Preschool Precursors of Children's Peer Rejection during the Late School-Age Years: The Roles of Early Aggressive Behavior and Harsh Parental Discipline

Honors (Bachelor's)PsychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91794/1/zulauf.pd

Early risk pathways to physical versus relational peer aggression: The interplay of externalizing behavior and corporal punishment varies by child sex

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142456/1/ab21744.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142456/2/ab21744_am.pd

Power Analysis

A power analysis using a partial 2 of .1 based on prior literature (see Gilliam et al., 2016) and a power of 0.8 suggested a total N of 156 (approximately 39 per group)

An Examination of the Parent-teacher Relationship as Universal Protection against Preschool Expulsion

Across the United States, rates of preschool expulsion exceed those in K-12 and relatively little is known of how to prevent such disciplinary decisions. Adding to the concerning rate in which children are being expelled, is that preschool expulsion disproportionately affects children of color, especially boys. The present study explores a potential protective strategy existent in all early childhood centers, the relationship formed between parents and teachers. Surveys and interviews with early childhood teachers and parents outline the association between the parent-teacher relationship and a child’s risk for expulsion. Quantitative findings indicate that high-quality parent-teacher relationships are related to a lower risk for expulsion for children who have not been expelled, with the strongest association found for Black children. Interviews with teachers and parents of children who have been expelled provide rich detail about protective practices and styles of interactions between parents and teachers that can be used in future training programs and interventions

Profiles of School-Based Peer Aggression

Research on school-based aggression has often described children’s involvement in peer aggression as either a target or aggressor and has not explored how children may endorse various levels of involvement. Using Latent Class Analysis, this study identified profiles of school-based peer aggression among the same sample of children in third and again in sixth grade. The sample consisted of 927 children who were part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Childcare and Youth Development. Several profiles emerged indicating various levels of involvement as well as the use of different forms of aggression (physical and verbal). The main profiles that emerged were children who endorsed being both perpetrators and targets, children who endorsed being targets, and children who endorsed low involvement. Further analysis revealed that profiles did not fit equally well for boys and girls. Self-reported involvement increased from third to sixth grade with the main differences emerging because boys endorsed being strictly a verbal and physical aggressor and girls endorsed being aggressors and targets of verbal aggression only. Parent reports of children’s externalizing and internalizing problems as well as teacher perceptions of the children’s social behavior were incorporated into the study in order to describe each profile in more detail. The findings of this study indicate that child involvement in school-based peer aggression is complex with children endorsing various levels of involvement, perpetrating or being targeted, throughout the school year

The Complicated Relationship Between Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Substance Use Disorders

Adolescents and young adults with substance use disorders (SUD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are increasingly presenting in clinical practice. The overlap and role of treatment for these co-occurring disorders remains unclear. A review of the literature was conducted to highlight and update recent evidence on the overlap of ADHD and SUD, the role of ADHD medication on later SUD, and the treatment of ADHD and SUD in adolescents and young adults. Recent work continues to highlight the high risk for comorbid ADHD in patients with SUD; and conversely, the high risk for SUD developing in ADHD across the lifespan, particularly in the context of comorbid conduct disorder. Although the data remains discordant, it appears that ADHD pharmacotherapy does not increase the risk for SUD. Medication treatment alone does not appear to be particularly effective in treating SUD in currently active substance abusing individuals with ADHD. Structured therapies may be effective in treating adolescents and young adults with ADHD and SUD. Further controlled trials evaluating the sequence and effect of structured psychotherapies and/or ADHD pharmacotherapy on SUD relapse in these groups are warranted

Evaluation Report of the Implementation of Illinois Public Act 100-0105: Early childhood programs’ knowledge of and responses to the 2018 expulsion legislation

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Nationwide, preschoolers are being expelled at alarming rates, upwards of 250 a day by some accounts. Given the critical role of early childhood education (ECE) in supporting children’s school readiness, there is a grave concern that these children are being excluded. Furthermore, there is consistent evidence of racial and gender disparities in who gets expelled. Recently, Illinois became one of only a handful of states to pass legislation to curtail the overall rates and disproportionality of early childhood expulsion. As of January 1, 2018, programs funded by the Illinois State Board of Education or licensed by the Department of Children and Family Services must make every possible effort to retain a child, document their use of any and all available resources, services, and interventions. Additionally, programs are required to report on the characteristics of all children served by their program, turnover, and separations, as well as utilization of resources. If and when a program has exhausted all available resources and made substantial efforts to retain a child, only then, and with parental permission, is it now permitted to transfer the child to another program. Unlike in other states and municipalities, this new law, Public Act 100-0105, represents unprecedented coordination across state agencies, advocacy groups, and service providers. However, it remains to be seen whether this coordination will continue throughout the implementation process and dissemination of information regarding the law. To that end, we sought to conduct a preliminary investigation of Illinois early childhood programs’ current and prior expulsion practices, in addition to their understanding of and responses to the new law. Our investigation leveraged a coalition of ECE community partners who informed the design, implementation, and interpretation phases. Findings broadly point towards systematic variance in programs’ level of knowledge of the law, comfort, and confidence complying with its stipulations, perceived benefits, and unintended consequences, as well as past and expected disciplinary procedures and experiences accessing evidence-based resources and supports. Based on these findings, we recommend the following: • Future communications regarding the implementation of or compliance with legislation and forthcoming ISBE and DCFS rules should specifically target programs that are ‘least connected’ especially private center-based and home-care programs. • Increase access to mental health consultants state-wide and reduce wait time for initial consultations and observations. This may necessitate adaptations to service delivery models to include remote/video-based consultation. • Research and curate programs’ creative use of resources, problem-solving, and systems reform to disseminate to other programs through centralized resource or online community where programs can seek advice, resources, and supports. • Given pervasive misunderstanding of the legislation, it will be particularly important to ensure that rules (especially around planned transitions) are clear and feasible for programs at all resource and support levels (home-based through public school districts). • Forthcoming state-wide coordinated data collection systems will need to be carefully planned to ensure accuracy of expulsion rates and child demographic characteristics. A system for auditing the accuracy of reports and/or tangible consequences for poor or missing reports will be necessary to ensure data quality for future research and evaluation