Paul R Swank

• Ph.D. Univ. of N. Colorado
• Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Using a cross-sectional sample of 534 Latino students from middle and high schools in a large North Carolina school district, we examined the relation of general and ethnic-biased bullying to depression and the indirect pathways through depression to suicidal ideation and substance use outcomes. A structural equation model tested the direct and ind...

Objective: This prospective longitudinal study investigated sleep disturbance (SD) and internalizing problems after traumatic injury, including traumatic brain injury (TBI) or extracranial/bodily injury (EI) in children and adolescents, relative to typically developing (TD) children. We also examined longitudinal relations between SD and internaliz...

Injury is the leading cause of death and disability in childhood. Injured children are at high risk for developing alterations in stress response systems and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) that may compromise long-term physical and psychological health. In a prospective, observational cohort study, we examined individual differences in, and...

In a prospective longitudinal study, the trajectory of verbal and visual-spatial working memory (WM) development was examined 2-, 6-, 12-, and 24-months following complicated-mild to severe pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI; n = 55) relative to an orthopedic injury comparison group (n = 47). Individual growth curve modeling revealed an interact...

This article looks closely at two types of errors children have been shown to make with universal quantification—Exhaustive Pairing (EP) errors and Underexhaustive errors—and asks whether they reflect the same underlying phenomenon. In a large-scale, longitudinal study, 140 children were tested 4 times from ages 4 to 7 on sentences involving the un...

The impact of an intervention on the self-determination and career planning engagement of young adults with mental health challenges was studied. Sixty-seven young adults, 20 to 30 years of age, with mental health diagnoses (e.g., depression, bipolar disorder) were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Statistically significant grea...

Background: Youth experiencing homelessness have elevated rates of mental illness and substance use compared to the general population. However, the extent to which underlying mental health issues may contribute to substance use as a way to manage symptoms and whether mental health treatment may reduce risk for substance use is unclear. This paper...

Statins constitute a class of medications commonly used in the treatment of elevated cholesterol. However, in experimental studies statins also have other non-cholesterol mediated mechanisms of action, which may have neuroprotective effects. The purpose of this study was to determine if administration of atorvastatin for 7 days after injury would i...

Following pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI), longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging may characterize alterations in initial recovery and subsequent trajectory of white matter development. Our primary aim examined effects of age at injury and time since injury on pathway microstructure in children ages 6-15 scanned 3 and 24 months after TBI. Mic...

Two intervention approaches designed to address the multi-faceted academic and cognitive difficulties of low-income children who enter pre-k with very low math knowledge were tested in a randomized experiment. Blocking on classroom, children who met screening criteria were assigned to a Math + Attention condition in which the Pre-Kindergarten Mathe...

Purpose: Adolescent and young adult (AYA)-aged central nervous system (CNS) tumor survivors are an understudied population that is at risk of developing adverse health outcomes, such as obesity. Long-term follow-up guidelines recommend monitoring those at risk of obesity, thus motivating the need for an eating behavior questionnaire. An abbreviate...

Retrospective pre-immigration data on sexual risk and alcohol use behaviours was collected from 527 recent Latino immigrants to the USA, aged 18–34. Two follow-up assessments (12 months apart) reported on post-immigration behaviours. Using a mixed model growth curve analysis, a six-level sexual risk change variable was constructed combining measure...

Individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The purpose of this study was to experimentally evaluate the impact of a STEM mentor intervention and differences between students matched with mentors with or without disabilities on career planning outcomes. An independent groups × repe...

Objective: To better understand the impact of age at injury, severity of injury, and time since injury on long-term school outcomes of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Participants: Four groups of children: complicated mild/moderate TBI (n = 23), severe TBI (n = 56), orthopedic injury (n = 35), and healthy controls (n = 42). Children...

