School-Based Consultation to Improve Concussion Recognition and Response

Many students who have sustained concussions return to school requiring academic adjustments while their brains heal. However, school personnel often are not trained to accommodate these students. This exploratory project examined the usefulness of school-based training paired with ongoing consultation and continued dissemination of information to improve both concussion recognition and response among school personnel. A case study design was employed in which a school district received training that was followed by ongoing consultation and continued dissemination of concussion resources. This study highlights the importance of involving school psychologists in concussion management programs.     

Gender Differences in Attachment Styles Regarding Conflict Handling Behaviors Among Turkish Late Adolescents

This study was designed to examine gender differences in attachment styles and explore the relationship between attachment styles and preference for conflict handling behavior in close relationships among Turkish adolescents. The participants comprised 371 Turkish undergraduate students (252 females and 119 males; with a mean age of 21.98 years; standard deviation 1.18) enrolled in different departments of the Faculty of Education at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. A Turkish version of Bartholomew and Horowitz’s (J Pers Soc Psychol, 61:226–244, 1991) Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) and the Conflict Questionnaire (CQ) developed by Tezer (J Psychol, 130:281–292, 1996) were used to obtain data. Intercorrelations among four attachment style subscales, and correlation coefficients among four attachment styles and five conflict handling behaviors were computed in addition to a series of ANOVAs and ANCOVAs. Results revealed an association between attachment styles and conflict handling, as well as gender differences in attachment styles.     

Child maltreatment prevalence and mental disorders outcomes among American Indian women in primary care

OBJECTIVE: To examine (1) the prevalence, types, and severity of child abuse and neglect (CAN) and (2) the relationship between CAN and lifetime psychiatric disorders among American Indian women using primary care services. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 234 American Indian women, age 18-45 who presented for outpatient ambulatory services at a community-based Indian Health Service Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dependent measures included mood, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders as well as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. CAN was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. RESULTS: Approximately three-quarters of respondents (76.5%; 95% CI = 70.4, 81.7) reported some type of childhood abuse or neglect; over 40% reported exposure to severe maltreatment. Severity of child maltreatment was associated in a dose response manner with lifetime diagnosis of mental disorders. After adjusting for social and demographic correlates, severe child maltreatment was strongly associated with lifetime PTSD (prevalence ratio [PR] 3.9; 95% CI = 1.9, 8.0); and was moderately associated with lifetime substance use disorders (PR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.6, 3.3); mood disorders (PR = 2.1; 95% CI 1.4, 3.2); and with two or more disorders (PR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.6, 3.4). CONCLUSION: CAN was common in our sample of American Indian women in primary care and was positively associated with lifetime psychiatric disorders outcomes. Screening for CAN and psychiatric disorders would enhance the treatment of patients seeking primary care services. Primary prevention of child maltreatment might reduce the high prevalence of mental disorders among American Indian women.     

Establishing the Initial Validity of the REDFLAGS Model: Implications for College Counselors

The aim of this study was to initially validate the REDFLAGS model, 8 cautionary warning signs of mental distress in college students. A test of internal consistency reliability and factor analysis supported the model's reliability and construct validity. Hierarchical logistic regression models endorsed the model's predictive validity; students’ recognition of the REDFLAGS model was significantly associated with increases in the odds of a peer‐to‐peer referral to the counseling center. Implications for college counselors are discussed.     

Integrating Scaffolding Strategies Into Technology-Enhanced Assessments of English Learners: Task Types and Measurement Models

This article investigates ways to improve the assessment of English learner students' English language proficiency given the current movement of creating next-generation English language proficiency assessments in the Common Core era. In particular, this article discusses the integration of scaffolding strategies, which are prevalently utilized as an instructional strategy for English learner students, into the design of technology-enhanced assessment tasks. The article includes sample tasks and student responses to illustrate the design of scaffolding assessment tasks and their potential to increase the accuracy of measuring students' English language proficiency. We also explore possible scoring and psychometric models for the scaffolding tasks in large-scale standardized assessments.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.