Adolescent psychopathology

The focus of this study is to add to the outcome research on effective school
counseling interventions and to specifically evaluate the effectiveness of the Student
Success Skills (SSS) small group intervention with students identified as having drop out
potential in the 9th grade. This study analyzed two years of pre-existing, non-identifiable
student data (N = 167) collected by school counselors at one high school in South
Florida. An Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine differences in
academic grades, standardized test scores, and absences between the students who did
participate in the SSS small group intervention when compared to those students who did
not participate. Statistically significant differences were found between groups in all
three dropout potential factors (GPA, test scores, and absences) supporting the use of SSS
small group school counseling intervention with students at risk for dropping out. Effect
size estimates were reported for each of the measures.

Objectives: To describe the co-occurrence of substance use and sexual activity behaviors among Afro-Caribbean adolescents living in South Florida, with attention to legal status, socio-demographic factors and risk-taking attitudes and behaviors. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select 106 Afro-Caribbean adolescents from community centers in South Florida. A descriptive exploratory study was conducted. Data was analyzed using an independent t test, frequencies and crosstabs. Results: The study consists of 106 adolescents, 75% (n = 79) documented and 25% (n = 27) undocumented. Forty-one documented and 10 undocumented adolescents were sexually active. Of those, 14.6% of the documented and 40% of the undocumented adolescents had been drinking alcohol while engaging in sexual activity; 7.3% of documented and 30% of undocumented adolescents used drugs while engaging in sexual activity. Undocumented adolescents had less adult presence before and after school; Creole was spoken at home more than English, and none of the parents had gone to or graduated from college. There was no significant difference in risk-taking and social adaptation scores as measured by the Adolescent Risk-Taking Instrument (ARTI) for the documented and undocumented Afro-Caribbean adolescents. The ARTI had acceptable internal consistency reliability for the risk-taking (.87) and social adaption (.82) scale in this population. The mean score of risk behavior was 2.04 (SD = .44) for documented Afro-Caribbean adolescents and 1.89 (SD = .47) for undocumented adolescents. For social adaptation, mean scores were 3.23 (SD = .45) for documented and 3.20 (SD = .35) for undocumented adolescents. The co-occurrence of substance use and sexual activity is nearly triple for alcohol use and more than triple for drug use when comparing undocumented to documented adolescents.