Refilling the Oilpots: Developing A Program to Reverse Stagnancy in African-American Churches

Many African American churches in America are experiencing a decline in attendance and participation. The typical church goes through a life-cycle that includes the church\u27s birth, infancy, maturity, stagnation, and death. However, it is possible to create a rebirth process that will restart the life-cycle from the beginning. This thesis develops a strategic plan to initiate church rebirth and build momentum for the congregation. This project\u27s research approach will include interviews with the leaders of a medium-size African American church in Dallas\u27s suburbs. The project will also include survey questionnaires to congregants, former church members, and random subjects selected through social media to determine the church\u27s perceptions and leadership trends. The research will also include a sociological review of the church’s dialectic characteristics to ascertain its community involvement. The project will generate value for the ministry by helping church leaders understand how to create momentum to build churches using the tools designed in this study

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Academic Performance: Student Engagement in the Classroom

Youth with Attention/Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have many obstacles to positive development (including difficulties in school settings) and are in need of support. However, few studies have focused on the ways in which positive factors, such as student engagement (SE), may be beneficial for this population to identify strategies for supporting their strengths. Although many studies have examined academic and behavioral aspects of SE, few studies have examined the psychological (i.e., teacher-student relationships, peer support for learning, family support for learning) and cognitive (i.e., control and relevance of school work, future aspirations and goals, extrinsic motivation) sub-components of engagement. The current study fills a gap in this literature by exploring the moderating effects of each area of SE on the relationship between ADHD symptoms and academic performance. Participants included 647 high school students who were identified as having emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties, from 50 high schools in five states across the United States. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between ADHD symptoms and parent-reported overall impairment. Interestingly, as level of perceived peer-support for learning increased, the number of failing grades a student received also increased. Future directions are discussed, as well as implications for schools and families

Understanding The Relationship Of Contextual Support, Peer Risk Trajectories, And School Outcomes For At-Risk Youth

High school dropout (HSDO) is associated with poor life outcomes across many domains. As such, it is crucial to understand and identify the factors that contribute to HSDO risk early to increase the chance of positive student outcomes. Because students at-risk are heterogeneous, researchers recommend using pattern-centered approaches to identify subpopulations with similar risk profiles to better understand various typologies of risk. This may be a more comprehensive and accurate way to understand students atrisk for HSDO and may facilitate the development of more effective interventions. To date, seven empirical studies have used a pattern-centered approach to examine HSDO. However, risk is often studied narrowly (e.g., across one or two domains) and crosssectional analyses are typically used. Additionally, this research often focuses on intrapersonal characteristics, which may neglect contextual influences such as peer relationships. The current study advances the HSDO literature by (a) testing a model which examines the possibility of different subpopulations of students at-risk for HSDO, (b) defining subpopulations by peer risk characteristics, a critical and understudied ecological risk, (c) studying longitudinal trajectories of change (i.e., growth or decline in peer risk factors), and, (d) examining the relationship that contextual support (i.e., support of a students’ family, school, and community) has on the likelihood of belonging to certain peer risk trajectory patterns. Results are presented and future directions are discussed, as well as implications for schools and families

Considering Positive Psychology Constructs of Life Satisfaction and School Connectedness When Assessing Symptoms Related to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Children and adolescents diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) demonstrate significant difficulty with academic and behavioral functioning. This, in turn, can lead to lower educational attainment and vocational achievement, which has serious long-term consequences and costs to individuals and society (Barkley, 2002, 2006; Mannuzza, Klein, Bessler, Malloy, & LaPadula, 1993). Researchers from a positive psychology framework suggest that ADHD symptoms (i.e., inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity) alone may not fully explain academic impairment (Diener, Scollon, & Lucas, 2004). From the standpoint of positive psychology, life satisfaction and school connectedness are important constructs that examine positive life functioning; however, they have been understudied, particularly in the area of ADHD. The current study investigated the relationship between ADHD symptoms and these positive psychological constructs. Results indicate that as ADHD symptoms increase, life satisfaction decreases; however, no relationship between ADHD symptoms and school connectedness was found. Beyond our primary analysis, we examined the relationship between gender and these variables. Results suggest that gender significantly moderates the relationship between ADHD and life satisfaction, with life satisfaction ratings decreasing for males as ADHD symptoms increase, yet remaining stable for females. ADHD symptoms did not significantly predict changes in school connectedness

