Shades of disengagement: high school dropouts speak out

The purpose of this study was to describe how dropouts navigate their educational journeys. Eighty dropouts participated to individual interviews which were recorded and transcribed. The data analysis yielded three broad categories in answering the research question. Setting the stage in the family and the school, the dropouts described their teetering between in and out of school contexts and proceeded to explain how they ended their educational journey. For 20 dropouts, family turmoil represented a pervasive force negatively influencing their schooling. For 24 dropouts, problems in school set the stage for dropping out. Teetering represented juggling strategies to prolongand to sabotage the journey, while the end of the journey occurred as a result of a pivotal moment (48%) or a gradual fade out (52%) from the school context.

Delaware School Climate Survey-Student: its factor structure, concurrent validity, and reliability

The Delaware School Climate Survey—Student (DSCS—S) was developed to provide schools with a brief and psychometrically sound student survey for assessing school climate, particularly the dimensions of social support and structure. Confirmatory factor analyses, conducted on a sample of 11,780 students in 85 schools, showed that a bifactor model consisting of five specific factors and one general factor (School Climate) best represented the data. Those five factors are represented in five subscales of the DSCS—S: Teacher-Student Relations, Student-Student Relations, Fairness of Rules, Liking of School, and School Safety. The factor structure was shown to be stable across grade levels (i.e., elementary, middle, and high school), racial-ethnic groups (i.e., Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic), and gender. As evidence of the survey's concurrent validity, scores for each of the five subscales and the total scale correlated moderately, across groups and at the school level, with academic achievement and suspensions and expulsions.     

Student interracial interactions and perceptions of school as a community

Communally organized, as opposed to bureaucratically organized, schools are expected to provide significant advantages to students in terms of their cognitive and social growth. However, for students to avail themselves of these benefits, they need to experience school as a community. One factor that may influence whether students view their school as a functional community is the kind of teacher–student and peer interactions they observe or personally experience. This study examines the effects of positive and negative interracial interactions on whether students sense that their school is a community. Analysis of a large sample of elementary and secondary schools in a major urban school district show that positive interracial interactions contribute to students’ sense of school community while negative actions inhibit that sense.

Training School Psychologists in Behavior Support Consultation

SUMMARY

Although school consultation began as a means of providing assistance to individual teachers on a voluntary basis, it has evolved into a stand-alone service regulated by state and federal law. In order to meet the demand for increased accountability in the services they provide, school psychologists and other prereferral intervention team members have expressed a need to develop skills in two key areas: (a) selecting interventions that are conceptually relevant and therefore likely to be effective in responding to children's behavior problems, and (b) providing teachers with the resources and support needed to ensure successful plan implementation. In this paper, we describe various strategies that have been shown to be effective at addressing each of these issues by drawing on recent research in school consultation and applied behavior analysis. Considerations surrounding the use of these strategies by school consultants are discussed, as are implications for increasing the effectiveness and accountability of school consultation services.     

An Ecological View of School Satisfaction in Adolescence: Linkages Between Social Support and Behavior Problems

This study investigated the relationships among school satisfaction, social support, and problem behaviors in adolescents. Modest associations were found between school satisfaction and the demographic variables of gender, race, age, and grade level. Support from teachers, parents, and classmates contributed unique variance to ratings of school satisfaction; with teacher support contributing the most unique variance. School satisfaction mediated the relationship between social support and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. School satisfaction did not moderate the relationship between social support and problem behavior; however, it did serve as a protective factor across all levels of social support. Implications are discussed, including suggestions for developing interventions that focus on increasing support for adolescents in efforts to improve school satisfaction and reduce problem behaviors.     

农村初中留守儿童心理健康问题研究

采用心理健康诊断测验和青少年心理健康素质量表对湖南省祁阳县两所农村初级中学280名学生进行整群抽样调查,结果表明:(1)留守初中生与非留守初中生在心理健康水平上存在显著差异,留守初中生出现更多的孤独倾向、自责倾向、过敏倾向和身体症状;(2)不同性别留守儿童在心理健康状态上存在显著差异,女生的心理健康水平低于男生;(3)留守初中生与非留守初中生在心理健康素质上不存在显著差异,除应对分量表外,各分量表得分都低于全国常模水平。     

当代中学生价值取向现状的调查研究

对来自北京、河北、山西、内蒙、山东、安徽、福建等7省市的958名初三至高三的中学生进行了价值取向的测量,并对中学生价值取向在性别、年级和生存状态等因素方面的特点进行了分析。结果表明：1．中学生的价值取向总体上是积极向上的,他们在重视正义公理和社会规范的同时,也重视对个人品德的要求和自我各项的发展;2．不同亚群体中学生的价值取向之间存在一定的差异。     

Differences in First Graders' School Adjustment: the Role of Classroom Characteristics and Social Structure of the Group

We examined differences among classes in academic and psychosocial aspects of school adjustment. The sample consisted of 1241 6-7-year-olds in 71 classes from 49 schools. Multilevel analyses showed that 83.5% of the variance was at the child level, 10.3% at the class level, and 6.2% at the school level. Thus, for the part of the variance that was not at the child level, differences among classes were more important than differences among schools. To identify relevant class factors, we focused on classroom characteristics and aspects of the social structure in the class such as integration and openness. Classroom and teacher variables were relatively unimportant compared to social structure indices that yielded significant correlation indicators of social interaction and intellectual competence and explained part of their variance at the class level. This suggested that the structure of the social relations contributed to differences among classes in several aspects of school adjustment.     

