Previous research has established that Asian Americans use mental health services less frequently and hold poorer attitudes toward psychological counseling than Caucasians. The authors directly tested whether stigmatizing beliefs regarding mental illness might explain such differential attitudes toward counseling in a South Asian and Caucasian student sample. Using mediation analyses, the authors examined 2 aspects of stigma posited to affect help-seeking attitudes: personal stigmatizing views and perceptions of the public's stigmatizing views directed toward persons with mental illness. First, the authors found that Caucasian (n ϭ 74) college students revealed more positive attitudes toward counseling than did South Asian (n ϭ 54) students. Second, in terms of mediation, increased personal stigma, but not perceived stigma, expressed by South Asians partially mediated and accounted for 32% of the observed difference in attitudes toward counseling services. These findings support a long-standing conjecture in the literature regarding the increased significance of stigma processes on disparities in majority-minority help-seeking attitudes. They also suggest that efforts to reduce disparities in attitudes toward counseling for South Asian students specifically should incorporate interventions to reduce the increased stigma expressed by this community, particularly related to a desire for social distance from persons with a mental illness.

The study provides the first empirical evidence of well-established theoretical approaches to the development of BPD.

These results suggest that transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral group treatment for anxiety may be associated with greater decreases in comorbidity than traditional diagnosis-specific CBT.

Sleep loss is associated with affective disturbances and disorders; however, there is limited understanding of specific mechanisms underlying these links, especially in adolescence. The current study tested the effects of sleep restriction versus idealized sleep on adolescents' emotional experience, reactivity and regulation (specifically cognitive reappraisal). Following 1 week of sleep monitoring, healthy adolescents (n = 42; ages 13-17 years) were randomized to 1 night of sleep restriction (4 h) or idealized sleep (9.5 h). The following day, adolescents provided self-reports of affect and anxiety and completed a laboratory-based task to assess: (1) emotional reactivity in response to positive, negative, and neutral images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS); and (2) ability to use cognitive reappraisal to decrease negative emotional responses. Large effects were observed for the adverse impact of sleep restriction on positive affect and anxiety as well as a medium-sized effect for negative affect, compared to the idealized sleep condition. Subjective reactivity to positive and neutral images did not differ between the groups, but a moderate effect was detected for reactivity to negative images whereby sleep-restricted teens reported greater reactivity. Across both sleep conditions, use of cognitive reappraisal down-regulated negative emotion effectively; however, sleep restriction did not impact upon adolescents' ability to use this strategy. These findings add to a growing body of literature demonstrating the deleterious effects of sleep restriction on aspects of emotion and highlight directions for future research in adolescents.

The PSIS shows promise as a valid measure of sleep-related parent/child behaviors and interactions among preschoolers.

Understanding predictors of adolescent inpatient length of stay (LOS) is important in informing treatment outcomes for this age group. The current literature on adolescent LOS remains limited and has been characterized by methodological limitations. In the study described here, we examined a wide range of predictors for LOS in a psychiatric unit for adolescents (N=285), including severity of disorder (previous hospitalizations, self-harm, cognitive impairment and thought disorder, severe depression, history of trauma), types of psychotropic medication, and diagnoses. Our results indicated that LOS is associated with predictors that reflect psychiatric severity-most notably prescription of mood stabilizers and youth-reported internalizing symptoms.

Depressive symptoms and attributional style were assessed in a sample of 7- to 11-year-old children at two time points. Findings revealed that boys and girls did not differ in their level of depressive symptoms over 1 year. At baseline, boys were more likely than girls to make stable attributions for negative events. Boys made fewer stable attributions for positive events than did girls. Moderational analyses suggested that attributional style more strongly predicted changes in the number of depressive symptoms 1 year later in boys when compared to girls. Findings emphasize the need to address vulnerability factors in preadolescent boys that may put them at risk for the development of later depressive symptoms.

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