Parent Engagement Practices Improve Outcomes for Preschool Children

Supporting parents' efforts to help their children develop during the preschool years improves a child's school readiness, reduces behavior problems, enhances social skills, and promotes academic success.The IssueChildren begin learning at home before they ever reach the classroom, but many families face barriers to providing high-quality early educational opportunities. There are a number of research-based strategies to bolster parent engagement in ways that improve child outcomes.Key FindingsPrograms that promote positive parenting practices and parent-child relationships can reduce behavioral problems.Promoting home learning activities and effective teaching strategies can foster early learningStrengthening parent-teacher partnerships can boost academic and social-emotional skill development.Emphasizing a child's physical health can aid healthy overall development.ConclusionProviding systematic supports for parent engagement in early childhood has the potential to promote optimal development for all children

Montana\u27s Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act: The Views of the Montana Bar

Montana\u27s Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act: The views of the Montana ba

The Individual Day-to-Day Process of Social Anxiety in Vulnerable College Students

Transitions requiring the creation of new social networks may be challenging for individuals vulnerable to social anxiety, which may hinder successful adjustment. Using person-specific methodology, this study examined social anxiety in vulnerable university freshman away from home during their first semester of college to understand how day-to-day processes of social anxiety influenced future social anxiety and social withdrawal. Participants completed daily measures of four components of social anxiety which were examined as a process during a single day, and as a process affecting social anxiety and social withdrawal the next day. For most individuals, same day fear of negative evaluation was associated with maladaptive cognitive processes (anticipatory processing and post-event rumination) and influenced social withdrawal behaviors. Across time relations were less robust and varied between participants suggesting the importance of situational factors and individual differences. These findings may have implications for the effectiveness of various intervention strategies

A Conceptual Framework for Adaptive Preventive Interventions

Recently, adaptive interventions have emerged as a new perspective on prevention and treatment. Adaptive interventions resemble clinical practice in that different dosages of certain prevention or treatment components are assigned to different individuals, and/or within individuals across time, with dosage varying in response to the intervention needs of individuals. To determine intervention need and thus assign dosage, adaptive interventions use prespecified decision rules based on each participant's values on key characteristics, called tailoring variables. In this paper, we offer a conceptual framework for adaptive interventions, discuss principles underlying the design and evaluation of such interventions, and review some areas where additional research is needed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45501/1/11121_2004_Article_490385.pd

Fast Track Randomized Controlled Trial to Prevent Externalizing Psychiatric Disorders: Findings From Grades 3 to 9

This study tests the efficacy of the Fast Track Program in preventing antisocial behavior and psychiatric disorders among groups varying in initial risk

Service Use Patterns for Adolescents with ADHD and Comorbid Conduct Disorder

Service use patterns and costs of youth diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid conduct disorder (CD) were assessed across adolescence (ages 12 through 17). Featured service sectors include mental health, school services, and the juvenile justice system. Data are provided by three cohorts from the Fast Track evaluation and are based on parent report. Diagnostic groups are identified through a structured assessment. Results show that public costs for youth with ADHD exceed $40,000 per child on average over a 6-year period, more than doubling service expenditures for a non-ADHD group. Public costs for children with comorbid ADHD and CD double the costs of those with ADHD alone. Varying patterns by service sector, diagnosis, and across time indicate different needs for youth with different conditions and at different ages and can provide important information for prevention and treatment researchers

Decoupling the Relation Between Risk Factors for Conduct Problems and the Receipt of Intervention Services: Participation Across Multiple Components of a Prevention Program

This study examined whether the link between risk factors for conduct problems and low rates of participation in mental health treatment could be decoupled through the provision of integrated prevention services in multiple easily-accessible contexts. It included 445 families of first-grade children (55% minority), living in four diverse communities, and selected for early signs of conduct problems. Results indicated that, under the right circumstances, these children and families could be enticed to participate at high rates in school-based services, therapeutic groups, and home visits. Because different sets of risk factors were related to different profiles of participation across the components of the prevention program, findings highlight the need to offer services in multiple contexts to reach all children and families who might benefit from them

U.S. General Population Estimate for “Excellent” to “Poor” Self-Rated Health Item

BACKGROUND: The most commonly used self-reported health question asks people to rate their general health from excellent to poor. This is one of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) global health items. Four other items are used for scoring on the PROMIS global physical health scale. Because the single item is used on the majority of large national health surveys in the U.S., it is useful to construct scores that can be compared to U.S. general population norms. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the PROMIS global physical health scale score from the responses to the single excellent to poor self-rated health question for use in public health surveillance, research, and clinical assessment. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey of 21,133 individuals, weighted to be representative of the U.S. general population. PARTICIPANTS: The PROMIS items were administered via a Web-based survey to 19,601 persons in a national panel and 1,532 subjects from PROMIS research sites. The average age of individuals in the sample was 53 years, 52 % were female, 80 % were non-Hispanic white, and 19 % had a high school degree or lower level of education. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PROMIS global physical health scale. KEY RESULTS: The product–moment correlation of the single item with the PROMIS global physical health scale score was 0.81. The estimated scale score based on responses to the single item ranged from 29 (poor self-rated health, 2.1 SDs worse than the general population mean) to 62 (excellent self-rated health, 1.2 SDs better than the general population mean) on a T-score metric (mean of 50). CONCLUSIONS: This item can be used to estimate scores for the PROMIS global physical health scale for use in monitoring population health and achieving public health objectives. The item may also be used for individual assessment, but its reliability (0.52) is lower than that of the PROMIS global health scale (0.81)

Classroom and Teacher Support in Kindergarten: Associations With the Behavioral and Academic Adjustment of Low-Income Students

For socioeconomically disadvantaged children, a positive experience in kindergarten may play a particularly important role in fostering the behavioral adjustment and learning engagement necessary for school success. Prior research has identified supportive student–teacher relationships and classroom emotional support as two features of the classroom context that can promote student adjustment; however, very few studies have examined these two aspects of the classroom context simultaneously. Given their modest intercorrelations, these dimensions of classroom context may have both unique and shared associations with child progress. This study followed the cases of 164 children as they transitioned from Head Start into elementary school, and regressions revealed significant unique associations between each type of kindergarten support and children’s aggressive behaviors, social withdrawal, learning engagement, and emergent literacy skills in first grade, controlling for their prekindergarten adjustment. In addition, learning engagement significantly mediated the association between a supportive relationship with the kindergarten teacher and first-grade literacy skills