To study the relation of loss of consciousness (LOC) to white matter integrity after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), we acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at 3 tesla in 79 participants with mTBI and normal computed tomography(age 18 to 50 years) whom we imaged after a mean post-injury interval of 25.9 hours (SD= 12.3), and at 3 months. For...

Background: Rater reproducibility of the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS), which categorizes stools into one of seven types, is unknown. We sought to determine reliability and agreement by individual stool type and when responses are categorized by Rome III clinical designation as normal or abnormal (constipation or diarrhea). Methods: Thirty-fou...

This article reports findings from a cluster-randomized study of an integrated literacy- and math-focused preschool curriculum, comparing versions with and without an explicit socioemotional lesson component to a business-as-usual condition. Participants included 110 classroom teachers from randomized classrooms and approximately eight students fro...

Pediatric traumatic brain injury often results in significant long-term deficits in mastery of reading ability. This study aimed to identify white matter pathways that, when damaged, predicted reading deficits in children. Based on the dual-route model of word reading, we predicted that integrity of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus would be...

Hispanic adolescents reported a higher annual prevalence of use of nearly all major drugs compared to non-Hispanic White and African American adolescents. Cultural or minority stressors, such as those related to the acculturation process, discrimination, immigration, poverty, and community violence, have been implicated in these outcomes. Unfortuna...

Processing speed (PS) and working memory (WM), core abilities that support learning, are vulnerable to disruption following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Developmental increases in WM are related to age-related changes in PS. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether WM deficits in children with TBI are mediated by PS. The performance of...

Active surveillance is increasingly recognized as a reasonable option for men with low-risk, localized prostate cancer, yet few men who might benefit from conservative management receive it. The authors examined the acceptability of normative messages about active surveillance as a management option for patients with low-risk prostate cancer. Men w...

Purpose This study assessed the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) exposure as an assessment and treatment modality for youth with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Methods Forty-one adolescents, 20 of which were identified as having SAD, were recruited from a community sample. Youth with and without SAD were exposed to two social virtual environmen...

McNemar’s discussion of error reduction in a mixed two-group design fails to provide an algebraic presentation of this error reduction. This manuscript presents not only the algebraic development of the error term but shows that under certain conditions mixing may increase experimental error.

This paper reports the results of an investigation designed to change teacher-student interactions with mainstreamed students in middle school social studies classes. Fourteen of 40 teacher volunteers received a six-session intervention emphasizing key variables from the teacher effectiveness and special education literature. Results indicate signi...

The purpose of the study was to conduct a preliminary efficacy evaluation of the Better Futures model, which is focused on improving the postsecondary preparation and participation of youth in foster care with mental health challenges. Sixty-seven youth were randomized to either a control group that received typical services or an intervention grou...

Women with diverse disabilities (N = 213), recruited through 10 centers for independent living (CILs), were randomly assigned to either a personal safety awareness program or usual care. The 8-week program, led by CIL staff, was designed to increase safety awareness, abuse and safety knowledge, safety skills, safety self-efficacy, social support, a...

Importance There is limited information about the effect of erythropoietin or a high hemoglobin transfusion threshold after a traumatic brain injury.Objective To compare the effects of erythropoietin and 2 hemoglobin transfusion thresholds (7 and 10 g/dL) on neurological recovery after traumatic brain injury.Design, Setting, and Participants Ran...

Background.Hispanic adolescents report the highest rates of crack, heroin and methamphetamine use when compared to all other ethnic categories (Monitoring the Future, 2008). Over one-quarter of Hispanic adolescents also report using alcohol in the last 30 days (Pemberton et al., 2008) and exhibit high rates of HIV risk (Prado et al., 2006). Cultura...

To establish reliability and validity of the Pediatric Injury Functional Outcome Scale (PIFOS), a brief injury-specific rating scale covering motor, self-care, communication, social-emotional, cognition, physical, and academic areas. In a prospective longitudinal study, the PIFOS structured interview was administered to parents of children 3-15 yea...

