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This two-part study explored whether discrimination encoded into U.S. school absenteeism policies leads to racially minoritized students being overrepresented in the juvenile court system. First, we examined unexcused absenteeism policies in a nationally representative school district sample (n = 97). All districts excused absences for reasons White students often miss school but not necessarily for reasons racially minoritized students do. Next, in three school districts we documented large racial disparities in both the proportion of absences designated unexcused (Whites 13%, Asians 18%, Hispanics 21%, Blacks 24%, and American Indians 24%) and risk of court petition for truancy, even after accounting for the total number of absences: Whites hazard ratio (HR) = 1.0; Asians HR = 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.98, 1.36]; Hispanics HR = 1.60, 95% CI [1.34, 1.92]; Blacks HR = 2.17, 95% CI [1.88, 2.50]; and American Indians HR = 3.94, 95% CI [3.12, 4.97]. Disproportionality in unexcused absenteeism fully explained the Hispanic/White and partially explained the Black/White and American Indian/White court petition disparities.

Objective: Male allies play an important role in sexual assault prevention, yet many college sexual assault prevention programs struggle to recruit and retain men. This study aims to identify barriers to recruitment and retention of male sexual assault prevention peer educators. Participants: Seventeen undergraduate male student leaders participated in this study during summer 2018. Methods: Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed. Response data were thematically analyzed. Results: Barriers to recruitment include perceived gender norms and discomfort with the topic of sexual assault. Barriers to retention include male peer educators' perception that women are resistant to men discussing sexual assault. Suggestions for improving recruitment and retention efforts are also identified. Conclusions: Recruitment and retention of male sexual assault prevention peer educators may require recruitment approaches that are tailored to men and programmatic changes that position men as allies in sexual assault prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Foreign-born children rarely use traditional school mental health services. Comprehensive programs that combine mental health services with academic, economic, and socioemotional supports reach more foreign-born children and improve well-being. However, little practical guidance exists regarding how to best combine these diverse services. Methods: To identify essential service components and their organization, we interviewed 92 parents, school staff, mental health providers, and community agency staff from 5 school-linked mental health programs designed specifically to serve immigrant and refugee youth. Results: Foreign-born parents did not distinguish between academic, behavioral, and emotional help for their children; these western categorizations of functioning were not meaningful to them. Consequently, programs needed to combine 4 components, organized in a pyramid: family engagement, assistance with basic needs, assistance with adaptation to a new culture, and emotional and behavioral supports. Family engagement was the foundation upon which all other services depended. Assistance with economic and cultural stressors directly promoted emotional well-being and helped parents trust clinical mental health interventions. Conclusions: Specific strategies to implement the 4 essential components include home visits by program staff, a one-stop parent center located in the school to help with basic needs, working with cultural brokers, and informed consent procedures that clearly explain recommended care without requiring immigrant and refugee parents to internalize western conceptualizations of psychopathology. Future evaluations should assess the cost and effectiveness of these strategies. These data are essential to advocate payment for these nonclinical services by traditional funding mechanisms.

We examined the effect on attendance of a truancy court-diversion program for elementary students. Truancy court-diversion programs represent a shift from a law-and-order approach toward a public health model to address school absenteeism. Instead of directly referring parents of truant elementary students to child protection services or juvenile court, most court-diversion programs educate parents about the importance of school attendance and create an attendance contract that includes social service referrals. Despite being widely implemented, truancy court-diversion models have not been rigorously evaluated. Using 10 years of administrative data from multiple state and local agencies from Minnesota, we constructed a counterfactual of students from schools that did not implement truancy court-diversion. We used difference-in-differences methods to test whether parent education and attendance contracts improved attendance relative to direct referral to child protection services or court. We failed to reject the null hypothesis of no program effect. Most truancy program evaluations use a pre- and post-mean comparison, but our analysis suggested that the magnitude of the bias in such studies is substantial because absenteeism showed a pattern of regression to the mean.

