Christian School Discipline: A Collaborative Approach to Improving Student Behavior

A Catholic elementary school systematically developed a comprehensive discipline program with input from the administrator, teachers, students, parents, and other members of the parish community. Developed around the themes of respect, spirituality, and responsibility, the program was systematically evaluated over the first year of a three-year period of implementation. Survey results of parents, teachers, and students indicate positive perceptions of the project by aU three groups

Appropriate Classification of Obesity in Mentally Retarded Adults

Triceps skinfold thickness and body weight measures were obtained for 44 female and 40 male mentally retarded adults participating in a sheltered workshop setting. Subiects\u27 relative weights and skinfold thicknesses were found to correlate reasonably well for females and males, rs = .88 and .59, respectively. Use of only height and weight tables for determining the presence of obesity, however, resulted in 22.5 percent of the males and 13 .7 percent of the females being misclassified as nonobese. The distinction between overweight and obesity was discussed. Clinical/research implications of the findings were delineated

The Culturally-adapted Early Pathways Program for Young Latino Children in Poverty: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This study used a randomized controlled design with treatment and wait-list conditions to evaluate the efficacy of a culturally adapted version of the Early Pathways program (EP; Fox & Gresl, 2014), an in-home, parent–child therapy program with 137 at-risk Latino children under the age of 6 referred for severe behavior and emotional problems, such as aggression, oppositional behavior, self-injury, and property destruction. EP directly engaged the parent–child dyad, emphasizing parent-directed training, child-led play, psychoeducation, and cognitive–behavioral strategies. Cultural modifications included establishing community partnerships to identify Latino family needs, translation of materials, offering bilingual services, acculturation assessment, and cultural competence training. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed significant differences between the immediate and delayed treatment groups on all posttest measures with the pretest scores as covariates. After the delayed group completed treatment, repeated measures, multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) showed significant improvement for both groups on all measures with maintenance at 4- to 6-week follow-up. Outcomes included reduced child behavior problems, increased child prosocial behaviors, improved caregiver limit setting, enhanced caregiver nurturing, improved parent–child relationships, and a decrease in clinical diagnoses following treatment. This study highlights the efficacy of using culturally adapted early intervention services for young Latino children in poverty referred for significant behavior and emotional problems

Prevalence of Obesity Among Mentally Retarded Adults

The prevalence of obesity was determined for 1,152 mentally retarded subjects from four settings. The findings confirmed that obesity was a prevalent condition, with more females than males obese and more mildly to moderately retarded individuals than severely to profoundly retarded persons obese. The prevalence of obesity was also observed to increase generally with age in this sample, although not in a direct linear fashion