Search

Social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula, such as Second Step, are increasingly being adopted and implemented as universal supports in schools in order to prevent social-emotional and behavioral problems and promote wellbeing and success. Notwithstanding the empirical support for SEL as a universal prevention strategy, a closer look at the literature indicates that students display differential responses to SEL based on their behavioral functioning at baseline; those students with the highest need benefit the most from SEL. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a widely-adopted SEL program produces significant effects for different theoretically-constructed groups of students who are representative of the full spectrum of students in a school. Using data from a large-scale randomized controlled trial evaluating Second Step, analyses examined the extent to which group membership according to the dual continua model of mental health differentially changed based on whether the student was in the intervention or control condition. Overall, results evidenced significant effects favoring the intervention condition across groups in line with our general hypotheses, although both conditions experienced transitions in membership. As expected, those in the intervention condition experienced greater transition between groups, which was indicative of either treatment or prevention effects. Implications, limitations, and future directions of the findings for SEL programming in schools are discussed.

Background Associations of exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and parent-to-child aggression (PCA) with child adjustment have not been examined adequately for community samples. Objective To examine main, cumulative, and interactive associations of IPV and PCA (separately for physical and psychological aggression) with four aspects of child adjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing behavior; social and scholastic competence). Associations were examined between (a) G1 parent behavior and the adjustment of G2 boys (N = 203) at ages 13–14 years and (b) G2 parent behavior and the adjustment of G3 children (N = 294) at ages 4–5 and 11–12 years. Participants and setting Families in a prospective, multigenerational dataset. Methods Measures included reports by caregivers, children, and teachers. Cross-sectional regression models (controlling for parent socioeconomic status and G3 child gender) examined: (a) main effects of IPV or PCA, (b) the simultaneous (i.e., cumulative) effects of both IPV and PCA, and (c) interactive effects of IPV and PCA (sample size permitting) on each of the child adjustment outcomes. Results When considered simultaneously, PCA (but not IPV) was associated with each aspect of child adjustment. The interaction between PCA and IPV indicated lower G2 adolescent scholastic competence and greater G3 preschool externalizing behavior for children exposed to lower levels of IPV and higher levels of PCA. Conclusion Psychological and physical PCA were associated with child adjustment problems even when accounting for IPV. Findings support the use of evidence-based programs to prevent PCA and PCA-associated child adjustment problems.

Social–emotional learning programs are increasingly being implemented in U.S. schools to address a wide range of problematic behaviors (e.g., bullying, delinquency) and to promote academic success. The current study examined the direct and indirect impact of the Second Step Middle School Program (Committee for Children, 2008) on bullying, cyberbullying, homophobic name-calling, and sexual harassment perpetration over the course of a 3-year randomized clinical trial. Delinquency was examined as an intervening variable between treatment condition and aggression outcomes. Thirty-six schools in Kansas and Illinois were assigned to either a Second Step condition or a control condition, and 3,651 sixth-grade students completed self-reported surveys at four time points across 3 years. Students in the Second Step condition received a total of 41 lessons across the 3-year study. No direct intervention effects were found for multiple forms of aggression perpetration at the end of 3 years. However, as hypo...

School-based social-emotional (SEL) programs that address interpersonal conflict and teach emotion management have succeeded in reducing youth aggression among elementary school youth, with few studies in middle schools. Results of a two-year cluster-randomized (36 schools) clinical trial of Second Step Middle School Program (Committee for Children, 2008) on reducing aggression and victimization are presented. Teachers implemented 28 lessons (6th & 7th-grade) that focused on social emotional learning skills (e.g., empathy, problem-solving). All 6th graders (n = 3658) completed self-report measures assessing bullying, aggression, homophobic name-calling and sexual harassment at three waves. Multilevel analyses revealed significant intervention effects for two of the seven outcomes. Students in intervention schools were 56% less likely to self-report homophobic name-calling victimization and 39% less likely to report sexual violence perpetration than students in control schools in one state. SS-SSTP holds promise as an efficacious program to reduce homophobic name-calling and sexual violence in adolescent youth.

