racial discrimination was shown to have a negative impact on behavioral health outcomes among African Americans. Moreover, our findings provide support for the buffering effect of mindfulness on mood symptoms as a consequence discrimination. This suggests that increasing mindfulness may be an effective strategy to include in interventions targeting improvement in mood symptoms for African American young adults. However, alternative strategies may be more appropriate to address outcomes, such as alcohol use, as a consequence of racial discrimination.

Objectives Racial discrimination is associated with numerous negative health outcomes, including increased risk for depression and anxiety symptoms and substance use. Positive affect toward of one's ethnic or racial group (i.e., ethnic-racial identity affirmation) has been shown to buffer the negative effects of racial discrimination on health outcomes. The extent to which one believes his or her group is valued by others (i.e., positive collective ethnic-racial identity) has also been proposed to be protective. However, to date a limited body of research has examined the moderating effect of collective ethnic-racial identity on health, and among available studies, findings are mixed. Method African American youth (N = 612; 58.2% female, M grade = 8) completed measures on experiences of discrimination, mood symptoms, substance use, ethnic-racial identity affirmation, and collective ethnic-racial identity (assessed using the Collective Self-Esteem Scale). Results Controlling for demographic variables and affirmation, a significant main effect was found for collective ethnic-racial identity, such that believing that others viewed your group positively was associated with better health outcomes among African American youth. However, collective ethnic-racial identity was not found to buffer the effects of discrimination on health outcomes. Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of examining collective ethnic-racial identity and the promotive effect it can have on health outcomes for African Americans. More research is needed to better understand if there are health outcomes in which collective ethnic-racial identity may also mitigate risk as a consequence of racial discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Background In the age of online communication, psychiatric care can now be provided via videoconferencing technologies. While virtual visits as a part of telepsychiatry and telemental health provide a highly efficient and beneficial modality of care, the implementation of virtual visits requires attention to quality and safety issues. As practitioners continue to utilize this technology, issues of clinician licensing, treatment outcomes of virtual visits versus in-person visits, and cost offset require ongoing study. Methods This review provides an overview of the topics of technology, legal and regulatory issues, clinical issues, and cost savings as they relate to practicing psychiatry and psychology via virtual visits in an academic medical center. We review the telepsychiatry/telemental health effectiveness literature from 2013 to the present. Our literature searches used the following terms: telemental health effective, telepsychiatry effective, telepsychiatry efficacy, and telemental health efficacy. These searches produced 58 articles, reduced to 16 when including only articles that address effectiveness of clinician-to-patient services. Results The technological, legal, and regulatory issues vary from state to state and over time. The emerging research addressing diverse populations and disorders provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of telepsychiatry. Cost savings are difficult to precisely determine and depend on the scope of the cost and benefit measured. Conclusion Establishing a telepsychiatry program requires a comprehensive approach with up-to-date legal and technological considerations.

Purpose This field trial examined the process of assigning drug-involved offenders to dispositions based on their criminogenic risks and needs. Methods Probation officers administered the Risk and Needs Triage (RANT)™ to 627 felony drug and property offenders at the pre-trial stage or shortly after sentencing to probation. The RANT™ was evaluated for internal scale consistency, factor structure, and predictive validity for re-arrest and re-conviction rates within 12 months of case disposition. Exploratory analyses examined whether recidivism was lower for participants who were assigned to an appropriate disposition given their assessment results. Results The RANT™ demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and factorial validity, and significantly predicted re-arrest and re-conviction rates within 12 months of case disposition. There was no racial or gender bias in the prediction of recidivism. Non-significant trends favored better outcomes for participants who were assigned to the indicated dispositions. Conclusions The results lend support for the RANT™ as a dispositional triage tool for drug-involved defendants and probationers at or near the point of arrest. The results also lend tentative support to the hypothesis that outcomes might be better if drug-involved offenders were matched to appropriate dispositions based on their risk-and-need profiles. Directions for future research are discussed.

