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ABSTRACT: Schools are adopting evidence-based programs designed to enhance students' emotional and behavioral competencies at increasing rates (Hemmeter et al. in Early Child Res Q 26:96-109, 2011). At the same time, teachers express the need for increased support surrounding implementation of these evidence-based programs (Carter and Van Norman in Early Child Educ 38:279-288, 2010). Ongoing professional development in the form of coaching may enhance teacher skills and implementation (Noell et al. in School Psychol Rev 34:87-106, 2005; Stormont et al. 2012). There exists a need for a coaching model that can be applied to a variety of teacher skill levels and one that guides coach decision-making about how best to support teachers. This article provides a detailed account of a two-phased coaching model with empirical support developed and tested with coaches and teachers in urban schools (Becker et al. 2013). In the initial universal coaching phase, all teachers receive the same coaching elements regardless of their skill level. Then, in the tailored coaching phase, coaching varies according to the strengths and needs of each teacher. Specifically, more intensive coaching strategies are used only with teachers who need additional coaching supports, whereas other teachers receive just enough support to consolidate and maintain their strong implementation. Examples of how coaches used the two-phased coaching model when working with teachers who were implementing two universal prevention programs (i.e., the PATHS(®) curriculum and PAX Good Behavior Game [PAX GBG]) provide illustrations of the application of this model. The potential reach of this coaching model extends to other school-based programs as well as other settings in which coaches partner with interventionists to implement evidence-based programs.
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review 05/2013; · 3.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study explored the association between coaching and the implementation of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) by 129 urban elementary school teachers. Analyses involving longitudinal data on coaching and teacher implementation quality indicated that coaches strategically varied their use of coaching strategies (e.g., modeling, delivery) based on teacher implementation quality and provided additional support to teachers with low implementation quality. Findings suggest that coaching was associated with improved implementation quality of the GBG. This work lays the foundation for future research examining ways to enhance coach decision-making about teacher implementation.
Administration and Policy in Mental Health 03/2013; · 2.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Guided by Kraemer et al.'s (Psychological Methods, 3:257-271, 1999) framework for measuring the potency of risk factors, we sought to improve on the classification accuracy reported in Petras et al. (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 43:88-96, 2004a) and Petras et al. (Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 44:790-797, 2005) by using multiple as opposed to single point in time assessments of early aggressive and disruptive behavior in the classification of youth who would likely benefit from targeted preventive interventions. Different from Petras et al. (2004a, 2005), the outcome used in this study included serious antisocial behavior in young adulthood as well as in adolescence. Among males, the use of multiple time points did not yield greater classification accuracy than the highest single time points, that is, third and fifth grades. For females, although fifth grade represented the best single time point in terms of classification accuracy, no significant association was found between earlier time points and the later outcome, rendering a test of the multiple time points hypothesis moot. The findings presented in this study have strong implications for the design of targeted intervention for violence prevention, indicating that the screening quality based on aggression ratings during the elementary years is rather modest, particularly for females.
Prevention Science 02/2013; · 2.63 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study examines the association between aggressive/disruptive behavior development in two distinct developmental periods-childhood (i.e., Grades 1-3) and early adolescence (i.e., Grades 6-10)-and subsequent gambling behavior in late adolescence up to age 20. The sample consists of 310 urban males of predominately minority and low socioeconomic status followed from first grade to late adolescence. Separate general growth mixture models were estimated to explore the heterogeneity in aggressive/disruptive behavior development in the aforementioned two periods. Three distinct behavior trajectories were identified for each period: a chronic high, a moderate increasing, and a low increasing class for childhood, and a chronic high, a moderate increasing, followed by decreasing and a low stable class for early adolescence. There was no association between childhood behavior trajectories and gambling involvement. Males with a moderate behavior trajectory in adolescence where two times more likely to gamble compared to those in the low stable class (OR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.11, 3.24). Those with chronic high trajectories during either childhood or early adolescence (OR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.06, 6.38; OR = 3.19, 95% CI = 1.18, 8.64, respectively) were more likely to be at-risk/problem gamblers than those in the low class. Aggressive/disruptive behavior development in childhood and early adolescence is associated with gambling and gambling problems in late adolescence among urban male youth. Preventing childhood and youth aggressive/disruptive behavior may be effective to prevent youth problem gambling.
Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology 02/2013; · 1.92 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the eleven year longitudinal association between students identified in first grade as having academic and behavior problems and distal outcomes in twelfth grade. The study extends prior research that identified latent classes of academic and behavior problems in a longitudinal community sample of 678 predominately African American first-grade students. The type and number of classes identified in first grade differed by gender, but results indicated that students within the classes of behavior and academic problems had long-term negative outcomes in the twelfth grade. The class with co-occurring academic and behavior problems in first grade had the greatest risk for negative distal outcomes for both boys and girls including higher likelihood of special education placement, mental health service use, poor academic achievement, and school dropout. Implications for prevention, early intervention, and current practices in schools are discussed.
Journal of school psychology 02/2013; 51(1):117-28. · 2.31 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: African American adolescents are exposed disproportionately to community violence, increasing their risk for emotional and behavioral symptoms that can detract from learning and undermine academic outcomes. The present study examined whether aggressive behavior and depressive and anxious symptoms mediated the association between exposure to community violence and academic functioning, and if the indirect effects of community violence on academic functioning differed for boys and girls, in a community sample of urban African American adolescents (N = 491; 46.6 % female). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the indirect effect of exposure to community violence in grade 6 on grade 8 academic functioning. Results revealed that aggression in grade 7 mediated the association between grade 6 exposure to community violence and grade 8 academic functioning. There were no indirect effects through depressive and anxious symptoms, and gender did not moderate the indirect effect. Findings highlight the importance of targeting aggressive behavior for youth exposed to community violence to not only improve their behavioral adjustment but also their academic functioning. Implications for future research are discussed.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence 01/2013; · 2.72 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: AIM.: Building on the recent emerging literature on the impulsivity trajectory-gambling association, this study investigated the association between developmental trajectories of teacher-rated impulsivity in early adolescence (ages 11-15) and subsequent gambling and gambling problems (i.e. at-risk and problem gambling) by age 19. DESIGN.: Prospective cohort design. SETTING.: Urban communities in Baltimore, Maryland. PARTICIPANTS.: The sample consists of 310 predominately minority (87%) and low SES (70%) males followed from first grade to late adolescence. MEASUREMENTS.: Impulsivity was measured using teacher ratings of classroom behavior. Self-reported gambling behavior was assessed using the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA). FINDINGS.: Results from a conventional growth model suggest the intercept of the impulsivity development (as measured by the repeated assessments of impulsivity across the entire developmental period) was significantly associated with gambling. Results from a general growth mixture model evidenced two distinct trajectories: a high impulsivity trajectory (41% the sample) and a low impulsivity trajectory (59% of the sample). Despite its non-significant association with any gambling, heterogeneity in impulsivity development was significantly associated with gambling problems. Specifically, being in the high impulsivity trajectory doubled the odds of meeting criteria for at-risk or problem gambling (OR= 2.09[1.02, 4.27]) and tripled the odds of meeting criteria for problem gambling (OR=2.84[1.02, 7.91]). CONCLUSIONS.: Development in impulsivity is strongly associated with problem/at-risk gambling in adolescence among urban male youth. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing gambling problems from any gambling when evaluating programs aimed at reducing youth gambling problems through reducing impulsivity.
Addiction 11/2012; · 4.31 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Background: Adverse life events have been associated with gambling and substance use as they can serve as forms of escapism. Involvement in gambling and substance use can also place individuals in adversely stressful situations. Objectives: To explore potential male-female differences in the association between addictive behavior and adverse life events among an urban cohort of adolescents. Method: The study sample comprised of 515 adolescent participants in a randomized prevention trial. With self-reported data, four addictive behavior groups were created: nonsubstance users and nongamblers, substance users only, gamblers only, and substance users and gamblers. Multinomial logistic regression analyses with interaction terms of sex and adverse life events were conducted. Results: Adverse life events and engaging in at least one addictive behavior were common for both sexes. Substance users and gamblers had more than twice the likelihood of nonsubstance users and nongamblers to experience any event as well as events of various domains (ie, relationship, violence, and instability). Neither relationship nor instability events' associations with the co-occurrence of substance use and gambling significantly differed between sexes. Conversely, females exposed to violence events were significantly more likely than similarly exposed males to report the co-occurrence of substance use and gambling. Conclusion: Findings from the current study prompt future studies to devote more attention to the development of effective programs that teach adaptive coping strategies to adolescents, particularly to females upon exposure to violence. (Am J Addict 2012;21:516-523).
