School psychology quarterly : the official journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association最新文献

The objective was to characterize the relation between different sources of school-based social support (friends, peers, and teachers) and bereaved siblings' grief and grief-related growth and to examine whether nonparental sources of social support buffer the effects of low parent support on bereaved siblings. Families (N = 85) were recruited from cancer registries at 3 pediatric institutions 3-12 months after a child's death. Bereaved siblings were 8-18 years old (M = 12.39, SD = 2.65) and majority female (58%) and White (74%). During home visits, siblings reported their perceptions of social support from parental and nonparental sources using the Social Support Scale for Children, as well as grief and grief-related growth using the Hogan Sibling Inventory of Bereavement. Parent, friend, and teacher support were positively correlated with grief-related growth, whereas parent and peer support were negatively correlated with grief for adolescents. Teacher and friend support significantly moderated the association between parent support and grief such that teacher and friend support accentuated the positive effects of parent support. Friend and peer support moderated associations between parent support and grief/growth for adolescents but not children. School-based social support, namely from friends, peers, and teachers, appears to facilitate the adjustment of bereaved siblings. Findings suggest that bereaved siblings may benefit from enhanced support from teachers and friends regardless of age, with middle/high school students particularly benefitting from increased support from close friends and peers. (PsycINFO Database Record

Although intervention procedures exist for improving elementary-aged students' writing fluency skills, less is known about how their writing self-efficacy develops upon participating in these procedures. In this study, 117 second grade students participated in an evidence-based performance feedback writing intervention. Students reported higher levels of self-efficacy in their writing abilities after participating in the intervention than they did at baseline. Although their experiences with task mastery and positive feedback did not impact their writing self-efficacy, the effort they put forth during the intervention was a significant predictor. These results may provide initial guidance for the development of students' self-efficacy in the context of school-based interventions, and they have specific implications for how the performance feedback intervention procedures may be refined to more systematically target students' task effort in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

Objective: The purpose of this article is to estimate the overall weighted mean effect of the relation between early language skills and later behavior problems in school-aged children.

Method: A systematic literature search yielded 19,790 unduplicated reports, and a structured search strategy and identification procedure yielded 25 unique data sets, with 114 effect sizes for analysis. Eligible reports were then coded, and effect sizes were extracted and synthesized via robust variance estimation and random-effects meta-analytic techniques.

Results: The overall correlation between early language and later behavior problems was negative and small (r = -.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-.16, -.11]), and controlling for demographic variables did not reduce the magnitude of the inverse relationship between language skill and problem behavior (r = -.16). Moderator analyses identified receptive language, parent-reported behavior measures, gender, and age as significant predictors of the association between language and behavior.

Conclusion: This article corroborates the consistent findings of previous meta-analytic and longitudinal studies and further identifies areas, particularly around measurement, for future research. Furthermore, prospective longitudinal evaluations of the relations between language deficits and behavior problems with different types of measures (teacher-/parent-report, direct assessment, classroom observation) is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record

It is well established that test anxiety is negatively related to examination performance. Based on attentional control theory, the aim of this study was to examine whether increased effort can protect against performance debilitating test anxiety. Four hundred and sixty-six participants (male = 228; 48.9%; White = 346, 74.3%; mean age = 15.7 years) completed self-report measures of test anxiety and effort that were matched to performance on a high-stakes secondary school examination. The worry and bodily symptoms components of test anxiety were negatively, and effort, positively related to examination performance. Effort moderated the negative relation between bodily symptoms and examination performance. At low effort, the negative relationship was amplified and at high effort was attenuated. Compensatory effort protects performance against bodily symptoms but not worry. It is possible that the cognitive load on working memory arising from the combination of worry and examination demands may be too high to be compensated by effort. (PsycINFO Database Record

The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators to family engagement in schools implementing schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). Participants consisted of 1 representative member each from 204 school PBIS teams across 3 states. Qualitative analysis guided examination of responses to 1 question regarding barriers and 2 questions about facilitators to family engagement. Survey respondents identified key barriers to family engagement as a lack of resources, inconsistent communication, and reluctance of families and school staff to partner. Specified facilitators included communication, PBIS, shared decision-making, and strategies to build relationships with families. (PsycINFO Database Record

Children and youth rely on language skills to navigate environments, many of which are multifaceted and complex. In a society in which successful interactions involve language and prosocial behavior, children who struggle with language or classroom behavior are predisposed to failure. The present perspectives article (a) summarizes the comorbidity of and relations between language skills and behavior problems, (b) provides examples of recent descriptive and experimental studies on these relations, (c) overviews current theoretical frameworks for situating empirical research in this area, and (d) recommends directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

