This review aims to systematically summarize existing evidence to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-based interventions (CBIs) on psychological health and well-being among parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD). Six databases were searched to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from their inception to…

We provide evidence about college financial aid from an eight-year randomized trial where high school ninth graders received a $12,000 merit-based grant offer. The program was designed to be free of tuition/fees at community colleges and substantially lower the cost of four-year colleges. During high school, it increased students' college…

Social-emotional development is foundational to learning and has been linked to long-term academic, behavioral and mental health outcomes for children (i.e., Jones et al., 2015). In early childhood, social-emotional development is encouraged primarily through familial relationships. Children with developmental delays and disabilities (DD) are more…

Perfectionism has adverse impacts on mental health and academic outcomes. We evaluated a 5-lesson classroom intervention for young adolescents delivered by teachers for impact on perfectionism, well-being, self-compassion, academic motivation and negative affect, at post-intervention and 3-month follow-up. Classes (N = 636 students, M[subscript…

Among econometricians, instrumental variable (IV) estimation is a commonly used technique to estimate the causal effect of a particular variable on a specified outcome. However, among applied researchers in the social sciences, IV estimation may not be well understood. Although there are several IV estimation primers from different fields, most…

Complex data structures are ubiquitous in psychological research, especially in educational settings. In the context of randomized controlled trials, students are nested in classrooms but may be cross-classified by other units, such as small groups. Furthermore, in many cases only some students may be nested within a unit while other students may…

This chapter highlights the key assumptions underlying Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) and illustrates them with regard to the practice of RCTs in the realm of child and adolescent development. Given the prominence of RCTs in policy research, we analyze the possible ways in which these assumptions might not be met by single randomized…

Complex data structures are ubiquitous in psychological research, especially in educational settings. In the context of randomized controlled trials, students are nested in classrooms but may be cross-classified by other units, such as small groups. Further, in many cases only some students may be nested within a unit while other students may not.…

Analyzing heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE) plays a crucial role in understanding the impacts of educational interventions. A standard practice for HTE analysis is to examine interactions between treatment status and pre-intervention participant characteristics, such as pretest scores, to identify how different groups respond to treatment.…

Longitudinal models of individual growth typically emphasize between-person predictors of change but ignore how growth may vary "within" persons because each person contributes only one point at each time to the model. In contrast, modeling growth with multi-item assessments allows evaluation of how relative item performance may shift…

Longitudinal models typically emphasize between-person predictors of change but ignore how growth varies "within" persons because each person contributes only one data point at each time. In contrast, modeling growth with multi-item assessments allows evaluation of how relative item performance may shift over time. While traditionally…

Randomized evaluations of educational technology produce log data as a bi-product: highly granular data on student and teacher usage. These datasets could shed light on causal mechanisms, effect heterogeneity, or optimal use. However, there are methodological challenges: implementation is not randomized and is only defined for the treatment group,…

Findings from experimental studies have increasingly been used to inform policy in school settings. Thus far, the populations in many of these studies are typically defined in a cross-sectional context; namely, the populations are defined in the same academic year in which the study took place or the population is defined at a fixed time point.…

Cost-effectiveness analysis is a widely used educational evaluation tool. The randomized controlled trials that aim to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the treatment are commonly referred to as randomized cost-effectiveness trials (RCETs). This study provides methods of power analysis for two-level multisite RCETs. Power computations take…

Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) have proven invaluable in research and practice because they are optimal for asking many experimental questions relevant to the analysis of behavior. The consecutive controlled case series (CCCS) is a type of study in which a SCED is employed in a series of consecutively encountered cases that undergo a…