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Validating frameworks for understanding classroom processes that contribute to student learning and development is important to advance the scientific study of teaching. This article presents one such framework, Teaching through Interactions, which posits that teacher-student interactions are a central driver for student learning and organizes teacher-student interactions into three major domains. Results provide evidence that across 4,341 preschool to elementary classrooms (1) teacher-student classroom interactions comprise distinct emotional, organizational, and instructional domains; (2) the three-domain latent structure is a better fit to observational data than alternative one- and two-domain models of teacher-student classroom interactions; and (3) the three-domain structure is the best-fitting model across multiple data sets.

The present paper examines if developmental pathways for students at risk for academic failure can be improved through social and emotional learning (SEL). Specifically, we test this hypothesis by ...

Supportive classroom environments are associated with improved student outcomes, particularly during early adolescence (ages 10–14 years). Applying Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to further investigate the microsystem of the school (Bronfenbrenner and Morris in The ecology of human development, Harvard University Press, Boston, 1998), we examined how student and teacher perceptions of classroom support relate to one another and identified which ecological characteristics impact student and teacher perceptions of support. Using data from 35 grade 5–6 classrooms, we examined parallel models of students’ and teachers’ perceptions of classroom support as a function of individual-, classroom- and school-level characteristics. Students’ perceptions varied substantially between students in the same classroom, and differences between schools accounted for important variability in students’ perceptions. In contrast, teachers’ perceptions showed no between-school variability; all variability in teachers’ perceptions could be attributed to varying experiences of teachers in the same school. Additionally, students’ perceptions of support were significantly and positively associated with teachers’ perceptions of support. Taken together, results suggest that educational interventions targeting classroom processes should be enacted at the school level and assessed by both teacher and student in an attempt to capture the breadth of perceptions and optimise outcomes among early adolescents.

We created the Recognizing Excellence in Learning and Teaching (RELATE) Tool for Special Education Classroom Observation to fill the need for a well-researched, observational tool that provides a m...

Students with Emotional and Behavioural Disorders (EBD) have the poorest academic and social outcomes across the general and special education student populations, and are among the most likely to ...

Despite teacher self-efficacy and burnout’s influence on student outcomes, little research has been conducted on teacher self-efficacy and burnout in residential treatment schools. This study attem...

Teacher–student interactions contribute to the quality of the classroom environment. Although numerous measures of these interactions exist, few target the affective expression and reception of interactions directly. To fill this need, we detail the piloting and psychometric validation a self-report measure, the Emotion-Focused Interactions (EFI) Scale. The EFI is reliable as a one-factor measure, with strong positive loadings and adequate internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analysis rendered the EFI valid, test–retest reliability was adequate, and concurrent validity was significant. Results suggest the EFI has good psychometric properties as a measure of affective exchanges among teachers and students. Implications for use and further study are discussed.

Medically underserved US immigrants are at an increased risk for death from preventable or curable cancers due to economic, cultural, and/or linguistic barriers to medical care. The purpose of this study was to describe the evaluation of the pilot study of the Healthy Eating for Life (HE4L) English as a second language curriculum. The Reach, Effectiveness Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM) model was used to design a mixed-methods approach to the evaluation of the HE4L curriculum. Successful implementation was dependent upon enthusiastic teacher and manager support of the curriculum, teachers' ability to flexibly apply the curriculum to meet student needs, and researcher provision of curriculum workbooks. HE4L can be implemented successfully in various adult education settings to teach healthy eating behaviors and English language principles. Scale-up of HE4L may depend on the development of an online version of the curriculum to avoid the costs associated with printing and distributing curriculum materials.

How educators and students process and respond to emotions can either enhance or impede the development of the whole child. Social and emotional learning (SEL) refers to the processes of developing social and emotional competencies, which depend on individuals’ capacity to recognize, understand, and manage emotions (i.e., emotional intelligence or EI). Consensus across disciplines about the importance of EI highlights the need to advance the science of how to teach SEL. RULER, an evidence-based approach to teaching EI, provides an educational framework that encompasses a set of practices for comprehensive SEL integration across a school or district. In this article, we describe RULER, explain how it teaches EI, and summarize evidence of its effectiveness.

