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Objectives: To examine college peer crowd affiliations and prosocial and risky behaviors (academic, sexual, drug, and alcohol related risks) as well as to investigate gender as a moderator of these relations. Participants: 527 students at a public university in the Midwest in Fall 2018 (M age = 19.67, SD = 1.84). Method: Students' peer crowd affiliations were reported using an online survey. Four peer crowd dimensions were confirmed using Factor Analysis: Social (popular partiers and Greek organization members), Athletic, Arts/Diverse (students identifying strongly with a countercultural group, their race/ethnic group, and/or performing arts); and Scholastic (academic achievement and leadership). Results: Social crowd affiliations positively predicted all risk-related behaviors. Social and Scholastic affiliations positively predicted prosocial behaviors. Finally, gender significantly moderated the relations between peer crowd affiliations and risk and prosociality. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that peer crowd affiliation and gender are important when promoting positive behaviors on campus.

L3 is an intertribal residential school enrolling approximately 200 students in grades 5-8 from tribes in the northern Midwest. As a result of successful grant-writing which espoused Circle of Courage and Asset-Building, the school built up an impressive configuration of programs funded by a variety of sources, including a cadre of mental health professionals, and began increasingly to rely on their assessments and services. First funded by the Therapeutic Residential Model program in the 2002-2003 school year, L3 used the funding that year primarily to increase professional-level services of a psychiatrist and psychologist, and to maintain or expand programs which would otherwise have been terminated as funding from short-term sources was running out. Evaluation of this project began in January 2003, when the site was assessed and determined to be strongly oriented toward provision of Level Three, or professional-level, psychiatric and medical mental health services. The initial evaluation report identified a low retention rate and raised concerns that the presence of more than 200 staff on campus had resulted in a diffusion of responsibility, lack of consistency, and duplication or redundancy of services; that elements of the environment appeared to be detrimental to social development and emotional stability; and that an unusually high proportion of students were receiving psychiatric diagnoses and medication. The site was asked to address these issues, and additional funding was provided to bolster lower levels of triage by adding paraprofessional case managers to advocate or students and coordinate provision of services for them. Retention remained low at this site throughout the course of funding, and there were a high number of assaults and psychiatric hospitalizations compared with other sites. (Contains 14 tables and 11 figures.)

The article "Assessing Staff-Youth Interaction Quality: Using the CLASS to Evaluate Afterschool Programs" published in the Journal of Youth Development discusses the evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) through the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). The study explores the quality of interactions between staff and youth in afterschool programs, highlighting improvements in academic achievement and social-emotional skills reported in various state evaluations. The research aims to use the CLASS tool to enhance staff training and professional development opportunities in 21st CCLC programs. The study found that the CLASS can be a valuable tool to assess and improve the social and learning environment in afterschool programs, providing a common language and set of goals for staff to enhance youth development. [Extracted from the article]

In order to prevent iatrogenic effects associated with interventions that aggregate youth with behavior problems and to promote the integration of these youth into normative peer groups, a comprehensive evidence-based prevention program, Early Risers "Skills for Success" (August et al. in Preventing substance abuse: science-based programs for children and adolescents, American Psychological Association, Washington, 2007), was augmented to include well-adjusted children in a strategic peer affiliation component, or buddy system. A total of 190 kindergartners and first graders from five schools in a Midwestern US city were randomly assigned by school to receive the program or serve as controls. In the first summer program component, the children received 72 h of programming in academics, social skills, and creative arts, all within a highly structured social environment. The feasibility of the program was investigated through examination of acceptability, fidelity, and safety of programming, with special attention to acceptability and safety for well-adjusted peer mentors. Results showed that intervention fidelity, as measured by independent observers, was high. Acceptability was high as well, with no differences in attendance between well-adjusted children and children with behavioral problems. There was no evidence of iatrogenic effects or other unsafe outcomes: Peer-reported victimization did not increase, and well-adjusted children did not increase in aggression. In contrast, both well-adjusted children and their peers with behavior problems increased in teacher-rated social skills, and well-adjusted children increased in leadership. The results suggest that the pairing of well-adjusted children with behavior-problem children in a highly structured program such as Early Risers is a feasible program tactic in which the well-adjusted children may also derive some benefit.

Background: Parent training programs are increasingly being offered to the general public with little formal evaluation of their effects. One such program, the Nurtured Heart Approach to parenting (NHA; Glasser and Easley in "Transforming the difficult child: The Nurtured Heart Approach," Vaughan Printing, Nashville, 2008), contains elements with strong theoretical and empirical support, but NHA as a whole remains to be empirically evaluated. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to provide an initial test of the effectiveness of NHA through a quasi-experiment in a community sample. Methods: The present study uses data from 41 five-week NHA parent training courses offered to the general public in a Midwestern U.S. city. Participation in programming occurred through self-selection. An information-only comparison group was recruited from the same community using convenience sampling. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires were completed by trained parents and comparison parents. Results: Program parents reported gains in well-being, while comparison parents remained relatively stable in well-being scores. Parents trained in NHA increased in providing positive attention to their children and decreased in yelling, scolding, and responding with negativity; comparison group parents demonstrated no changes with regard to these practices. At both baseline and follow-up, parents in the comparison group perceived more strengths in their children than did program parents, but at follow-up the difference had narrowed by half of a standard deviation, indicating progress in changing parent perceptions of children. Conclusions: Though the present study is limited by weaknesses in study design, the evidence is compelling enough to suggest further investigation and implementation of NHA with parents.

