Joint factor analysis of the college student experiences questionnaire and the act COMP objective exam

This study reports the joint factor structure of the ACT College Outcomes Measures Project Objective (COMP-O) examination and the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) scales for graduating college seniors at a large doctoral degree-granting institution. From a theoretical, empirical, and psychometric perspective, one might expect to observe a relationship between the effort that a student puts into the collegiate experience and academic outcomes. This study successfully replicated the factor structures of the CSEQ and the COMP-O reported elsewhere. The joint factor analysis of the two instruments failed to identify any constructs common to the two instruments. Based on our findings and those of others, the use of the COMP-O as a sole measure of the effectiveness of any program or collegiate outcome appears unjustified.     

Understanding and treating psychopathology in schools: Introduction to the special issue

Investigating psychopathology in school‐aged children is a topical discussion given the recent increased focus of the U.S. government and professional psychology on this issue. In the last 5 years, the Surgeon General of the United States (Satcher, 2000) and the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) both addressed the need for schools to actively participate in the treatment of children's mental health disorders. Further, psychologists were charged with transforming mental health care for children and families by promoting collaboration between schools, families, and communities; identifying empirically supported interventions; and enhancing culturally competent care for children and teens (P. Tolan & K. Dodge, 2005). To achieve these goals, mental health professionals in the schools need to be able to understand and effectively treat psychopathology in the school setting. School‐based treatment of psychopathology should be based on effective collaboration and grounded within the cultural context of the student population. A comprehensive understanding takes into account the biological basis of these disorders and factors influencing risk and resiliency. Treatment needs for these students often combine traditional therapies and psychopharmacology. Within a comprehensive system of care, specific disorders such as Reactive Attachment Disorder, Early Onset Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and anxiety can and should be treated in schools. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 413–417, 2006.     

Impact of a Technology-Mediated Reading Intervention on Adolescents' Reading Comprehension

In this experimental study we examined the effects of a technology-mediated, multicomponent reading comprehension intervention, Comprehension Circuit Training (CCT), for middle school students, the majority of whom were struggling readers. The study was conducted in three schools, involving three teachers and 228 students. Using a within-teacher design, middle school teachers' reading classes were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 9) or business as usual (n = 7) conditions. In the CCT condition, students received, on average, 39 lessons of video-modeled instruction in word reading, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction during reading intervention classes. Results of multilevel structural equation models indicated statistically significant effects favoring the CCT condition on three measures: reading comprehension latent variable (ES = 0.14), proximal vocabulary (ES = 0.43), and silent reading efficiency (ES = 0.28). Subgroup analyses indicated that students with lower entry-level reading comprehension tended to benefit more from the CCT intervention in reading comprehension, silent reading efficiency, and state test scores.     

The effect of affective characterizations on the use of size and colour in drawings produced by children in the absence of a model

Previous studies have revealed that children increase the size of drawings of topics about which they feel positively and use their most preferred colours for colouring in these drawings, and decrease the size of drawings of topics about which they feel negatively and use their least preferred colours for colouring in these drawings. However, these previous findings have been obtained in studies employing drawing tasks where planning and production difficulties have been minimized by asking the children either to copy or to colour in an outline stimulus of a figure provided by the experimenter. The present experiment was designed to examine whether children also alter the use of size and colour in their drawings in response to emotional characterizations when they are not constrained by the presence of a model. In all 253 children aged between four and 11 years were asked to produce drawings of a neutrally, a positively and a negatively characterized topic (either a man, a dog or a tree). It was found that the children consistently increased the size of the positively characterized figures, did not consistently decrease the size of the negatively characterized figures, used their most preferred colours for the positive figures, and used their least preferred colours for the negative figures. These findings are discussed in relation to the operation of an appetitive‐defensive mechanism and pictorial conventions.     

Promoting Prosocial Behaviours Among Preschool Children With and Without Disabilities

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program on promoting prosocial behaviours among preschool children with and without disabilities. The intervention was carried out with three integrated groups of children, each comprised of one child with a disability and two peers without disabilities, created from three mainstreamed preschool classrooms. The intervention was successful in promoting increases in positive social interactions among the children with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. For two of the three groups the children with disabilities engaged in an equal or greater percentage of positive social initiations than their peers without disabilities. Increases in positive social responses to positive social initiations were similar for children with and without disabilities. Intervention phase behavioural changes generalised to both immediate group conditions, but did not generalise to deferred classroom conditions. Variability of response to intervention across groups highlights the need to develop and implement interventions on an individualised basis. The results indicate that further research is needed regarding the promotion of deferred generalisation effects as well as understanding the effects that trainer presence may have on the generalisation of the targeted social behaviours. There is also a need for the investigation of the potential for gender‐related effects including differential activity levels, ability for sustained attention, and group composition.