There is an absence of observation-based tools designed to evaluate teaching in special education classrooms. Evaluations derived from classroom observations are integral to the accountability process, adding value to understanding teaching and learning by providing a lens into the classroom that test scores cannot capture. The present paper systematically examined existing classroom observation tools, identifying constructs measured and noting elements unique to special education classrooms. Results demonstrate that most extant tools tap into three primary categories of teacher behaviours, but overlook the role paraprofessionals play as well as teacher professional behaviours. Taken together, results reflect the need for a tool designed specifically for special education classrooms. Limitations and implications for practice and policy are discussed.

Even the most junior Warfighters must effectively interact and negotiate with locals from communities that do not share their religious beliefs, social perspectives or customs. These cultural differences introduce a layer of uncertainty into chaotic operational contexts that are marked by moments of intense stress, and often contribute to strong emotional responses such as anxiety or anger. Unchecked, these emotional responses can escalate and lead Warfighters to make judgments and decisions they might not otherwise make. In high stakes situations, even the slightest mistake may have tragic consequences; thus, a need exists to equip Warfighters with skills that allow them to recognize/regulate their emotions. Emotional Intelligence (EI) “is the ability to monitor one's own and other's feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions” [1] . Learning effective strategies to manage our emotions is critical for laying a strong foundation for the development of positive relationships [2,3] . Being able to effectively build positive relationships in diverse settings is a key attribute of cross cultural competence that may be improved through EI training. By practicing emotion recognition/regulation strategies, individuals will begin to replace ineffective decision-making with productive responses to challenging situations. In order to understand how emotions can influence decision making and social judgment, various moderating factors need to be considered, including cultural, group, and individual differences in emotional recognition/regulation [4] . We provide a brief overview of the operational need, define the basic tenets of EI, and describe how this approach could be implemented within an existing military training setting. We describe how emotion recognition and regulation skills would be exercised and evaluated and list potential benefits of using immersive training for skill development. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future research and development in this area.

Role-play scenarios have been considered a successful learning space for children to develop their social and emotional abilities. In this paper, we investigate whether socially assistive robots in role-playing settings are as effective with small groups of children as they are with a single child, and whether individual factors such as gender, grade level (first vs. second), perception of the robots (peer vs. adult), and empathy level (low vs. high) play a role in these two interaction contexts. We conducted a three-week repeated exposure experiment where 40 children interacted with socially assistive robotic characters that acted out interactive stories around words that contribute to expanding children's emotional vocabulary. Our results showed that although participants who interacted alone with the robots recalled the stories better than participants in the group condition, no significant differences were found in children's emotional interpretation of the narratives. With regard to individual differences, we found that a single child setting appeared more appropriate to first graders than a group setting, empathy level is an important predictor for emotional understanding of the narratives, and children's performance varies depending on their perception of the robots (peer vs. adult) in the two conditions.

Low health literacy contributes significantly to cancer health disparities disadvantaging minorities and the medically underserved. Immigrants to the United States constitute a particularly vulnerable subgroup of the medically underserved, and because many are non-native English speakers, they are pre-disposed to encounter language and literacy barriers across the cancer continuum. Healthy Eating for Life (HE4L) is an English as a second language (ESL) curriculum designed to teach English language and health literacy while promoting fruit and vegetable consumption for cancer prevention. This article describes the rationale, design, and content of HE4L. HE4L is a content-based adult ESL curriculum grounded in the health action process approach to behavior change. The curriculum package includes a soap opera-like storyline, an interactive student workbook, a teacher's manual, and audio files. HE4L is the first teacher-administered, multimedia nutrition-education curriculum designed to reduce cancer risk among beginning-level ESL students. HE4L is unique because it combines adult ESL principles, health education content, and behavioral theory. HE4L provides a case study of how evidence-based, health promotion practices can be implemented into real-life settings and serves as a timely, useful, and accessible nutrition-education resource for health educators.