Existing scholarship suggests that classroom practices, teacher attitudes, and the broader school environment play a critical role in understanding the rates of student reports of aggression, bullying, and victimization as well as correlated behaviors. A more accurate understanding of the nature, origins, maintenance, and prevalence of bullying and other aggressive behavior requires consideration of the broader social ecology of the school community. However, studies to date have predominantly been cross-sectional in nature, or have failed to reflect the social-ecological framework in their measurement or analytic approach. Thus, there have been limited efforts to parse out the relative contribution of student, classroom, and organizational-level factors. This special topic section emphasizes a departure from a focus on student attitudes and behaviors, to a social-contextual approach that appreciates how much features of the school environment can mitigate or perpetuate aggression. This collection of articles reflects innovative and rigorous approaches to further our understanding of climate, and has implications for theory, measurement, prevention, and practice. These studies highlight the influence of school climate on mental health, academic achievement, and problem behavior, and will hopefully stimulate interest in and further scholarship on this important topic.

This article reviews the extant literature on the links between peer victimization and academic performance and engagement among children and adolescents. Although most of the research on this association is based on cross-sectional investigations, research using longitudinal designs is starting to point to the fact that peer victimization does impact changes in academic performance over time. This research also points to several mediators and moderators that explain the association between repeated victimization and academic challenges, including peer rejection, depression, and decreases in students' sense of school belonging. Teachers and administrators should address peer victimization through programs and frameworks such as positive behavior intervention supports and social-emotional learning approaches. These programs decrease aggression and victimization, increase peer acceptance and social competence, and improve academic engagement and test scores.

This article examines how social emotional learning contributes to bullying prevention efforts in schools. Bullying behavior is impacted by multiple levels of the social-ecology of schools. Social emotional learning (SEL) is a structured way to improve a wide range of students' social and emotional competencies and impact bullying at the individual and peer levels of the school social-ecology. SEL has been shown to be an effective component in comprehensive bullying prevention interventions and other interventions targeting problems such as substance abuse. SEL programs have also been shown to improve student skills, reduce problem behaviors, and increase academic achievement. This article discusses how skills taught in SEL programs contribute to bullying prevention and shows the research links between SEL skills and bullying. Specific suggestions are provided for teachers of ways to support student skill acquisition and strengthen the gains provided by SEL programs.

Social interaction learning theory provides a framework for understanding the potential overlap among adolescent problem behaviors such as family violence, aggression, and substance use. The current study assessed the longitudinal, reciprocal relations among family violence, bullying perpetration, fighting perpetration, and adolescent substance use using a sample of 1,232 students from four Midwestern middle schools. Students completed measures on family dynamics, bullying and fighting behaviors, and alcohol and drug use three times over 18 months. Structural equation modeling results indicated that bullying and fighting perpetration mediated the link between family violence and substance use only for males, but not for females. For females, family violence at Wave 1 was related to greater substance use at Wave 3.

Understanding the nature, timing, and duration of children's exposure to violent experiences is critical to providing effective protection and ultimately, more tailored and timely intervention. Exposure to violence can occur in one or more social ecologies, including the home, school, or the community. As such, this topic cannot be adequately understood by looking at one social context, and it transcends any one particular field of inquiry. Unfortunately, however, much of the scientific inquiry and service provision in the area of violence prevention and intervention occurs in silos based on type of violence, abuse, or maltreatment, precluding a holistic picture of children's exposure. Only a small number of studies provide information about multiple types of exposure to violence.

The current study examines the role of economic strain as a moderator of the microsocial processes influencing younger siblings’ delinquency (externalizing behavior and substance use) in a longitudinal design. The younger siblings (122 younger brothers and 122 younger sisters) were from 244 families with same-sex biological siblings. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine a process model whereby mothers’ harsh/inconsistent parenting and older sibling delinquency influence younger siblings’ delinquent behavior via sibling aggression and delinquent peer affiliation. Findings suggest that indirect mechanisms vary as a function of economic strain, with sibling aggression having a stronger, more detrimental effect on adolescent delinquency in economically strained families. Data suggest that familial economic conditions contextualize the relative roles of parenting, sibling, and peer processes in the transmission of risk to adolescent delinquency.

