Posttraumatic stress disorder, suicidal behavior, substance use, and sexual victimization among adolescent girls aged 10-19 years living under ethnic-based civil war in Ethiopia

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, impairing mental disorder that develops after exposure to a traumatic event. Despite many factors putting adolescent girls at risk of PTSD, little is known about the prevalence and how adolescent girls cope with the PTSD burden. So, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of PTSD and associated […]

Social problem-solving and suicidal behavior in adolescent girls: A prospective examination of proximal and distal social stress-related risk factors

Adverse social experiences are often linked to suicidal behavior in adolescence, perhaps particularly for girls. Social problem-solving abilities may indicate more or less adaptive responses to adverse social experiences that contribute to adolescent girls’ risk for suicidal behavior. While social problem-solving is implicated in cognitive and behavioral theories of suicidal behavior, prior work is largely […]

Reaching the final straw: Shedding light on alarming suicide trends and perceptions impacting women, girls, and young people stuck in limbo in Northwest Syria

The majority of children and families in Northwest Syria have been displaced from their homes during the conflict. The 9,000 square kilometre area houses more than 2.87 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), 63% of whom still reside in overcrowded camps. The more than 1.7 million girls and boys in Northwest Syria are particularly prone to health outbreaks – much […]

Increasing suicide rates in early adolescent girls in the United States and the equalization of sex disparity in suicide: The need to investigate the role of social media

In the context of increasing rates of suicide in US youth, a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1 revealed that the largest percentage increases in the rates of suicide occurred in girls aged 10 to 14 years. In an unprecedented escalation, rates of suicide in this subgroup tripled between 1999 and […]

Specification curve analysis shows that social media use is linked to poor mental health, especially among girls

An important 2019 paper applied a novel analytic technique called Specification Curve Analysis (SCA) to data from three large-scale community samples to investigate the association between adolescent technology use and mental health/well-being. The paper concluded that an association exists but is tiny, with median betas between -0.01 and -0.04. This association was reported to be […]

“Stop giving me a number and start giving me a person”: How 22 girls illuminate the cracks in the Manitoba youth mental health and addiction system

The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth released her report titled “Stop Giving Me a Number and Start Giving Me a Person”: How 22 Girls Illuminate the Cracks in the Manitoba Youth Mental Health and Addiction System on May 7, National Youth Mental Health Day. The report dives into lessons learned from the suicide deaths of 22 Manitoba […]

Acute pesticide poisoning amongst adolescent girls and women in northern Tanzania

Background Acute pesticide poisoning (APP) is reported to affect community health worldwide but its burden in Tanzania is unknown particularly in women. This study examines APP involving adult females and adolescent girls 10 to 19 years in 3 regions of Tanzania which are famous for coffee and vegetable production. Methods Over the period of 12 months, health […]

Prospective prediction of first onset of nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescent girls

Objective Adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a significant risk factor for suicidal behavior and an important clinical marker of psychopathology. NSSI is especially common in adolescent girls. A number of psychosocial correlates of adolescent NSSI have been identified, including problems characterized by disinhibition and negative affectivity. However, it is unknown whether these characteristics prospectively predict […]

Can social support buffer the association between depression and suicidal ideation in adolescent boys and girls?

The purpose of the current study is to investigate social support (from parents, classmates, teachers, and close friends) as a protective factor in the association between depression and suicidal ideation. Data on students’ levels of social support, depression, and suicidal ideation were collected from 399 9th‐grade students using the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale […]

Age at menarche, depression, and antisocial behavior in adulthood.

BACKGROUND: Early pubertal timing in girls is one of the best-replicated antecedents of a range of mental health problems during adolescence, but few researchers have examined the duration of these effects. METHODS: We leverage a nationally representative sample (N = 7802 women) managed prospectively from adolescence over a period of ∼14 years to examine associations of age at […]

An overview of common psychiatric problems among adolescent and young adult females: Focus on mood and anxiety.

Highlights • Early pubertal timing and increased BMI among girls are associated with poorer mental health. • Depressive disorders result in the greatest negative impact on daily functioning and experienced distress in teen girls. • Employing anxiety and depression screeners may assist medical providers in identifying teens to refer to psychiatric care. • Newer class […]

Suicidal ideation of psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents has one-year predictive validity for suicide attempts in girls only.

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Attachment-based family therapy with a 13-year-old girl presenting with high risk for suicide.

This article describes the application of Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT) to the treatment of a 13-year-old female adolescent presenting with high risk of suicide, complicated by a history of depression and sexual trauma. The article begins with an overview of ABFT, including (a) how attachment theory guides treatment; (b) the structure of the clinical model; […]

Early-adult correlates of maltreatment in girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Increased risk for internalizing symptoms and suicidality.

We examined whether maltreatment experienced in childhood and/or adolescence prospectively predicts young adult functioning in a diverse and well-characterized sample of females with childhood-diagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (N = 140). Participants were part of a longitudinal study and carefully evaluated in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood (Mage = 9.6, 14.3, and 19.7 years, respectively), with high […]

Suicidal behavior outcomes of childhood sexual abuse: Longitudinal study of adjudicated girls.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) histories are prevalent among adolescent girls in the juvenile justice system (JJS) and may contribute to their high rates of suicidal behavior. Among 166 JJS girls who participated in an intervention trial, baseline CSA and covariates were examined as predictors of suicide attempt and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) reported at long-term follow-up […]

Young adult follow-up of adolescent girls in juvenile justice using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale.

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The impact of comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders on severity of anorexia nervosa in adolescent girls.

We examined the impact of comorbid depression and anxiety disorders on the severity of anorexia nervosa (AN) in adolescent girls. Our findings suggest that AN with comorbid depression and anxiety disorder is a more severe clinical variant of the disorder, especially with respect to severity of psychological symptoms and suicide risk.

Committing: “To our futures”

“It was from our experiences and the realities of the development and presentation of the play that we wrote this book, with the intention that the book serve as a tool for the enhancement of protective factors in the development of prevention practises to reduce youth suicide.”

Preventing youth violence perpetration among girls.

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Canada-wide effect of regulatory warnings on antidepressant prescribing and suicide rates in boys and girls.

Objective: To examine the impact of the Health Canada regulatory warnings regarding antidepressant (AD) prescribing on suicide rates in boys and girls under the age of 18 and aged 18 to 19 years in Canada between 2004 and 2009. We hypothesized that an increase in suicide rates would be specific to girls, reflecting higher AD […]