Reactions to dating violence among Latino teenagers: an experiment utilizing the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations paradigm.

Dating violence is a serious problem among adolescents and young adults. Understanding teens' reactions to dating violence offers the potential to understand the factors that lead to perpetration of violent behavior and to elucidate prevention strategies. Knowledge concerning youth attitudes about dating violence is limited, and has largely come from self-report questionnaires to date. We utilized the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) paradigm to assessing Latino teens' reactions to dating violence. Forty-one 9th grade students were presented with four simulated dating violence scenarios, and articulated their thoughts in response to them. Teens' reactions to dating violence differed on a variety of dimensions as a function of their gender, the gender of the perpetrator, and familiarity with the perpetrator.

Perspectives on nontraditional research careers in clinical psychology.

Building on a panel presentation titled "Career opportunities for behavioral scientists: Non-academic research settings," given at the November 2004 meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, this article presents the experiences of three clinical psychologists who have careers in nontraditional research settings. These authors focus on three issues: (a) What nontraditional career did they pursue and why? (b) What, if anything, in their training prepared them for that career? (c) What advice would they give to students and young professionals who are considering pursuing a similar type of nontraditional career option? An introduction and concluding remarks that highlight recent trends in the academic job market and themes across each authors' experience are provided by the chair of the panel.

Trauma, depression, coping, and mental health service seeking among impoverished women.

The authors examined the relationship among trauma, coping, depression, and mental health service seeking in a probability sample of sheltered homeless and low-income housed women. Results highlight the diversity of trauma. In a longitudinal analysis, women who lived in shelters or experienced major violence had a twofold increase in their risk of depression over the 6-month follow-up. In a cross-sectional analysis, childhood sexual abuse, living in a shelter, physical violence, childhood physical abuse, and death or injury of a friend or relative predicted avoidant coping and symptoms of depression. Active coping and depression predicted mental health service seeking among traumatized women. Modifying coping strategies may ameliorate some of the negative impact of trauma and potentially enhance mental health service use among at-risk women.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for panic disorder: a review of treatment elements, strategies, and outcomes.

This article provides an overview of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder. CBT is currently considered a first-line treatment for panic disorder. It offers benefit after short-term intervention, typically consisting of 12-15 sessions conducted in either an individual or a group format. The treatment focuses on the elimination of the patterns that underlie and perpetuate the disorder. Through CBT, patients learn about the nature of the disorder and acquire a set of strategies that counter the fears of panic attacks themselves, and break the recurring cycle of anticipatory anxiety, panic, and agoraphobic avoidance. The collaborative format of treatment, and a focus on elimination of core fears may be factors in enhancing longer-term outcome. In this article, we review the efficacy of CBT as a first-line treatment, a strategy for medication nonresponders, a replacement strategy for patients who wish to discontinue pharmacotherapy, and a potential preventive strategy for at-risk individuals. We also discuss some of the complex issues involved with combination-treatment strategies.

Bystanders' perceptions of perpetrators and victims of hate crime: an investigation using the person perception paradigm.

This study used the person perception vignette method to examine whether people perceive hate crime victims as more culpable than non-hate crime victims. In a between-participants design, participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette depicting a nonhate crime or a comparable hate crime motivated by the perpetrator's hatred for either the victim's race, sexual orientation, or religion. Results showed that participants assigned more blame to the victim in the non-hate crime condition compared to the victims in each of the three hate crime conditions. In addition, they perceived the perpetrators as more guilty in each of the three hate crime conditions compared to the non-hate crime condition. In addition, people with prejudiced attitudes perceived both hate crime and non-hate crime victims as more culpable and both hate crime and non-hate crime perpetrators as less culpable than did unprejudiced people.

Base rates of hate crime victimization among college students.

This study uses the unmatched count technique (UCT) to estimate base rates for hate crime victimization in college students and compares the results with estimates found using conventional methods. Hate crimes, criminal acts perpetrated against individuals or members of specific stigmatized groups, intend to express condemnation, hate, disapproval, dislike, or distrust for a group. The UCT is a promising tool in the investigation of hate crime because it does not require participants to directly answer sensitive questions. This may provide more accurate responses than other methods. The UCT revealed higher estimates for a variety of serious hate crimes, including physical and sexual assault. These higher estimates provide a better feel for the level of hate crime victimization and point to the increased need for hate crime victims' assistance programs on college campuses.