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The social emotional learning (SEL) conceptual model posits that SEL programs lead to increased knowledge and skills, improved attitudes about self, others, and school, and supportive learning environments, which in turn improve student emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Positive Action (PA) is an SEL program for elementary-, middle-, and high-school students. Extensive research documents the effectiveness of PA in decreasing adolescent risk factors and enhancing protective factors, however, minimal research has examined the mechanisms of change responsible for these effects. The current study examined whether PA was associated with SEL outcomes (i.e., alcohol use, aggression, depression, and anxiety) through school hassles (a proxy for school climate). The analytic sample consisted of 8333 ethnically/racially diverse, rural adolescents (51% female) in grades 6 through 12. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data. Engagement in PA was significantly associated with decreased school hassles, indicating an improvement in school climate. Subsequently, decreases in school hassles were significantly associated with decreased alcohol use, aggression, depression, and anxiety. Thus, there was an indirect effect between PA, decreased school hassles, and improved adolescent outcomes. Implications were discussed.

School personnel (teachers, administrators, counselors, staff, and social workers) would greatly benefit from a stronger understanding of bullying dynamics. In order to heighten their understanding, we must strengthen bullying research. Despite more than 40 years of bullying research, a number of methodological weaknesses continue to plague the field of bullying. First, there is a lack of a common definition of bullying, making it difficult to compare results across studies. Second, some researchers use one-item measures of bullying, a practice that lacks content validity and fails to assess the entire scope of the bullying dynamic. Third, many measures fail to assess all forms of bullying. Fourth, researchers often fail to provide a definition of bullying or to even include the word “bullying” in their measures, thus conflating the measurement of bullying and aggression. Finally, most scales measure the prevalence of bullying and fail to assess the motivations for bullying or reasons why youth are bullied or bully others. The current article provides an overview of these five weaknesses present in bullying research, presents possible solutions, and discusses implications for school personnel.

Bullying victimization is a common experience for adolescents. Past research documents that victims have more negative mental health outcomes, social relationships, and school experiences compared to their non-victimized classmates. However, this research is largely cross-sectional, often lacks youth living in rural areas, and does not explore the longitudinal burden that victimization places on adolescent development. Further, few researchers have examined bullying victimization using a dose-response model; the dose model posits that more exposure to a stimuli presents a greater impact. The current study examines how cumulative experiences of traditional and cyber victimization over a three year period are associated with the mental health, social relationships, and school experiences of 2246 middle and high school students in two low income, rural counties in the south. Regression analysis confirms that increased victimization was associated with more negative mental health functioning, social relationships, and school experiences. Implications are discussed.

This investigation examined longitudinal relationships among childhood risk and protective factors and academic, social, and mental health outcomes in late adolescence. Data were drawn from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a research project that has tracked a cohort of 1539 impoverished inner-city youth from birth to young adulthood. An ecological model containing information on child characteristics, family processes, early childhood intervention program participation, and middle childhood indicators of competence and problems was used to predict depression, juvenile delinquency, and high school or GED completion during late adolescence or young adulthood. Multivariate negative binomial and logistic regression analyses were used to show that cumulative family risk from birth to age 12 significantly predicted increases in juvenile court petitions and decreases in high school or GED completion. Early childhood intervention in preschool had the widest ranging protective effects on all three adolescent outcomes. The probability of high school or GED completion was significantly increased by preschool intervention, by parent(s) participating in the child's early elementary school experiences, by satisfactory elementary school grades, and by the child's ability to be task oriented. Being female, participating in preschool intervention, displaying shy or anxious behavior, and having higher grades in middle school predicted lower rates of juvenile court involvement while acting out behavior in middle school increased court involvement rates. Preschool intervention, peer social skills, early classroom adjustment, and shy or anxious behavior in middle school were protective factors against adolescent depression while being female and having higher grades in early elementary school were associated with higher rates of adolescent depression. Implications for social work practice and future research were discussed.