Preschool RULER is a theoretically-based approach for developing emotional intelligence in preschool children and the key adults involved in their education (i.e. teachers, preschool administrators, parents). Preschool RULER is an adaptation of the empirically tested RULER, currently available for kindergarten through grade eight. In this article we describe the iterative process for developing Preschool RULER and how we modified the existing approach to meet the unique needs of early childhood education settings. Preschool RULER includes a whole-school approach for full integration of the work including professional development, instructional tools and curricular elements grounded in developmentally appropriate practices, and methods for fostering home-school connections

As research on robotic tutors increases, it becomes more relevant to understand whether and how robots will be able to keep students engaged over time. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to monitor engagement in small groups of children and trigger disengagement repair interventions when necessary. We implemented this algorithm in a scenario where two robot actors play out interactive narratives around emotional words and conducted a field study where 72 children interacted with the robots three times in one of the following conditions: control (no disengagement repair), targeted (interventions addressing the child with the highest disengagement level) and general (interventions addressing the whole group). Surprisingly, children in the control condition had higher narrative recall than in the two experimental conditions, but no significant differences were found in the emotional interpretation of the narratives. When comparing the two different types of disengagement repair strategies, participants who received targeted interventions had higher story recall and emotional understanding, and their valence after disengagement repair interventions increased over time.

We present a comprehensive framework that identifies a number of factors that impact human-agent team building, including human, agent, and environmental factors. This framework integrates existing empirical work in organization behavior, non-technical training, and human-agent interaction to support successful human-agent operations. We conclude by discussing implications and next steps to evaluate and expand our framework with the aim of guiding future attempts to create efficient human-agent teams and improve mission outcomes.

The skills of emotional intelligence, such as recognizing emotions in the self and others, understanding the causes and consequence of emotions, and effectively regulating the experience and expression of emotional responses, are essential for children’s success in school and life. Yet, many children arrive at school lacking these skills, which can impede them from reaching their full potential. This chapter describes RULER, a Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) SELect approach, to illustrate how the teaching and learning of emotional intelligence can be integrated into the core academic curricula. RULER uses multiple tools to nurture five interdependent skills: recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions. The chapter focuses primarily on emotion regulation skills and on how the tools that RULER uses foster their development. The promise of formative assessments to enhance the teaching and learning of emotional intelligence is also discussed.

We conducted a pre–post feasibility trial of Healthy Eating for Life, a theory-based, multimedia English as a second language curriculum that integrates content about healthy nutrition into an English language learning program to decrease cancer health disparities. Teachers in 20 English as a second language classrooms delivered Healthy Eating for Life to 286 adult English as a second language students over one semester. Postintervention data are available for 227 students. The results indicated that Healthy Eating for Life is effective for increasing fruit and vegetable intake as well as knowledge, action planning, and coping planning related to healthy eating. Participants also achieved higher reading scores compared to the state average.

Emotional intelligence (EI) theory provides a framework to study the role of emotion skills in social, personal, and academic functioning. Reporting data validating the importance of EI among youth have been limited due to a dearth of measurement instruments. In two studies, the authors examined the reliability and validity of the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test—Youth Version (MSCEIT-YV), a performance test of EI. Study 1 examined psychometric attributes of the MSCEIT-YV in a large sample of fifth- to eighth-grade students ( N = 756). Study 2 examined the relationship of the MSCEIT to student and teacher reports of academic, social, and personal functioning among fifth- and sixth-grade students ( N = 273). The authors report that EI can be measured reliably with the MSCEIT-YV and that higher scores on the test are related to healthier psychological functioning and greater social competence based on both teacher and student ratings, as well as to academic performance in English language arts.

