Symptomatic and Functional Outcomes Among Individuals at High Risk for Psychosis Participating in Step-Based Care.

Validated, multicomponent treatments designed to address symptoms and functioning of individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis are currently lacking. The authors report findings of a study with such individuals participating in step-based care-a program designed to provide low-intensity, non-psychosis-specific interventions and advancement to higher-intensity, psychosis-specific interventions only if an individual is not meeting criteria for a clinical response. Among individuals with symptomatic or functional concerns at enrollment, 67% met criteria for a symptomatic response (median time to response=11.1 weeks), and 64% met criteria for a functional response (median time to response=8.9 weeks).

Suicidal thoughts and behaviors among gender and sexual minorities: Adults ages 25-44 show highest rates of past month suicidal thoughts.

INTRODUCTION: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) people are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors relative to their cisgender heterosexual peers. However, most research in this area has focused on youth, limiting our understanding of suicide risk among SGM adults. METHODS: To address this gap in the literature, the present study examined suicidal thoughts and behaviors among SGM adults across different age groups using a sample of 10,620 US adults. RESULTS: Consistent with the literature on youth, SGM adults showed higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors than cisgender heterosexual adults. When examining prevalence rates across various age groups, young adults (18-25) showed greater suicidal thoughts and behaviors relative to adults ages 45+. However, adults ages 25-44 actually showed the highest rate of past month suicidal thoughts compared to adults ages 18-25. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that suicide risk for SGM extends beyond youth and highlights the need for more research on middle-age SGM adults. Additional resources for SGM adults that are not only tailored toward youth and young adults are warranted.

The role of personal and perceived peer norms in bullying and sexual harassment perpetration.

Bullying, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment can be impacted by both personal attitudes and perceived social norms, although few empirical studies on this topic have been conducted with high school students. In this cross-sectional study, 233 high school students completed measures about personal normative attitudes, perceptions of peer norms, and perpetration of bullying, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment. Consistent with social norms theory, students perceived themselves to hold more prosocial (i.e., antibullying/antisexual harassment) personal normative attitudes than they perceived the typical student in their school to hold (i.e., peer norms). Path analyses revealed that students' personal normative attitudes (e.g., antibullying/antiharassment) were negatively related to their bullying, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment perpetration, although perceived peer norms were negatively related to sexual harassment perpetration only. Multiple-group path analysis revealed significant gender differences. Personal normative attitudes related to females' behavior for all forms of perpetration and only sexual harassment and cyberbullying for males (with more antibullying/antiharassment attitudes relating to less perpetration), although associations for males were stronger. Perceived peer norms related to bullying perpetration for males only. Results are discussed with regard to social-cognitive and peer contextual factors and implications for social norms interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Student Knowledge Gain Following the Second Step Child Protection Unit: the Influence of Treatment Integrity.

Treatment integrity is an important yet understudied component of school-based prevention programming, particularly for sensitive topics such as child sexual abuse prevention (CSA). This study examined student- and teacher-level characteristics, including components of treatment integrity, that contributed to greater knowledge gain among students participating in the Second Step Child Protection Unit (CPU). The study was conducted with 1132 students and 57 teachers from four elementary schools enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of the CPU. Students were administered assessments at pre-test, post-test, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up. Teachers were observed and rated on Content Integrity (CI; adherence to content), Process Integrity (PI; teacher enthusiasm, encouragement, behavior management), and Dose Received (DR; student behavior and interest) when delivering the lessons. Hierarchical linear growth modeling indicated that students who received the CPU made gains in the knowledge of CSA concepts and skills over a 12-month follow-up period. Girls had significantly greater CSA knowledge than boys immediately after the intervention, with gender remaining significant even when accounting for level-3 variables. Older children had better knowledge scores at post-test, but growth over time results revealed that younger students made greater gains. For students in 2nd through 4th grade, CI was more important for post-test outcomes, while for all students, CI and grade taught were important to post-test scores. Teachers of lower grades had students with a faster growth rate on correct responses to vignettes. Implications for CSA prevention programming and future research are discussed.