Summary In the past 20 years, research suggests that social workers and counselors are at risk of developing secondary traumatic stress from working with traumatized client populations. However, only a few studies have examined specific risk and protective factors that may buffer the social worker from developing secondary trauma symptoms. This article reports the results from a cross-sectional survey-based study of clinical social workers in which a predictive model of secondary traumatic stress was sought. In order to obtain an optimally predictive subset of variables from a larger set of candidate variables, this study employed a rigorous variable selection procedure using criteria-based methods for arriving at a final model predicting secondary trauma. Findings The results suggest that the ratings of the supervisory relationship, salary, caseload size, and personal anxiety may be salient factors that impact the development of secondary trauma among clinical social workers. Specifically, positive ratings of supervision and higher income level were found to predict a substantial decrease in the degree to which a social worker possessed secondary trauma symptoms. Applications Secondary trauma threatens clinician health, client quality of services, and contributes to increased financial burdens to nonprofit agencies due to burnout and employee turnover. At an organizational level, administrators and policymakers can address these problems by providing higher salaries, encouraging reasonable client caseloads, and ensuring that social workers have access to skilled clinical supervisors. At an individual level, personal self-care to reduce daily anxiety may be important to protect clinical social workers from developing secondary trauma symptoms.

In an effort to curb the reported increases in violent juvenile crime, the growing trend of state legislatures is the removal of crimes specified as serious from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Having been legislatively waived, these offenses are placed within the jurisdiction of the superior court, and the offender, regardless of age, is tried as an adult. This investigation reports on the deterrent effect of the Georgia legislative waiver passed in 1994. A quasi-experimental cohort design is used in a comparison of the mean arrest rates for juveniles arrested for the specified crimes before and after the law's enactment. The analysis of the data suggests that there were no significant reductions in the mean arrest rates for the offenses specified by the law. Findings are consistent with studies that evaluated the legislative waiver in other states and suggest that the law does not reduce serious juvenile crime.Child welfare reformers of the early century believed that the criminal behavior of children, who were victims of poverty and other social ills, was the result of circumstances beyond the children's control. Before 1899, children younger than age 7 were considered incapable of criminal acts. Although the responsibility for behavior of children between the ages of 7 and 14 was debatable, common law allowed for treating youths as young as 14 years as responsible adults in the court system (Feld, 1993;Platt, 1977).A benevolent court separated from the harsh and retributive adult system was established for juveniles that would provide solutions to the problems and address the needs of the individual youth. For decades, under this legal scheme, the law did not hold accountable those offenders under the age of majority in the same manner as it did adults who were considered criminals.

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This survey investigated the prevalence of ethnomedical syndromes and examined treatments and treatment-seeking in Mayan Guatemalans living in United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) camps in Chiapas, Mexico. Methods included a rapid ethnographic assessment to refine survey methods and inform the cross-sectional survey, which also examined mental health outcomes; 183 households were approached for interview, representing an estimated 1,546 residents in five refugee camps and 93% of all households. One adult per household (N = 170) was interviewed regarding his or her health; an additional 9 adults in three surveyed households participated and were included in this analysis; of the 179 participants, 95 primary child-care providers also answered a children's health questionnaire for their children. Results indicated that ethnomedical syndromes were common in this sample, with 59% of adults and 48.4% of children having experienced susto (fright condition) and 34.1% of adults reporting ataques de nervios (nervous attacks); both conditions were significantly associated with symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and are mental health conditions recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. Combining healthcare provider and indigenous treatments such as physician prescribed medication (65%), medicinal plants (65.7%), and limpias (spiritual cleansings) (40.6%) was reported. Most participants (86%) sought routine medical treatment from UNHCR trained health promoters in their camp. Assessing ethnomedical health is important for informing mental health programs among this population.

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