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We examine differences on the Self-Injury Implicit Association Test (SI-IAT) by history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), in a test-retest design, to examine short-term temporal stability of SI-IAT scores. Treatment-seeking participants (N = 113; 58% female; 89% White; Mage = 30.57) completed the SI-IAT and self-report measures at two time points (MTimeframe = 3.8 days). Data suggested NSSI (51% of the sample endorsed lifetime NSSI) was related to Time 1 (T1) identity and attitude, and affected stability of scores. T1 and T2 SI-IAT identity and attitude were more strongly related for participants with NSSI history. NSSI characteristics (recency; number of methods) affected stability. The short-term test-retest reliability of the SI-IAT is strong among those with NSSI history from T1 to T2. However, the SI-IATs use with participants without a history of NSSI was not supported beyond its established ability to differentiate between groups by NSSI history. This test may provide clinically-relevant assessment among those with a history of NSSI. Participants with vs. without NSSI history respond differently on the SI-IAT Temporal stability of SI-IAT performance is strong in a short timeframe Results supported the test-retest reliability of the SI-IAT in the target group [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This research examines potential differences in social network use and motivation for social network use by non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) status. Participants: 367 (73% women; M[subscript age] = 20.60) college students were recruited in November-December 2011. Methods: A random sample of 2,500 students was accessed through a university registrar to recruit students interested in an online survey assessing NSSI and various health-related behaviors. Results: Social network use and motivations for social networks did not differ by NSSI status. Conclusions: Results suggest that it is not patterns of use or motivation to use social networks that could lead to concern about online behavior (i.e., behavior increasing risk of future NSSI) among those with NSSI history. Rather, future preventive and intervention efforts should address the NSSI-related content that is available online, since this is unregulated, often explicit, and commonly includes "pro-NSSI" content that may be problematic and increase risk among vulnerable individuals.

Recently, researchers have devoted greater attention to understanding how disagreement between mothers and their children regarding parent-child relationship quality and functioning impacts youth adjustment. While some view discrepancies as indices of developmentally appropriate individuation, discrepancies regarding family functioning also have been found to predict problematic youth functioning. This study examined the effects of mother-child discrepancies for mother-child relationship qualities and youth self-disclosure on youth- and mother-reported youth internalizing and externalizing adjustment. 232 fifth, eighth, and 11th grade youth (55 % female) and their mothers completed measures of mother-child relationship quality, youth self-disclosure, and youth internalizing and externalizing adjustment. For internalizing adjustment, few effects of discrepancy on adjustment were evident. Instead, informant-specific perceptions of mother-child relationship functioning were most relevant for informant-specific reports of youth adjustment. For youth externalizing adjustment, the magnitude of mother-child discrepancies for negative relationship quality and for youth self-disclosure predicted lower levels of problematic externalizing behavior from both the children's and the mothers' perspectives, which could indicate a lack of parent-child communication. Future research is needed to fully understand how discrepancies in negative or maladaptive aspects of mother-child relationships are formed (e.g., low disclosure), are understood by the members of the dyad, and contribute to the onset, maintenance, and treatment of problematic behavioral outcomes.

Youth's friendships serve important functions in development; however, internalizing symptoms may undermine these relationships. Two studies are presented that examine the association of depressive and anxiety symptoms with friendship adjustment. Study 1 tested concurrent effects and Study 2 tested prospective effects over 6 months. Like past studies, depressive symptoms predicted greater problems in friendships. However, anxiety symptoms generally did not and, in some cases, actually predicted positive friendship adjustment. The results suggest that the friendships of youth with depressive symptoms should be targeted for intervention, but that incorporating the friendship strengths of anxious youth in interventions could be helpful for reducing these youth's anxiety. The results also caution researchers studying the interplay between friendships and internalizing symptoms against collapsing across assessments of depressive and anxiety symptoms. (Contains 3 tables.)