Observation of low-lying isomeric states in 136^{136}Cs: a new avenue for dark matter and solar neutrino detection in xenon detectors

We report on new measurements establishing the existence of low-lying isomeric states in $^{136}$Cs using $\gamma$ rays produced in $^{136}$Xe(p,n)$^{136}$Cs reactions. Two states with $\mathcal{O}(100)$~ns lifetimes are placed in the decay sequence of the $^{136}$Cs levels that are populated in charged-current interactions of solar neutrinos and fermionic dark matter with $^{136}$Xe. Xenon-based experiments can therefore exploit a delayed-coincidence tag of these interactions, greatly suppressing backgrounds to enable spectroscopic studies of solar neutrinos and dark matter.Comment: Supplemental material available upon request. Version accepted by Phys.Rev.Let

Social Stories™ to alleviate challenging behaviour and social difficulties exhibited by children with autism spectrum disorder in mainstream schools : design of a manualised training toolkit and feasibility study for a cluster randomised controlled trial with nested qualitative and cost-effectiveness components

BACKGROUND: A Social Story™ (Carol Gray) is a child-friendly intervention that is used to give children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) social information in situations where they have social difficulties. Limited evidence mainly using single-case designs suggests that they can reduce anxiety and challenging behaviour. OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to conduct a systematic review, use this to develop a manualised intervention and run a feasibility trial to inform a fully powered randomised controlled trial (RCT) on their clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in schools. DESIGN: This is a three-stage study following the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions. Specifically, it involved a theoretical phase, a qualitative stage and a feasibility trial stage. SETTING: Qualitative interviews and focus groups took place in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and primary care settings. The feasibility study took place in 37 local mainstream schools. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty children (aged 5-15 years) in mainstream school settings with a diagnosis of ASD were entered into the trial. For each child, an associated teacher and parent was also recruited. INTERVENTIONS: The intervention was a goal-setting session followed by a manualised toolkit (including a training session) for creating Social Stories™ for use with school-aged children. The comparator treatment was a goal-setting session followed by an attention control. Both arms received treatment as usual. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcomes tested as part of the feasibility study included child- and proxy-completed questionnaires for mental health, quality of life and goal-based outcome measures. Adults additionally completed behaviour diaries and the parental stress index. RESULTS: The review found that the research into social stories is predominantly based in the USA, carried out in under-12-year-olds and using single-case designs. Most studies either did not follow established Social Story criteria or did not report if they did. The assessment of effectiveness presents a largely positive picture but is limited by methodological issues. There were no adequate RCTs and insufficient information to assess a number of important sources of potential bias in most studies. A manualised intervention was produced using an iterative process between user focus groups and a writing team, and assessed in the feasibility study. All 50 participant groups were recruited within the study time frame. Two outcome measures, the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 and the custom-made goal-based measure, showed high levels of completion rates and appeared to be capturing social and behaviour skills targeted by the use of Social Stories. Detailed recommendations for a full trial are provided. LIMITATIONS: Blinding of participants was not feasible. Treatment fidelity was not assessed because of low levels of story return rates. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that a fully powered RCT is feasible with an extended geographical footprint. A large amount of data and information has helped to inform the design of this RCT, which will be the subject of a future research grant application. Future work could focus on developing an appropriate blinded outcome measure for this population. STUDY REGISTRATION: This study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42011001440. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN96286707. FUNDING: This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 20, No. 6. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information