American Journal on Addictions 11/2012; 21(6):516-23. · 1.74 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a method of teacher classroom behavior management, was tested in first- and second-grade classrooms in 19 Baltimore City Public Schools beginning in the 1985-1986 school year. The intervention was directed at the classroom as a whole to socialize children to the student role and reduce aggressive, disruptive behaviors, confirmed antecedents of a profile of externalizing problem outcomes. This article reports on the GBG impact on the courses and interrelationships among aggressive, disruptive behavior through middle school, risky sexual behaviors, and drug abuse and dependence disorders through ages 19-21. In five poor to lower-middle class, mainly African American urban areas, classrooms within matched schools were assigned randomly to either the GBG intervention or the control condition. Balanced assignment of children to classrooms was made, and teachers were randomly assigned to intervention or control. Analyses involved multilevel growth mixture modeling. By young adulthood, significant GBG impact was found in terms of reduced high-risk sexual behaviors and drug abuse and dependence disorders among males who in first grade and through middle school were more aggressive, disruptive. A replication with the next cohort of first-grade children with the same teachers occurred during the following school year, but with minimal teacher mentoring and monitoring. Findings were not significant but generally in the predicted direction. A universal classroom-based prevention intervention in first- and second-grade classrooms can reduce drug abuse and dependence disorders and risky sexual behaviors.
Prevention Science 10/2012; · 2.63 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The overarching goal of this chapter is to elaborate a developmental psychopathology approach to prevention science. In the first part of the chapter, we review basic research on normal and abnormal development and developmental psychopathology and articulate its integral relation to preventive interventions. As theory informs practice, practice also informs theory. Accordingly, we go on to describe how results from preventive intervention trials are uniquely able to serve as tests of developmental theory. "Prevention" is a widely, and often misused, term. We offer a brief history of the terminology associated with prevention and describe the prevention research cycle that takes into account the planned, sequential steps necessary to develop strong prevention programs that have the opportunity to promote the best outcomes as well as provide a wealth of information for developmental theory. We also discuss the interface of developmental psychopathology, epidemiology, and public health as it relates to prevention. The chapter concludes with directions for future research in preventive interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
10/2012;
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ABSTRACT: Social and environmental influences on gambling behavior are important to understand because localities can control the sanction and location of gambling opportunities. This study explores whether neighborhood disadvantage is associated with gambling among predominantly low-income, urban young adults and to explore if we can find differences in physical vs. compositional aspects of the neighborhood. Data are from a sample of 596 young adults interviewed when they were 21-22 years, who have been participating in a longitudinal study since entering first grade in nine public US Mid-Atlantic inner-city schools (88 % African Americans). Data were analyzed via factor analysis and logistic regression models. One third of the sample (n = 187) were past-year gamblers, 42 % of them gambled more than once a week, and 31 % had gambling-related problems. Those living in moderate and high disadvantaged neighborhoods were significantly more likely to be past-year gamblers than those living in low disadvantaged neighborhoods. Those living in high disadvantaged neighborhoods were ten times more likely than those living in low disadvantaged neighborhoods to have gambling problems. Factor analysis yielded a 2-factor model, an "inhabitant disadvantage factor" and a "surroundings disadvantage factor." Nearly 60 % of the sample lived in neighborhoods with high inhabitants disadvantage (n = 375) or high surroundings disadvantage (n = 356). High inhabitants disadvantage was associated with past-year frequent gambling (odds ratios (aOR) = 2.26 (1.01, 5.02)) and gambling problems (aOR = 2.81 (1.18, 6.69)). Higher neighborhood disadvantage, particularly aspects of the neighborhood concerning the inhabitants, was associated with gambling frequency and problems among young adult gamblers from an urban, low-income setting.
