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SUMMARY School bullies create a climate of fear and intimidation that may affect not only those students who are the direct targets of the bullying but also the secondary victims (i.e., those students who witness the victimization of peers). Results from a survey of New Jersey middle school students indicate that eighth graders were significantly more indifferent to bullying and less sympathetic to victims than fifth graders. Older students were also more likely to identify themselves as outsiders and bully's assistants in bullying situations. In the absence of bullying prevention programs, witnesses to peer aggression become less willing to intervene on behalf of victims and more indifferent to the distress of the victim. The implications of these findings for the prevention of bullying and the achievement of civic responsibility are discussed.

In response to the new demands on their time, school psychologists are seeking more efficient ways to deliver routine services. This study seeks to develop an efficient, but accurate, simultaneous screening/assessment procedure for identifying gifted students for special programs. The screening procedure uses the four-subtest (Vocabulary, Picture Arrangement, Arithmetic, Block Design) short form of the WISC-R; students exceeding designated cut-off sum of scaled scores at screening are immediately given the remaining six subtests to assess program eligibility. To evaluate the proposed procedure, the statistical relationship between subtest and full test scores was estimated using test score data from 203 students who had received the full WISC-R. The relationship allowed the prediction of false negatives for specific sum of scaled score cutoff scores. For this population, a subtest screening score of 52 proved to be both efficient and accurate, minimizing false negatives while saving up to one hour of psychologist's time per child recommended for testing.

In a sample of 40 German suicide notes, men and women did not differ in the presence of motives of disrupted interpersonal relationships or of work/career/financial crises.

Elderly persons living in the community were compared with those living in a nursing home regarding experiences with stressful life events. The number of events recalled over the prior two years did not differ; however, the perceived degree of stress was more for those in the community. When persons were divided by high and low perceived stress groups and compared across the two environments, those who perceived more stress had significantly more depression, anxiety, and interpersonal difficulties. Nursing home patients may perceive less stress because there are fewer responsibilities for making decisions in nursing homes than in the community and the nursing home itself may provide a support in helping the elderly cope with stress. However, findings suggest that high perceived stress in either environment is associated with adverse psychological symptoms.