Village Building and School Readiness: Closing Opportunity Gaps in a Diverse Society

Examines a community's impacts on child development and frames strategies to build early learning systems in poor minority neighborhoods. Stresses combining services with community-building and developing a diverse early education workforce from within

Understanding The Perceived Impact Of Social And Emotional Learning Interventions On High School Student Success

Integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) skills into instructional practices and academic content has become a priority in many school districts (CASEL, 2018). While educators and clinical professionals alike have made strides in recognizing the importance of SEL, the level of implementation across districts varies greatly (CASEL, 2018). This qualitative program evaluation explored whether school staff at a public suburban high school in the Northeastern United States perceived the implementation of various interventions aimed at increasing SEL skills of students to be successful. This study utilized semi-structured interviews to identify which interventions had been implemented by a group of school professionals, the Intervention Team, and whether school staff perceived the implemented interventions to have positive, neutral, or negative impacts upon the SEL skills of students. Results indicated that 17 different interventions were mentioned at least once as being implemented by the Intervention Team over the course of interviews with eight participants. Interviewees expressed which interventions they felt positively impacted areas of social and emotional learning. Interviewees reported self-awareness to be positively impacted by six distinct interventions, self-management to be positively impacted by two distinct types of interventions, responsible decision- making to be positively impacted by four distinct types of interventions, and social awareness to be positively impacted by two types of interventions. Additionally, interventions perceived to have a negative impact were explored. Potential remedies to increase the likelihood of intervention success were also offered by staff. Several areas in need of further study were identified based on the results of the present study. The specific impacts of SEL interventions upon those with mental health diagnoses and interventions implemented to target areas identified as weaknesses in social and emotional learning after assessment of social and emotional learning competency area skills in individuals are recommended areas of future study

Teacher Recognition of Student Learning Styles

The ability of teachers in a special education classroom utilizing individualized instruction to recognize students\u27 learning preferences was investigated. Each student\u27s learning style preference was determined by the administration and evaluation of a learning styles inventory. Teachers were asked to respond to a similiar inventory as they felt their students would respond. A Pearson r performed on the results indicated that a relatively strong relationship existed between the responses at the . 10 level of significance

Cyberbullying Victimization through Social Networking Sites and Adjustment Difficulties: The Role of Parental Mediation

While adolescents have embraced a variety of online tools in recent years, little attention has been devoted to examining cyberbullying through specific tools. Addressing this gap in the literature, the present study examines the moderating effect of parental mediation strategies (i.e., restrictive, coviewing, instructive) on the associations between cyberbullying victimization and adjustment difficulties (i.e., depression, anxiety) among 567 U.S. (52% female) adolescents in the eighth grade (age ranging from 13-15 years). I employed a longitudinal design, with assessments in the spring of seventh (Time 1; T1) grade and the spring of eighth grade (Time 2; T2). The findings revealed that T1 cyberbullying victimization was positively related to restrictive mediation and to T2 depression and anxiety. In contrast, coviewing mediation and instructive mediation were each negatively associated with cyberbullying victimization and T2 depression and anxiety. High levels of instructive mediation and low levels of restrictive mediation made the associations between T1 cyberbullying victimization and T2 depression more negative, while the reverse pattern was found for low levels of instructive mediation and high levels of restrictive mediation. Results of the study underscore the importance of parental involvement in adolescents’ social networking site use

Adolescents\u27 Peer Status, Social Behaviors, and Social Information Processing for Social Behaviors

Researchers have conceptualized of two types of high peer statuses (i.e., perceived popularity, social preference), each associated with distinctive behavioral characteristics (Coie et al., 1982; Mayeux & Cillessen, 2004; Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). Perceived popularity is positively associated with both relational aggression and prosocial behaviors (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004; Rodkin et al., 2000; Rose et al., 2004; Rubin et al., 1998). On the other hand, social preference is negatively related to relational aggression but positively linked to prosocial behavior (Rose et al., 2004). The social information processing model may provide a better understanding of adolescents’ unique behavioral characteristics as their social cognitive processes may vary as a function of the type of behavior they are evaluating (Crick & Dodge, 1994). Even though decades of research suggest that adolescents’ behaviors are influenced by these processes, limited attention has applied this framework to adolescents’ peer status (Crick & Dodge, 1994; Dodge & Newman, 1981). Addressing this gap in the literature, the present study proposed an integrative model by focusing on the moderating effects of social cognitive processes and gender in the relationships between popularity types and their behaviors. Utilizing a sample of 405 6th-8th graders, adolescents completed self-reported and peer-nominated peer status (i.e., perceived popularity, social preference) and social behaviors questionnaires as well as closed-ended and open-ended questions pertaining to their social cognitive processes for their peers’ aggressive (both relational and overt) and prosocial behavior. Responses to the open-ended questions were coded based on previous research, theory, and content. Next, multiple, logistic, and poisson regression analyses were utilized to examine adolescents’ answers to open-ended questions along with their closed-ended questions in relation to their social behaviors and peer status. Consistent with the literature, perceived popularity was positively associated with both overt and relational aggression, whereas social preference was negative related to either of these behaviors. On the other hand, prosocial behavior was positively linked to social preference, but no relationship was found for perceived popularity. Adolescents’ social preference increased the odds of making the aggressor’s-jealousy attribution pertaining to the overt aggression vignette. In addition, boys’ perceived popularity decreased the odds of making the friendship-establishment attribution for their peers’ prosocial behavior. With regard to coping intentions, boys’ perceived popularity decreased the odds of dealing with relational aggression using social support seeking. Results also indicated that attributions and outcome expectancies served as moderators in the relationship between peer status and adolescents’ social behaviors. The relationship between boys’ aggressive behaviors and social preference was more negatively associated at lower levels of the aggressor’s jealousy-about-status, romantic relationship competition, and victim-blame attributions. In contrast, the relationship between boys’ aggressive behaviors and perceived popularity was more positive at lower levels of the aggressor’s-jealousy, bad behavior of the victim, and victim-blame attributions. Similar patterns were found between perceived popularity and adolescents’ social behaviors (i.e., overt aggression, relational aggression, prosocial behavior) at lower levels of the status-attainment, status-maintenance, and harm-victim’s-status-and-friendships outcome expectancies. Furthermore, when adolescents did not endorse the harm-victim’s- status, and create-aggression outcome expectancies the relationship between social preference and aggressive behaviors was more negative. In general, greater attributions and expectations pertaining to status maintenance or attainment did not make the linkage between peer status and adolescents’ social behaviors more positive. Instead, this relationship was more positive at lower levels of these attributions and outcome expectancies. In addition, the results demonstrate the complexity of the association between adolescents’ peer status and their social behaviors by focusing on gender and social cognitive processes as moderators in this relationship. A call for additional research aimed at understanding the role of social cognitive processes in adolescents’ behavioral development is made

Can Psychology Research Inform Health Information Data Collection?

Conclusions drawn from electronic medical records (EMRs) are only as accurate as the data provided. Recent findings by psychologists and health researchers may help streamline health information data collection and subsequent data analysis. Specifically, four areas will be discussed: (1) Standardization of terms between the patient and the health professionals, (2) Impact of patient inattention and fatigue when responding to health measures, (3) Importance of source labeling within the medical record (e.g., self-administered questionnaire, responded via phone, etc.), (4) Cognitive load on patients when using mobile health technology (e.g., apps, tablets, online patient portal, etc.). Research suggests consideration of these potential biases could provide the patient with a better health care experience, assist the health care provider in diagnosis and treatment, conserve time and resources, and aid researchers as they consider health outcomes