The emotional connections students foster in their classrooms are likely to impact their success in school. Using a multimethod, multilevel approach, this study examined the link between classroom emotional climate and academic achievement, including the role of student engagement as a mediator. Data were collected from 63 fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms (N 1,399 students) and included classroom observations, student reports, and report card grades. As predicted, multilevel mediation analyses showed that the positive relationship between classroom emotional climate and grades was mediated by engagement, while controlling for teacher characteristics and observations of both the organizational and instructional climates of the classrooms. Effects were robust across grade level and student gender. The discussion highlights the role of classroom-based, emotion-related interactions to promote academic achievement.

This study tested several relationships predicted by the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) in a sample of 175 generally healthy, inactive, middle-aged women (40–65 yrs old) over a 12 week period. Participants’ physical activity, risk perceptions, outcome expectancies, action self-efficacy, and intentions were measured at baseline. Planning and maintenance self-efficacy were measured four weeks later. Physical activity behaviour was measured twelve weeks after baseline. The HAPA relationships were examined using a structural equation model. The data fit the model well and revealed several significant relationships. Action self-efficacy was the best predictor of intention. Maintenance self-efficacy was the best predictor of planning and behaviour. Contrary to the tenets of HAPA and to past research, planning did not predict behaviour. Overall, HAPA provides a useful framework for identifying determinants of physical activity intentions and behaviour within a group of inactive, middle-aged women.

The purpose of this study was to examine if messages tailored to an individual’s regulatory focus (i.e. their tendency to focus on prevention or promotion) increased exercise intentions and behavior in a medically underserved sample. Adult English as a Second Language students ( N = 58) were presented with tailored exercise messages. There was a significant main effect for message type; participants who received promotion messages reported greater exercise intentions than those who received prevention messages. Intentions and behavior were not higher among those who received messages matching their regulatory focus. Implications for message tailoring frameworks are discussed.

A pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design was used to test the impact of a 30-week, theoretically-based social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, The RULER Feeling Words Curriculum (“RULER”), on the academic performance and social and emotional competence of 5th and 6th grade students ( N = 273) in fifteen classrooms in three schools. Academic performance was assessed by report card grades. Social and emotional competence was assessed with teacher reports of student behavior. Students in classrooms integrating RULER had higher year-end grades and higher teacher ratings of social and emotional competence (e.g., leadership, social skills, and study skills) compared to students in the comparison group. This study provides preliminary empirical evidence that SEL programs like RULER improve important student outcomes.

This study examined how training, dosage, and implementation quality of a social and emotional learning program, The RULER Approach, were related to students' social and emotional competencies. The...

Teachers are the primary implementers of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs. Their beliefs about SEL likely influence program delivery, evaluation, and outcomes. A simple tool for measuring these beliefs could be used by school administrators to determine school readiness for SEL programming and by researchers to better understand teacher variables that impact implementation fidelity and program outcomes. In a two-phase study, we developed and then validated a parsimonious measure of teachers’ beliefs about SEL. In Phase 1, survey items were administered to 935 teachers and subjected to both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, resulting in three reliable scales pertaining to teachers’ comfort with teaching SEL, commitment to learning about SEL, and perceptions about whether their school culture supports SEL. Phase 2 provided evidence for the concurrent and predictive validity of the scales with a subsample of teachers implementing an SEL program as part of a randomized controlled trial. The discussion focuses on the value of measuring teachers’ beliefs about SEL from both researcher and practitioner perspectives.

