Although youth in the United States remain substantially more violent than adolescents and young adults in most industrial countries, the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) State-of-the-Science Conference on Preventing Violence and Related Health-Risking Social Behaviors in Adolescents identified many reasons for optimism about our capacity to…

School violence has many faces and many casualties. In varying degrees it touches students, parents, educators and communities of every school world wide. At the local level, communities are seen as playing a significant role in violence prevention. Generally, community-based violence prevention approaches involve the assessment of local problems,…

The purpose of this study was to examine principals' perceptions and practices regarding bullying prevention. A survey instrument was developed to assess principals' stages of change and perceived barriers regarding selected bullying prevention activities as well as the effectiveness of bullying prevention activities. Of a national random sample…

This study examines the results of the Alternative Identification and Reporting (AIR) program, which promoted the nonuse of disability labels for students receiving special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (i.e., students who would previously have been identified as having an emotional/behavioral disorder, specific…

This study provides a comprehensive look at a constructivist one-to-one computing program's effects on teaching and learning practices as well as student learning achievements. The study participants were 476 fourth and fifth grade students and their teachers from four elementary schools from a school district in the Dallas, Texas, area. Findings…

A randomized prevention pilot trial compared caregivers who participated in the Black Parenting Strengths and Strategies (BPSS) Program with control caregivers. BPSS is a strengths- and culturally based parenting program designed to improve aspects of parenting associated with the early development of conduct problems and the promotion of social…

The present study concerns the feasibility of the Families in Transition (FIT) program, a family-focused intervention for the prevention of problem behavior in early adolescents. To date, family-focused intervention has been under-used and insufficiently studied in Europe. The aims of the study are threefold-first, to test the feasibility of…

In 2006, a 9th-period program and an A, B, C, Incomplete grading policy were implemented as high school reform initiatives in a rural high school in the Midwest. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to determine how teachers interpreted the effect of the A, B, C, Incomplete grading policy and the 9th period reform initiatives at the…

The purpose of this study was to pilot an instructional planning tool grounded in guided self-reflection on the instructional planning practices and instructional behaviors of a small sample of teachers. I designed the instructional planning tool, which was named the Informed Technology Integration Guide (ITIG). Participants used the instructional…

Families of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit decreases in cohesion and adaptability, increased social isolation (Higgins et al., 2005), higher levels of marital dissatisfaction (Hastings et al., 2005), and overall disruption to daily life (Bristol et al., 1988). Research has provided evidence of higher levels of stress,…

This action research study investigates children's perceptions of and feelings about musical performance. The participants were 41 children from two intact third-grade classes at one private school in the southwest region of the United States. The study occurred over nine weeks, including preparation for performance, the performance, and the…

Immediacy is the closeness expressed by communicators which maybe observed in teachers as they try to engage students. Teacher immediacy may take nonverbal and verbal forms. U.S. studies have concluded that immediacy has positive effects on U.S. college students' learning. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of American faculty's…

The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate a promising program model, the Joven Nobel curriculum, for Latino male adolescents that promotes positive youth development and addresses prevention of a number of risk-related sexual behaviors within a cultural context. A quasi-experimental design was used that included a pre- and posttest…

We evaluated the efficacy of a vocational training program including behavioral skills training, and a "performance cue system" (i.e., a proprietary iPhone application adapted for the study) to teach targeted social-vocational skills to six young adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. In two separate studies, participants were employed…

The objective of this preliminary study was to determine the effectiveness of a female gender-specific substance abuse treatment intervention (Holistic Enrichment for At-Risk Teens, or HEART) in improving problems related to personal and social functioning. A quasi-experimental, 2-group pretest and posttest repeated measures design was used to…