Background: The US education system must find creative and effective ways to foster the healthy development of the approximately 2 million newly arrived immigrant and refugee adolescents, many of whom contend with language barriers, limited prior education, trauma, and discrimination. We identify research priorities for promoting the school success of these youth. Methods: The study used the 4-phase priority-setting method of the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative. In the final stage, 132 researchers, service providers, educators, and policymakers based in the United States were asked to rate the importance of 36 research options. Results: The highest priority research options (range 1 to 5) were: evaluating newcomer programs (mean = 4.44, SD = 0.55), identifying how family and community stressors affect newly arrived immigrant and refugee adolescents' functioning in school (mean = 4.40, SD = 0.56), identifying teachers' major stressors in working with this population (mean = 4.36, SD = 0.72), and identifying how to engage immigrant and refugee families in their children's education (mean = 4.35, SD = 0.62). Conclusion: These research priorities emphasize the generation of practical knowledge that could translate to immediate, tangible benefits for schools. Funders, schools, and researchers can use these research priorities to guide research for the highest benefit of schools and the newly arrived immigrant and refugee adolescents they serve.

Background: Rest breaks have been shown to reduce acute fatigue, yet not all nurses who take rest breaks report lower fatigue. Psychological detachment—letting go of work-related thoughts—during rest breaks and workload may be key factors in explaining this phenomenon. Objective: To examine the mediating role of psychological detachment during rest breaks and determine how workload moderated that pathway to lower acute fatigue among hospital nurses. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 1861 12-hour shift nurses who answered an online survey between July and September 2021. The survey included measures of occupational fatigue, psychological detachment from work, workload, and questions on breaks, work, health, and demographics. Structural equation modeling was used in Mplus 8.9 software to estimate the direct and indirect effects of rest breaks on acute fatigue at 3 levels of workload. Results: Nurses, on average, reported high acute fatigue, rarely experienced psychological detachment during rest breaks, and reported heavy workloads. Around 60% were able to sit down for a break on their last shift but with patient-care responsibilities. The relationship between taking a rest break and acute fatigue was fully mediated by psychological detachment from work. However, this relationship only held in the context of manageable workloads. Conclusion: Our findings showed that within-shift recovery is possible when nurses can psychologically detach from work during rest breaks. However, this within-shift recovery mechanism was disrupted for nurses with heavy workloads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much attention has been given to self-disclosure as an important component of parent-adolescent relationships. The authors address gaps in the current literature via a multimethod, multicultural design, interviewing 120 adolescents in Costa Rica, Thailand, and South Africa about their reasons for disclosing to parents, and then constructing items to represent the essence of the interview data and administering these items (along with measures of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent characteristics) to 2,100 adolescents in the same cultures. Analyses focus on discerning reasons for disclosure and on identifying profiles of adolescents who are more likely to disclose. Results reveal that adolescents from different cultures generally disclose for similar reasons and in similar patterns and that adolescents who disclose report social competence and, consistent with past research, positive parenting. (Contains 5 tables.)

The conceptualization and measurement of parental support is predominately the work of adult researchers from the West. This mixed-method study reports the parental behaviors that adolescents themselves perceive as supportive. Data come from the Cross-National Adolescent Project, a survey of adolescents in 12 nations or ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas, the Balkans, Europe, and the Middle East. The authors find that adolescents in all 12 settings validated the substantive content of existing survey measures of parental supportive behaviors. Adolescents in all settings also expanded the list of supportive behaviors. When parents provide a rare and valued commodity, it is perceived as love. The specific commodities, which include quality time, basic necessities, and support for education, vary across culture. In the discussion the authors describe how parenting strategies that have been interpreted previously as reinforcing distinct cultural purposes may, in fact, serve the same purpose. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 6 notes.)

Using a nationally representative sample of adolescents, we examine associations among social integration (network size), network cohesion (alter-density), perceptions of social relationships (e.g., social support) and adolescent depressive symptoms. We find that adolescents with either too large or too small a network have higher levels of depressive symptoms. Among girls, however, the ill effects of over-integration only occur at low levels of network cohesion. For boys, in contrast, the ill effects of over-integration only occur at high levels of network cohesion. Large social networks tend not to compromise positive perceptions of friend support or belonging; whereas, small networks are associated with low perceptions of friend support and belonging. Hence, perceptions of social relationships mediate the ill effects of under-integration, but not over-integration, on depressive symptoms. (Contains 1 note, 4 tables, and 2 figures.)