Full text is not available due to publisher’s copyright restrictions. WSU users can access the article via database licensed by University Libraries: http://libcat.wichita.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=1375543

Relational forms of aggression are known to increase during the middle school years. To date, the majority of efficacy studies of elementary school-based programs have focused on the reduction of p...

Concurrent and longitudinal relations between the amount of romantic experience and psychosocial adjustment were examined in a 1-year study of a community based sample of 200 tenth graders. Adolescents, parents, and friends completed measures of psychosocial adjustment. The amount of romantic experience was associated with higher reports of social acceptance, friendship competence, and romantic competence; at the same time, romantic experience also was associated with greater substance use, more delinquent behavior, and more frequent genital sexual behavior. The amount of romantic experience predicted increased substance use and genital sexual behavior over a 1-year period, whereas social acceptance predicted increased romantic experience. These relations with romantic experience were significant even when genital sexual behavior and social acceptance were taken into account, underscoring the unique contribution of romantic experiences.

The associations between marital conflict, maternal and paternal hostility, children's interpretations of marital conflict, and children's adjustment were examined in a sample of 136 school-aged children and their parents. Observational measures were collected from videotapes of marital interaction and family interaction. Self-report data were collected from parents and children. Results showed that mothers’ and fathers’ hostility mediated the association between martial conflict and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Children's feelings of being to blame for marital conflict and being threatened by it mediated between marital conflict and children's internalizing problems but not their externalizing problems.

This study examines how teacher and staff perceptions of the school environment correlate with student self-reports of bullying, aggression, victimization, and willingness to intervene in bullying incidents using multi-informant, multilevel modeling. Data were derived from 3,616 6th grade students across 36 middle schools in the Midwest, who completed survey measures of bullying, aggression, victimization, and willingness to intervene in bullying situations. Teachers and staff (n = 1,447) completed a school environment survey. Bivariate associations between school-level and student self-reports indicated that as teacher and staff perceive aggression as a problem in their school, students reported greater bully perpetration, fighting, peer victimization, and less willingness to intervene. Further, as staff and teacher report greater commitment to prevent bullying and viewed positive teacher and student relationships, there was less bullying, fighting, and peer victimization, and greater willingness to intervene. In a model where all school environment scales were entered together, a school commitment to prevent bullying was associated with less bullying, fighting, and peer victimization. Student-reports of bully perpetration and peer victimization were largely explained by staff and teacher commitment to bully prevention, whereas fighting and willingness to intervene were largely explained by student characteristics (e.g., gender). We conclude that efforts to address bullying and victimization should involve support from the school administration. School psychologists should play an active role in the school climate improvement process, by creating a school climate council consisting of students, parents, and teachers; administering school climate measures; identifying specific school improvement targets from these data, and engaging all stakeholders in the ongoing school improvement plan.

Community violence exposure results in heightened risk for engaging in and being a victim of interpersonal violence. Despite this robust literature, few studies have specifically examined how the relation between community violence exposure, peer aggression, and victimization is modified by individual, peer, and familial influences (considered jointly). In the current study, we used risk and resiliency theory to examine links between community violence exposure and peer aggression and victimization. Impulsivity and parental monitoring were examined as potential moderators of the link between community violence exposure and outcomes, both directly and indirectly via deviant behavior. Survey data on bullying involvement, fighting, deviancy, parental monitoring, and impulsivity were collected on 3 occasions over an 18-month period among a large cohort of adolescents (N = 1,232) in 5th-7th grades. Structural equation modeling suggests that for both male and female adolescents, impulsivity exacerbates the effects of community violence exposure by increasing involvement in deviant behavior. Parental monitoring buffered the effects of community violence exposure on perpetration and victimization (for males and female adolescents) via reduced involvement in deviant behavior. Findings suggest that impulsivity and parental monitoring are implicated in modifying the effects of community violence exposure on both victimization and perpetration through deviancy, although deviancy is not as potent of a predictor for victimization. Thus, prevention efforts would seem to be optimally targeted at multiple ecological levels, including parental involvement and peer networks.

