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This study investigated the effect of nature-based guidance lessons on anxiety and connection to nature among elementary students using a pretest post-test with control group experimental design. N...

Extensive research has documented associations between childhood abuse and neglect and adolescent mental health. This exploratory study adds the examination of differences in types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction, with a little studied population, those in therapeutic residential care. Also documented were the differences between types of treatment categories per the Youth Comprehensive Risk Assessment (YCRA) and adverse experiences, as well as the adolescent strengths of empowerment and social competence related to adverse childhood experiences in therapeutic residential care. Data was generated from 139 youth in two adolescent therapeutic residential care centers. The most commonly reported adverse experiences were emotional abuse (79.9%) and physical neglect (76.3%). Those with lower empowerment and social competence had significantly higher ACEs in the areas of abuse, neglect, and total ACEs. Youth categorized as high risk to others but not to self, had significantly fewer adverse childhood experiences than others. Study findings support broadening the current discourse on types of adverse events and challenges when considering pathways toward strength building and treatment type, especially related to social competence.

Vulnerable youth often face challenges with delayed learning due to their life experiences. Trauma, loss, mental illness, and social-emotional developmental delays present a variety of challenging ...

This study evaluated the trends of reported childhood trauma found in two adolescent therapeutic residential communities (TRCs) in the rural Rocky Mountain West as measured by the Trauma Sy...

This article highlights one child and youth services agency's journey to develop and pilot a system for tracking training effectiveness for staff. Given the importance of intentional and strong staff training to the success of an agency, the purpose of this study was to report training outcomes across four-time intervals (i.e., immediately after training considered here as baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months) using a tracking system based on best practices in staff development. Results indicated that the tracking system allowed this agency to measure and describe post-training outcomes for staff across the four-time intervals. It can be inferred that such training positively influenced youth outcomes. Specifically, the training and follow-up expanded staff's ability to effectively internalize concepts and be more intentional with their time for the benefit of youth care.

Administrators of youth Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) centers are faced with unique staffing challenges. The current study aims to investigate these challenges and the ways in which administrators at one agency face them, emphasizing specifically, staff motivation and staffing patterns. To do this, we assessed youth workers and cottage coordinators (administrators) at a rural therapeutic residential care center in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States by measuring a) what motivates staff to work at the agency as measured by the Manifest Needs Questionnaire (MNQ), b) what are the staffing patterns by performance and turnover, and c) what is the interrelationship between performance, turnover and MNQ needs. The results indicate that cottage coordinators exhibited significantly higher needs for achievement (as measured by the MNQ) than youth workers. Additionally, cottage coordinators were significantly higher on autonomy than youth workers. Lastly, both indicated low/moderate dominance and moderate/high affiliation with little difference between the two groups. Based on these results, we present recommendations on recruitment, training and teambuilding for TRC centers.

Using a comparison group of non–American Indian youth, a field-based pilot study was undertaken to investigate the challenges and risks of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth in therapeutic...

Although the notion of involving families in residential treatment is not new, relatively little research has specifically examined youth perceptions of improvement in family functioning as an outc...

The challenges to higher education institutions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic are placing new and demanding pressures on the academic deanship. A leadership role focusing on guiding teams of professionals toward meeting internally defined goals now requires critical examination. This study analyzes the impact of the pandemic on higher education institutions and particularly the academic deanship. A model for the deanship in a post pandemic institution is included.

This article reports research findings on the impact of Oglala Lakota Sioux traditional healing on family functioning and youth resiliency where trauma, abuse, or violence are often present. Caregivers of Lakota youth struggling with serious emotional and behavioral problems participated in the study. The study included both quantitative and qualitative samples: 27 families for the quantitative sample and 8 families for the qualitative sample. Results from caregivers revealed that traditional healing and cultural practices, as well as the promotion of cultural identity, had statistically significant positive effects on the perceived familial and individual functioning of Lakota youth and their families. Effect sizes indicate that the results have strong practical significance.

There is a significant need to comprehensively describe and illustrate via a logic model what processes work for adolescents in residential treatment facilities and how to make improvements (Bean, White, Neagle & Lake, 2005).The purpose of this article is to highlight one Adolescent TRC’s journey to develop and implement a working Logic Model.

This study explored challenges and stressors facing academic deans within higher education. The study analyzed, via step-wise multiple regression, the degree to which current challenges and related stress were associated with the well-being measures of effort-reward imbalance and over-commitment as measured by the Effort/Reward Imbalance scale (ERI); hardiness, as measured by the Dispositional Resilience Scale (DRS); and aspects of burnout, as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results indicated that the stress related to certain challenges (e.g., balancing financial resources, creating a clear vision, promoting change) have particularly powerful influences on aspects of work well-being. Implications and recommendations are included.

This study evaluated specific aspects of elementary school teachers’ job satisfaction in a large urban public school district. Teachers from ten out of sixty-four elementary schools within a school district in a U.S. western state were surveyed. The elementary schools surveyed included low, medium, and high social economic status schools. This study evaluated (1) the current level of job satisfaction of elementary school teachers and (2) important professional practices that influence teacher job satisfaction. Intrinsic job satisfaction was higher than extrinsic job satisfaction, with overall job satisfaction indicating elementary school teachers were slightly more satisfied than not satisfied. Elementary school teachers were very satisfied with their co-workers, nature of work, and supervision and not satisfied with pay and operating conditions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how therapeutic recreation within a wilderness setting (aka therapeutic outdoor programming) affects youth functionality as measured by the Youth Comprehensive Risk Assessment (YCRA) utilizing pretest and post-test results. For purposes of this article, therapeutic recreation is defined as “a treatment service designed to restore, remediate and rehabilitate a person’s level of functioning and independence in life activities, to promote health and wellness as well as reduce or eliminate the activity limitations and restrictions to participation in life situations caused by an illness or disabling condition.”1 Results showed that youth from a residential treatment center (RTC) engaged in a therapeutic outdoor program in the form of overnight trips of at least 3 days reported overall improvements when compared to a matched control group.