Two studies examined shared and unique relations of social information processing (SIP) to youth's anxious and depressive symptoms. Whether SIP added unique variance over and above trait affect in predicting internalizing symptoms was also examined. In Study 1, 215 youth (ages 8-13) completed symptom measures of anxiety and depression and a vignette-based interview measure of SIP. Anxiety and depression were each related to a more negative information-processing style. Only depression was uniquely related to a less positive information processing style. In Study 2, 127 youth (ages 10-13) completed measures of anxiety, depression, SIP, and trait affect. SIP's relations to internalizing symptoms were replicated. Over and above negative affect, negative SIP predicted both anxiety and depression. Low positive SIP added variance over and above positive affect in predicting only depression. Finally, SIP functioning partially mediated the relations of affect to internalizing symptoms. (Contains 1 footnote, 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Some evidence suggests that close friends may be knowledgeable of youth's psychological adjustment. However, friends are understudied as reporters of adjustment. The current study examines associations between self- and friend-reports of internalizing and externalizing adjustment in a community sample of fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade youth. The study extends prior work by considering the degree to which friends' reports of youth adjustment are "accurate" (i.e., predicted by youths' actual adjustment) versus "biased" (i.e., predicted by the friend reporters' own adjustment). Findings indicated stronger bias effects than accuracy effects, but the accuracy effects were significant for both internalizing and externalizing adjustment. Additionally, friends who perceived their relationships as high in positive quality, friends in relationships high in disclosure, and girls perceived youths' internalizing symptoms most accurately. Knowledge of externalizing adjustment was not influenced by gender, grade, relationship quality, or self-disclosure. Findings suggest that friends could play an important role in prevention efforts.

Aggression is associated with a host of behavioral, social, and emotional adjustment difficulties. However, some aggressive youth are perceived as "popular" by peers. Although these perceived popular aggressive youth appear relatively well adjusted, especially in the social domain, the emotional well-being of these youth is understudied. The current findings indicate that perceived popularity buffers adolescents who hurt others through relational aggression from internalizing symptoms. In contrast, perceived popularity did not buffer adolescents who engaged in overt verbal and physical aggression from internalizing symptoms. The results suggest that relationally aggressive perceived popular adolescents may be especially resistant to intervention if their aggression helps them manipulate their social worlds but does not contribute to internalizing symptoms. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Girls' and boys' peer relationships are thought to have unique strengths and weaknesses. However, developmentalists have done a better job of identifying strengths of girls' friendships than boys' friendships. The present research was aimed at better understanding boys' friendship strengths. The study focused on the frequency with which youth (N = 514) reported that they would prompt a friend to talk about problems. It was hypothesized that boys would be more likely than girls to refrain from prompting friends to talk about problems due to prosocial motivations (e.g., not wanting to embarrass the friend; wanting to distract the friend). However, contrary to predictions, girls' motivations were more prosocial and less selfish than were boys' motivations. Moreover, a similar relation was found for boys and girls between their likelihood of prompting a friend to talk about problems and their friends' reports of emotional connection. Implications for research aimed at uncovering boys' friendship strengths are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Two studies describe the development of a comprehensive, vignette-based measure of social information processing (SIP) particularly relevant for children with internalizing problems. Study 1 (N = 219 3rd-6th graders) describes the creation of the Children's Evaluation of Everyday Social Encounters Questionnaire (ChEESE-Q) and evidence for its reliability and validity, including internal structure and relation of SIP variables to depressive and anxious symptoms. Study 2 (N = 127 5th-6th graders) replicated the factor structure and validity evidence found in Study 1 and provided support for the reliability of alternate forms of the ChEESE-Q. Overall, results supported ChEESE-Q scores' moderate temporal stability and internal consistency in assessing SIP. Results also supported the presence of positive- and negative-valenced SIP patterns. Child internalizing symptoms were strongly related to a negative SIP style across both depression and anxiety, whereas only depressive symptoms were negatively associated with positive aspects of SIP. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

This archival study of 288 adolescent psychiatric inpatients examined the psychiatric correlates of cutting behavior. Participants were categorized into Threshold cutters (n = 61), Subthreshold cutters (n = 43), and Noncutters (n = 184). Groups were compared on psychiatric diagnoses, suicidality, and self-reported impairment. Results demonstrated that females were more likely to cut relative to males; however, gender did not affect the correlates of cutting behavior. Adolescents in the Threshold group were more likely to be diagnosed with Major Depression and had higher self-reported suicidality, depression, and trauma-related symptoms of depression and dissociation relative to the Noncutting group. The Subthreshold group did not differ from the other groupings except for an elevated risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder compared to the Noncutting group.

