Assessment and Treatment of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder in the College and University Population

The assessment and treatment of students with borderline personality traits or disorders poses specific challenges for clinicians at college and university mental health centers complicated, frequently, by a model of brief treatment frameworks and high patient volumes. Students with borderline pathology will be well represented in student health centers and will likely generate unusually complex and concerning situations for clinicians and administrators. Accurate diagnosis of borderline pathology, avoidance of iatrogenic complications related to misdiagnosis, and referral to informed and evidence-based interventions can guide clinicians’ management. Risk management concerns are best addressed by a clear and realistic understanding of the borderline pathology. The author proposes a variety of interventions for college and university mental health clinicians with the goal of accurate diagnosis of borderline personality, management focusing on safety for both students and clinicians, and targeted referrals for both borderline symptomatology and co-occurring conditions.     

Are Information Seekers and Users Among the General Public at a Crossroads?

Abstract

Presently, eating disorders affect millions of people. Today, the media and the Internet are major publishing channels for consumer health information. Much research has found that the media may offer insufficient information on eating disorders. This research examines the quantity of adult consumer health publications on eating disorders in magazine articles and on the Internet in 1998 and investigates the effectiveness of Internet search engines. The results indicate that the resources found in popular magazines and on the Internet are not adequate, and that the Internet search engines are not effective in searching for information.     

Speaking into Silences: Autoethnography,Communication, and Applied Research

Editor's Note: Given the rare use of autoethnography in the field of communication, I invited Dr. Tillmann to discuss autoethnography as a valuable tool in applied communication research. This discussion serves as a prelude to her essay “Body and Bulimia Revisited: Reflections on ‘A Secret Life.’”

In 2004, two articles in the Journal of Applied Communication Research (Ashcraft & Tretheway, 2004; Goodall, 2004) celebrated the merits of auto- and narrative ethnography, methods of research grounded in lived experience and evocative modes of representation that seek to engage readers emotionally, aesthetically, ethically, and politically. Despite these and other persuasive calls for auto- and narrative ethnographic works, few have been published in communication journals. More than four years ago, JACR offered readers arguments for this kind of scholarship, yet no full-length autoethnography appeared in its pages—until now. This essay, a prelude to its companion, “Body and Bulimia Revisited,” speaks into that silence.     

Urban Youth's Perspectives on Flash Mobs

Flash mobs are new, emerging, and evolving social phenomena that have recently been associated with youth violence in the US cities. The current study explores how youth understand flash mobs through focus groups conducted in Kansas City, Missouri (a site of violent youth flash mobs). Results indicate that youth have varying familiarity with flash mobs and define them in different ways; that youth perceive youth boredom to be the most frequent cause of problems with flash mobs; that youth connect ongoing social disorder with the violence associated with flash mobs; and that while social media are facilitators of flash mobs, flash mobs have their roots in youth activities that have been going on for generations (e.g., hanging out in groups and cruising). Results illustrate the importance of conducting formative research with youth, particularly about emergent phenomena, when developing interventions and communication campaigns aimed at reducing youth violence.     

冯巩小品语言艺术的研究

冯巩的小品被大众所关注,主要是因为特色化的语言方式,诙谐幽默的笑料,生动形象的演绎,使得他的小品深受大家的喜爱。本文主要通过语音、词汇、句式方面将冯巩近几年小品的语言进行分析和探究,概括出冯巩小品特色化语言的表达特点。     

Making learning accessible for sign language interpreters: a process of change

This article outlines an innovative project conducted at Macquarie University, in order to instigate a change in the delivery of the Postgraduate Diploma in Auslan/English Interpreting. This is the first reported educational change project focusing on the training of sign language interpreters. The goal of the project was to research and develop a new curriculum, and delivery mode for the program so that it could be offered in external (distance) mode, and therefore made accessible to potential students from all over Australia. Action research was used to guide the process as it provided a framework for evaluation. The project demonstrates that interpreters can be trained effectively using a blended approach to distance education, and that action research can be used as an effective approach to the implementation of educational change in an emerging field.     