There is an increasing awareness that school failure and early school leaving are processes, rather than discrete events, that often co-occur and can have lasting negative effects on children's development. Most of the literature has focused on risk factors for failure and dropout rather than on the promotion of competencies that can increase youths' likelihood of successfully completing high school. This chapter applies the core competencies framework to the promotion of youths' success within the school environment. We conclude with a brief review of evidence-based prevention strategies that address the five competencies and identify avenues for future research.

Supportive and caring relations within families promote academic achievement and protect against involvement in health-risk behaviors by adolescents. Similarly, supportive and caring relationships within schools (henceforth, school connectedness) promote academic motivation among adolescents. Much less is known, however, about the influence of school connectedness on adolescent health-risk behaviors. Previous research generally suffers from two limitations. First, most research is cross-sectional. The longitudinal research that does exist does not distinguish between initiation or escalation or reduction of health-risk behaviors. Second, school connectedness has generally been treated as a broad construct that combines students' perceptions of safety, support, belonging and engagement. Such a broad conceptualization does not provide clear guidance to policy makers and practitioners on how to increase school connectedness. This paper addresses these limitations by exploring the association between two dimensions of school connectedness--perceived teacher support and social belonging--and the initiation, escalation and reduction of participation in six adolescent health-risk behaviors. (Contains 5 tables.)

Examined the association between school connectedness and school environment, identifying ways to increase student connectedness. Data from the in-school and school administrator surveys of the National Study of Adolescent Health indicated that positive classroom management climates, participation in extracurricular activities, tolerant disciplinary policies, and small school size positively related to higher school connectedness. (SM)

We used data from a nationally representative sample of US adolescents in school grades 7 through 12 to explore the effects of public and private religiosity on initiation, escalation, and cessation of smoking. We found that adolescents' decisions to experiment with smoking are influenced by both their individual practice of their faith and by participation in a larger faith community. However, the effects of private and public religiosity are specific to different decision points on the smoking uptake process. Private religiosity was protective against initiation of regular smoking among nonsmokers. It also was protective against initiation of experimental smoking but only when the young person frequently attended religious services or a religious youth group. Although private religiosity appeared to discourage the uptake of smoking, it was unrelated to reduction or cessation once a young person has become addicted to cigarettes. In contrast public religiosity did predict reduction and cessation of cigarette use among regular smokers. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the domains in which religiosity are important extend beyond the individual and include religious institutions. Keywords: USA; Religiosity; Adolescents; Smoking uptake; Cessation; Transitions

OBJECTIVE. We sought to examine the relationship between perceived and stated parental expectations regarding adolescents' use of violence, parental use of physical punishment as discipline, and young adolescents' violence-related attitudes and involvement. METHODS. Surveys were completed by 134 youth and their parents attending 8 pediatric practices. All youth were 10 to 15 years of age and had scored positive on a psychosocial screening test. RESULTS. Multivariate analyses revealed that perceived parental disapproval of the use of violence was associated with a more prosocial attitude toward interpersonal peer violence and a decreased likelihood of physical fighting by the youth. Parental report of whether they would advise their child to use violence in a conflict situation (stated parental expectations) was not associated with the adolescents' attitudes toward interpersonal peer violence, intentions to fight, physical fighting, bullying, or violence victimization. Parental use of corporal punishment as a disciplining method was inversely associated with a prosocial attitude toward interpersonal peer violence among the youth and positively correlated with youths' intentions to fight and fighting, bullying, and violence victimization. CONCLUSIONS. Perceived parental disapproval of the use of violence may be an important protective factor against youth involvement in violence, and parental use of physical punishment is associated with both violence perpetration and victimization among youth. Parents should be encouraged to clearly communicate to their children how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence and to model these skills themselves by avoiding the use of physical punishment. Key Words adolescents, parental expectations, physical punishment, violence Abbreviation PSC-17--17-item Pediatric Symptom Checklist, VIOLENCE IS ONE of the major causes of mortality and morbidity among youth. (1-5) Data from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance indicated that 1 of 3 high school students [...]

