American Journal of Orthopsychiatry This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Challenging the political assumption that “Guns don’t kill people, crazy people kill people!”.
Presumptions that mental illness is causally tied to firearm violence and that guns are too easily acquired by such persons have given rise to laws that categorically restrict people with mental health concerns from exercising a Constitutional right. Underlying these reforms appears to be a revised idiom, “Guns don’t kill people—crazy people kill people.” The purpose of this commentary is to address these assumptions and provide suggestions for managing this critical threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry)
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - May 18, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Hodges, Heath J.; Scalora, Mario J. Source Type: research

Defying the odds on gun regulation: The passage of bipartisan mental health laws across the States.
This study begins with a brief overview and evaluation of the barriers to enacting firearms regulations (of all sorts) in America. The author next reviews lawmaking at the nexus of mental health and firearms over the past decade. The author provides an overview of the types of laws that have been enacted and the political circumstances that have facilitated their passage. The author concludes with some thoughts about whether these cases provide any generalizable lessons for consensus-based policymaking on guns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry)
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - May 18, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Goss, Kristin A. Source Type: research

The new normal? Addressing gun violence in America.
Despite the fact that children die every day from gun violence, school shootings upset us in ways that are difficult to comprehend. In our minds, schools serve as safe havens for children. When that image is shattered, the unpredictability and randomness of such heinous acts leave us wondering if anywhere is safe anymore. This issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry includes a set of commentaries that seek to help us better understand responses to gun violence, challenge some of the typical policy responses to such events, and seek to offer constructive strategies for preventing gun violence. (PsycINFO Database Re...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - May 18, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: McLeigh, Jill D. Source Type: research

Psychological distress among victimized women on probation and parole: A latent class analysis.
Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of victimized women (N = 406) on probation and parole differentiated by levels of general psychological distress. The 9 primary symptom dimensions from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were used individually as latent class indicators (Derogatis, 1993). Results identified 3 classes of women characterized by increasing levels of psychological distress; classes were further differentiated by posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, cumulative victimization, substance use and other domains of psychosocial functioning (i.e., sociodemographic characteristics; informal social ...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 27, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Golder, Seana; Engstrom, Malitta; Hall, Martin T.; Higgins, George E.; Logan, TK Source Type: research

The relevance and implications of organizational involvement for serious mental illness populations.
This study surveyed adults with SMI regarding their current level of organizational involvement along with their preferences and beliefs about organizational involvement. Additionally, a path model was conducted to understand the relationships between domains of consumer involvement. Although participants reported wanting to be involved in identified organizational involvement activities and believing it was important to be involved in these kinds of activities, organizational involvement was low overall. The path model indicated that psychological involvement among other factors influence organizational involvement, which...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Treichler, Emily B. H.; Evans, Eric A.; Johnson, J. Rock; O’Hare, Mary; Spaulding, William D. Source Type: research

China’s only children and psychopathology: A quantitative synthesis.
Conclusions based on this synthesis are limited by the fact that this body of studies is based on convenience samples of relatively successful youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry)
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Falbo, Toni; Hooper, Sophia Y. Source Type: research

Evaluating the measurement of mental health service accessibility, acceptability, and availability in the Canadian Community Health Survey.
Given the underutilization of mental health services by those with mental health problems, growing attention has focused on barriers to utilizing services. Several researchers have used the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) cycle 1.2 dataset, including measures of barriers because of accessibility, acceptability, and availability, to explore the gap between mental health service need and use. Because the psychometric properties of these barrier measures have not been evaluated, the reliability and validity of the 3 measures were examined in the present study. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using data fro...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - April 20, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Elliott, Katherine P.; Hunsley, John Source Type: research

Family functioning and posttraumatic growth among parents and youth following wildfire disasters.
A conceptual model was used to investigate how demographic characteristics, perceived fire stress, aspects of the recovery environment (life stressors since the disaster, social support), mental health, and coping influences parent and youth reports of family functioning and posttraumatic growth (PTG) following multiple wildfires. Participants included 50 parent–youth dyads (M = 14.5 years) who had been evacuated because of the fire, many of whom had homes that were damaged (60%) or destroyed (30%). For youth, younger age, being female, greater fire stress, more life stressors, and those using more positive reappraisal c...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Felix, Erika; Afifi, Tamara; Kia-Keating, Maryam; Brown, Laurel; Afifi, Walid; Reyes, Gil Source Type: research