School psychologists are in a unique position to both identify and work with grieving students; to provide guidance to schools, families, and peers on approaches to support such children and youth; and to offer training to classroom educators so that they are better prepared to support grieving students. Yet, there has been minimal research published on this topic in professional journals. This special section of School Psychology Quarterly is devoted to grief and loss with the hope of beginning to narrow this gap in the literature. The three articles in this special section add to an evolving evidence-base that grief in children is common and the impact can be profound, that school professionals can and should play a major role in supporting grieving children, and that school psychologists can play a key role in empowering classroom educators and other school professionals so that no child in the future has to grieve alone. (PsycINFO Database Record

Bereavement due to sudden loss may disrupt positive adjustment among youth, yet few studies have examined the age at which youth are most likely to first encounter sudden loss, the co-occurrence of sudden loss with other traumatic events, and the independent effects of sudden loss on academic functioning. Data were analyzed from the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement (N = 10,148, Mage = 15.18, 51.1% female). Youth reported on whether they had experienced sudden loss (along with 17 other traumatic events), the age at which they had first experienced sudden loss, and multiple indicators of academic functioning. Sudden loss was the most frequently occurring traumatic event among youth; approximately 30% of adolescents reported at least one sudden loss in their lifetime. Youth were most likely to have first experienced sudden loss during middle adolescence (15 to 16 years of age). Although sudden loss co-occurred with several other traumas, about 10% of youth reported experiencing only sudden loss. After accounting for demographic characteristics and other traumatic events, experiencing sudden loss was associated with lower academic achievement, lower ability to concentrate and learn, less enjoyment of school, lower school belongingness, and lower beliefs that teachers treat youth fairly. Sudden loss is common among adolescents and has important implications for school functioning. Schools may improve academic functioning by adopting routine screening for sudden loss and assessing potential need for bereavement-informed mental health services. (PsycINFO Database Record

The current study examined between-teacher variance in teacher ratings of student behavioral and emotional risk to identify student, teacher and classroom characteristics that predict such differences and can be considered in future research and practice. Data were taken from seven elementary schools in one school district implementing universal screening, including 1,241 students rated by 68 teachers. Students were mostly African America (68.5%) with equal gender (female 50.1%) and grade-level distributions. Teachers, mostly White (76.5%) and female (89.7%), completed both a background survey regarding their professional experiences and demographic characteristics and the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Second Edition) Behavioral and Emotional Screening System-Teacher Form for all students in their class, rating an average of 17.69 students each. Extant student data were provided by the district. Analyses followed multilevel linear model stepwise model-building procedures. We detected a significant amount of variance in teachers' ratings of students' behavioral and emotional risk at both student and teacher/classroom levels with student predictors explaining about 39% of student-level variance and teacher/classroom predictors explaining about 20% of between-teacher differences. The final model fit the data (Akaike information criterion = 8,687.709; pseudo-R2 = 0.544) significantly better than the null model (Akaike information criterion = 9,457.160). Significant predictors included student gender, race ethnicity, academic performance and disciplinary incidents, teacher gender, student-teacher gender interaction, teacher professional development in behavior screening, and classroom academic performance. Future research and practice should interpret teacher-rated universal screening of students' behavioral and emotional risk with consideration of the between-teacher variance unrelated to student behavior detected. (PsycINFO Database Record

Single-case data are frequently used in school psychology. In research, single-case designs allow experimenters to provide rigorous demonstrations of treatment effects on a smaller scale and with more precise measurement than traditional group experimental design. In practice, single-case data are used to evaluate the effects of school-based services to make decisions at the individual level within a multitiered system of support (MTSS). School psychology and related fields (e.g., special education) have worked to increase the rigor of single-case data by developing standards for single-case experimental design and developing robust single-case effect size statistics; however, in practice, single-case data are often collected with less experimental rigor and evaluated using visual analysis of a linear graph as opposed to quantitative effect sizes. This is concerning, as an emerging body of literature suggests that simple elements of the graphical display (e.g., ordinate axis scaling, ratio of X to Y axis length) can have a profound impact on effect size judgments made by visual analysts. Currently, there are no standards guiding the construction of linear graphs used to display single-case data. The purpose of this paper is to advance the perspective that our field must develop and adopt standards of linear graph construction or risk inaccurate decisions within a MTSS framework. (PsycINFO Database Record