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By Rich Simon It seems astonishing that even just two or three decades ago, parents not only pretty much knew what was expected of them to turn their offspring into civilized adults, but they could actually count on society to back them up. Even more astounding, kids seemed to understand this, too. Even if they rebelled against, yelled about, or sullenly resented how “unfair” adults were, they seemed to acknowledge adult authority and realize that they would just have to wait until they turned 18 to get for themselves the keys to the kingdom of grown-up independence. | Clinicians Digest Jan/Feb 2008 - Page 7 |
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Since Schwartz wrote about his concerns in the September/October 2005 Harvard Review of Psychiatry, he still hasn't seen any more research on therapists' impact on clients' social connections. In the absence of data confirming or contradicting the Swedish study, Schwartz strongly advises therapists to focus on how clients spend their time outside of sessions and with whom. Abused Children of Iraq War Soldiers We hear almost daily of the soldiers killed and wounded in the Iraq war and of the high incidence of PTSD. But for several years, there've been only hints and whispers about another long-term problem in the making: how parents' deployment affects their children. Anecdotal reports from school counselors note that children's discipline problems rise and grades fall following a parent's deployment. A small study in the January 2007 journal Military Medicine by physiologist Vernon Barnes found that adolescents with a deployed parent were more likely to have elevated physical and emotional stress levels. A 2005 report from the Military Family Research Institute of Purdue University (MFRI) notes that many adolescents with a deployed parent report symptoms of depression. |