Intelligence,classroom behavior,and academic achievement in children at high and low risk for psychopathology: A structural equation analysis

The intelligence, academic achievement, and classroom behavior of 158 children were assessed in a sample that is being followed longitudinally. The sample included children at high risk for mental disorder by virtue of having a parent with a psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorder, children at moderate risk, and children at low risk, A series of path analyses indicated that in this sample (1) classroom behavior was more likely an affect than a cause of academic achievement, and (2) the influence of parental psychopathology on classroom behavior was mediated by a child's intelligence and academic achievement. We were unable to substantiate an unmediated causal link between parental psychopathology and children's academic achievement or classroom behavior.This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH 24819 to Drs. E. J. Anthony and J. Worland. The authors appreciate the help of the entire Harry Edison Child Development Research Center staff, especially Janet Penniman, Steven Finn, Harriet Lander, Arlene Stiffman, Victor Hesselbrock, Darcy Gilpin, Janice Hensiek, and Crisanne Roberts. Special thanks are expressed to Myra Ferrel and Alice Woods for making arrangements with the schools. Our gratitude is expressed to the principals, counselors, and teachers of the St. Louis area schools and to the children and families who participated in this effort.     

广西中小学儿童受欺负现象调查研究

运用自编问卷在广西5所中小学选取792名中小学儿童进行调查,考察中小学儿童在学校和家庭中受同学、老师和家长欺负的比率及受欺负方式的特点。结果发现:1、中小学中存在普遍的受欺负现象,随着年龄的增长,儿童受欺负的比率呈下降趋势;但受教师和家长欺负到初中后反而呈上升趋势。2、儿童易受同伴的直接言语欺负;男生比女生易受同学直接身体欺负。3、儿童易受家长的直接言语欺负;小学阶段男生比女生易受家长的间接欺负;初中阶段女生比男生易受家长的直接身体欺负。4、教师对儿童较多使用间接欺负和直接身体欺负。小学阶段男生比女生易受教师的直接言语欺负;初中阶段男生比女生易受教师的直接身体欺负。     

Complexities in Adjustment Patterns among the “Best and the Brightest”: Risk and Resilience in the Context of High Achieving Schools

Youth in high achieving schools (HAS) are at elevated risk for serious adjustment problems—including internalizing and externalizing symptoms and substance use—given unrelenting pressures to be “the best.” For resilience researchers, successful risk evasion in these high-pressure settings should, arguably, be defined in terms of the absence of serious symptoms plus behaviorally manifested integrity and altruism. Future interventions should target that which is the fundamental basis of resilience: Dependable, supportive relationships in everyday settings. These must be promoted between adults and children and among them, toward enhancing positive development among youth and families in these high stress environments.     

Implementation of an empirically based drug and violence prevention and intervention program in public school settings

Describes the implementation of a collaborative preventive intervention project (Healthy Schools) designed to reduce levels of bullying and related antisocial behaviors in children attending two urban middle schools serving primarily African American students. These schools have high rates of juvenile violence, as reflected by suspensions and expulsions for behavioral problems. Using a quasi-experimental design, empirically based drug and violence prevention programs, Bullying Prevention and Project ALERT, are being implemented at each middle school. In addition, an intensive evidence-based intervention, multisystemic therapy, is being used to target students at high risk of expulsion and court referral. Hence, the proposed project integrates both universal approaches to prevention and a model that focuses on indicated cases. Targeted outcomes, by which the effectiveness of this comprehensive school-based program will be measured, are reduced youth violence, reduced drug use, and improved psychosocial functioning of participating youth.     

The Roles of Ethnicity and School Context in Predicting Children's Victimization by Peers

This study examines the prevalence, stability, and contextual correlates of peer victimization in a sample of African-American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White urban elementary school-age children. A total of 1956 children (40% African-American, 42% Hispanic, and 18% White) attending any 1 of 14 public elementary schools located in one large and one mid-sized Midwestern city participated in this study. Peer ratings of victimization were obtained at two points in time, separated by a 2-year period. Findings revealed that risk for being victimized by peers varied by ethnicity and by school context. Hispanic children had lower victimization scores than did either African-American or White children. These findings, however, were moderated by school context, such that attending ethnically integrated schools was associated with a significantly higher risk of victimization for White children and a slightly lower risk of victimization for African-American children and did not affect the risk of victimization for Hispanic children. In addition, African-American children were less likely than Hispanic and White children to be repeatedly victimized by peers over time. The importance of considering ethnicity and context in explaining peer victimization is discussed and suggestions for preventive interventions and future research are provided.     

Head Start Children at Third Grade: Preliminary Special Education Identification and Placement of Children with Emotional, Learning, and Related Disabilities

Although children in Head Start are at risk for emotional or behavioral problems, little is known about their later need for special education. There is evidence that children at risk for emotional disturbance are underidentified or misidentified in other special education categories. We examined special education identification rates for Head Start children at risk for emotional disturbance, learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, and mental retardation as they complete third grade. Two cohorts of 4136 children across 30 sites were followed as part of a larger study on transition. Diagnosis of each child as being at risk for emotional disturbance or related disabilities was made using clinical cut-offs on teacher ratings and individual testing completed in the spring of third grade. Special education eligibility of these children was determined from school records. Only 31.8% of children considered to be at risk, based on research diagnostic criteria, were actually identified by the schools, and fewer than 6% of children at risk for ED were identified in the school category of ED. Comparisons were made between school-identified and nonidentified children in gender, ethnicity, and school variables; and findings were discussed in relation to underidentification or misidentification of children with emotional disturbance.     

Does private education make nicer people? The influence of school type on social–emotional development

In a longitudinal sample from Britain, we tested if attending private, fee-charging schools rather than non-selective state schools benefitted children’s social–emotional development. State (N = 2,413) and private school children (N = 269) showed no differences in well-being across adolescence, but private school children reported fewer behaviour problems and greater peer victimisation over time than state schoolers. These results were independent of schools’ selection criteria, including family background, and prior academic and cognitive performance. At age 21, private and state school students differed marginally in social–emotional behaviours, such as self-control, volunteering, sexual conduct, and substance use. After considering schools’ selection criteria, only risk taking and age at having the first alcoholic drink differed between private and state school children, with the privately educated ones being less risk averse and drinking at younger ages than those attending state school. Our results suggest that private education adds little positive value to children’s social–emotional development.     

PATHS in Croatia: A school‐based randomised‐controlled trial of a social and emotional learning curriculum

This study represents the first rigorous evaluation of a social‐emotional learning curriculum, PATHS (P romoting A lternative Th inking S trategies; Kusché & Greenberg, 1994), in elementary schools in Croatia. This study randomly assigned 29 schools to receive the universal preventive intervention or continue with usual practices. Within those schools, this study included 57 classrooms and 568 children. Teachers rated nine child behaviours in the middle of first grade (pre‐intervention) and near the end of second grade (post‐intervention). Hierarchical linear models, nesting children within classrooms, revealed few changes in behaviour across the sample as a whole or among higher risk children. However, there were changes on eight of the nine behaviours for lower risk children. The findings are considered in the context of the classroom culture and teachers' preparation and readiness to implement a social‐emotional learning curriculum in Croatia. This study highlights the need to supplement universal preventive interventions with selective preventive interventions that can provide more intensive and targeted skill practice for higher risk children. This study also highlights the nuanced effects of a universal preventive intervention in helping different children in different ways.     

School Mobility and Achievement: Longitudinal Findings From an Urban Cohort

This study investigated the effects of school mobility on reading and math achievement for 1,087 low-income Black children in the Chicago Longitudinal Study. Between kindergarten and seventh grade, 73% of the students changed schools at least once during elementary school and 21% changed schools three or more times. The prospective longitudinal design of the Chicago Longitudinal Study allowed for controlled analyses of both the predictors and the consequences of school mobility. The significant predictors of the number of moves included prior achievement, the number of years of preschool participation in an education intervention program, and parent education. Although the students who changed schools frequently between kindergarten and seventh grade performed approximately one year behind their nonmobile peers on reading and mathematics achievement tests taken at the end of seventh grade, only one half of this difference appears attributable to frequent mobility. The remaining portion is due to the fact that the mobile students were lower achieving even before they started to change schools. The negative consequences of past school mobility are lower for students who moved into better quality schools such as magnets or academic academies. Findings indicate that it is frequent, rather than occasional, mobility that significantly increases the risk of underachievement.     

Sozial-emotionales Lernen mit FAUSTLOS

Maltreatment, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect during childhood contribute to the development of psychic and somatic disorders. Therefore interventions against violence are necessary to support psychological health. The development of social-emotional competences became an elementary part of psychosocial prevention programs. Children with good capacities in problem solving are less at risk to show violent behaviour in difficult emotional conflicts, because they don’t tend to stabilize and compensate their self esteem in these situations. Relevant core dimensions concerning psychological development can be taught systematically in social- emotional learning lessons. Teachers in kindergardens and schools are presenting the series of lessons. A growing number of studies in this field show good effects. In Germany FAUSTLOS has been developed as an evaluated and systematically constructed tool for preventing aggressive behaviour in children visiting kindergardens and elementary schools. During these programs 28 lessons are presented in kindergardens and 51 lessons in elementary schools. Follow-up studies with FAUSTLOS show significant changes in emotional competences and prosocial developments in children.     