A study was conducted to examine the concurrent validity of the Children's Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (ChIPS) for adolescent inpatients aged 12 to 18. The results reveal moderate agreement between ChIPS diagnoses and Schedule for Affective Disorder sand Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime version diagnoses.

Past research provides conflicting evidence regarding whether aggressive youth have problems in the domain of friendship. The current study tested whether being disliked by peers exacerbates the negative effects of aggression on friendship and whether being perceived as popular by peers mitigates these damaging effects. Participants were 607 third-, fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade students. Support for the hypothesis that being disliked or being perceived as popular would moderate relations between aggression and friendship adjustment was found for the association between relational aggression and friendship conflict. Specifically, relational aggression was associated with having conflictual friendships for youth who were disliked but not for youth who were perceived as popular. In addition, similarity between friends was found in terms of how aggressive youth were as well as in terms of how disliked they were and how popular they were perceived to be. Implications for the well-being and development of aggressive youth are discussed.

A 2-year longitudinal study investigated influences of social support and self-esteem on adjustment in early adolescence. Findings obtained using latent growth curve modeling were consistent with self-esteem mediating effects of social support on emotional and behavioral adjustment. Lack of balance in social support and self-esteem in direction of stronger support and esteem from peer-oriented sources versus adult-oriented sources predicted greater levels and rates of growth in behavioral problems. (Author/KB)

Investigated the influence of racial and gender discrimination and difficulties on adolescent adjustment. Found that discrimination and hassles contribute to a general stress context which in turn influences emotional and behavioral problems in adjustment, while racial and gender identity positively affect self-esteem and thus adjustment. Revealed differences in these effects for Blacks and girls. (JPB)

Aggression is associated with a host of behavioral, social, and emotional adjustment difficulties. However, some aggressive youth are perceived as 'popular' by peers. Although these perceived popular aggressive youth appear relatively well adjusted, especially in the social domain, the emotional wellbeing of these youth is understudied. The current findings indicate that perceived popularity buffers adolescents who hurt others through relational aggression from internalizing symptoms. In contrast, perceived popularity did not buffer adolescents who engaged in overt verbal and physical aggression from internalizing symptoms. The results suggest that relationally aggressive perceived popular adolescents may be especially resistant to intervention if their aggression helps them manipulate their social worlds but does not contribute to internalizing symptoms. Keywords: peer relations, popularity, relational aggression, overt aggression, internalizing symptoms

Relations of overt and relational aggression with perceived popularity among children and early adolescents were examined in 2 studies (Ns = 607 and 1,049). Among older youths, positive concurrent relations found between overt aggression and perceived popularity became nonsignificant when relational aggression was controlled, whereas positive associations found between relational aggression and perceived popularity held when overt aggression was controlled. Aggression and perceived popularity were not positively related for the younger participants. The 2nd study also examined the temporal ordering of these relations over 6 months. For older girls, positive relations between relational aggression and perceived popularity were bidirectional. For older boys, relational aggression did not predict increased perceived popularity, but perceived popularity predicted increased relational aggression. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Influences of social support and self-esteem on adjustment in early adolescence were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study (N = 350). Multi-informant data (youth and parent) were used to assess both overall levels and balance in peer- versus adult-oriented sources for social support and self-esteem. Findings obtained using latent growth-curve modeling were consistent with self-esteem mediating effects of social support on both emotional and behavioral adjustment. Lack of balance in social support and self-esteem in the direction of stronger support and esteem from peer-oriented sources predicted greater levels and rates of growth in behavioral problems. Results indicate a need for process-oriented models of social support and self-esteem and sensitivity to patterning of sources for each resource relative to adaptive demands of early adolescence.