Teaching Respect in the Classroom: An Instructional Approach

Teachers frequently are asked to address misbehavior in the classroom. To minimize the negative effects of reactive, punishment-based classroom management strategies, proactive instructional approaches are recommended. The Cool Tool is a social skills strategy designed to teach and encourage prosocial behaviors in the classroom and larger school environment. This case study utilized the Cool Tool with 26 middle school students across two classroom settings to teach Respect to Adults and Respect to Peers. A decrease in inappropriate behaviors was observed across both settings when the Cool Tool was initiated. Decreased rates of inappropriate behavior maintained for two months. Implications, limitations, and recommendations are discussed.     

Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities: An indirect route

Relationships among spatial abilities, as assessed by a battery of psychometric tests and experimental tasks, and environmental learning, as assessed by a series of macrospatial tasks, were examined in two studies using confirmatory factor analysis with directional paths. The initial study indicated the utility of a five-factor model, one (general spatial ability) derived from psychometric tests, two (spatial-sequential memory and spatial perspective-taking latency) from experimental tasks, and two (topological knowledge and Euclidean direction knowledge) from measures of environmental learning. The best fitting path model further indicated that the spatial-sequential memory factor mediated the relationship between general spatial ability and topological knowledge, and that perspective-taking latency mediated the relationship between general spatial ability and Euclidean direction knowledge. The second study confirmed the five-factor path model using a different participant sample and environmental setting. The only failure to replicate involved the path between perspective-taking latency in the lab and Euclidean direction knowledge in the environment. Results indicate that the relationship between basic spatial abilities and environmental learning is significantly mediated by cognitive processes that can be assessed using laboratory tasks.     

Feasibility and acceptability of a brief suicide intervention for youth involved with the family court

As efforts to develop models for suicide prevention and intervention in the juvenile justice (JJ) system continue to grow, research to understand the feasibility and acceptability of implementing these models is critical. Examining organizational readiness for implementation, ensuring leadership and staff buy‐in for delivering the intervention, and planning for sustainability of staff participation in implementation efforts is essential. The current study involved semi‐structured formative evaluation interviews with key JJ stakeholders (n = 10) to determine perspectives on the acceptability (perceived need and fit of the intervention) and feasibility (organizational readiness for change) of a proposed brief safety planning intervention for youth with suicidal ideation delivered by nonclinical staff and integrated into the existing system. Qualitative data revealed stakeholders' perceived need for the intervention in the family court context and their agreement that the aims of the intervention were congruent with the goals of the family court. Some barriers to successful implementation were noted, which, addressed through selection of appropriate implementation strategies, can be overcome in a future test of the safety intervention.     

Unified Protocol for the Transdiagnostic Prevention of Emotional Disorders: Evaluation of a Brief,Online Course for College Freshmen

The transition to college represents a period of increased risk for developing a range of mental health conditions, highlighting the need for effective preventive interventions delivered in this setting. The purpose of the present study was to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a preventive version of the unified protocol for college students; this intervention, called emotions 101 was provided in a very brief, online course format. Unselected students (N = 243) were randomized to either the course (n = 120) or wait-list (n = 123) condition, and all participants were asked to complete self-report measures of stress, negative affectivity, and quality of life at baseline, 1-month, 6-month, and 8-month follow-up time points. Despite recruitment challenges, once participants enrolled in the course, they were likely to complete it and provide favorable satisfaction ratings and qualitative feedback. With regard to efficacy, there were no significant differences on our primary (emotional) outcomes (i.e., stress, negative affectivity, quality of life) as a function of condition, though individuals randomized to receive the course demonstrated significantly higher grade point averages at the end of their first college semester than those in the wait-list condition. Taken together, the findings from the present study suggest that a very brief, online prevention program for emotional disorders administered in a healthy sample does not significantly impact mental health variables.     

Physical Activity,Exercise Motivations,Depression, and Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury in Youth

This study explored the relationship between physical activity, depression, and nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) in 167 high school and undergraduate students (mean age = 17.37, range 14–25). Results indicated that NSSI frequency had a significant negative relationship with physical activity, and physical activity moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and self‐harm. Specifically, high levels of depressive symptoms and low levels of physical activity had the greatest frequency of NSSI. Lastly, appearance‐based exercise motivations were significantly related to increased frequencies of NSSI. Overall, physical activity may possess a protective nature against NSSI, especially in individuals with depressive symptoms.     

How Parents Still Help Emerging Adults Get Their Homework Done: The Role of Self-Regulation as a Mediator in the Relation Between Parent–Child Relationship Quality and School Engagement

Although parents are increasingly involved in their college students’ academic lives, scholars have yet to investigate parents’ role in their college students’ school engagement. We hypothesized that college students’ self-regulation would mediate the relation between parent–child relationship quality and school engagement. For the 790 undergraduates who completed questionnaires online, self-regulation mediated the relation between mother–child relationship quality and school engagement for men, and an indirect effect was found for the relation between father–child relationship quality and school engagement by way of self-regulation. Therefore, parents continue to matter in promoting their college students’ academic success.     

African American Acculturation and Black Racial Identity: A Preliminary Investigation

This exploratory study examined the relationship between acculturation and racial identity among African Americans. One hundred eighty‐seven African American students completed the Black Racial Identity Attitude Scale (J. F. Helms & T. A. Parham, 1990) and the African American Acculturation Scale (AAAS; H. Landrine & E. Klonoff, 1995). Acculturation was associated with 3 of the 5 AAAS subscales: Dissonance, Immersion, and Emersion; Immersion had the greatest correlation with acculturation. A simultaneous regression analysis showed that the Pre‐Encounter subscale was a significant predictor of acculturation.     

Qualitative differences between the joint effects of stimulus quality and word frequency in reading aloud and lexical decision: extensions to Yap and Balota (2007)

There have been multiple reports over the last 3 decades that stimulus quality and word frequency have additive effects on the time to make a lexical decision. However, it is surprising that there is only 1 published report to date that has investigated the joint effects of these two factors in the context of reading aloud, and the outcome of that study is ambiguous. The present study shows that these factors interact in the context of reading aloud and at the same time replicate the standard pattern reported for lexical decision. The main implication of these results is that lexical activation, at least as indexed by the effect of word frequency, does not unfold in a uniform way in the contexts reported here. The observed dissociation also implies, contrary to J. A. Fodor's (1983) view, that the mental lexicon is penetrable rather than encapsulated. The distinction between cascaded and thresholded processing offers one way to understand these and related results. A direction for further research is briefly noted.     

Discriminative control of punished stereotyped behavior in humans

The purpose of this experiment was to establish discriminative control of responding by an antecedent stimulus using differential punishment because the results of past studies on this topic have been mixed. Three adults with mental retardation who exhibited stereotypy not maintained by social consequences (i.e., automatic reinforcement) participated. For each subject, stereotypy occurred frequently in the presence of a stimulus correlated with nonpunishment of stereotypy and rarely, if ever, in the presence of a stimulus correlated with punishment of stereotypy. Latency measures showed that the antecedent stimulus correlated with punishment served as the discriminative stimulus for the suppression of stereotypy. These results are important insofar as they show that discriminative control by an antecedent stimulus develops with punishment, and because it sometimes may be desirable to establish such control of socially inappropriate behavior.     

Creative Anticipatory Ethical Reasoning with Scenario Analysis and Design Fiction

Science and Engineering Ethics - This paper presents an experimental approach for engaging undergraduate STEM students in anticipatory ethical reasoning, or ethical reasoning applied to the...