School-Based Supports and Interventions to Improve Social and Behavioral Outcomes with Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Youth: A Review of Recent Quantitative Research

School discipline disproportionality has long been documented in educational research, primarily impacting Black/African American and non-White Hispanic/Latinx students. In response, federal policymakers have encouraged educators to change their disciplinary practice, emphasizing that more proactive support is critical to promoting students’ social and behavioral outcomes in school. Results from a literature review conducted nearly a decade ago indicated that there was, at that point, a paucity of empirical research related to considering students’ culture (e.g., race, ethnicity) and supporting school behavior. The purpose of this study is to replicate and expand the previous review to summarize the characteristics of the most recent school-based quantitative research addressing interventions to promote social and behavioral outcomes for racially and ethnically minoritized youth. We screened 1687 articles for inclusion in the review. Upon coding 32 eligible research studies, we found that intervention and implementer characteristics within these studies varied, but noted strong intervention effects in studies that included established evidence-based practices, adapted interventions, as well as new practices piloted with student participants. Results inform recommendations to continue to study interventions that promote positive social and behavioral outcomes for racially and ethnically minoritized students to disrupt a long history of subjection to exclusionary discipline disproportionately.

     

Six Questions for the Resource Model of Control (and Some Answers)

The resource model of self‐control casts self‐control as a capacity that relies on some limited resource that exhausts with use. The model captured our imagination and brought much‐needed attention on an important yet neglected psychological construct. Despite its success, basic issues with the model remain. Here, we ask six questions: (i) Does self‐control really wane over time? (ii) Is ego depletion a form of mental fatigue? (iii) What is the resource that is depleted by ego depletion? (iv) How can changes in motivation, perception, and expectations replenish an exhausted resource? (v) Has the revised resource model unwittingly become a model about motivation? (vi) Do self‐control exercises increase self‐control? By providing some answers to these questions – including conducting a meta‐analysis of the self‐control training literature – we highlight how the resource model needs to be revised if not supplanted altogether.     

Incidental regulation of attraction: The neural basis of the derogation of attractive alternatives in romantic relationships

Although a great deal of research addresses the neural basis of deliberate and intentional emotion-regulation strategies, less attention has been paid to the neural mechanisms involved in implicit forms of emotion regulation. Behavioural research suggests that romantically involved participants implicitly derogate the attractiveness of alternative partners, and the present study sought to examine the neural basis of this effect. Romantically committed participants in the present study were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while indicating whether they would consider each of a series of attractive (or unattractive) opposite-sex others as a hypothetical dating partner both while under cognitive load and no cognitive load. Successful derogation of attractive others during the no cognitive load compared to the cognitive load trials corresponded with increased activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and posterior dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (pDMPFC), and decreased activation in the ventral striatum, a pattern similar to those reported in deliberate emotion-regulation studies. Activation in the VLPFC and pDMPFC was not significant in the cognitive load condition, indicating that while the derogation effect may be implicit, it nonetheless requires cognitive resources. Additionally, activation in the right VLPFC correlated with participants' level of relationship investment. These findings suggest that the RVLPFC may play a particularly important role in implicitly regulating the emotions that threaten the stability of a romantic relationship.     

Fostering Resilience among Couples Coparenting a Young Child with Autism: An Evaluation of Together We Are Stronger

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a 4-week caregiver training program designed to promote resilience among couples raising a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Seven couples with a child between the ages of 3 and 9 completed a group-based training focused on values, communication, coparenting, and managing stress. Pre-post assessment of parenting stress, dyadic satisfaction, coparenting, life satisfaction, and hope showed that although parenting stress did not decrease, significant increases were observed in dyadic cohesion, coparenting, and hope. Implications for the development of couple-focused interventions to promote resilience among parents raising a child with ASD are discussed.     