This article presents an overview of the ability model of emotional intelligence and includes a discussion about how and why the concept became useful in both educational and workplace settings. We review the four underlying emotional abilities comprising emotional intelligence and the assessment tools that that have been developed to measure the construct. A primary goal is to provide a review of the research describing the correlates of emotional intelligence. We describe what is known about how emotionally intelligent people function both intra- and interpersonally and in both academic and workplace settings. The facts point in one direction: The job offer you have in hand is perfect – great salary, ideal location, and tremendous growth opportunities. Yet, there is something that makes you feel uneasy about resigning from your current position and moving on. What will you do? Ignore the feeling and choose what appears to be the logical path, or go with your gut and risk disappointing your family? Or, might you consider both your thoughts and feelings about the job in order to make the decision? Solving problems and making wise decisions using both thoughts and feelings or logic and intuition is a part of what we refer to as emotional intelligence (Mayer & Salovey, 1997; Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Linking emotions and intelligence was relatively novel when first introduced in a theoretical model about twenty years ago (Salovey & Mayer, 1990; but see Gardner, 1983 ⁄ 1993). Among the many questions posed by both researchers and laypersons alike were: Is emotional intelligence an innate, nonmalleable mental ability? Can it be acquired with instruction and training? Is it a new intelligence or just the repackaging of existing constructs? How can it be measured reliably and validly? What does the existence of an emotional intelligence mean in everyday life? In what ways does emotional intelligence affect mental health, relationships, daily decisions, and academic and workplace performance? In this article, we provide an overview of the theory of emotional intelligence, including a brief discussion about how and why the concept has been used in both educational and workplace settings. Because the field is now replete with articles, books, and training manuals on the topic – and because the definitions, claims, and measures of emotional intelligence have become extremely diverse – we also clarify definitional and measurement issues. A final goal is to provide an up-to-date review of the research describing what the lives of emotionally intelligent people ‘look like’ personally, socially, academically, and in the workplace.

This article introduces The RULER Approach (‘‘RULER’’) to social and emotional learning, with a particular focus on its Feeling Words Curriculum. Through this curriculum, RULER contributes to the ultimate goals of an English language arts education— preparing students to achieve personal, social, and academic goals and to be engaged and contributing citizens. RULER complements the English language arts curriculum and draws on national learning standards to develop language skills in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and visually representing information. This article describes how RULER simultaneously reinforces student learning in the English language arts and develops 5 critical emotion skills—recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotion.

By borrowing from the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, we may understand when health communications adequately motivate behavior change or when they are overly distressing and inhibit behavior change. The present studies were guided by the biobehavioral model of persuasion, which predicts that different health appeals should evoke different appraisals, as well as psychological and physiological responses that motivate the adoption or rejection of health behaviors. Challenging messages should be associated with approach motivational tendencies, whereas threatening messages should be linked to avoidance. Findings from 2 experiments support the biobehavioral model of persuasion and offer mechanisms that confer message effectiveness. By understanding the psychological and physiological processes that drive message effectiveness, message designers can create more effective health appeals. jasp_510 1928..1952

Objectives. Messages designed to motivate participation in physical activity usually emphasize the benefits of physical activity (gain-framed) as well as the costs of inactivity (loss-framed). The framing implications of prospect theory suggest that the effectiveness of these messages could be enhanced by providing gain-framed information only. We compared the effectiveness of gain-, loss-, and mixed-framed messages for promoting moderate to vigorous physical activity. Design. Randomized trial. Method. Sedentary, healthy callers to the US National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service (N ¼ 322) received gain-, loss-, or mixed-framed messages on three occasions (baseline, Week 1, and Week 5). Social cognitive variables and self-reported physical activity were assessed at baseline, Week 2, and Week 9. Separate regression analyses were conducted to examine message effects at each assessment point. Results. At Week 2, gain- and mixed-framed messages resulted in stronger intentions and greater self-efficacy than loss-framed messages. At Week 9, gain-framed messages resulted in greater physical activity participation than loss- or mixed-framed messages. Social cognitive variables at Week 2 did not mediate the Week 9 framing effects on physical activity participation. Conclusions. Using gain-framed messages exclusively may be a means of increasing the efficacy of physical activity materials.