REPORTING ON FAIRNESS IN CIVIC LIFE

Drawing on procedural justice research from social psychology, this study explores the role that journalistic practice plays in telling community members about whether local politicians are behaving fairly. Qualitative interviews with 24 community journalists working in cities in Upstate New York are used to answer the following research questions: (1) how does content regarding authority fairness find its way into news stories, and (2) what facets of justice—whether distributive, voice, or relational—do journalists emphasize. The interviewed journalists said that they often used their evaluation of local politicians’ fairness in deciding whether to pursue a story. In doing so, these journalists highlighted questions of whether politicians were listening to community members and the degree to which they appeared to take the best interest of citizens to heart. There was little agreement among journalists about the degree to which citizens could adequately make fairness judgments based on local news coverage, although the television reporters believed that television's visual component provided key information about the fairness of local politicians.     

Childhood maltreatment and post-traumatic stress disorder among incarcerated young offenders

Young offenders have a high prevalence of mental illness and a large proportion report experiencing a number of traumatic events during childhood, but there is little research exploring this association. This study describes the prevalence of, and association between, child maltreatment and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among young offenders. The study uses data collected as part of the 2009 NSW Young People in Custody Health Survey which was conducted in nine juvenile detention centers. This paper reports on findings from the baseline questionnaires and 18-months of re-offending data. The analysis included 291 participants who were assessed for PTSD and child maltreatment. The sample was 88% male, 48% Aboriginal, with an average age of 17 years (range 13–21 years). One in five (20%) participants were diagnosed with PTSD, with females significantly more likely to have PTSD than males (40% vs. 17%, p < 0.05). Over half (60%) of young offenders reported any child abuse or neglect, with females nearly 10 times more likely to report three or more kinds of severe child maltreatment than males. The main correlate for a diagnosis of PTSD was having three or more kinds of severe child maltreatment (OR = 6.73, 95% CI: 1.06–42.92). This study provides evidence for the need to comprehensively assess child abuse and neglect among young offenders in order to provide appropriate treatment in custody and post-release.     

Role of emotion dysregulation in the relationship between childhood abuse and probable PTSD in a sample of substance abusers

This study examined associations among childhood abuse, emotion dysregulation, and probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within a sample of 93 substance use disorder (SUD) patients in residential treatment. SUD patients with probable PTSD (vs. non-PTSD) reported (a) greater severity of childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and (b) significantly higher levels of overall emotion dysregulation and the specific dimensions of difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset, difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when distressed, limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, and lack of emotional clarity. Additionally, significant positive associations were found between both childhood physical and emotional (but not sexual) abuse on the one hand and dimensions of emotion dysregulation on the other. Further analyses indicated that difficulties controlling impulsive behaviors when distressed accounted for the associations of both childhood physical and emotional abuse with probable PTSD status. Findings of the present study highlight a potential mechanism underlying the relationships between both childhood emotional and physical abuse and PTSD in SUD patients.     

The learner experience of Curriculum 2000: implications for the reform of 14–19 education in England

In September 2000, new qualifications for 16–19 year olds, known as Curriculum 2000, were introduced in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland with the aim of broadening the advanced level curriculum. It was left to schools, colleges, and their learners, however, to decide how these new qualifications would be used to build learner programmes of study. In this voluntarist context, the views and actions of learners have been an important factor in determining the course of the reforms. This article, which is based primarily on a study of 42 learners in a school/college consortium in the south west of England, provides a chronological account of learner experiences of these reforms during their first 2 years of implementation. The consortium discussed here offered a high‐volume study programme similar in size and content to those being proposed by the Tomlinson Working Group on 14–19 curriculum and qualifications reform in England. Learners found their expanded programmes onerous, due in part to the nature of the new qualifications and in part to the context of their implementation. The article concludes by identifying a number of policy lessons for 14–19 reform arising from this research.