The study aimed to investigate the associations between different levels of depression with different aspects of school performance. The target population included 2516 7th–9th grade pupils (13–17 years) of whom 90% completed the questionnaire anonymously in the classroom. Of the girls 18.4% and of the boys 11.1% were classified as being depressed (R‐Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Finnish version of the 13‐item BDI). The lower the self‐reported grade point average (GPA) or the more the GPA had declined from the previous term, the more commonly the adolescents were depressed. Depression was associated with difficulties in concentration, social relationships, self‐reliant school performance and reading and writing as well as perceiving schoolwork as highly loading. The school performance variables had similar associations with depression among both sexes when a wide range of depression was studied but gender differences appeared when studying the severe end of the depression scale. Our study indicates that pupils reporting difficulties in academic performance should be screened for depression.

Early interventions for adolescent substance use and a set of specific psychosocial risk factors should be tailored and evaluated as methods for identifying those at high risk of and preventing excessive alcohol use in adulthood.

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Suicide is one of the most common causes of death among young people worldwide. Adolescence is a developmentally important phase of age due to the growing risk for suicide and prevalence of psychiatric disorders, as well as due to growing possibilities for prevention and treatments. Research findings in theoretical considerations, in psychological autopsy studies as well as in selected follow-up studies of clinical populations and suicide attempters analyzing risk factors for youth suicides are reviewed emphasizing the most recent data. As youth suicides are rare, research on risk factors for youth suicidal ideation, deliberate self-harm behavior and attempted suicide are also briefly reviewed. Family-related adversity, precipitating interpersonal problems, and particularly psychiatric disorders constitute risk factors for adolescent suicide. Mood disorders, substance abuse and prior suicide attempts are strongly related with youth suicides. However, recent psychological autopsy studies in China have found substantially lower rates of psychiatric disorders among suicide victims compared with those in the Western countries. Recognition and effective treatment of psychiatric disorders, e.g. depression are essential in preventing adolescent suicides. As only seldom young suicide victims have received psychiatric care, broad prevention strategies are needed in health care and social services. Education of physicians to recognize youth at risk, and restricting access to lethal means are recommended to prevent suicides. For high-risk youth providing continuity of care is important. Recent treatment studies among suicidal adolescents have reported promising results on safety planning and increased therapeutic contact early in treatment.

Mid-adolescence is an important age to study risk for depression, and self-reported perceptions of psychosocial well-being have predictive value. Preventive efforts can be selectively targeted at adolescents who have been exposed to identifiable risk factors.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) in adolescents. Internal consistency, factor structure, and discriminant and concurrent validity of the DSQ-40 were studied in 211 adolescent psychiatric outpatients aged 13 to 19 years and 199 age-matched and sex-matched controls. Principal components analysis yielded four internally consistent components: mature, neurotic, image-distorting, and immature defense styles. The outpatients reported more immature, image-distorting, and neurotic styles and less mature style than did the controls, suggesting adequate discriminant validity. As a demonstration of convergent and concurrent validity, the severity of psychiatric symptoms assessed by the General Health Questionnaire and psychosocial adjustment assessed by the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale correlated theoretically meaningfully with the different defense styles. The DSQ-40 appears to be a reliable and valid instrument for adolescents.

The purpose of this article is to describe the ethical issues arising out of participatory action research (PAR), on the basis of both an empirical study and the research literature, and to discuss how to deal with these issues. The data consist of the experiences and results of three phases of PAR relating to orthopaedic patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the analysis of 20 articles on the ethics of action research. As a result, the following ethical issues and the ways to treat them were discussed: informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, protecting an individual from harm, the role of the researcher, the location of 'power' in PAR, and the ownership of the research. The flexibility of PAR in use and its main features are also related to the decisions made and actions taken in response to ethical issues. It is particularly important in PAR to proceed according to the participants, and to involve them from the beginning of the process, in order to insure the equal balance of power between participants and researcher.