This study aims to carry out an evaluation of bereavement counselling provided by a voluntary charity from the perspective of clients who had availed themselves of the service. A questionnaire survey of ex-clients of one branch of a major voluntary sector bereavement care organization was carried out. Based on a sample of 89 returned questionnaires (representing a response rate of 45%), findings indicated that paraprofessional voluntary counsellors can provide a counselling service to bereaved people that satisfies the majority of clients who report positive experiences in counselling and post-counselling outcomes, and generally rate their counselling as helpful. Nonetheless, there was a minority of ex-clients who did not regard their status, 6 weeks after counselling, as being more positive. Further, the reputation of the voluntary agency within the community and among potential referrers and ex-clients appears strong, offering additional positive evidence of the status of their bereavement counselling service in the locality.

In this study, we examine the relationships among reflected appraisals, self-views, and well-being for individuals diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness. We also test a perceptual control model of identity to determine whether discrepancies between stigmatized reflected appraisals and stigmatized self-views are associated with self-evaluation (self-esteem and self-efficacy) and psychological distress (depressive symptoms). We find that stigmatized self-views are significantly associated with lower self-esteem and self-efficacy and higher levels of depressive symptoms. Stigmatized reflected appraisals are also associated with lower self-efficacy and higher depressive symptoms but are not associated with self-esteem. As predicted, discrepancies between reflected appraisals and self-views are associated with lower levels of self-efficacy and higher levels of depressive symptoms; however, we do not find a relationship between identity discrepancy and self-esteem. We discuss the implications of our findings for identity and stigma research.

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This study examines the prevalence of comorbid physical health conditions within a community sample of individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), compares them to a matched national sample without SMI, and identifies which comorbidities create the greatest disease burden for those with SMI. Self-reported health status, co-morbid medical conditions and perceived disease burden were collected from 203 adults with SMI. Prevalence of chronic health conditions was compared to a propensity-matched sample without SMI from the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R). Compared to NCS-R sample without SMI, our sample with SMI had a higher prevalence of seven out of nine categories of chronic health conditions. Chronic pain and headaches, as well as the number of chronic conditions, were associated with increased disease burden for individuals with SMI. Further investigation of possible interventions, including effective pain management, is needed to improve the health status of this population.

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The present article reports further findings relating to the "Things I Worry About" Scale as a method of recording the self-expressed personal. and social concerns of adolescent school pupils. A revised 138-item scale that encompasses 13 categories of worry was administered to a sample of 3,983 young people between 13 and 19 years of age, all of whom were attending postprimary schools throughout Northern Ireland. Compared with previous findings, the results suggest a slightly modified 13-category structure and provide preliminary evidence of content validity. The findings also indicate that the scale reflects a number of predictable differences in the domain of adolescent concerns.

There is a growing interest in identifying stressors affecting adolescents and the conditions under which they compromise well-being. This study uses Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate discrepancies between adolescents’ college aspirations and the aspirations they perceive their parents to have for them, and their impact on changes over time in depressive symptoms. Findings from generalized estimating equation (GEE) linear regression analyses suggest that, with one exception, college aspiration discrepancies with either parent predict increases in adolescents’ depressive symptoms, but the degree of change varies by direction of discrepancy and by the parent implicated in the discrepancy. Discrepancies indicating that adolescents perceive their parents to have higher college aspirations for them than they have for themselves and discrepancies involving fathers are particularly influential in predicting depressive symptoms. Implications for adolescent educational attainment and future theory and research are discussed.

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