Depression and Parasuicide in Refugee and Slovene Adolescents

Abstract

tional attention, because overall Yugoslavia had a much lower suicide rate of approximately 16/100,000 persons/year. This was described as the "Yugoslav suicide paradox" [Milcinski & Mrevlje, 1990] because the Northern areas showed suicide rates ten times higher than the areas in the South. Most recently, the Slovenes won their independence after the short war and occupation by the Yugoslav army in 1991.The average suicide rate between 1985 and 1999 has been around 30/100,000 persons/year; the trend is stable with insignificant fluctuations despite significant political and socio-economical changes in these years. In addition, Slovene suicidal behavior differs from that found elsewhere in three ways. First, the most common method of suicide in Slovenia is hanging (about twothirds of all suicide victims). Second, the Slovenes are at a higher risk of committing suicide than any other nationality group in Slovenia, including the Hungarian minority. This might come as a surprise since Hungary overall has a higher suicide rate than Slovenia. Finally and very important for further research, the range between the highest and the lowest regional suicide rate in Slovenia is almost as high (around 40) as the one between the highest and lowest rate countries (Lithuania and Albania) in Europe.

Questioning the model minority: Studies of Asian American academic performance.

“…Because this review focused on the American experience of being Asian, we excluded studies conducted exclusively with immigrant students. As suggested by Sue and Okazaki (1990) and others (e.g., Helms, 2007), the experiences of foreign-born Asian Americans and traumatized refugees (Slodniak, Kos, & Yule, 2002) differ markedly from those born in the United States. Although the majority of Asian Americans in the United States are immigrants, focusing on U.S.-born Asian Americans allows us to consider the influence of the U.S. educational system alone.…”