The current study examined the feasibility of adapting an existing measure to create a brief mattering measure suitable for use with adolescents. We then evaluated this brief measure by testing the hypothesis that mattering in adolescents is associated broadly with positive achievement outcomes and associated motivational orientations and…

Exposure to community adversities and violence can be associated with a cascade of neurocognitive, mental health, and behavioral challenges among urban adolescents. Influenced by the bio-ecological framework, this study examines if problems with executive functioning (EF) exacerbate the relation between exposure to community adversity and violence…

Middle schoolers with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) typically have a trajectory of difficult outcomes (e.g., school dropout, incarceration). Growing evidence suggests that the continuum of behavioral competence to challenges is closely linked to students' neurocognitive executive function (EF) capacities, perceived stress…

The transition from childhood to adolescence often elicits psychological problems, which provides great opportunities for organizing universal, school-based prevention programs. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Boost Camp, a new prevention program targeting young adolescents' emotion regulation skills. Junior high school…

Executive functions (EFs) show promise as important mediators of adolescent academic performance. However, the expense of measuring EFs accurately has restricted most field-based research on them to smaller, non-longitudinal studies of homogeneous populations with specific diagnoses. We therefore monitored the development of 259 diverse, at-risk…

This study investigates behavioral executive functions (EFs) in the mathematics classroom context among adolescents with different mathematics performance levels. The EF problems were assessed by teachers using a behavioral rating inventory. Using cutoff scores on a standardized mathematics assessment, groups with mathematics difficulties (MD; n =…

There has been much discussion over which environment most effectively provides optimum support and motivates student learning. It was discovered through the review of research literature that traditional face-to-face, a combination of face-to-face and online (blended), and solely online learning each provides a learning environment that appeals…

Executive functioning (EF) is a strong predictor of children's and adolescents' academic performance. Although research indicates that EF can increase during childhood and adolescence, few studies have tracked the effect of EF on academic performance throughout the middle school grades. EF was measured at the end of Grades 6-9 through 21 teachers'…

Arecent episode of "MythBusters" (Williams, 2013) involved a series of "battles of the sexes" to examine myths and urban legends about things that men are supposedly better (or worse) at doing than women. Some of the processes that were used on the show to investigate these myths, along with the data they generated, can be used…

The effect of physical activity (PA) and consequent influence on cognition within adult seniors has been widely published. However, there is a paucity of causal research relating PA and cognition to schoolchildren within an authentic setting. Also, little is known about the required intensity and dosage of PA to effect executive function (EF)…