Search

Background: There is a need for brief progress monitoring measures of behavioral and emotional symptoms for youth in out-of-home care. The Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS; Bickman et al. in Manual of the peabody treatment progress battery. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, ) is one measure that has clinician and youth short forms (SFSS-SFs); however, the psychometric soundness of the SFSS-SFs with youth in out-of-home care has yet to be examined. Objective: The objective was to determine if the psychometric characteristics of the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs are viable for use in out-of-home care programs. Methods: The participants included 143 youth receiving residential treatment and 52 direct care residential staff. The current study assessed internal consistency and alternate forms reliability for SFSS-SFs for youth in a residential care setting. Further, a binary classification test was completed to determine if the SFSS-SFs similarly classified youth as the SFSS full version for low- and elevated-severity. Results: The internal consistency for the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs was adequate (α = .75-.82) as was the parallel forms reliability ( r = .85-.97). The sensitivity (0.80-0.95), specificity (0.88-0.97), and overall accuracy (0.89-0.93) for differentiating low and elevated symptom severity was acceptable. Conclusions: The clinician and youth SFSS-SFs have acceptable psychometrics and may be beneficial for progress monitoring; however, more research is needed to assess their sensitivity to change over time in out-of-home programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although females represent almost half of all youth involved in residential care in the US, very little is known about this population. In order to examine differences in characteristics of male ( n = 308) and female ( n = 180) youth departing from residential care, data were collected on 488 youth from a large residential treatment facility in the Midwest. Gender differences were assessed on 16 variables measured at the time of departure across family, education, behavior, and departure domains. Overall, male and female youth departing from residential care were very similar for measures collected at the time of departure. Only three variables (GPA at departure, number of school referrals during the previous 8 weeks, and planned departure) were found to be significantly different between males and females. Implications for future research and the provision of aftercare services are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the New York-style baseball in Racine County, Wisconsin. The section reflects on the history of baseball in the Racine County, and how several people influence the integration of the sport, including Colonel William L. Utley. According to the report, during the post-Civil War era in America, baseball quickly spread throughout Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin, which became hotbeds of baseball activity with numerous clubs forming and rapidly learning the New York game.

This study compares the On the Way Home (OTWH) aftercare program to traditional aftercare supports on placement and school stability for 82 youth (43 treatment, 39 control) with disabilities discharging from residential care. One-year-post-discharge results revealed that negative event occurrence (i.e., returning to care or discontinuing enrollment in the community school) was three to over five times less likely for OTWH youth compared to youth in the control condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]