Guided by regulatory focus theory, we examined whether messages tailored to individuals’ promotion- or prevention-goal orientation (regulatory focus) elicit positive thoughts and feelings about physical activity and increase participation in physical activity. Inactive participants (N = 206) were assigned randomly to receive either promotion-focused or prevention-focused messages encouraging physical activity. Two weeks after message exposure, we assessed participants’ thoughts and feelings about physical activity and physical activity behavior. Tailored messages that fit individuals’ regulatory focus led to greater physical activity participation and more positive feelings than non-fit messages, particularly in the promotion-focused condition. Furthermore, positive retrospective feelings about physical activity mediated the effects of the tailored messages on behavior. These findings provide support for regulatory focus theory and direction for enhancing the effectiveness of messages encouraging physical activity and other health behaviors.

There are few topics that are more important than risk and rational decision making, as the contributions to this special issue attest. If we contemplate the risks and consequences of smoking, substance use, reckless driving, violent crime, and unprotected sex, we cannot help but conjure up an image of the stereotypical, irrational risk taker: the adolescent. Statistics confirm that adolescents and young adults are disproportionately responsible for carnage on the highway, new cases of HIV/AIDS, initiation of poor lifestyle choices such as smoking and unhealthy eating, and a host of other risk-taking behaviors that pose challenges for the law, public health, clinical psychology, and public policy (Reyna & Farley, 2006). Therefore, it is not surprising that the articles contained in this issue on risk and rational decision making focus on adolescence, which had been neglected until the recent flurry of work on this time of life. Although the focus is on adolescence, and on the developmental differences between adolescents and other age groups, the implications of this body of work are far-reaching. Each contributor has articulated a theoretical framework that is guiding the science of risky behavior in new directions, albeit from varied perspectives (e.g., emphasizing cognitive, social, emotional, public health, or behavioral neuroscience approaches). The discussant, a distinguished legal scholar, has ably integrated the papers and identified key theoretical and policy implications. Theories of adult behavior must take account of these perspectives or leave themselves open to the obvious criticisms that they are (a) incomplete because they ignore the origins of behavior and (b) irrelevant because they ignore major causes of death and human suffering. Thus, this special issue provides an authoritative review of developmental research on risk and rational decision making, with fundamental implications for theories of reasoning, judgment, and decision making, especially neurobiological and dual-process theories.

Robot assistive technology is becoming increasingly prevalent. Despite the growing body of research in this area, the role of type of interaction (i.e., small groups versus individual interactions) on effectiveness of interventions is still unclear. In this paper, we explore a new direction for socially assistive robotics, where multiple robotic characters interact with children in an interactive storytelling scenario. We conducted a between-subjects repeated interaction study where a single child or a group of three children interacted with the robots in an interactive narrative scenario. Results show that although the individual condition increased participant’s story recall abilities compared to the group condition, the emotional interpretation of the story content seemed more dependent on the difficulty level rather than the study condition. Our findings suggest that, despite the type of interaction, interactive narratives with multiple robots are a promising approach to foster children’s development of social-related skills.

Do emotion regulation processes vary as a function of discrete emotions? Focusing on anger and sadness, this study examined: (a) the strategies that men and women use to regulate each emotion, (b) the extent to which strategies differ in their use and effectiveness, and (c) the relationship between effective regulation of these emotions and social functioning. One hundred ninety participants described recent situations that evoked anger and sadness and how they regulated each emotion. Emotion regulation attempts for anger and sadness differed to some extent in both use and effectiveness. In addition, effective regulation of each emotion was associated with different aspects of social functioning. Effective anger regulation was associated with constructive conflict resolution style, and effective sadness regulation was associated with positive social relations. The findings suggest that global approaches to studying emotion regulation may be limited and emphasize the importance of moving toward a discrete emotions framework.