This study examined the link between learning style and Jungian psychological type. A large sample of ninth-grade students was administered the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Inventory, the Renzulli-Smith Learning Style Inventory, and the Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children (MMTIC). Canonical correlation procedures indicated the presence of...

Classroom-based measures of teaching effectiveness may be collected at a variety of levels including a macro (teacher-to-group) or a micro (teacher-to-student) level. This study examined correspondence between these two levels of measurement using (a) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) of extreme groups and (b) whole-sample cluster analysis...

Clinical guidelines for prostate cancer screening (PCS) advise physicians to discuss the potential harms and benefits of screening. However, there is a lack of training programs for informed decision-making (IDM), and it is unknown which IDM behaviors physicians have the most difficulty performing. Identifying difficult behaviors can help tailor tr...

This study examined parental monitoring (PM) as a potential moderator of the relation between parent–child communication (PCC) and pre-coital sexual behaviours (PCSB) in an urban, minority, early adolescent population. Seventh-grade students (n = 1609) reported PCC, PM and PCSB. Multivariable logistic regression was conducted to assess for moderati...

This study examined the efficacy of a multimodule parenting intervention, “My Baby & Me,” that began prenatally and continued until children reached 2.5 years of age. The intervention targeted specific parenting skills designed to alter trajectories of maternal and child development. Of 361 high-risk mothers (193 adolescents, 168 adults) enrolled a...

Home visitation programs aim to decrease child maltreatment, yet limited longitudinal data exists concerning their screening and assessment instruments. "At risk" families (N = 2,054) were screened using the Family Stress Checklist and referred to Healthy Families Indiana. The Home Observation Measurement of the Environment Scale (HOME) and Communi...

Time in treatment is consistently associated with successful outcomes for adolescents in therapeutic community (TC) treatment for substance use disorders. Adolescents have higher treatment dropout and relapse rates than their adult counterparts. The objectives of the study were: (1) to explore the relation between stress and length of stay in an ad...

Purpose: To determine how “powerful” loss and gain framing is as behavioral economics intervention to change attitudes about active surveillance "AS" (as opposed to immediate treatment) as a management option for localized prostate cancer. Methods: Three scenarios were developed to test the impact of loss vs gain framing on acceptability of activ...

To reduce negative psychological affect from information or behavior that is inconsistent with one's positive self-concept, individuals use a variety of defensive strategies. It is unknown whether correlates differ across defenses. We examined correlates of four levels of defensive information processing about colorectal cancer screening. Cross-sec...

Despite reports of positive effects of high-quality child care, few experimental studies have examined the process of improving low-quality center-based care for toddler-age children. In this article, we report intervention effects on child care teachers' behaviors and children's social, emotional, behavioral, early literacy, language, and math out...

Objective: The current study examined the role of early executive functions (EF) and social language (SL) as well as responsive parenting as mediators of the effect of group on social problem-solving skills at 7 years of age for children with spina bifida and typically developing children. Method: A mediation analysis was used to determine if th...

Deficits in working memory are a common consequence of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI), and are believed to contribute to difficulties in a range of cognitive and academic domains. Reduced integrity of the corpus callosum (CC) following TBI may disrupt connectivity between bilateral frontoparietal neural networks underlying working memory. I...

Research Findings: Multitiered instructional frameworks are becoming a recommended approach for enhancing prevention and intervention efforts targeting early literacy and language skills. However, few studies to date have studied the feasibility of tiered oral language interventions before kindergarten; therefore, this pilot study explored the effe...

Core social interaction behaviors were examined in young children 0-36 months of age who were hospitalized for accidental (n = 61) or inflicted (n = 64) traumatic brain injury (TBI) in comparison to typically developing children (n = 60). Responding to and initiating gaze and joint attention (JA) were evaluated during a semi-structured sequence of...

Children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) are more likely to display a pattern of good-decoding/poor comprehension than their neurologically intact peers. The goals of the current study were to (1) examine the cognitive origins of one of the component skills of comprehension, bridging inferences, from a developmental perspective and (2) to...

Objective: Functional impairment resulting from a stroke frequently requires the care of a family caregiver, often the spouse. This change in the relationship can be stressful for the couple. Thus, this study examined the longitudinal, dyadic relationship between caregivers' and stroke survivors' mutuality and caregivers' and stroke survivors' per...

Infants with Spina Bifida (SB) were compared to typically developing infants (TD) using a conjugate reinforcement paradigm at 6 months-of-age (n = 98) to evaluate learning, and retention of a sensory-motor contingency. Analyses evaluated infant arm-waving rates at baseline (wrist not tethered to mobile), during acquisition of the sensory-motor cont...

Valid and reliable psychosocial measures for parents are lacking in the children’s sun protection literature. We examined the construct validity and reliability of measures of parents’ self-efficacy and perceived barriers specific to four sun protection behaviors in children: sunscreen, clothing, shade and limiting time outdoors. Melanoma survivors...

Youth in foster care disproportionately receive special education services and those in foster care and special education are at compounded disadvantage as they attempt to transition from high school to adult life. Given enhanced self-determination has been associated with improved transition outcomes for youth in special education, the purpose of...

The multitude of variables associated with a battery of outcome measures presents a risk for spurious findings in clinical trials and observational studies of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). We have used principal components analysis (PCA) to facilitate data reduction by identifying components which represent subsets of neuropsychological measu...

The aim of the study was to conduct a longitudinal, randomized clinical trial of the efficacy of TAKE CHARGE, a self-determination enhancement intervention, for promoting the school performance of youth in special education and foster care. A total of 133 youth were randomized to either a control group that received typical services, or to the inte...

This study presents an empirically-based statewide system that links information about pre-kindergarten programs with children's school readiness scores to certify pre-kindergarten classrooms as promoting school readiness. Over 8,000 children from 1,255 pre-kindergarten classrooms were followed longitudinally for one year. Pre-kindergarten quality...

In order to explore the influence of anxiety on decision-making processes, valid anxiety measures are needed. We evaluated a prostate cancer screening (PCS) anxiety scale that measures anxiety related to the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, the digital rectal examination (DRE), and the decision to undergo PCS (PCS-D) using two samples in diffe...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and orthopedic injury (OI) patients are prone to anxiety and mood disorders. In the present study, we integrated anatomical and diffusion tensor neuroimaging to investigate structural properties of the amygdala and hippocampus, gray matter regions implicated in anxiety and mood disorders. Children and adolescents were e...

Objective: Individuals have a large repertoire of defensive strategies for dealing with personally relevant negative feedback including health risk information. Defensive processes are covered in a diverse literature and in theoretical models such as the extended parallel process model, but outside the psychopathological domain, little attention h...

Background: Post-stroke depression is common among both stroke survivors and their caregivers. This secondary data analysis explored the effect that stroke survivor and caregiver family function and mutuality, a measure of the perceived positive aspects of the caregiving relationship, had on the depression of spousal dyads over the first 12 months...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on verbal and visual-spatial working memory (WM). WM tasks examined memory span through recall of the last item of a series of stimuli. Additionally, both verbal and visual-spatial tests had a dual-task condition assessing the effect of increasing dem...

This study examined mother–child shared book reading behaviors before and after participation in a random-assignment responsive parenting intervention called Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) that occurred during infancy (PALS I), the toddler–preschool (PALS II) period, or both as compared with a developmental assessment (DAS) intervention (DAS I...

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation for scaling up a comprehensive early childhood teacher professional development program into 11 communities across 2years with funding through state legislative actions. The comprehensive program had four major components based on results from a previous multi-condition random assignment study...

This study describes the dimensionality and continuum of Spanish phonological awareness (PA) skills in 3- to 6-year-old children. A 3 × 4 factorial design crossed word structure of test items (word, syllable, phoneme) with task (blending multiple-choice, blending free-response, elision multiple-choice, elision free-response) to assess 12 PA skills....

An anonymous audio computer-assisted self-interview (A-CASI) designed to increase awareness of abuse was completed by 305 women with diverse disabilities. Data were also collected about lifetime and past year abuse; perpetrator risk characteristics; facilitators and barriers to disclosing abuse; abuse disclosure to a health provider, case manager,...

The purpose of the present investigation was to characterize the relations of specific social communication behaviors, including joint attention, gestures, and verbalization, with surface area of midsagittal corpus callosum (CC) subregions in children who sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) before 7 years of age. Participants sustained mild (n=1...

RESEARCH FINDINGS: The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of children's effortful control and quality of relationships with teachers to school attitudes longitudinally in an ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged sample. Data were collected as part of a larger intervention project during mid-fall, winter, and late spring...

Behavioral dysregulation is a common and detrimental consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children that contributes to poor academic achievement and deficits in social development. Unfortunately, behavioral dysregulation is difficult to predict from either injury severity or early neuropsychological evaluation. The uncinate fasciculus (UF...

Paediatric classification of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is complicated by the potential discrepancy between parent and child report and by the interpretation of pain-stool relations in the Rome III classification system. To compare IBS classification by diary and by child and parent respondents. Children (ages 7-10 years, n = 90) with recurrent...

To evaluate the psychometric properties of the 4-factor low literacy Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS-LL) with men eligible for prostate cancer screening (PCS). We used baseline (T0; n=149) and post-intervention (T2; n=89) data from a randomized, controlled trial of a PCS decision aid to assess internal consistency reliability and construct, discrimi...

Experimental studies suggest that nitric oxide produced by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) plays a role in maintaining cerebral blood flow (CBF) after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The purpose of this study was to determine if common variants of the NOS3 gene contribute to hypoperfusion after severe TBI. Fifty-one patients with severe TBI...

This study focuses on the development of early visual information processing among infants with spina bifida (SB) compared to typically developing infants using the habituation-dishabituation paradigm. Analyses were conducted in two stages. First infants were evaluated to determine if 18-month old infants (SB=47; Control=40) differed in their abili...

A strong tendency toward left hemisphere (LH) language dominance has been well established, as evidenced by the high prevalence of language impairment following sudden onset lesions in the LH. In the presence of progressive LH pathology, such as epilepsy, substantial deviations in language organization can occur. However, the question regarding whe...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of hyperventilation or hyperoxia on cerebral hemodynamic parameters over time in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We prospectively studied 186 patients with severe TBI. CO₂ and O₂ reactivity tests were conducted twice a day on days 1-5 and once daily on days 6-10 after injury. D...

To develop a pediatric stool form rating scale and determine its interrater reliability, intrarater reliability, and agreement among pediatric gastroenterologists. An ordinal stool scale with 5 categorical stool form types was created on the basis of the Bristol Stool Form Scale, and 32 color 2-dimensional stool photographs were shown to 14 pediatr...

Although supportive parenting has been shown to have positive effects on development, the neurobiological basis of supportive parenting has not been investigated. Thirty-three adolescents were systemically selected from a longitudinal study on child development based on maternal responsiveness during childhood, a measure of supportive parenting, an...

This study examined the role of language, attention/impulse control, and mother–child play in predicting later peer competence by assessing 252 children at ages 3 and 8 years. Children born term (n = 90) or preterm (n = 162) were included to examine the question of how variability in skills influenced social outcomes and whether relations were comp...

This pilot study examined an implementation of a kindergarten summer school reading program in 4 high-poverty urban schools. The program targeted both basic reading skills and oral language development. Students were randomly assigned to a treatment group (n = 25) or a typical practice comparison group (n =28) within each school; however,randomizat...