In an attempt to explicate how cultural norms within a school could impact bullying, the current study assessed potential mediators of the relationship between teacher beliefs about bullying and actual peer victimization and inclinations of students to intervene when they witness bullying. Participants were 340 third through eighth graders and 66 of their teachers. Results showed that teachers with stronger beliefs that bullying is normative were less likely to intervene to stop bullying, and lack of intervention was in turn related to higher levels of peer victimization in their school. Furthermore, the beliefs of teachers that victims should assert themselves were linked to lower levels of peer empathy for victims, which in turn made peers less inclined to intervene. Teacher intervention and peer empathy, as mediators, were linked to student levels of victimization and willingness to intervene both between-school-grade cohorts and within-grade cohorts at an individual perceptual level. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

Background: Parents' behaviors could contribute to the development of their children's weight-related health behaviors. Purpose: Relationships of young adults' (N = 151) and their parents' weight-related behaviors were examined along with parental authority styles. Methods: Questionnaires were completed by young adults and their parents. Comparisons of BMI, energy consumption, and energy expenditure were conducted with correlation analyses and paired-samples t-tests. Multiple regression analyses were used to further explore the influence of parental authority. Results: Parents' weight statuses and dietary behaviors were positively associated with those of their young adult children (P less than 0.001 for both). When controlling for gender, at high levels of authoritarian and permissive parental practices, young adults tended to have weight statuses that were inversely related to those of their parents (P less than 0.001 for both); at high levels of authoritarian parenting, young adults also tended to follow dietary consumption patterns that were inversely related to those of their parents (P less than 0.001). Physical activity behaviors of young adults and their parents were not related. Discussion: This study provides evidence that parental behaviors influence children's lasting weight-related health behaviors. Translation to Health Education Practice: Health educators and counselors who aim to influence weight-related health of children should consider the role of parents and of parental authority styles. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

We examined effects of the Early Risers "Skills for Success" early-age-targeted prevention program on serious conduct problems following 5 years of continuous intervention and one year of follow-up. We also examined if intervention effects on proximally-targeted variables found after 3 years mediated intervention effects on conduct problems found after 6 years. Participants included 151 at-risk children (106 males and 45 females) followed from first through sixth-grade, from 23 semi-rural schools in Minnesota. After 6 years, program children showed fewer oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms than control children. Program children did not significantly differ from controls on number of conduct disorder (CD) symptoms, DSM-IV diagnoses of ODD and CD, or drug use involvement. Results of the mediation analysis indicated that fewer ODD symptoms among program youth after 6 years were partially mediated by social skills and effective discipline. The study provides support for the early-starter model of conduct problems development that provides the framework for the Early Risers intervention. The study's implications for prevention and limitations are discussed.

In order to develop a comprehensive substance abuse prevention plan for a boarding school for American Indian middle school students, the students (N = 66) were surveyed at two time points and teacher reports and discipline records were collected. Factors most strongly related to substance use were affiliation with risk-taking peers, lower levels of assertiveness and self-esteem, and being female. Girls also had higher levels of distress, social anxiety, and association with risk-taking peers. Several recommendations for a prevention program are made, including the elimination of a separate "Honor Dorm" for well-behaved students, the creation of mentored friendship groups, and the training of peer leaders.

The present study examined longitudinal associations of distinct dimensions of perceived control (i.e., perceived mastery and constraints) with approach and avoidance coping relating to functional health for aging adults, which had not been well studied previously. Using data from two waves of Midlife in the United States (N = 4,963, whose mean age was 55.4 [ SD = 12.5]), a longitudinal path model was analyzed for direct and indirect effects among perceived mastery and constraints, approach and avoidance coping, and functional limitations. Bidirectional associations were observed between perceived mastery and approach coping and between perceived constraints and avoidance coping. Moreover, perceived constraints not only were directly associated with functional limitations but also mediated the longitudinal associations of the other factors of interest with functional limitations. These findings can inform future research on perceived control and coping in the context of promoting functional health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the scholastic achievement in Arabic, English, Hebrew, and mathematics of 240 Bedouin-Arab adolescents from monogamous and polygamous families in Negev (Israel). Reveals that adolescents from monogamous and polygamous families demonstrate equivalent levels of scholastic achievement, although boys in polygamous families and girls in monogamous families achieved higher Hebrew scores. (CMK)

Peer nominations for behavioral reputation, likability, and friendship were examined after 4 years of an ongoing randomized, controlled prevention trial designed to interrupt the developmental trajectory of young aggressive children by improving peer relations. Participants included 125 moderately to highly aggressive children (program and control) and their 4th-grade classmates (N = 1,489). Results indicated that program children, as compared to controls, obtained higher reputation scores on leadership and social etiquette and chose friends with lower aggression. Self-reported quality of friendship also differed between groups, with program children reporting more companionship and recreation, program girls reporting more validation and caring, and severely aggressive program children reporting less aggression toward others than their control counterparts. These findings provide evidence for the generalization of program effects to a natural peer setting.

It has not been well understood how conscientiousness and neuroticism are associated with two related but distinct dimensions of perceived control (i.e., perceived mastery and constraints) among aging adults. The present study examined these associations and their change over time, while addressing whether they differ by age or gender. For respondents aged 50+ at baseline (N = 2,768) in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, multilevel modeling analyses were conducted to assess how conscientiousness and neuroticism predicted perceived mastery and constraints over 2 decades. As expected, higher conscientiousness and lower neuroticism (for both between- and within-person variability) predicted higher perceived mastery and lower perceived constraints overall. Nuanced findings emerged related to age, gender and change over time for different associations of conscientiousness and neuroticism with the outcomes. These findings can inform future research suggesting directions of further investigations for these complex associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]