Journal of Urban Health 08/2012; · 2.13 Impact Factor
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Keith C Herman,
Wendy M Reinke,
Catherine P Bradshaw,
John E Lochman,
Caroline L Boxmeyer,
Nicole P Powell,
Kelly Dunn,
Jennifer Cox,
Courtney Vaughn,
Sharon Stephan, Nicholas S Ialongo
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ABSTRACT: Engaging families in school-based preventive interventions for aggressive youth can be especially challenging. The current article describes an integration of a parent engagement model, called the Family Check-Up, with an evidence-based intervention for youth with aggressive behaviours called Coping Power. The overall goal of the integration was to increase parental involvement and exposure to the core elements of the Coping Power programme to optimize impact on families and their children. We describe both models, summarize evidence of their efficacy when implemented alone, and provide a rationale for their integration. We also provide case examples to illustrate the implementation of the integrated programme in schools as well as feasibility data to support its continued study and implementation.
Advances in school mental health promotion. 07/2012; 5(3):208-219.
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ABSTRACT: Using a longitudinal design, the authors of this study examined the relationship between externalizing problems and impulsivity in early childhood and symptoms of disordered eating in late adolescence.
Participants were urban, African American first-grade girls (N = 119) and their parents who were participating in a longitudinal study examining the prevention of disruptive behaviors. Impulsivity, conduct problems, and oppositional defiant behavior were assessed by parent report via structured interview questions. At 9-year follow-up, bulimic symptoms were measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory. A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine the longitudinal association among impulsivity, conduct problems, and oppositional defiant behavior and bulimic symptoms.
Parental report of impulsivity in first-grade girls, but not conduct problems or oppositional defiant behavior, was associated with self-reported bulimic symptoms in the girls in late adolescence (p < .04).
These results extend previous findings of a concurrent relationship between impulsivity and dysfunctional eating behaviors to a minority sample and further indicate that behavioral impulsivity in early childhood may be used to identify children for targeted prevention of disordered eating.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 01/2012; 80(2):313-6. · 4.85 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Witnessing community violence has been linked with several adverse outcomes for adolescents, including emotional and behavioral problems. Among youth who have witnessed community violence, proximity to the victim of community violence is one factor that may determine, in part, the nature of adolescents' responses to community violence exposure. The present study examines whether relationship proximity to the victim of community violence is associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors among a sample of urban and predominantly African American adolescents (N = 501) who have witnessed community violence. In 10th grade, participants reported whether they had witnessed 10 community violence events during the past year, and, if so, whether the victim of the violence was a family member, close friend, acquaintance, or stranger. Witnessed community violence against a family member or close friend was associated with depressive symptoms, and witnessed community violence against known individuals was associated with anxiety symptoms. Witnessing community violence against familiar persons and strangers was linked with aggressive behavior. Gender differences in these associations and implications for assessment and intervention with community violence-exposed youth are discussed.
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 01/2012; 82(1):1-9. · 1.29 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study sought to more precisely delineate the mechanisms by which two early elementary school-based, universal (i.e., applied to the entire population regardless of risk status) preventive interventions increased survival to first tobacco cigarette smoked. Specifically, we examined whether the interventions' effect on survival to first use was via the reduction of offers to smoke and/or through preventing the transition from first offer to smoking.
A total of 678 urban first-graders were assigned randomly to the classroom-centered (CC), or the family-school partnership (FSP), or a control classroom condition. Youth were followed annually until 1 year beyond their anticipated high school graduation (mean age ∼18 years). Discrete-time survival analyses on 628 youth evaluated the impact of the CC and FSP interventions on first tobacco offer and initial tobacco smoking once offered.
The risk of being offered tobacco was reduced among both CC and FSP intervention groups relative to the control group, although the reduction was only statistically significant for the CC intervention. Neither intervention condition reduced the transition to smoking once offered tobacco to smoke.
The CC intervention appeared to have its effect on survival to first cigarette smoked by delaying the first offer to smoke. Preventive interventions focused on refusal skills during the middle school years may be necessary to reduce the likelihood of the transition to smoking once offered.
