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The proliferation of unsubstantiated or discredited interventions underscores the importance of the evidence-based practice (EBP) movement in school psychology. Although researchers have conducted several surveys on discredited interventions in counseling and clinical psychology, no studies have investigated the use of these treatments in school psychology. This survey presented Florida Association of School Psychologist members with three categories of treatment: discredited treatments, treatments with mixed research results, and evidence-based treatments. Participants were asked to rate (1) the likelihood that they would recommend an intervention and (2) an intervention's level of research support. Participants demonstrated unfamiliarity with discredited treatments, overestimated the research support for ineffective techniques, and expressed a desire to learn about discredited interventions through training and professional development opportunities. Training implications for school psychology programs are discussed.

Because random assignment is not possible in observational studies, estimates of treatment effects might be biased due to selection on observable and unobservable variables. To strengthen causal inference in longitudinal observational studies of multiple treatments, we present 4 latent growth models for propensity score matched groups, and evaluate their performance with a Monte Carlo simulation study. We found that the 4 models performed similarly with respect to model fit, bias of parameter estimates, Type I error, and power to test the treatment effect. To demonstrate a multigroup latent growth model with dummy treatment indicators, we estimated the effect of students changing schools during elementary school years on their reading and mathematics achievement, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Rising college hookah use, in the absence of cigarettes, suggests attitudinal differences among both forms of tobacco consumption. This study examines which smoking attitudes/beliefs are most distinguishing across current non-smokers, cigarette smokers, hookah smokers, and dual (cigarette and hookah-only) smokers at a Florida university. Selfadministered questionnaire data from 373 university students were categorized into four groups based on self-reported 30-day smoking status. Discriminant analysis was used to examine maximal differences between groups across perceived peer acceptability of cigarette smoking, peer acceptability of hookah smoking, hookah smoking harmfulness, and attitude toward peer hookah smoking. Descriptive analyses indicated an overall awareness of hookah smoking harmfulness across all four groups. Discriminant analysis findings indicated peer acceptability of cigarette smoking (r = .75) contributed the most to attitude/belief differences across all four groups. Pairwise group comparisons showed a significant attitudinal mean difference in peer acceptability to cigarettes for cigarette smokers vs hookah smokers (T=3.9, p=.001). Study findings underscore the need for campus-based anti-smoking social norm approaches targeting positive hookah smoking peer use attitudes. Programming efforts are recommended to implement the use of self-reported perceived peer acceptability to cigarette smoking as a potential risk indicator for students at-risk for cigarette or dual use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]