THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INVENTORY OF ADOLESCENT WELL-BEING: A FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALIZATION ON ADOLESCENTS

This study was designed to advance a body of knowledge concerned with the impact of psychiatric hospitalization on adolescents. According to the literature, little systematic research has been conducted and the research that has been completed has been narrow in scope and fraught with methodological weaknesses. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of hospitalization on adolescents using comparison groups, large sample sizes, multivariate statistical procedures, and multiple methods of assessment. The sample population consisted of 544 adolescents who comprised four comparison groups of normals, adjudicated delinquents, psychiatric patients, and a follow-up group of discharged psychiatric patients. Assessment instruments included the author-developed Inventory of Adolescent Well-Being, the General Well-Being Schedule, and the Current Adjustment Rating Scale. Further, data regarding differences by sex, number of signs of family disturbance, and the effects of outpatient psychotherapy services following discharge were interpreted. Discriminant Analyses indicated that the Inventory of Adolescent Well-Being correctly classified 71% of the adolescents into the four groups. The General Well-Being Schedule classified with 49% accuracy and the Current Adjustment Rating Scale with 46% accuracy. Additional analyses revealed the following findings: A follow-up group of former psychiatric patients, living home, most closely resembled the normals with 86.8% of those adolescents reporting improvement in their general well-being. Uniform sex differences were found among the four groups with boys consistently reporting higher levels of well-being than girls. No statistical difference was found between former patients residing home who received outpatient services and those not receiving services. Finally, no significant differences were found with regard to the number of signs of family disruption when former patients residing home and former patients discharged to other placements were compared. A discussion is included which articulates the implications found between the normals and hospitalized adolescents; between the hospitalized sample and adjudicated delinquents; and pertaining to the improvement level noted in the former patients. The development of the Inventory of Adolescent Well-Being meets a need for follow-up measures developed specifically for adolescents. These results and their implications are further discussed

Life history and the ecology of stress: how do glucocorticoid hormones influence life‐history variation in animals?

Summary Glucocorticoids hormones (GCs) are intuitively important for mediation of age‐dependent vertebrate life‐history transitions through their effects on ontogeny alongside underpinning variation in life‐history traits and trade‐offs in vertebrates. These concepts largely derive from the ability of GCs to alter energy allocation, physiology and behaviour that influences key life‐history traits involving age‐specific life‐history transitions, reproduction and survival. Studies across vertebrates have shown that the neuroendocrine stress axis plays a role in the developmental processes that lead up to age‐specific early life‐history transitions. While environmental sensitivity of the stress axis allows for it to modulate the timing of these transitions within species, little is known as to how variation in stress axis function has been adapted to produce interspecific variation in the timing of life‐history transitions. Our assessment of the literature confirms that of previous reviews that there is only equivocal evidence for correlative or direct functional relationships between GCs and variation in reproduction and survival. We conclude that the relationships between GCs and life‐history traits are complex and general patterns cannot be easily discerned with current research approaches and experimental designs. We identify several future research directions including: (i) integration of proximate and ultimate measures, including longitudinal studies that measure effects of GCs on more than one life‐history trait or in multiple environmental contexts, to test explicit hypotheses about how GCs and life‐history variation are related and (ii) the measurement of additional factors that modulate the effects of GCs on life‐history traits (e.g. GC receptors and binding protein levels) to better infer neurendocrine stress axis actions. Conceptual models of HPA/I axis actions, such as allostatic load and reactive scope, to some extent explicitly predict the role of GCs in a life‐history context, but are descriptive in nature. We propose that GC effects on life‐history transitions, survival probabilities and fecundity can be modelled in existing quantitative demographic frameworks to improve our understanding of how GC variation influences life‐history evolution and GC‐mediated effects on population dynamics Lay Summar