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Social communication is closely related to overall and general adolescent mental health and predictive of problem behaviors in adulthood. However, adolescents with social communication deficits remain an underidentified and underserved population, especially in school-based settings. In part, this is due to the dearth of social communication measures developed for use, and within, school contexts. The School-Based Social Communication Skill Set Screener (SBSCSSS) was developed as a schoolwide rapid assessment measure for students' perceptions of their own skills and problems stemming from potential social communication issues. This study aims to provide initial psychometric evidence for the SBSCSSS by analyzing a data set of schoolwide needs assessment responses conducted at an urban Appalachian high school. Exploratory factor analyses identified a three-factor structure across 23 items. Internal consistency calculations found that each factor, including a global factor, had high levels of internal consistency. Convergent validity findings are also provided. Initial psychometric evidence for the SBSCSSS indicates a potential valid and reliable tool to examine perceived social communication skills for high school students. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for future research and practice.

Coupled with school for education and socialization, hope is an important facet of adolescent development. Hope can be a mitigating factor against negative outcomes, including poor academic achievement. However, little study has been done to examine how the school environment influences perceptions of hope. This study will examine the perceived aspects of the educational experience and climate that affect and predict scores of perceived hope for Midwestern adolescents. Data from a school-wide needs assessment were used to analyze a measure of perceived hope and perceptions of the school environment. Three regression models were run to identify aspects of the educational experience and environment that significantly predicted perceptions of hope. Ultimately four perceived aspects of the school environment were found to account for 56.4 percent of the variance in perceived hope. These findings indicate that hopefulness can be increased by addressing aspects within the educational environment.

Urban hassles are daily stressors germane to urban environments. Stressors, being strong agents in the development and/or exacerbation of psychosocial issues, often overlap with academic success (Sanchez, Lambert, & Cooley-Strickland, 2013). This makes the presence of urban hassles a particular point of interest when serving at-risk adolescents in schools. The present study examines frequency of psychosocial needs coexisting with urban hassles among urban high schoolers, some of whom may be exposed to these stressors and experiencing subsequent difficulties in the school setting. This study employs data compiled from a 2014-15 school-wide needs assessment. The results indicated that each urban hassle shared at least one relationship with a psychosocial need, and that all psychosocial needs shared relationships with at least fifteen urban hassles. Additionally, although low-need groups did not perceive that they faced fewer hassles than their high-need counterparts, twenty-one hassles demonstrated differences between groups.

The federal government enacted the McKinney--Vento Homeless Assistance Act (MVA) to equip schools with services to help alleviate the many barriers students experiencing homelessness face in pursuit of educational opportunities. Educational agencies use federally mandated liaisons to uphold the provisions of the MVA. Despite the homeless liaisons' importance in facilitating the policy, few studies have examined how liaisons perceive their service area's response to homelessness. This study explored homeless liaisons' perceptions of MVA implementation in their service areas. Researchers invited every homeless liaison in three southern states to complete an online survey focusing on perceptions of MVA implementation and their service area's response to homelessness. Of the 369 practitioners identified as a homeless liaison solicited for study participation, 32 percent completed surveys. Results indicated significant differences in perceived implementation in the level of collaboration with teachers and school administrators, liaisons' job titles, school's receipt of federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth funding, and awareness of homelessness in terms of general awareness, interaction, policy, and needs. Findings indicate that collaboration and awareness are major factors that affect perceptions of implementation. Furthermore, the results indicate that liaisons must take steps to ensure a collaborative environment to implement the MVA.

This study sought to examine social work students' perceptions of Team-Based Learning (N = 154). Aside from looking at overall student perceptions, comparative analyses examined differences in perceptions between BSW and MSW students, and between Caucasian students and students of color. Findings for the overall sample revealed favorable perceptions. The majority of students felt that Team-Based Learning effectively relayed content while teaching higher order cognitive skills. No differences emerged between MSW and BSW students; however, there were significant differences between students of color and Caucasian students, with the former feeling more isolated and singled out. Implications for practice are discussed.

Schools are crucial environments for the overall development of adolescents. A consistently safe and supportive school environment has been shown to increase student engagement and promote the overall achievement and wellbeing of adolescents. However, there is a dearth of measurements validated on student perceptions of a supportive school environment. This study used data from a routine school-wide needs assessment at an urban high school to develop and validate a measure intended to gauge student perceptions of a supportive school environment. After exploratory factor analysis to identify constructs, items were evaluated using reliability testing. Findings provided initial psychometric validation for the new measure, the Student Perceptions of Supportive School Environment scale. This article concludes with a discussion of the implications of a validated scale of student perceptions and emphasizes that research among various populations is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School social workers are at the forefront of serving homeless children and youths as they pursue education. Because of the negative impact homelessness can have on academic outcomes for children, understanding what factors are perceived to either hinder or facilitate practice and what factors might influence perceptions of practice with this population is important, but understudied. The purpose of this study was to examine what aspects of school social work are perceived to serve as barriers and which are seen as facilitators to working with homeless children, how those aspects may be categorized, and what might influence perceptions of these barriers and facilitators. A sample of 228 school social workers was surveyed regarding their perceptions of 15 different aspects of practice with homeless children. It was established that all 15 aspects were viewed as barriers, grouped into two types: general homeless barriers and in-school barriers. Awareness of homelessness was found to correlate with perceptions of barriers, and level of licensure and geographic location moderated that relationship. Findings from this study indicate that school social workers must be cognizant of the issues in their service area and the barriers that may hinder practice with homeless children in a school setting.

