This dissertation explores the role of social media use in the social development of "at-risk" youth in Los Angeles, CA and Lafayette, IN, with a major goal of identifying beneficial ways to address the social support needs of youth and adolescents to aid in their successful assimilation into adulthood. This study employs ethnographic…

"Preparing Children to Thrive: Standards for Social and Emotional Learning Practices in School-Age Settings" is designed to help organizational and program leaders see clearly what social and emotional learning (SEL) among children (ages 5-13) would look like and feel like in real program settings, and to draw attention to promising…

The Good Behavior Game (GBG, Barrish, Saunders, & Wolf, 1969) and the PATHS Curriculum (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies; Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, & Quamma, 1995) represent 2 universal, elementary school, preventive interventions which have been shown in large-scale, randomized controlled trials to have an immediate and beneficial…

This research explored parents' perceptions of the psychosocial outcomes of their children's experience of receiving equine-assisted interventions (EAI). Participants were the parents of six children (aged 3-14) diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted and the transcript data was analysed using…

Background: Communication campaigns offer a viable mechanism to promote suicide prevention and reinforce mental health for U.S. veterans in midlife, a group with a high suicide burden. However, little empirical investigation of this type of messaging has been conducted, with formative campaign research conspicuously missing from the limited…

This cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the impact of a behavior support program implemented in elementary school on students' high school behaviors. The research question driving the study was whether high school students who had received instruction in the Students Taking Appropriate Responsibility (STAR) program for four years…

This research is a qualitative study comparatively examining the views of high school teachers and students related to discipline perception and discipline problems. The study has been realized at a vocational school during the 2014/2015 school term. Maximum diversity and criterion sampling methods have been followed for the formation of the study…

Primary education is compulsory around the world. This means that around age 5 or 6, millions of children worldwide transition from home or preschool/kindergarten settings into primary school, with the success of this transition shaping school and life trajectories for years to come. Both developmental and environmental factors during early…

Many children with autism spectrum disorder display challenging behaviors. These behaviors are not limited to those with cognitive and/or language impairments. The Collaborative and Proactive Solutions framework proposes that challenging behaviors result from an incompatibility between environmental demands and a child's "lagging…

The purpose of this study was to (a) test the relationships between sense of belonging to school, academic hardiness, and academic achievement and (b) examine the mediating role of academic hardiness (including commitment, control, and challenge) on the association between sense of belonging to school and academic achievement. Five hundred and…

Children with autism experience challenges with emotion regulation. It is unclear how children's management of their emotions is associated with their family's quality of life. Forty-three preschoolers with autism and 28 typically developing preschoolers were coded on emotion regulation strategies used during low-level stress tasks. Parents…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore the grit practices demonstrated by California elementary school GLAD teacher leaders. Teaching is a grit-demanding profession, and teaching English language learners (ELLs) requires sustained effort, perseverance, and dedication to meet their diverse needs. Identifying the grit practices of teacher…

This study employs data from both kindergarten cohorts of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (n ~ 12,450 in 1998; n ~ 11,000 in 2010) to assess whether associations between preschool participation and children's academic and behavioral outcomes--both at school entry (Mean age = 5.6 years in both cohorts) and through third grade--have changed…

The aim of the study was to examine the mediation role of problem solving skills on the relationship between learned resourcefulness and loneliness. Mediation model tested using data collected from 211 Turkish university students. Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule, Problem-solving Inventory, and UCLA Loneliness Scale were used to collect the data…

The purpose of the present research is to explore the development of self-control ability during childhood. A group of 360 children (185 boys and 175 girls from grades 2, 4, and 6) participated in the survey. They completed the Children's Perceived Self-Control Scale (CPSC) which included the interpersonal self-control (ISC), the personal…