The RULER Approach to Social and Emotional Learning ("RULER") is designed to improve the quality of classroom interactions through professional development and classroom curricula that infuse emotional literacy instruction into teaching-learning interactions. Its theory of change specifies that RULER first shifts the emotional qualities of classrooms, which are then followed, over time, by improvements in classroom organization and instructional support. A 2-year, cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted to test hypotheses derived from this theory. Sixty-two urban schools either integrated RULER into fifth- and sixth-grade English language arts (ELA) classrooms or served as comparison schools, using their standard ELA curriculum only. Results from multilevel modeling with baseline adjustments and structural equation modeling support RULER's theory of change. Compared to classrooms in comparison schools, classrooms in RULER schools exhibited greater emotional support, better classroom organization, and more instructional support at the end of the second year of program delivery. Improvements in classroom organization and instructional support at the end of Year 2 were partially explained by RULER's impacts on classroom emotional support at the end of Year 1. These findings highlight the important contribution of emotional literacy training and development in creating engaging, empowering, and productive learning environments.

Social and emotional learning programs are designed to improve the quality of social interactions in schools and classrooms in order to positively affect students’ social, emotional, and academic development. The statistical power of group randomized trials to detect effects of social and emotional learning programs and other preventive interventions on setting-level outcomes is influenced by the reliability of the outcome measure. In this paper, we apply generalizability theory to an observational measure of the quality of classroom interactions that is an outcome in a study of the efficacy of a social and emotional learning program called The Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions Approach. We estimate multiple sources of error variance in the setting-level outcome and identify observation procedures to use in the efficacy study that most efficiently reduce these sources of error. We then discuss the implications of using different observation procedures on both the statistical power and the monetary costs of conducting the efficacy study.

The RULER Approach (“RULER”) is a setting-level, social and emotional learning program that is grounded in theory and evidence. RULER is designed to modify the quality of classroom social interactions so that the climate becomes more supportive, empowering, and engaging. This is accomplished by integrating skill-building lessons and tools so that teachers and students develop their emotional literacy. In a clustered randomized control trial, we tested the hypothesis that RULER improves the social and emotional climate of classrooms. Depending upon condition assignment, 62 schools either integrated RULER into fifth- and sixth-grade English language arts (ELA) classrooms or served as comparison schools, using their standard ELA curriculum only. Multi-level modeling analyses showed that compared to classrooms in comparison schools, classrooms in RULER schools were rated as having higher degrees of warmth and connectedness between teachers and students, more autonomy and leadership among students, and teachers who focused more on students’ interests and motivations. These findings suggest that RULER enhances classrooms in ways that can promote positive youth development.

Objective: To inform a community-based message framing intervention encouraging physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption among medically underserved adults. Method: Key informant interviews, focus groups, and a survey were conducted with limited-literacy Hispanics in the northeastern United States. Results: Barriers to healthy lifestyle behaviors exist at individual, community, and policy levels. A strong degree of networking among local organizations and elected officials exists that can be used to encourage healthy lifestyle initiatives. Conclusions: Community-based health communication interventions must address neighborhood realities, the literacy levels of the target population, and existing networks of providers and consumers.

Fuzzy-trace theory explains risky decision making in children, adolescents, and adults, incorporating social and cultural factors as well as differences in impulsivity. Here, we provide an overview of the theory, including support for counterintuitive predictions (e.g., when adolescents “rationally” weigh costs and benefits, risk taking increases, but it decreases when the core gist of a decision is processed). Then, we delineate how emotion shapes adolescent risk taking—from encoding of representations of options, to retrieval of values/principles, to application of those values/principles to representations of options. Our review indicates that: (i) Gist representations often incorporate emotion including valence, arousal, feeling states, and discrete emotions; and (ii) Emotion determines whether gist or verbatim representations are processed. We recommend interventions to reduce unhealthy risk-taking that inculcate stable gist representations, enabling adolescents to identify quickly and automatically danger even when experiencing emotion, which differs sharply from traditional approaches emphasizing deliberation and precise analysis.