With the needs and challenges of adolescent homelessness on the rise, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (MVA) was crafted as a public policy initiative aimed at facilitating access to schools for this population. While school social workers are the designated personnel for practice with homeless school-aged children, we know little about their abilities to implement the MVA or what hinders or facilitates their practice with this population. In this qualitative study of 201 school social workers, barriers to school social work practice with homeless children are explored. The most common barriers cited by the participants revolved around parental issues and support. We determined that the role that parents of homeless students play might be paramount to the success of MVA implementation. However, future research should investigate that relationship in greater detail. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

Objective: The McKinney-Vento Act (MVA) is the primary federal policy addressing homelessness in America with specific mandates designed to ameliorate the effects homelessness has on educational attainment for school-age children. The extent to which this policy is implemented may have far-reaching effects for homeless children. The MVA Implementation Scale (MVAIS) was developed for the purpose of providing a tool for assessing school-based social services personnel's perceived knowledge and awareness of implementation of the MVA within their service areas. This study tests the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the 26-item instrument. Method: Data were collected from a purposive sample of school social workers (N = 201) attending a Mid-Western regional conference in order to examine the reliability and the validity of this measure. Results: The hypothesized factor structures were confirmed. Findings also indicated high levels of reliability among items, as well as initial evidence of instrument validity. Conclusion: Findings from this study indicate that the MVAIS adequately measures participant's perceived implementation of the MVA. Future implications for research and practice are discussed. (Contains 8 tables.)

This study presents descriptive findings from self-reported qualitative and quantitative data on barriers and facilitators to culturally competent school social work practice. The study highlights the need for the development of evaluative methods for the purpose of examining how elements within the practice environment affect school social work intervention outcomes. Using a convenience sample (N = 156), the authors derived findings from qualitative and quantitative data collected from school social workers at a national gathering. With respect to qualitative findings, among perceived barriers to cultural competence are school-based personnel's low knowledge and awareness of school social work tasks, as well as lack of resources. Perceived facilitators of culturally competent practice include collaborative practice, teacher assistance, parental involvement, and knowledge of the practice environment. With respect to quantitative findings, collaborative practice and assistance from teachers are the highest-rated factors facilitating culturally competent practice. The authors also discuss implications for school social work practice, directions for future research, and professional development strategies. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)

While cognitive impairment has traditionally been conceptualized from a medical model, the study examines the potential ability for non-pharmacological, evidence-based interventions to sustain the brain health of cognitively impaired aging adults living in institutional settings. This cross-sectional study included thirty older adults living in a nursing home setting, including aged 65 years and older in a metropolitan region. Participants reported engaging in several non-pharmacological physical and social activities. Non-parametric testing was used to examine differences between pretest and posttest for several outcomes: MoCA average 16.56 (SD = 3.585), range [9,21], CLOX significantly increased between pre [average of.83 (SD =.707)] and post [2 (SD = 1.044)] intervention, UCLA increased from 8.33 (SD = 6.979) to 10.93 (SD = 9.294) indicating participants were found to have significantly decreased cognitive impairment. Current evidence and future directions for assessing the effectiveness of noninvasive, non-pharmacological, cost-effective interventions and preventions for healthy brain aging are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored perceptions of marijuana use and abstinence among urban and rural Appalachian high school students using photovoice, enabling this subset of youth to co-construct their perceptions of marijuana use and abstinence. Twelve adolescents, ages 14-17, participated in the study. Participants identified managing stress and feeling peer pressure as two reasons teens might use marijuana. Participants identified four reasons for adolescent marijuana abstinence including having positive relationships, identifying with religion/spirituality, participating in extracurricular activities, and avoiding negative outcomes. Findings suggest that participants may smoke marijuana due to peer pressure and to cope with stress. Collective approaches including families, communities, and faith organizations may be important marijuana use prevention approaches for Appalachian adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to process in parallel multiple forms of sensory information, and link sensory-sensory associations to behavior, presumably allows for the opportunistic use of the most reliable and predictive sensory modalities in diverse behavioral contexts. Evolutionary considerations indicate that such processing may represent a fundamental operating principle underlying complex sensory associations and sensory-motor integration. Here, we suggest that animal navigation is a particularly useful model of such opportunistic use of sensory and motor information because it is possible to study directly the effects of memory on neural system functions. First, comparative evidence for parallel processing across multiple brain structures during navigation is provided from the literatures on fish and rodent navigation. Then, based on neurophysiological evidence of coordinated, multiregional processing, we provide a neurobiological explanation of learning and memory effects on neural circuitry mediating navigation.

Financial independence has been identified in the literature as a means of promoting women's self-sufficiency and a key aspect of the concepts of success and self-efficacy. Few studies, however, have examined women's perspectives of their needs and ability to meet those needs consistently over time. Furthermore, little is known about how women assign meaning to, perceive, and experience success or their ability to sustain their needs and the needs of their community. This study utilizes photovoice to explore perceptions of self-success and self-sustainability among women (N = 21) participating in a community-based entrepreneurial skills development and empowerment program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]