Ann P Daunic

University of Florida | UF · School of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies

Education researchers, policy makers, and practitioners have emphasized the role social-emotional learning and self-regulation play in children’s adjustment and connection to school, particularly as they transition from pre-school to kindergarten and the primary grades. A pretest–posttest cluster-randomized efficacy trial of the Social-Emotional Le...

Executive function (EF), a set of neurocognitive processes, is central to students’ emotional and behavioral well-being. Despite students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) being at risk for negative long-term outcomes, there is a paucity of EF research with students at risk for EBD in early elementary school, an important identification...

Executive function (EF), a set of neurocognitive processes, is central to students’ emotional and behavioral well-being. Despite students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) being at risk for negative long-term outcomes, there is a paucity of EF research with students at risk for EBD in early elementary school, an important identification...

Early identification of executive dysfunction and timely school-based intervention efforts are critical for students at risk for problematic behaviors during early elementary school. The original Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) was designed to measure real-world behavioral manifestations of executive functioning, neurocog...

Researchers have shown that children's social-emotional growth is inextricably connected to academic learning. We developed the Social-Emotional Learning Foundations (SELF) intervention, a Grade K-1 curriculum merging social-emotional learning (SEL) and literacy instruction, to promote language supported self-regulation, specifically for primary gr...

To address the needs of students at risk for significant behavior problems, educators need efficient, effective, and feasible preventive classroom interventions that increase students’ ability to regulate their own behavior. Tools for Getting Along is a universally delivered cognitive-behavioral curriculum designed to address early emotional and be...

The effective use of evidence-based practices in educational settings is an ongoing concern, and there is growing consensus that desired outcomes are achieved only when programs are implemented thoughtfully and thoroughly. To encourage the integration of research findings into interventions that are feasible and usable within authentic settings, re...

Using a pre–post randomized controlled trial, the purpose of this study was to determine whether a social problem-solving curriculum, Take CHARGE!, based on a cognitive-behavioral approach, could improve students’ knowledge of problem-solving skills, as well as self-report of social behaviors for 92 middle school students with emotional and behavio...

Cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBIs) are effective in decreasing externalizing behavior in school-aged children. To ensure that CBIs meet the needs of a diverse student population, it is important to examine whether intervention effectiveness is influenced by characteristics common to students identified with problem behaviors. In this study,...

Maladaptive adolescent behavior patterns often create escalating conflict with adults and peers, leading to poor long-term social trajectories. To address this, school-based behavior management often consists of contingent reinforcement for appropriate behavior, behavior reduction procedures, and placement in self-contained or alternative settings....

Students with significant behavioral and social problems experience some of the poorest outcomes in school and beyond. It is imperative, therefore, that educational researchers and school-based professionals address the needs of students who exhibit maladaptive behavior to alter their poor outcome trajectory. Social problem-solving (SPS) instructio...

Social-emotional learning curricula to prevent student problematic behaviors should play a prominent role in public school instruction. While social-emotional curricula have been shown to be effective, there are few replication studies that substantiate their capacity to improve outcomes for students who exhibit problem behaviors. Thus, we conducte...

Efficient and effective social-emotional learning programs increase the likelihood of success in school for all students, and particularly for those who may develop emotional or behavior problems. In this study, we followed a sub-sample of students 1 year after their participation in a randomized controlled trial of the effects of the Tools for Get...

Introduction: Student problem behavior can have a negative effect on the overall school environment. Among the possible causes of problem behaviors are cognitive processing deficits and distortions that can be addressed by school personnel through the use of cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI). In recent years, CBI research has moved from the...

Childhood aggression represents a major public health concern, wherein developmental patterns of many aggressive forms yield future instances of delinquency, substance abuse, and school dropout. Recent interest in the relation of executive function (EF) processes and childhood aggression has helped to distinguish dissociable cognitive bases for som...

The aim of the current study was to examine mean-group differences on behavior rating scales and variables that may predict such differences. Sixty-five teachers completed the Clinical Assessment of Behavior–Teacher Form (CAB-T) for a sample of 982 students. Four outcome variables from the CAB-T were assessed. Hierarchical linear modeling was used...

Social demands and concomitant decreases in levels of social & emotional support during adolescent’s transition to middle school necessitate explicit intervention to increase the capacity for flexible, appropriate self-regulation in social situations. There is growing neurocognitive evidence for the link between the development of self-regulation a...

Researchers have demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral intervention strategies - such as social problem solving - provided in school settings can help ameliorate the developmental risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties. In this study, we report the results of a randomized controlled trial of Tools for Getting Along (TFGA), a social problem...

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) who display aggression necessitate effective interventions for reducing highly disruptive behavior, while keeping learning environments safe and secure for all students and staff. In this chapter, we describe the merits of cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBIs) in school settings to reduce s...

Deficits in executive function (self-regulatory mechanisms) have been linked with many childhood disorders including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, and conduct disorder. Executive functioning is typically assessed by individually administering performance-based measures in a clinical setting. However, per...

We examined the alterations in EF following a class-wide cognitive behavioral intervention intended to promote the use of social problem solving among 4th and 5th grade students. Results indicate that teacher ratings of specific EF skills (e.g., inhibition, planning, emotional control) as well as ratings for an overall EF composite were significant...

In intervention research, treatment fidelity is defined as the strategies that monitor and enhance the accuracy and consistency of an intervention to ensure it is implemented as planned and that each component is delivered in a comparable manner to all study participants over time. Reviews of the literature in special education and other discipline...

Classroom teachers need effective, efficient strategies to prevent and/or ameliorate destructive student behaviors and increase socially appropriate ones. During the past two decades, researchers have found that cognitive strategies can decrease student disruption/aggression and strengthen pro-social behavior. Following preliminary pilot work, we c...

Education professionals consistently rank disruptive/aggressive student behavior as persistent and troubling, reporting various types of maladaptive behaviors ranging from talking out in class to assault. Researchers suggest that childhood aggression accounts for a high proportion of the referrals to special education for emotional and behavioral d...

In this article, we present findings from a comparative study of 3 teacher preparation prototypes: traditional, university-district partnership, and district add-on programs. Samples of program graduates were observed during their 1st year of teaching using the Praxis III assessment. A larger sample completed a follow-up questionnaire assessing pre...

Many professional educators are implementing school-based prevention focused on conflict resolution (CR) and peer mediation (PM). The authors conducted research on CR-PM in 3 middle schools. Specifically, they surveyed teachers and students, tracked disciplinary incidents across school years, collected mediation data, and compared mediators with a...

Effective school-wide responses to disruptive, aggressive, and violent student behaviors are critical to ensuring teacher and student safety and to increasing constructive approaches to conflict. As such, many educators are implementing school-based prevention programs focused on conflict resolution and peer mediation (CR/PM). In this article, we s...

Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 1996. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-173).