School violence: Parent and school official perceptions and responses

In our schools today, there are numerous violence prevention programs that have been implemented in order to curb the recent increase in the rate of school shootings. In addition, there have been a large number of articles written covering the topic of school violence, but little research has been done focusing on the perceptions of parents and school officials in regard to school violence. In the present study findings reveal why it is important to focus our attention not only on student perceptions of school safety, but on parent and school official perceptions, as well. Parents and school officials received a self-report questionnaire and were asked to indicate which violence prevention programs they believe will make students feel safer and which ones they personally would like to see implemented in the schools. In addition, parents were asked to indicate whether their child has been a victim of violence or will be a future victim of violence and the perceived level of their child\u27s anxiety regarding his/her safety at school. It was found that (a) there is a positive, statistically significant relationship between parents who reported that their child has been a personal victim of violence and the rating of their child\u27s anxiety level; (b) parents who perceived their children as having higher levels of anxiety did not endorse more safety programs; (c) overall, parents endorsed more programs than school officials, especially those that were invasive and help-oriented; and (d) the programs the adults indicated they personally would like to see implemented in the schools did not differ significantly from the programs they endorsed as making students feel safer at school

Psychosocial Assessment as a Standard of Care in Pediatric Cancer

This paper presents the evidence for a standard of care for psychosocial assessment in pediatric cancer. An interdisciplinary group of investigators utilized EBSCO, PubMed, PsycINFO, Ovid, and Google Scholar search databases, focusing on five areas: youth/family psychosocial adjustment, family resources, family/social support, previous history/premorbid functioning, and family structure/function. Descriptive quantitative studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses (n = 149) were reviewed and evaluated using grading of recommendations, assessment development, and evaluation (GRADE) criteria. There is high quality evidence to support a strong recommendation for multifaceted, systematic assessments of psychosocial health care needs of youth with cancer and their families as a standard of care in pediatric oncolog