Drug and alcohol dependence 08/2011; 120(1-3):202-8. · 3.60 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Considerable research has documented associations between adverse life events and internalizing symptoms in adolescents, but much of this research has focused on the number of events experienced, with less attention to the ecological context or timing of events. This study examined life events in three ecological domains relevant to adolescents (i.e., family, peers, themselves) as predictors of the course of depressive symptoms among a community epidemiologically defined sample of 419 (47.2% females) urban African American adolescents. Given that youth depressive symptoms change over time, grade level was examined as a moderator. For males, the strength of associations between life events happening to participants, family life events, and peer life events and depressive symptoms did not change from grades 6-9. For females, the strength of the association between peer life events and depressive symptoms did not change over time, but the strength of associations between life events happening to participants and family life events and females' depressive symptoms decreased over time. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence 06/2011; 41(4):438-48. · 2.72 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study explored the cross sectional association between adverse life events and gambling in a sample of 515 urban adolescents (average age 17, 55% male, 88% African American). Approximately half of the sample had gambled in the past year (51%); 78% of the gamblers gambled monthly and 39% had a gambling-related problem. On the other hand, 88% of the sample had experienced at least one life event in the past year, and those experiencing events tended to live in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. The mere acknowledgement of experiencing a stressful life event in the past year (yes/no) was not associated with an increase in odds of being a gambler, with gambling more frequently, or with having a gambling problem. However, when the context of the event was considered, an association was found between directly experiencing threatening and deviant/violent types of events and frequent gambling (OR > 2). Additionally, the probability of being a gambler increased as the number of events experienced increased (aOR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.13, P = 0.013), but problems among gamblers were not associated with the number of events experienced (aOR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.92, 1.11, P = 0.876). During adolescence, life events appear to be connected more with the frequency of gambling rather than with problems related to gambling.
Journal of Gambling Behavior 05/2011; 28(2):325-36. · 1.28 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This investigation examined profiles of individual, academic, and social risks in elementary school, and their association with mental health and academic difficulties in adolescence. Latent profile analyses of data from 574 urban youth revealed three risk classes. Children with the "well-adjusted" class had assets in the academic and social domains, low aggressive behavior, and low depressive symptoms in elementary school, and low rates of academic and mental health problems in adolescence. Children in the "behavior-academic-peer risk" class, characterized by high aggressive behavior, low academic achievement, and low peer acceptance, had conduct problems, academic difficulties, and increased mental health service use in adolescence. Children with the "academic-peer risk" class also had academic and peer problems but they were less aggressive and had higher depressive symptoms than the "behavior-academic-peer risk" class in the first grade; the "academic-peer risk" class had depression, conduct problems, academic difficulties, and increased mental health service use during adolescence. No differences were found between the risk classes with respect to adolescent outcomes.
Child Psychiatry and Human Development 05/2011; 42(5):521-38. · 1.93 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study examines the growth of neighborhood disorder and subsequent marijuana use among urban adolescents transitioning into young adulthood.
Data are derived from a longitudinal sample of 434 predominately African American 12th graders followed-up at 2 years after high school. The data are rich in repeated measures documenting substance use and misuse and neighborhood characteristics. Growth mixture modeling was used to examine how neighborhood disorder trajectories, measured through the presence of abandoned buildings on the blocks where participants reside, influence subsequent drug use beginning in late adolescence and into young adulthood.
A four-class solution characterizing neighborhood growth was selected as the final model and included rapidly improving, slightly improving, always-good, and deteriorating neighborhoods. Young adults living in neighborhoods that had been deteriorating over time were 30% more likely to use marijuana 2 years after high school than adolescents living in always-good neighborhoods (odds ratio = 1.30, p = .034). There was no relationship between living in a neighborhood that was improving and marijuana use.
This study identified a salient and malleable neighborhood characteristic, abandoned housing, which predicted elevated risk for young-adult marijuana use. This research supports environmental strategies that target abandoned buildings as a means to improve health and health behaviors for community residents, particularly young-adult substance use.
Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs 05/2011; 72(3):371-9. · 2.25 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Considerable research has documented the effects of community violence exposure on adolescents' behavior and mental health functioning, yet there has been less research on the process by which early risks increase the likelihood that youth will be exposed to community violence. The current study used data from a community epidemiologically defined sample of 623 urban youth followed from 1st grade through adolescence to examine the process by which early-onset aggressive behavior and poor academic readiness influenced risk for community violence exposure. Consistent with transactional developmental theories, early-onset aggressive and disruptive behavior was associated with poor academic readiness; these early risks contributed to later peer rejection, and subsequent conduct problems and greater affiliation with deviant peers, which in turn increased youths' exposure to community violence. Having an enhanced understanding of the risk process directs attention to potential targets for preventive interventions for youth at risk for subsequent exposure to violence.
Journal of Prevention & Intervention Community 04/2011; 39(2):98-113.