Smoking Prevention and the Concept of Risk1

Sixth-grade children in 22 schools received either a social-influences smoking-prevention program or routine health education. The social-influences program was designed to teach youth about peer, parent, and media influences affecting smoking onset and to provide them with skills in resisting these influences. Comparison schools were given no program, but were permitted to continue their usual provision of health education. Program impact was evaluated as a function of pretreatment risk of future smoking. Risk was defined with respect to both (a) the prevalence of social models who smoked and (b) previous smoking experience. Two-and-a-half-year results show program impact to vary with both kinds of risk. Smoking-experience risk interacted such that, at first, there was greater impact on children with experience, but on later follow-up the pattern reversed, with the greater treatment effects seen for those initially with limited experience. Social-models risk showed a direct relationship, with greater risk being associated with greater program impact. Implications both for evaluation research and prevention programs are discussed.     

Rape Myth Acceptance in Sexually Assaulted Adolescents' School Contexts: Associations with Depressed Mood and Alcohol Use

High school students exposed to sexual assault (SA) are at risk for negative outcomes like depressed mood and high‐risk drinking. Although evidence suggests that both social contexts and internalized stigma can affect recovery from SA, no research to date has directly examined the presence of stigma in social contexts such as high schools as a correlate of adjustment after SA. In this study, the self‐reported rape myth acceptance (RMA) of 3080 students from 97 grade cohorts in 25 high schools was used to calculate grade‐mean and school‐mean RMA, which was entered into multilevel models predicting depressed mood and alcohol use among N = 263 SA survivors within those schools. Two forms of RMA were assessed (i.e., rape denial and traditional gender expectations). Results indicate that higher grade‐mean rape denial was associated with higher risk for depressed mood among high school boys and girls exposed to SA, and higher grade‐mean traditional gender expectations were associated with higher risk for alcohol use among girls exposed to SA. Survivors' own RMA and school‐level RMA were not significantly associated with their depressed mood or alcohol use. Although causality cannot be concluded, these findings suggest that interventions that reduce stigma in social contexts should be explored further as a strategy to improve well‐being among high‐school‐aged survivors of SA.     

Risk or resource: Does school climate moderate the influence of community violence on children’s social‐emotional development in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Exposure to community violence is thought to create risk for the social and emotional development of children, including those children living in low‐income, conflict‐affected countries. In the absence of other types of community resources, schools may be one of the few community resources that can help buffer children from the negative effects of community violence exposure. We sampled 8,300 students ranging in age from 6–18 years in 123 schools from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to examine whether and how two distinct dimensions of positive school climate can protect two key features of children's social‐emotional development in the presence of community violence. Multi‐level models tested the hypothesis that students’ perceptions of a positive school climate moderated the relation between community violence and self‐reported mental health problems and peer victimization. Findings support the hypothesis. Specifically, a positive school climate protected against mental health problems and peer victimization in the presence of high community violence. Students who experienced high community violence and a negative school climate generally demonstrated the worst development. We find complex interactions between the dimensions of school climate and exposure to violence on student social‐emotional development that highlight the salience of children's contexts for developmental studies in low‐income countries. We use dynamic developmental systems theory and differential impact to discuss the dual potential of schools as a buffer against the effects of violence or as a source of compounded risk.     

Are ‘Machiavellian’ Chinese children well‐adapted in the peer group? The relationship between resource acquisition strategies and social functioning and status

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between resource acquisition strategies, social functioning and social status in Chinese children. A sample of nearly 500 Chinese children in elementary schools in Shanghai, China, participated in this study. The authors divided the sample into five resource acquisition strategies; based on self‐reported use of coercive and pro‐social strategies of resource control, they were ‘bistrategic controllers’ (Machiavellians), ‘coercive controllers’, ‘pro‐social controllers’, ‘non‐controllers’, or ‘typicals’. The results revealed that bistrategic controllers were the most effective in resource control, followed by pro‐social and coercive controllers: non‐controllers were the least effective. It also indicated that bistrategic and coercive controllers exhibited poor social functioning and low peer status; in contrast, ‘typical’ controllers emerged as possessing positive social functioning and high peer status. In addition, non‐controllers were not at risk with regard to social competence. The results indicate specific cultural ‘meanings’ of different resource acquisition strategies in Chinese children.     

Developmental and social determinants of religious social categorization

The purpose of this study was to assess developmental and social determinants of the age at which children become aware that the social environment can be marked by categorization into religious groups and that those groups are associated with different religious beliefs. The results show that middle childhood is a critical period for this religious social categorization. Moreover, social factors play a role in the development. Religious categorization is likely to appear sooner in children attending heterogeneous schools than in those at homogeneous schools, and children from the minority religious group in the country understand religious categorization earlier than children from the majority group. However, no relation was found between the age at which religious categorization was understood and parents' religious socialization practices. This study is of both theoretical and practical interest: It complements what is already known about gender, race, and ethnic categorization by integrating developmental and social frameworks, and it can serve as a guideline for educational programs.     

