Does screening high school students for psychological distress, deliberate self-harm, or suicidal ideation cause distress--and is it acceptable? An Australian-based study

Programs designed to detect students at risk of depression and suicidality have shown success (Shaffer et al., 2004). The current study sought to examine whether or not such a program was acceptable to participants and whether or not it caused distress. Participants were boys aged 14 to 16. Participants were assessed using an on-line questionnaire; acceptability was measured via postal questionnaire. Of 272 participants, 31 (11.4%) were considered at-risk; 13 required ongoing support, 8 of whom had not previously sought help. Overall screening did not appear to cause significant undue distress, although some differences were evident between at-risk and not at-risk students. All participants found the program acceptable. When conducted carefully, early detection programs can be an effective and acceptable method of identifying at-risk adolescents.

Australia's response to sexualised or sexually abusive behaviours in children and young people.

Responding to children and young people with sexualised or sexual offending behaviours presents significant challenges across the allied health, child protection, education and juvenile justice sectors. This report maps the specialised therapeutic services designed to effect positive behavioural change and thus divert young people with sexualised behaviours from the juvenile justice system. Accurate numbers on children with sexualised or sexual offending behaviours are difficult to determine. There are several factors contributing to this gap in understanding. These include entrenched ideals about children as inherently innocent, widespread ignorance about developmental sexuality, and the tendency of both young people and parents to deny or minimise incidents when they do occur.

In Australia, data on children with sexualised behaviours are not collected uniformly and nondisclosure contributes to what might be large numbers of offences going undetected. Mandatory reporting requirements apply where children display sexualised behaviours and are thought to be at risk of harm. Yet a general lack of knowledge as to what constitutes appropriate behaviour means that many may respond inappropriately to incidents of sexualised behaviours. This context of confusion, denial and non-disclosure creates a hidden population of children that continues to be at risk. Attention to redressing the contexts for non-disclosure is urgently required to ensure that children in need are provided with specialised therapeutic care.

This report presents qualitative data from interviews with specialised clinicians as well as submissions from service providers in both community and youth justice settings. In mapping the availability of therapeutic services, this report highlights a number of geographic and demographic gaps in service provision, including difficulties with eligibility criteria, referral pathways, funding arrangements and specialised workforce development. There are multiple challenges facing the tertiary services sector, yet the comprehensive provision of specialised services is just one part of the response required. This study emphasises the need for effective primary and secondary prevention to effect a reduction in the numbers of young people requiring counselling in the future. Consistent with the public health model, this report prioritises professional and community education strategies that would ultimately necessitate fewer tertiary services for young people and fewer places in juvenile detention centres.

Problem sexual behaviour in children: a review of the literature

   Although there is an under-acknowledgement of the issue in Australia there is a large body of international scholarship on juveniles who exhibit sexually violent or coercive behaviours toward other juveniles. Research undertaken in the United States and the United Kingdom emphasises options for clinical treatment, the logistics of coordinating multi agency response, and the causes and correlatives for coercive sexual behaviours in adolescents. Much of this literature has tended to focus on adolescents and there is an urgent need for increased studies on young children engaging in problem sexual behaviour.

   The smaller body of work published in Australia also favours adolescents rather than children with much of this work heavily influenced by international clinical studies. There are, however, a handful of reports based on Australian practitioner data that do focus on young children who engage in problem sexual behaviour. This literature surveys and evaluates the very limited number of existing therapeutic programs in Australia, and provides interview data with practitioners working with children exhibiting problem sexual behaviour. In the main, this research reinforces the findings of the internationa scholarship, both in terms of the contributing factors to problem sexual activity in children, but also in terms of the need for multi-faceted and contextually based cognitive behavioural therapeutic programs in response. More importantly, this burgeoning field of study indicates how far we have to go both in understanding the extent of the problem in Australia and in fashioning appropriate programs for prevention and intervention. Dr Joe Tucci is Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF), an organisation that has taken a lead in responding to childhood problem sexual behaviour. Tucci et al., (2006) claim an urgent need for investment in a dedicated research and response agenda (Staiger et al., 2005b). To effectively address this issue researchers and practitioners require comprehensive empirical data on problem sexual behaviour in children across all sectors of Australian society, including Indigenous communities.

Physiological responses to psychological stress: importance of adiposity in men aged 50-70 years

We tested the hypothesis that overweight/obese men aged 50–70 years will have a greater salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase and heart rate (HR) responses to psychological stress compared with age matched lean men. Lean (BMIZ20–25 kg/m2; nZ19) and overweight/obese (BMIZ27–35 kg/m2; nZ17) men (50–70 years) were subjected to a well-characterised psychological stress (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) at 1500 h. Concentrations of cortisol and alpha amylase were measured in saliva samples collected every 7–15 min from 1400 to 1700 h. HR was recorded using electrocardiogram. Body weight, BMI, percentage body fat, resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were significantly higher (P!0.05) in overweight/obese men compared with lean men. Both groups responded to the TSST with a substantial elevation in salivary cortisol (372%), salivary alpha amylase (123%) and HR (22%). These responses did not differ significantly between the groups (time!treatment interaction for salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase and HR; PZ0.187, PZ0.288, PZ0.550, respectively). There were no significant differences between the groups for pretreatment values, peak height, difference between pretreatment values and peak height (reactivity) or area under the curve for salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase or HR (PO0.05 for all). The results showed that, for men with a moderate level of overweight/obesity who were otherwise healthy, the response of salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase and HR to acute psychological stress was not impaired.

Psychological contract development: An integration of existing knowledge to form a temporal model

The psychological contract has received substantial theoretical attention over the past two decades as a popular framework within which to examine contemporary employment relationships. Previous research mostly examines breach and violation of the psychological contract and its impact on employee organization outcomes. Few studies have employed longitudinal, prospective research designs to investigate the psychological contract and as a result, psychological contract content and formation are incompletely understood. It is argued that employment relationships may be better proactively managed with greater understanding of formation and changes in the psychological contract. We examine existing psychological contract literature to identify five key factors proposed to contribute to the formation of psychological contracts. We extend the current research by integrating these factors for the first time into a temporal model of psychological contract development.