Perceptions of child sexual abuse:victim and perpetrator characteristics, treatment efficacy, and lay vs. legal opinions of abuse.

Two studies examined interactions between victim age and victim response, and victim relation to perpetrator and victim response influencing perceptions of child sexual abuse (CSA). Undergraduates read one of several vignettes describing a sexual encounter between a man and a girl. In Experiment 1, age of the girl was varied; victim age interacted with victim response to increase ratings of abuse and expected trauma for the girl.

Postpartum depression and social support in adolescents.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of a social support intervention delivered to pregnant adolescent girls between 32 and 36 weeks of gestation in preventing symptoms of depression at 6 weeks postpartum.

Design: The study used a repeated measures design.

Setting: Data were collected at a teenage parenting program, an educational option of the public school system.

Smoking cessation: two pilot studies exploring the use of continuous response format algorithm to identify subgroups within stage.

Stage of change is typically assessed with a series of yes or no questions, a categorical response format staging algorithm. We revised that algorithm by using, instead, the same questions with 7-point agreement scales covering the first three stages with a sample of smokers. Participants were 141 persons enrolled in introductory psychology classes at the University of Louisville during the fall and spring semesters of 1994.

Social support in pregnant and parenting adolescents: research, critique, and recommendations.

Unlabelled: ISSUE AND PURPOSE: Adolescent pregnancies continue to occur at an alarming rate in the United States, resulting in adverse outcomes for both the adolescent and her baby. Since social support has been shown to improve pregnancy and parenting outcomes, a critique of research in this area is presented.

Sources: Published literature.