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This manuscript outlines a consultation with a public elementary school that was aimed at assessing and strengthening the school's antibullying programs. We gathered consultation data through interviews and observations and also reviewed existing program evaluation data. We evaluated these data in light of current research on bullying prevention to identify the school's strengths in addressing bullying and to develop recommendations to fill any gaps in its antibullying efforts. An overarching strength of the school's model was its integration of a bullying prevention program within an existing behavioral management system. Our suggestions to the school span multiple levels of bullying prevention, including assessment, implementation, and specific programming. This manuscript highlights the role for professional consultants in collaborating with school communities in the prevention of bullying and provides a model for this consultation process.

The goal of the present study was to test the hypothesis that, when children respond to peer provocation assertively, their physiology at that moment will be marked by high levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Participants were 35 European American (66%), African American (27%), Latino American (3%), and mixed race/ethnicity (3%) children (16 girls and 19 boys; M[subscript age] = 11.35 years) from a Mid-Atlantic state. Children participated in a novel procedure in which they were provoked by and responded to a virtual peer while their RSA was assessed and behavioral responses were observationally coded. When RSA increased by one unit, children were about 17 times more likely to display at least one assertive response. These findings highlight the importance of RSA in children's calm, composed, and assertive responding to peer provocation, as well as the importance of linking children's behavior and physiology as they occur at the same moment.

Clay sculpting was used with undergraduates (N = 60) to prime self-reported readiness to change in a therapy role play. After listing behaviors interfering with schoolwork, Group Change (n = 30) created clay sculptures of anchors and then reshaped them into boats (intended to symbolize transformation); Group Non-Change (n = 30) created clay sculptures of anchors, rolled them into balls, and affixed them to a base (intended to symbolize being stuck). A brief therapy role play with each participant followed. Participants in Group Change spoke longer and reported higher change readiness scores compared to Group Non-Change. The experimenter was blind to group assignment and no participant reported awareness of the priming manipulation. Results suggest clay sculpting might help prime readiness to change.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a core priority in counselor education. This paper details one United States' counselor education program's self-assessment of its EBP curriculum. Faculty members collaborated to identify challenges and generate solutions to strengthen the EBP emphasis within the program. This paper is intended as a resource for programs working to improve their own training in EBP.

Releasing captive-bred Attwater’s prairie chickens (APC) into an endangered wild population has successfully maintained but has not increased a small extant population. The limited success of the captive-release APC program has been largely attributed to heavy predation on the newly released birds. The poor survival rate of released birds suggests that breeding and rearing in captivity may have a detrimental effect on the expression of predator avoidance behaviors. In Experiment 1, 1- 2 week-old chicks were assessed for fear responses. Tendency to hide, as measured by the hole-in-thewall test, correlated with postrelease survival. In Experiment 2, fear responses, including those identified as important to survival in Experiment 1, were stronger in chicks reared in a seminatural environment relative to chicks reared in an artificial environment. Implications for conservation of this endangered species are discussed.

This study examined the relations between multiple types of peer victimization, affective reactivity to victimization, and academic achievement. Participants (179 fifth-grade boys and girls) completed repeated daily measures of peer victimization and negative affect; a standardized measure of achievement was collected concurrently. The daily measure of peer victimization was best represented by five factors: physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, property attacks, and social rebuff. While controlling for race/ethnicity, children's reports of being socially manipulated by peers were negatively related to their overall achievement. In addition, affective reactivity to social manipulation negatively related to achievement while accounting for reported experiences of social manipulation. No other victimization or reactivity variables related to achievement. Findings are discussed with a focus on implications for school bullying prevention and intervention.

The goals of the current study were to investigate whether peer rejection mediated the relation between aggression and depressive symptoms in childhood, and if so, whether this mediational pathway was specific to the reactive subtype of aggression. Participants were 57 second-grade children (22 girls and 35 boys). Data on reactive aggression, proactive aggression, depressive symptoms, and peer rejection were collected from four sources (parents, teachers, peers, and self). Results revealed that reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was positively related to depressive symptoms. Furthermore, peer rejection partially mediated the relation between reactive aggression and depressive symptoms. (Contains 3 tables.)