Many counselor educators and counselors in agency or school settings are involved in innovative programs that they may wish to share with professional colleagues. Some may avoid research and writing because they don't know how to get started. Counselors in the field and counselor educators in offcampus locations often find it difficult to initiate research and share their ideas with others since they lack many of the resources typically found on the traditional college campus. I must admit that when I first became involved in a counselor education program located on a military base in a small community, I found myself asking if I could contribute to the professional counseling literature in this type of environment. AVOIDING RESEARCH AND WRITINGInitially I spent a great deal of time feeling sorry for myself and focusing on the problems of engaging in meaningful research and writing in an off-campus location. Although we were in the process of building a modest collection of books and journals relating to the fields of counseling and psychology, our library holdings couldn't compare with those found in most traditional colleges and universities. Of course research that required any sort of experimental design would have to be ruled out because we did not possess the sophisticated computers and programs necessary to analyze data. We were not in a position to secure research grants that tend to foster contributions to the professional literature. Since we did not have a doctoral program, I lacked the opportunity of assisting doctoral students in formulating and completing their dissertations.I was even concerned because most of our students worked full-time and would not be readily available as research subjects, while conveniently forgetting that many counselor education programs in traditional university settings also deal primarily with students engaged in full-time employment. We had no graduate assistants to help with research and secretarial assistance was in short supply. I have since found that many professors in on-campus programs also do not have ready access to research assistants and secretarial support. Since most of our faculty were part-timers, I told myself that I was denied the type of close professional interaction and stimulation conducive to research and writing. Being located in a JANUARY 1982 small town rather than in a metropolitan area, where exciting innovations were occurring in the schools, mental health and social agencies, was also of course a definite impediment to becoming involved in research and publication.I could go on forever, but by now I believe that you get the idea; that I was looking for reasons why I couldn't share my research and ideas with others. I nearly concluded that it was unrealistic for me to contribute to the professional literature in circumstances where the deck seemed to be so obviously stacked against publishing. GETTING STARTEDThe more I thought about my perceived dilemma concerning research and writing, the more I realized that I was focusing so much on the o...

Sixty eighth-and ninth-grade students were randomly assigned to experimental groups participating in the Vocational Exploration Group (VEG) process over a 5-week period and to a control group receiving no career education. The purpose of the study was to determine if VEG treatment, as applied to rural junior high students, would result in increased career maturity. The Career Maturity Inventory (CMI), which was administered to all subjects before and after the treatment period, indicated significantly positive movement for the experimental groups on the Attitude Scale and on three of the five Competence Test Scales, while scores for the control group remained constant. The results indicate that the VEG can be effectively used in assisting students to develop positive attitudes toward the world of work and to acquire critical behavior upon which to base mature career decisions.

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The causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention of adolescent suicide are explored.

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