Objective. To investigate the role of objective and perceived knowledge about condoms in adolescent males' condom use at first intercourse. Methods. A longitudinal analysis was conducted of data from a nationally representative sample of 404 virgin male adolescents who were aged 15 to 17 years at wave 1 and reported becoming sexually experienced at the second wave of data collection. Objective knowledge was measured as a 5-item knowledge test about condoms. Perceived knowledge was measured as a 5-item scale regarding participants' confidence about their answers on the objective knowledge test. Condom use was assessed by self-report. Results. Objective and perceived knowledge were moderately correlated with each other. Male adolescents with low objective but high perceived knowledge were identified as being at particular risk for not using a condom in that they were nearly 3 times less likely to report using a condom at first intercourse (odds ratio: 0.35) than those with other levels of objective and perceived knowledge. Conclusions. Previous evidence suggests that knowledge about sex does not accurately predict sexual behavior. This lack of predictive accuracy may be because studies have focused only on objective knowledge. Our results suggest that both objective and perceived knowledge serve as antecedents to male condom use at first intercourse. However, those with higher perceived knowledge, particularly in the context of low objective knowledge, may be at greater risk for not using condoms. Addressing not only objective but also perceived knowledge may increase the effectiveness of interventions that are designed to increase rates of condom use among male adolescents. Pediatrics 2005;115:667-672; adolescents, sexual behavior, objective knowledge, perceived knowledge, condom use., ABBREVIATION. STI, sexually transmitted infection. "That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II A broad [...]

Supportive and caring relations within families promote academic achievement and protect against involvement in health-risk behaviors by adolescents. (1-4) Similarly, supportive and caring relationships within schools (henceforth, school connectedness) promote [...]

The purpose of this study was to examine the association of public and private domains of religiosity and adolescent health-related outcomes using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a nationally representative sample of American adolescents in grades 7-12. The public religiosity variable combines two items measuring frequency of attendance at religious services and frequency of participation in religious youth group activities. The private religiosity variable combines two items measuring frequency of prayer and importance of religion. Our results support previous evidence that religiosity is protective for a number of adolescent health-related outcomes. In general, both public and private religiosity was protective against cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana use. On closer examination it appeared that private religiosity was more protective against experimental substance use, while public religiosity had a larger association with regular use, and in particular with regular cigarette use. Both public and private religiosity was associated with a lower probability of having ever had sexual intercourse. Only public religiosity had a significant effect on effective birth control at first sexual intercourse and, for females,for having ever been pregnant. However, neither dimension of religiosity was associated with birth control use at first or most recent sex. Public religiosity was associated with lower emotional distress while private religiosity was not. Only private religiosity was significantly associated with a lower probability of having had suicidal thoughts or having attempted suicide. Both public and private religiosity was associated with a lower probability of having engaged in violence in the last year. Our results suggest that further work is warranted to explore the causal mechanisms by which religiosity is protective for adolescents. Needed is both theoretical work that identifies mechanisms that could explain the different patterns of empirical results and surveys that collect data specific to the hypothesized mechanisms. Keywords: USA; Religiosity; Adolescents; Risk behaviors; Substance use; Sexual behavior

Increasing evidence shows that when adolescents feel cared for by people at their school and feel like a part of their school, they are less likely to use substances, engage in violence, or initiate sexual activity at an early age. However, specific strategies to increase students' connectedness to school have not been studied. This study examined the association between school connectedness and the school environment to identify ways to increase students' connectedness to school. Data from the in-school and school administrator surveys of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (75,515 students in 127 schools) and hierarchical linear models were used to estimate the association between school characteristics and the average level of school connectedness in each school. Positive classroom management climates, participation in extracurricular activities, tolerant disciplinary policies, and small school size were associated positively with higher school connectedness., When adolescents feel cared for by people at their school and feel like a part of their school, they are less likely to use substances, engage in violence, or initiate [...]