What's outside the black box?: The status of behavioral outcomes in neuroscience research

Kievit et al.'s target paper exemplifies a trend in recent years in psychology and neuroscience to focus on internal mental and neural processes without integrating actual behavior. We discuss the theoretical status of behavior in the context of their model, and present an extension of the model that explicitly includes behavior. Several theoretical and methodological issues relevant to integrating behavior into the model are considered, particularly the distinction between behavior as measured in the laboratory along with neural and psychological processes (proximal behavior) and behavior as measured in situ as part of ongoing daily experience (distal behavior). We conclude by describing several studies that integrate neural, psychological, and behavioral indicators and discuss how these kinds of studies can facilitate a better understanding of behavior and contribute to theory development.     

In the trenches of real-world self-control: neural correlates of breaking the link between craving and smoking

Successful goal pursuit involves repeatedly engaging self-control against temptations or distractions that arise along the way. Laboratory studies have identified the brain systems recruited during isolated instances of self-control, and ecological studies have linked self-control capacity to goal outcomes. However, no study has identified the neural systems of everyday self-control during long-term goal pursuit. The present study integrated neuroimaging and experience-sampling methods to investigate the brain systems of successful self-control among smokers attempting to quit. A sample of 27 cigarette smokers completed a go/no-go task during functional magnetic resonance imaging before they attempted to quit smoking and then reported everyday self-control using experience sampling eight times daily for 3 weeks while they attempted to quit. Increased activation in right inferior frontal gyrus, pre-supplementary motor area, and basal ganglia regions of interest during response inhibition at baseline was associated with an attenuated association between cravings and subsequent smoking. These findings support the ecological validity of neurocognitive tasks as indices of everyday response inhibition.     

Comparing self‐directed methods for training staff to create graphs using Graphpad Prism

An important skill for behavior analysts is creating graphs that clearly convey outcomes and conform to publication conventions. GraphPad Prism is software designed for creating scientific graphs, but no prior research has empirically evaluated training graphing skills using Prism. Two effective training methods are enhanced written instructions (EWI) and video modeling with voiceover instructions (VMVO), but no single‐subject studies have compared the effects of these methods. In this study, we compared the efficacy and social validity of EWI and VMVO for training staff to create graphs using Prism. A single‐subject design was employed to compare the effects of the methods on the individual performance of 11 graduate students. EWI and VMVO were both found to be effective, and more participants chose to use EWI.     

Sex and birth order differences in filial behavior

Personal interviews were conducted with 499 children of elderly white widows. Results showed no birth order differences in the provision of assistance to the elderly; however, there were significant sex differences. Daughters performed more caretaking activities and social services and provided more emotional support for their mothers than did sons. Sons had a tendency, though insignificant, to provide more advisory assistance to their mothers. After adjusting for situational differences between daughters and sons a sex difference remained only for the provision of emotional support.     

Alexander F. Chamberlain: A life’s work

This article examines the life and work of Alexander Francis Chamberlain. Though he has received little attention since the early 1900s, the importance of this scholar should not be underestimated. Chamberlain made notable contributions to the body of knowledge in anthropology—a discipline that, at the time, was a combination of anthropological and psychological inquiry. His early work began with investigations into the cultures and languages of two Indian tribes indigenous to Canada and the northern United States and, within a few decades, positioned Chamberlain as the leading scholar in this domain. Beyond his ethnographic insights, Chamberlain queried the development of the child and wrote on the subject of childhood in world folklore. He concerned himself with a scope of worthwhile subjects ranging from linguistics to women’s suffrage. No topic was out of range as all forms of human study addressed the need for seeing each group as a contributing force to humanity at large. Chamberlain emphasized that no single racial, ethnic, or religious group should be singled out as inherently superior to another, a belief far ahead of his time. This article is an attempt at drawing a picture of a man whose scholarly achievements and strength of character are captured in the depth and breadth of his writing. Reprinted from Jaan Valsiner (ed.).Thinking in Psychological Science: Ideas and Their Makers. Transaction Publishers. Previously published inFrom Past to Future, Vol. 3(1),Passionate Collector: Alexander F. Chamberlain and Child Study, pp. 1–13. @ 2000. Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology, Clark University. Author: Julia M. Berkman, Department of Psychology, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA.