Author Archives: drkathy

About drkathy

Dr. Kathy Seifert, a psychologist, brings her distinctive perspective to research into the minds of bullies and violent youth. Through her 30 years of research into the causes of sexual abuse, drug addiction, murder, gangs, domestic abuse, and rape, she has identified the key childhood, family risk, and skill factors causing young people to grow up into bullies and violent adults. Dr. Seifert brings her unique research on the roots and prevention of violent crime to your discussion of today's top issues and breaking news stories.

Bullied Teen Threatens Suicide

Posted on by
1

A young teen, Sarah, Threatens Suicide If Maryland High School Wont Take Action Against Cyber-Bullying.

Teens that bully are engaged in dangerous, illegal, and inappropriate behaviors. It is the job of the adults around them to teach appropriate and respectful social interactions. A bully often comes from a home with abuse or domestic violence and some bullies can and do grow up to be domestic abusers. Ignoring the problem wont solve those issues. A respectful environment is the job of all of us.  Suicide following bullying is a terrible outcome, for the victims.  To reduce suicide, we must stop bullying in our schools.
Dr. Kathy Seifert
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Domestic and Youth Violence | domestic violence

Posted on by
Reply

 

Washington School Shooting: Prosecutor Seeks Probation For 9-Year-Old Boy

Most youth with weapon or aggression related behaviors (intentional or mishaps) come from families with criminal backgrounds, easy access to firearms, and histories of domestic violence and substance abuse. Nothing new here. This case appears to fit this pattern in some ways, if not all. Children from similar backgrounds are often traumatized or have poor judgment and a low level of coping skills.
As a society, we need to make sure that children from difficult backgrounds get the services they need (mental health or developmental) as early as possible in their lives. We know how to prevent youth violence from happening. Home visiting programs, such as Healthy Families, for young families that have problems with substance abuse and violence is a proven program to prevent youth delinquency and aggression. These prevention programs need to be universal. How do we do that when important programs are being significantly cut? Some think we can cut these programs because everyone has an equal chance to succeed in America, but the playing field is not even for those children coming from violent and chaotic families. I suggest sentencing the entire family to treatment.
Dr. Kathy Seifert Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

My Psychology Today Blog

Posted on by
Reply

 Psychology Today Blog:

 Stop the Cycle

Is Your Child’s Sexual Behavior Normal?

There is sometimes a thin line between “normal” and “alarming” behavior when it comes to a child’s burgeoning sexuality. Learning to read your child’s signs could be the catch of a lifetime. Understand the psychology of sexual development. read more

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:35:18 +0000 Kathy Seifert, Ph.D.
86016 at http://www.psychologytoday.com

Why Do People Resort To Violence?
It’s a simple, but profound question: Why do people resort to violence? The earliest records show us that brutality and bloodshed belongs to every human era – psychology reveals the eternal spark that ignites our fiery rage.
Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:25:54 +0000 Kathy Seifert, Ph.D.
83288 at http://www.psychologytoday.com

Child Sexual Abuse: Ten Ways to Protect Your Kids
<p>With recent publicity on sexual abuse allegations, now is the time to talk about things that parents can do to reduce the risk of their children being assaulted.
Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:06:38 +0000 Kathy Seifert, Ph.D.
81988 at http://www.psychologytoday.com

Protecting Our Children from Predators
Sexual predators are not often strangers. They are people known to the child and family and they have often groomed parents and children to trust them. How do we protect our children from the deceivers that are next door and in the school or church? How do we know who can be trusted?
Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:46:08 +0000 Kathy Seifert, Ph.D.
79998 at http://www.psychologytoday.com

Overcoming Trauma
Why is it that some kids have the ability to overcome tragedy and trauma while others don’t? Is it the severity of the tragedy that counts or the resiliency of the child? Are there other factors that determine the outcome?
Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:11:51 +0000 Kathy Seifert, Ph.D.
79191 at http://www.psychologytoday.com

The Children Are Not All Right
From the cultural revolution of the ‘60s and ‘70s to the dawn of video games and heavy metal music in the ‘80s, adults have had multiple reasons to worry whether the next generation of kids will grow up to be “all right.”
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:47:35 +0000 Kathy Seifert, Ph.D.
77527 at http://www.psychologytoday.com

Howtolearn.com

Bullying and school violence continues to be in the news headlines across the nation.

By Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D.

A 17 year-old alleged gunman, T. J. Lane, opened fire in the school cafeteria at Chardon High School in Ohio on 2/27/2012.  At 9 A.M. the shooter had been detained after fleeing on foot a short distance from the school.