Respecting our elders: Evaluation of an educational program for adolescent students to promote respect toward older adults.
The current project explored issues related to respect for older people, and then developed, implemented, and evaluated an educational intervention program for adolescents to raise understanding and improve attitudes toward older people. In Study 1, 46 focus groups were conducted, with participants (n = 211) drawn from older people, carers of older people, and adolescents to inform on issues related to the expression of respect to older people. The emergent themes were used to inform the design of the educational program delivered to adolescents and evaluated in Study 2. A total of 118 year-9 students were allocated to an ...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Mellor, David; McCabe, Marita; Rizzuto, Laura; Gruner, Alan Source Type: research

Normative identity construction among women diagnosed with a gambling disorder.
Women with a gambling problem bear a negative social stigma. Based on the theory of symbolic interactionism, this study examined the construction of social identities by 17 Israeli women diagnosed with a gambling disorder. Interpretive interactionist analysis revealed how they construct their identity through correspondence with patterns of behavior that are perceived as normative, and identified 3 major themes: “I’m not actually a gambler” (the presentation of a multidimensional identity comprising other identities besides that of a gambler); “Staying normative during gambling”; and “I have changed” (reforme...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Gavriel-Fried, Belle; Peled, Einat; Ajzenstadt, Mimi Source Type: research

Childhood victimization, attachment, psychological distress, and substance use among women on probation and parole.
The present analysis was guided by a gendered pathways-based theoretical model and examined relationships between childhood victimization and current attachment, psychological distress, and substance use among 406 women with histories of victimization who were on probation and parole in an urban Kentucky county. Structural equation modeling examined relationships among childhood victimization, attachment, psychological distress, and substance use. Additionally, we examined the mediational role that attachment plays in relationships between childhood victimization and both psychological distress and substance use. The data ...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Winham, Katherine M.; Engstrom, Malitta; Golder, Seana; Renn, Tanya; Higgins, George E.; Logan, TK Source Type: research

University students’ identification of stigmatizing schizophrenia in Italian newspapers.
Stigma associated with mental disorders represents one main obstacle to receive appropriate care for people with mental disorders. Compared to adults, university students have higher levels of stigmatizing attitudes toward patients with schizophrenia. The primary aim of this case-control study was to assess university students’ ability to identify stigma toward schizophrenia in Italian newspapers. Secondary aims were: a) to explore differences in stigmatizing attitudes among two different groups of university students (health professionals [HP] and nonhealth professionals [n-HP]) and b) to compare the attitudes of these ...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Pingani, Luca; Evans-Lacko, Sara; Del Vecchio, Valeria; Luciano, Mario; Catellani, Sara; Hamati, Arneda; Rigatelli, Marco; Fiorillo, Andrea Source Type: research

How people evaluate others with social anxiety disorder: A comparison to depression and general mental illness stigma.
Despite the availability of effective interventions, most individuals with social anxiety disorder do not seek treatment. Given their fear of negative evaluation, socially anxious individuals might be especially susceptible to stigma concerns, a recognized barrier for mental health treatment. However, very little is known about the stigma specific to social anxiety disorder. In a design similar to Feldman and Crandall (2007), university undergraduate students read vignettes about target individuals with a generic mental illness label, major depressive disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Subjects rated each of 3 people i...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Anderson, Kristin N.; Jeon, Andrew B.; Blenner, Jordan A.; Wiener, Richard L.; Hope, Debra A. Source Type: research

Examining the role of methamphetamine in permanency: A competing risks analysis of reunification, guardianship, and adoption.
This study sought to compare the impact of parental methamphetamine use to alcohol use, other drug use, and polysubstance use on the timing of 3 types of permanency: reunification, guardianship, and adoption. Using an entry cohort of 16,620 children who had entered foster care during a 5-year period, competing risks event history models were conducted for each permanency type. Findings showed that, after controlling for several case characteristics, parent illicit drug use significantly impacted the timing of the 3 types of permanency, but alcohol use did not. Methamphetamine, other drug, and polysubstance with methampheta...
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Akin, Becci A.; Brook, Jody; Lloyd, Margaret H. Source Type: research

Overcoming the educational disadvantages of poor children: How much do teacher preparation, workload, and expectations matter.
This article reviews data on aspects of the learning environment most closely associated with successful development of early academic competence, compares children from low socioeconomic backgrounds to children with higher socioeconomic status (SES) on access to academically auspicious environments, and uses the findings to identify promising targets for social innovations aimed at improving the educational prospects of poor children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry)
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - March 30, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Barbarin, Oscar A.; Aikens, Nikki Source Type: research