Using the Career Key as a criterion measure, the validity of the Strong Interest Explorer was tested with a sample of Latino junior high school and senior high school students. A total of 85 Hispanic youth were administered the Strong Interest Explorer and the Career Key in counterbalanced order. Separate correlational analyses were conducted for (a) the total sample, (b) junior high/senior high students, and (c) males/females. Results generally offered support for the validity of the Strong Interest Explorer Artistic, Social and Enterprising scales but not the Investigative, Conventional or Realistic scales. Cautions regarding use of the Strong Interest Explorer with Latino youth are discussed. ********** Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States. According to the 2000 Census, there are 35.3 million Latinos living in the U. S. It is expected that by 2050, Latinos will represent approximately 25 percent of the total U.S. population. Latinos are also one of the youngest population groups in the United States. One-third of Latinos are under 18 years of age, and they represent approximately 15 percent of the K-12 population (2002 National Directory, 2002). Furthermore, between the years 2000 and 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that the number of working-age Latino Americans will increase by 18 million. However, only 57 percent of Latinos 25 years and older have completed high school. Twenty-seven percent of Latinos have less than a high school education. College-qualified Latino students are the only racial/ethnic group significantly less likely than other college-qualified students to pursue post-secondary education (2002 National Directory, 2002). According to the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS), only 55% of Latino eighth graders expect to get college degrees (Our Nation on the Fault Line, 1996). Latino youth continue to be underrepresented in higher education. According to the 2000 Census, only 10.6 percent of Hispanics have attained a bachelor's degree. In 1996, Latinos represented only 4 percent of students in graduate school and approximately 8 percent of first-year professional students. Latino American high school graduates still trail other population groups in attaining college degrees, according to a report recently released by the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC) (Fry, 2002). Only 35% of Latino high school graduates 18 to 24 years old are enrolled in college compared to 46% of whites. The Baccalaureate degree completion rate for Latinos is currently at 10%. This combines to produce the lowest completion rates and highest dropout rates for the fastest growing minority group in the US (McGlynn, 2001). Latinos also tend to be over-represented in occupational categories such as farming, labor, factory-type work, and service industry occupations. Only 28% of males of Latino descent hold upper-level managerial, technical, and administrative positions, compared to 48% of nonLatino males. As the level of education or skill increases for a particular job, the percentage of Latinos in that position diminishes (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1988). Under-representation of Latino workers is especially severe in high-tech jobs that require college or graduate degrees, due to unequal access to the types of postsecondary education required for science and technology jobs. Only 1.3% of Latinos had college-educated technical jobs. Latinos are also underrepresented in education, health care, management, accounting, sales, and marketing (Our Nation on the Fault Line, 1996). Similarly, Latinos remain severely underrepresented in science and engineering education, and male Latinos are disproportionately represented among the lower levels of employment in manufacturing. In academic settings, Latinos represented only 2.7% of doctoral science and engineering faculty in 1995 (Muller-Karger, 2000). Clearly, such dismal statistics offer strong evidence that this population of students is in dire need of career development services and career planning assistance. …

We conducted a survey of the history of psychology course and received 357 undergraduate syllabi. Despite wide variation in the syllabi, several trends emerged. For instance, most instructors depend heavily on textbooks to organize their courses, and three textbooks accounted for more than 60% of book choices. Newer areas of historical interest did not appear in the course syllabi to any substantial degree.

University of MassachusettsAbstract. Recent studies by Royer and Cable demonstrated that an initialprose passage which established a relevant knowledge structure into whichdifficult to learn second passage material could be assimilated wouldenhance the learning of the second passage material. The purpose of thepresent study was to determine if this facultative transfer would occur over atime interval. Subjects read a treatment or control passage and then studiedand were tested on a second passage immediately, after two days, orone week later. The results indicated that the previously found facultativetransfer effect did not diminish with time.An important problem confronting educational researchers is to determine how toconstruct and sequence written instructional materials so as to produce maximal studentlearning. One aspect of this question concerns the issue of facultative transfer. That is,what are the conditions under which exposure to some initially presented instructionalresults in enhanced learning of subsequently presented materials?Recently, Royer and Cable [1975) have described one set of circumstances underwhich facilitative transfer in prose learning occurs. They hypothesized that facultativetransfer would only occur in the situation where the second passage the subjects wereexposed to (and on which the learning measure was taken) was difficult to comprehend. Inaddition, they hypothesized that an initial passage which led to facilitative transfer wouldbe one which established a "knowledge bridge" between information the subject alreadyknows and the difficult to understand information he will be asked to learn. Accordingly,Royer and Cable (1975) prepared two passages; one of which was concerned with the flowof heat through metals and the second of which was concerned with electrical conductionin metals. Each of these passages was prepared in two versions: a difficult to understand

The hypothesis tested is whether lesbianism implies psychopathology. The MMPI was given to 26 nonpatient lesbians who were professionally employed full time, and the results were compared to those for a group of 29 similarly employed heterosexual women. With the exception of the Sc scale, no difference was found on the clinical scales. The lesbian group achieved a significantly higher elevation than the nonlesbians on the Mf and Sc scales. Further analysis of the data on the Sc subscales indicated no difference on the pathological part of the scale, but rather a difference in degree of social alienation. Analysis of the data according to a second variable, living status, found significant differences and has important implications for future studies of the lesbian population. Single women, regardless of sexual orientation, scored significantly higher on scales K and Pa and on the Pa subscale naivete. A significant interaction between sexual orientation and living status was achieved on one scale, the F scale.