As a group, children with significant hearing loss are at greater risk than other children for outcomes far below their potential, despite the institution of various educational approaches at increasingly earlier ages. Research suggests some benefits of early intervention for deaf children and their families. However, there remains a paucity of research into how family variables may affect child outcomes. The present study investigated the effect of paternal presence or absence on the social-emotional, language, and academic outcomes of 22 deaf and hard of hearing children ages 43-83 months. The children had graduated anywhere from 9 to 47 months earlier from an early intervention program for deaf and hard of hearing children 3 years of age or younger. Results indicated that children whose father is present have significantly better academic and language outcomes than those without a father present. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed, as well as implications of these findings for services offered by early intervention programs.

Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program (STR) relies on a social-ecological model of prevention to increase school staff awareness and responsiveness, foster socially responsible beliefs among students, and teach social-emotional skills to students to reduce bullying behavior. As part of a school-randomized controlled trial of STR, we examined predictors and outcomes associated with classroom curriculum implementation in intervention schools. Data on classroom implementation (adherence and engagement) were collected from a sample of teachers using a weekly on-line Teacher Implementation Checklist system. Pre-post data related to school bullying-related outcomes were collected from 1,424 students and archival school demographic data were obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics. Results of multilevel analyses indicated that higher levels of program engagement were influenced by school-level percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch, as well as classroom-level climate indicators. Results also suggest that higher levels of program engagement were related to lower levels of school bullying problems, enhanced school climate and attitudes less supportive of bullying. Predictors and outcomes related to program fidelity (i.e., adherence) were largely nonsignificant. Results suggest that student engagement is a key element of program impact, though implementation is influenced by both school-level demographics and classroom contexts.

Despite the veritable influence of the peer context on the elaboration of adolescent aggression, few studies of relational aggression have directly identified and measured peer groups, limiting our ability to draw formal conclusions about the level and nature of peer influence. The current study used a developmental framework to examine peer group influence on individual levels of physical and relational aggression over a year with 6th and 7th grade students (n = 346, 51 % female). A multilevel network approach was used in which peer groups were identified via social network analysis, and peer group influence was evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). HLM analyses indicated that peer group aggression (physical and relational) at time 1 was predictive of individual aggression levels at time 2 after controlling for other peer group characteristics as well as other individual risk and protective factors. Although both forms of aggression were embedded in peer networks, findings suggest that physical aggression is relatively less endemic to peer networks, and is more likely to occur in smaller, predominantly male networks. The current study highlights the importance of understanding the influence of peer group membership on adolescent aggression and points to important implications for prevention.

The degree to which parent antisocial characteristics moderated the effects of the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO™) on observed parenting practices over 2 years after baseline was assessed in a sample of recently married biological mother and stepfather couples with at-risk children. Sixty-seven of the 110 participating families were randomly assigned to PMTO, and 43 families to a non-intervention condition. Using an intent-to-treat analysis, PMTO was reliably related to growth in positive parenting and to decreases in coercive parenting. Parent antisocial characteristics moderated the effect of PMTO on coercive but not on positive parenting practices. PMTO resulted in greater reductions in coercive parenting as parent antisocial histories were more extensive, and this moderator effect was found for both mothers and stepfathers. The findings support the effectiveness of PMTO as a preventive intervention for child conduct problems, and indicate that the parenting behaviors of antisocial parents are malleable and serve as important mediators of their impact on child conduct problems.

Relations between parents' depressed mood, marital conflict, parent-child hostility, and children's adjustment were examined in a community sample of 136 ten-year-olds and their parents. Videotaped observational and self-report data were used to examine these relations in path analyses. A proposed model was tested in which mothers' and fathers' depressed mood and marital hostility were associated with children's adjustment problems through disruptions in parent-child relationships. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' marital hostility were linked to parent-child hostility, which in turn was linked to children's internalizing problems. Fathers' depressed mood was linked to children's internalizing problems indirectly through father-child hostility. Fathers' depressed mood was directly linked to children's externalizing problems and indirectly linked through father-child hostility. For mothers, marital hostility was directly linked to children's externalizing problems, and marital hostility in fathers was indirectly linked to children's externalizing problems through father-child hostility.