To evaluate the effects of a computerized disability-specific abuse assessment intervention on abuse awareness, safety self-efficacy, and safety promoting behaviors of women with diverse disabilities. A randomized control group design was used, with the intervention group completing the assessment intervention both at Time 1 (T1) and 3 months later...

Although individuals born preterm are at risk for cognitive dysfunction, few studies have examined functional brain reorganization in these individuals. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine cortical reorganization related to preterm birth. Thirty-one adolescents systemically selected from a longitudinal study on child development based o...

To understand the relationship between cognition and white-matter structure in adolescents born preterm without obvious brain injury. Thirty-two adolescents from a longitudinal study of child development were selected according to risk of developmental disorders at birth (born at term: eight males, five females; median age 16y 1mo, interquartile ra...

A major objective of this chapter is to present a novel, ecologically sensitive social problem-solving task for school-aged children that captures the complexity of social and cognitive demands placed on children in naturalistic situations. Competence on this task correlates with a range of skills including executive functions, verbal reasoning, an...

Substance abuse continues to be a major public health problem. Keeping substance abusers in treatment is a challenge, and researchers continue to investigate ways to increase retention. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between impulsivity in substance abusers and length of stay in the context of therapeutic community. The B...

Measurement invariance of a one-factor model of effortful control (EC) was tested for 853 low-income preschoolers (M age = 4.48 years). Using a teacher-report questionnaire and seven behavioral measures, configural invariance (same factor structure across groups), metric invariance (same pattern of factor loadings across groups), and partial scalar...

Although individuals born prematurely have subtle white matter abnormalities and are at risk for cognitive dysfunction, few studies have examined functional reorganization in these individuals. In this study we use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine cortical reorganization related to prematurity. Thirty-one adolescents systemically selected fr...

Reports an error in "Effectiveness of comprehensive professional development for teachers of at-risk preschoolers" by Susan H. Landry, Jason L. Anthony, Paul R. Swank and Pauline Monseque-Bailey (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2009[May], Vol 101[2], 448-465). In the article, a disclosure statement was incorrectly omitted due to an error during...

Very little information exists related to the interpersonal violence safety promoting behaviors of women with disabilities. Information about women's use of safety promoting behaviors was gathered from 305 disabled and deaf women who completed an anonymous Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview. Exploratory factor analyses revealed factors related...

Three hundred and five women with diverse disabilities completed an anonymous audio computer-assisted self-interview designed to increase women's awareness of abuse. Data were also collected regarding abuse experienced in the past year and the risk characteristics of their perpetrators. Overall, 68% reported some type of abuse. Preliminary evidence...

Oral reading and expressive language skills were examined in 2 cohorts of children aged 5-15 years, who had mild, moderate, or severe traumatic brain injury. Children recruited prospectively from time of injury were assessed on 5 occasions over 2 years in a longitudinal study of change in reading skills, using the Gray Oral Reading Test-3rd Edition...

This study compared effectiveness of "business as usual" to that of 4 professional development (PD) programs that targeted teachers of at-risk preschool children. A 2 × 2 design was used to cross mentoring and progress monitoring conditions among the 4 PD programs. Specifically, some teachers received both in-classroom mentoring and detailed, instr...

This trial compared Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, adapted for therapeutic community treatment (MBTC), with treatment as usual (TAU) for reducing stress and increasing retention in a residential facility for substance use disorders. Four-hundred and fifty-nine participants, who met DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence were recruited (TAU =...

This study examined the relation between a preterm birth and reading ability and whether children born preterm with poorer reading were more likely to show lower cognitive and executive functioning skills compared to children born at term with poor reading ability. Participants born at term (N = 97) and preterm (N = 156) were studied using the Wood...

Chronic pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with significant and persistent neurobehavioral deficits. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), we examined area, fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusion, and axial diffusion from six regions of the corpus callosum (CC) in 41 children and adolescents with TBI and 31 comparison childr...