related with lower levels of anxiety.
The authors further found that a
levels of depression, anxiety, and conduct
problems following the attacks. There was CRiSiS ManageMent
large percentage of children had fre- also some indication of gender differences
quent thoughts about the attacks and in the children’s responses to the attack:
worried “pretty much” or “a lot” imme- Boys demonstrated greater levels of con-
diately following the attack. The results duct problems while girls reported being A Centennial Milestone (1910–2010):
also revealed that the parents often un-
derestimated the children’s psychological
more upset by the attacks. Children’s pre-
attack levels of internalizing and external- 100 Years of Youth Suicide Prevention
distress. For example, recalling the week izing problems were negatively associated
B y daV i d n . M i l l e r
after September 11, 2001, 59% of children with postattack PTS symptoms. In explain-
reported having frequent thoughts about ing this finding, the authors suggested the In their excellent text, Adolescent Suicide: Assessment and Intervention, 2nd edition
the attacks (vs. 45% of parent report), 77% attacks provided a different frame of ref- (2006), authors Alan Berman, David Jobes, and Morton Silverman ask the reader
of children reported being worried (vs. erence from which individuals evaluated to do the following:
53% of parent report), 55% worried about their own problems and resulted in them
the safety of friends (vs. 33% of parent re- downplaying their own challenges. How- Imagine yourself sitting at a symposium on adolescent suicide called in response
port), and 53% worried about their own ever, their preattack levels of social com- to media reports of an alarming increase in the incidence of youth suicide. An
safety (vs. 16% of parent report). Further, petence and self-esteem were associated interdisciplinary panel of distinguished speakers has gathered to present views
on open-ended questions, 33% of children with lower PTS symptoms and were sug- and explanations for the problem and suggestions for its resolution. The panel
worried about similar events happening gested by the study authors to serve as pro- focuses on the schools and the intensely competitive pressures of the times as
in the future, 30% worried about simi- tective factors. sources of stress. Youth suicide is noted by some panelists to be an international
lar events happening closer to home, and In examining the predictors of postat- problem. Others question the validity and adequacy of official statistics; still oth-
21% worried about going to war or worried tack adjustment, results indicated that (a) ers comment on the problem of journalistic sensationalism. Concerns are raised
about consequences of war. In addition, younger children were less likely to dem- about suicide clusters, the role of suggestibility and imitation, as well as the avail-
the authors found that children’s report, onstrate PTS symptoms, (b) child report ability of guns. Various preventive and intervention strategies are proposed, and
but not parents’ report, of their level of of preattack anxiety predicted higher levels the educational system is singled out as uniquely positioned to play a key role
upset in the week following the attacks of postattack PTS symptoms 2 to 9 weeks in prevention. (p. 21)
was associated with the children’s report following the attacks, and (c) parent re-
of PTS symptoms. port of preattack externalizing problems Any contemporary school psychologist would not be surprised by the issues
Regarding symptoms related to PTS, predicted higher levels of postattack PTS addressed in this symposium, one that could easily have taken place at any recent
the results revealed that approximately symptoms 2 to 9 weeks following the at- NASP convention. What is perhaps surprising, however, is that this symposium oc-
39% of children exhibited symptoms tacks. Furthermore, the authors found that curred in 1910 in Vienna, Austria—100 years ago. The chair of the symposium was
consistent with DSM-IV criteria for post- 2–9 week postattack PTS symptom sever- none other than Sigmund Freud, and the distinguished panel of psychiatrists in at-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ity predicted higher levels of anxiety and tendance was from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, whose members included
authors provided a descriptive compari- conduct problems at 6-month follow-up. Carl Jung and Alfred Adler (Berman, Jobes, & Silverman, 2006; Breger, 2000). This
son of degrees of symptoms reported by Lengua and colleagues (2005) ex- symposium on youth suicide was one of the last meetings of the Society, which was
the children in their study and degrees of tended previous research by examin- presided over by Freud and held on Wednesday nights in his living room (Fried-
symptoms reported by children who were ing the indirect impact of tragic events man, 1967; Berman et al., 2006).
directly affected by an earthquake measur- on children’s psychological functioning. Although this was certainly not the first time individuals gathered to discuss
ing 6.6 on the Richter scale in Northridge, Their results suggest that in an event of na- the issue of youth suicide and how to address it, it is one of the first official records
CA in 1994. The results indicated that com- tional catastrophic tragedy, the impact is of such a meeting among a large group of prominent mental health professionals,
pared to children who were directly af- not only limited to the individuals d