Behavioral Strategies to Reduce School Violence

SUMMARY

Public schools that use punitive approaches toward student discipline can unwittingly promote violence and other antisocial behavior. This article reviews constructive and preventive methods to reduce school violence and vandalism. Various strategies are presented and discussed.     

Shoplifting prevention: providing information through signs

Shoplifting is one of the most frequent crimes in the United States, yet there is no agreement about effective prevention procedures. Since most prevention strategies are aimed at either increasing public awareness of the severity of the consequences or increasing the threat of detection, procedures that contain these elements were evaluated. Posting signs around a department of a department store pointing out that shoplifting is a crime, etc., partially reduced shoplifting rates. When merchandise that was frequently taken was identified by signs and stars, shoplifting decreased to near zero. Publicity campaigns to inform the public of consequences for shoplifting may produce desirable results, but identifying likely shoplifting targets, which may increase the likelihood of detection, effectively reduces shoplifting rates.     

Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement: Validation of the Student Engagement Instrument

A review of relevant literatures led to the construction of a self-report instrument designed to measure two subtypes of student engagement with school: cognitive and psychological engagement. The psychometric properties of this measure, the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), were assessed based on responses of an ethnically and economically diverse urban sample of 1931 ninth grade students. Factor structures were obtained using exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) on half of the dataset, with model fit examined using confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) on the other half of the dataset. The model displaying the best empirical fit consisted of six factors, and these factors correlated with expected educational outcomes. Further research is suggested in the iterative process of developing the SEI, and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

The ontogenesis of primary prevention: Lengthy strides and subbed toes

Reviews evolution of the concept of primary prevention in the past 40 years and cites progress in overcoming significant early deterrents (e.g., loosely anchored, overinclusive definitions; weak supporting empirical base) to this development. Highlights the growing trend to define the concept specifically around the yoked notions of risk, and the goal of forestalling major psychological dysfunction. This de facto shift in definitional emphasis has obscured primary prevention's early vision of promoting health and wellness. Stresses need for a comprehensive, multilevel, proactive approach targeted systematically toward the enhancement of psychological wellness in all people, from the start. This article is based on the Seymour B Sarason Award talk given at the 103rd annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York City, August 12, 1995. Although the spoken and written versions are similar, and their intended bottom lines identical, the two differ in several ways. One is that the talk's many references to Sarason'shighly influential contributions to the field, and his unique, thought-stimulating style, do not appear here. They continue, however to be keenly felt. Those views are a matter official record (see “In Honor of Seymour Sarason,”American Journal of Community Psychology, 1976, Vol. 4, pp. 244–246). A second difference between the talk and the article is that the former was more relaxed, breezier, and less jargonesque. Although I have tried to preserve some of that informality, the article is surely stuffier than the talk.     

Emotionality, Emotion Regulation, and School Performance in Middle School Children

This research investigated the connections of middle school students' emotional dispositions and academic-related affect with their school performance. One hundred three 6th-8th grade students completed three self-rated assessments regarding: (a) their academic competency; (b) affective tendencies (both mood and emotion regulation); and (c) negative emotions experienced during school-related tasks. Teachers assessed students' positive and negative moods, and schools provided achievement test results and student grades as measures of cognitive ability/achievement and school performance, respectively. Results indicated that although students' emotion regulation, general affective dispositions, and academic affect were related to each other, each of these variables also made a unique significant contribution to students' GPA, over and above the influence of other cognitive contributors. Overall, these results provide support for the role of socio-emotional factors in students' school performance, while also clarifying some of the uniquely affective contributors (rather than relationships or goals) to that performance.     

Taking Cognitive-Behavior Therapy to School: A School-Based Mental Health Approach

This paper offers an overview using cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) within a school system. In addition to providing services to individual students, this article provides an overview of implementing CBT into a system of school-wide mental health services. Interventions are discussed at three levels—universal school-wide interventions, target interventions with at-risk students, and intensive interventions with students in need. Examples of specific programs or intervention are given for each level.     

Counselor perceptions of students who vary in gender and socioeconomic status

The present study experimentally examined how counselor perceptions of hypothetical students are affected by student gender and socioeconomic status (SES). Results showed that counselors perceive students from low SES backgrounds as having less promising futures and lower math abilities. Counselors also rated female students as lower in math abilities than male students. Our results indicate that institutions should consider providing more school counselor training to reduce bias based on gender and SES.

The Twisted Relationship Between School Spending and Academic Outputs: in Search of a New Metaphor

In this commentary we explore both putative and potential relationships between school funding and educational outcomes, for which numerous indices and variables have been examined during the past two decades. We conclude that despite large increases in real dollars, there is no readily discernable link between inputs and outputs, although when statistical control is exerted over prior ability, school mix, and teacher turn-over, certain causal inferences appear warranted. However, it can be argued that the dominant analogy should be reconsidered, and schools serving large numbers of needy children may require higher inputs to keep from further declines, much like certain departments of a hospital require disproportionately more resources than others in order to be successful because they deal with problems that are more severe.     

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.     

Coping, competence, and aggression prevention: Part 2. Universal school-based prevention

Coping—competence theory yields a structural model of the development of persistent aggression in which current challenge encounters determine future life outcomes and competence. Driven by this model, universal, school-based prevention programs would aim in multiple ways to promote prosocial coping among high-risk, resilient, and advantaged youth from kindergarten through high school. Expected benefits of prosocial coping would include: less aggressive behavior, fewer adverse life outcomes (e.g., school dropout, police arrest, teen pregnancy, conduct, mood, and substance-use disorders), and a more competent self-definition and social reputation. Five stages are described that may prove useful in creating prosocial schools and neighborhoods supportive of youth in transition away from antisocial coping and deviant peers.