May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. This is a great time to highlight the importance of mental wellness and school-based mental health services to children's positive learning and development. There is heightened urgency to the imperative to advance school-based mental health and school psychologists' expertise as essential to the…

Extensive research suggests that adolescence is a critical developmental period, especially when it comes to factors that influence mental health problems. Systematic efforts to promote adolescent help-seeking are essential for improving long-term mental health outcomes. Defined as a "behavior of actively seeking help from other people,"…

Psychotropic medications are increasingly used to treat children and adolescents with mental health conditions. Between the years 1994 and 2001, there was a 191.7% increase in number of office visits resulting in a psychotropic medication prescription among children and adolescents. Many drugs are prescribed to children "off-label", whereby they…

A concussion is a serious injury--a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI)--that induces physiological disruption of brain function. A concussion is caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body. The sudden movement causes stretching and tearing of brain cells; cells become damaged and chemical changes occur within the brain. Concussions can lead…

Rapid advances in digital technologies have resulted in school professionals having to grapple with new and complex dilemmas related to balancing student privacy, safety, and legal rights and restrictions, often with little to no guidance from school or district policies. Students commonly bring cellular telephones, smartphones, iPods, and other…

Teenage sexual activity has arguably received more attention in the national media as of late than ever before. One is inundated with information concerning everything from alarming rises in the incidence and prevalence rates of sexually transmitted infections in adolescents and young adults to the latest round of suspensions (or even arrests)…

The estimated prevalence of one or more mental health disorders among children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 17 is 21% (Satcher, 2001). Similarly, research by Greenberg et al., (2003) estimated that 20% of school-age youth experience mental health problems during the course of any school year. Despite these high prevalence rates, the…

Offering and receiving help are fundamental to human survival. The fact that children engage in beneficial social exchanges before they can even fully appreciate them underscores the importance of cooperation and altruism for human society. Gratitude is a higher-level moral emotion that enables people to notice, understand, and capitalize on…

Students with head injuries may not be as "low incidence" as previously believed. Recent efforts from the American Academy of Pediatrics (2010), the National Football League, and other agencies are attempting to raise awareness of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among students. Along with awareness, there has been an increased publicity effort via…

This paper presents summaries of four articles relevant to school crisis response. The first article, "Peritraumatic Dissociation Predicts Posttraumatic Stress in Youth Following Accidents" summarized by Jim Matthews, suggests that peritraumatic dissociation is a powerful predictor of PTSD symptoms among youth who have been in a car accident. The…

When students reach adolescence, they have often been known to devise destructive outlets for their self-expression (e.g., suggestive dress, tattoos, piercing, and sexual risk-taking). Recently growing in popularity, to almost epidemic proportions in the general adolescent population, is the act of self-injury. Self-injury refers to the…

Researchers have linked self-efficacy to a wide array of outcomes including psychological adjustment, resilience, physical health, achievement, and self-regulation, among others. In this article, the author describes self-efficacy and the factors that contribute to it, highlights the positive outcomes that self-efficacy leads to, and provides…

With the increased emphasis on measuring school success primarily through academic outcomes, some might argue that school professionals cannot afford to pay much attention to students' well-being, especially to such a frivolous component as happiness. Indeed, even some positive psychologists who encourage greater attention to research and…

This column features summaries of research articles from 3 recent crisis management publications. The first, "School Shootings and Counselor Leadership: Four Lessons from the Field" summarized by Kristi Fenning, was conducted as the result of the increased demand for trained crisis personnel on school campuses. Survey participants were leaders…

Anniversaries are appropriate times for reflecting on the past and planning for the future, and in this 100th anniversary year of Sigmund Freud's famous group meeting--a meeting among a large group of prominent mental health professionals that provides a useful marker and arguable "starting point" for contemporary youth suicide prevention efforts,…