Three wonderful young people had their lives cut short and 3 were wounded.

While each school shooting sends a wave of shock through the community and heightens the anxiety in each family home, the details surrounding each shooter in recent history have become disturbingly similar.

read more

The Problem With Bullies

Posted on by
Reply

bullies
Bullying involves mistreating someone because they are vulnerable or different or because the bully wants to take something from the victim. The bully uses any tactic that they can justify their behavior. A bully does not have sufficient skills to get their needs met without harming others. They also do not have empathy. Lack of emapthy past the age of 10 is usually related to trauma befrore the age of 5. Usually bullies have learned inappropriate behavior at home or in the community. Helping a bully will involve the youth, the bully, the family, the community, and the school. Bullying is never OK for any reason.

Bullies have serious problems that need professional intervention before things get out of hand. The culture has to be one that respects everyone, whether they are similar to us or not. We live in a wonderful, diverse world. Everyone counts and respect is the mature attitude for all of us. We need to teach respect to all of our students, black, white, oriental, gay, straight, overweight, thin or disabled. I cannot believe that a teacher would not step in when she sees a student being disrespectful to another because the victim is gay. That is just wrong. If we do not teach what is right and wrong in the moment when it happens, we can have a literate society with no morals. I don’t think that would suit anyone. There are tried and tested ways to change inappropriate behaviors. We need to use them.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

research for my new youth violence book – Steven Kazmierczak

Posted on by
Reply
Kazmierzcak was fascinated with the movie, Saw

Kazmierzcak was fascinated with the movie, Saw

The Role of Violent Media

Kazmierczak was fascinated with the sadistic main character in the movie, Saw

He killed 5 and wounded 18 on Valentines day in 2008

I was researching the shootings of Steven Kazmierczak on Valentines day on the campus of Illinois University in 2008. He had the red flags we have seen from other multi-victim school shooters.

He was fascinated with famous killers and the main character from the movie, Saw.
He was bullyied, had 9 psychiatric hospitalizations, a history of suicide atttempts and had stopped taking his psyhiatric medications. This is a story we have heard all too often. He was fascinated with famous, savage killers, including the main character of the movie, Saw. While mental illness alone is not a strong predictor of violence, mental illness, stopping taking mediation, a major stressor, and substance abuse together are predictors of violence. However, it is not known if kazmierczak was abusing substances. A report by CNN in 2009 indicated that many on the Ilinois campus believed that “something was wrong with Kazmierczak.” He was in therapy, but apparently it was not effective. I will say again, “we must identify the folks in need of help before tragedies like this happen and make sure they get what they need, psychiatrically. Part of the conversation needs to be about chnages in our laws that make it more difficult to hospitalize a mentally ill person who is “at risk” for being dangerous and how to accurately measure risk.

Link to Dr. seifert’s interview on CNN | Youth Violence

Posted on by
1

Link to Dr. Seifert’s interview on CNN

let me add to this that having mental illness does NOT mean someone will be violent.  Some violent people are mentally ill and some are not.  However, there are risk factors for violence and the more a person has the more likely they are to be violent.  What I have recommended here is a complete psychological evaluation for Jared Laughner.  I am also suggesting that investment in our community mental health systems to provide services is good prevention.
Dr. kathy

Hostages released, teen commits suicide | Youth Suicide

Posted on by
Reply

This is my response to a recent shooting

http://www.aolnews.com/discuss/wisconsin-student-shoots-himself-hostages-freed/19737706#gcpDiscussPageUrlAnchor

I have researched and written about youth violence for many years. I would like to make a few points.

1. Usually there are warning signs that a youth is having difficulty. This is when people need to step in and make sure he gets the help he needs before it becomes a crisis. I have found that school based mental health services can make treatment readily available to students when they need it most.

2. Youth who get to this point cannot think of another way out of their problems. They feel their backs are against the wall for a variety of reasons. We need to teach reasoning and problem solving to those who need help in this area.

3. At risk youth go “over the edge” when the stress gets to be too much (more than they can handle). prevention tactics would be to teach students stress management. If the schools don’t do it, who is going to do it/ Many people say that is the parents job, however, it is often the case that youth at risk have parents who are overly stressed and need help as well. Teaching stress management is often beyond their grasp.

4. ” At risk” youth sometimes have weak interpersonal skills. Teaching pro-social skills can be done through a school based mental health system as well. it is just as important as academic skills. Academic skills won’t help them if they are dead, hospitalized or in jail.

5. If a parent is overly stressed, a neighbor can help support the children of that family. we need to find community and neighborhoods again. Faith communities can help, as well.

Dr. Kathy Seifert