Developmental and Social Determinants of Religious Social Categorization

The purpose of this study was to assess developmental and social determinants of the age at which children become aware that the social environment can be marked by categorization into religious groups and that those groups are associated with different religious beliefs. The results show that middle childhood is a critical period for this religious social categorization. Moreover, social factors play a role in the development. Religious categorization is likely to appear sooner in children attending heterogeneous schools than in those at homogeneous schools, and children from the minority religious group in the country understand religious categorization earlier than children from the majority group. However, no relation was found between the age at which religious categorization was understood and parents’ religious socialization practices. This study is of both theoretical and practical interest: It complements what is already known about gender, race, and ethnic categorization by integrating developmental and social frameworks, and it can serve as a guideline for educational programs.     

农村留守儿童焦虑情绪的异质性:基于潜在剖面分析

采用中学生心理健康诊断量表（MHT）对湖南省1292名留守儿童的焦虑情绪进行施测,并用潜在剖面分析方法探究留守儿童的焦虑情绪问题是否存在异质性,以及留守儿童相关的人口学因素对焦虑情绪异质性的作用机制。结果发现,留守儿童的焦虑情绪存在明显的异质性,可以分为三种潜在类别：“严重焦虑情绪型”、“中等程度焦虑情绪型”和“低焦虑情绪型”;留守男生、小学五年级、高中二年级、留守时间越长、留守初始年龄越小的留守儿童更容易焦虑情绪严重;无论是父亲外出、母亲外出还是双亲外出对留守儿童的焦虑情绪严重性的影响是一致的。由此,应根据留守儿童的性别、年级、留守时长和留守的初始年龄等情况特点,开展针对性的预防和干预措施,缓解留守儿童焦虑。     

Health Promotion in the Schools:

Many children and adolescents develop a variety of behavioral health risk factors that may lead to a decrease in the quality of their lives. A number of these risk factors are preventable of controllable, especially when healthy lifestyles are established early in life. Special services providers have the opportunity and the challenge of assisting in development and facilitation of health promotion activities in the schools.     

Parent Involvement in Rural Elementary Schools in New Zealand: A Survey

We surveyed rural elementary schools in New Zealand regarding their practice of parent involvement (PI). Interviews were conducted at 22 schools using a schedule which focused on eleven aspects of PI: policy formation, acting as a resource, collaborating with teachers, sharing information on children, channels of communication, liaison with school staff, parent education, parent support, encouraging parents into school, involving diverse parents, and professional development for teachers. Analysis of data from the interviews identified several common weaknesses in PI provision: a lack of written school policies on PI; the ad hoc nature of the organization of PI; minimal parent education organized by schools; minimal focus on parent support; minimal use of home visits; limited ideas to involve diverse parents; a minimal focus on involving parents of children with special needs; and, limited professional development for teachers on working with parents. Implications for improving the practice of PI in rural elementary schools are discussed.     

Efficacy of the social-emotional learning foundations curriculum for kindergarten and first grade students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders

Researchers have shown that children's social-emotional growth is inextricably connected to academic learning. We developed the Social-Emotional Learning Foundations (SELF) intervention, a Grade K-1 curriculum merging social-emotional learning (SEL) and literacy instruction, to promote language supported self-regulation, specifically for primary grade children at early risk for emotional or behavioral difficulties. We report findings from a pretest-posttest cluster randomized efficacy trial with one fixed between-subjects factor to test the effects of teacher-delivered SEL instruction against those of business as usual (BAU). We recruited 163 kindergarten (K) and 141 first grade teachers from 52 schools across 11 school districts within one southeastern state. Our student sample (n = 1154) consisted of 627 kindergarteners and 527 first graders identified by teachers as at risk for internalizing or externalizing emotional and behavioral problems using the Systematic Screening for Behavioral Disorders; 613 of these students participated in the SELF condition and 541 participated in the BAU condition. We randomly assigned schools to SELF or BAU and used a multilevel model with three levels (i.e., children, classrooms, schools) to analyze data on subscales of six (four teacher-report and two direct) assessments related to self-regulation, social-emotional learning, social-emotional vocabulary, and general behavioral functioning. We found positive main effects of SELF compared to BAU on all but one measure, with effect sizes (calculated using Hedges' g) ranging from 0.20 to 0.65. Findings provide evidence for guiding future SEL intervention research and informing practice to improve student outcomes, particularly for children at risk for behavior problems.