Designing effective interventions for children at‐risk for antisocial behavior: An integrated model of components necessary for making valid inferences

Children demonstrating antisocial behavior patterns are at‐risk for a host of negative outcomes including school failure, peer and teacher rejection, academic difficulties, and future delinquency. These children are undoubtedly in need of effective and appropriate interventions to address problem areas in both behavioral and academic domains. To ensure that academic and sociobehavioral interventions will be more successful, three main components: (a) social validity, (b) treatment integrity, and (c) generalization and maintenance must be addressed when designing the interventions. The purpose of this article is to (a) describe the pertinent characteristics (e.g., definition, application, and assessment issues) of each of these components as they relate to school‐based interventions, and (b) introduce an integrated model that illustrates the interrelatedness of these essential intervention components. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Systems View of School Climate: a Theoretical Framework for Research

School climate has been widely examined through both empirical and theoretical means. However, there is little conceptual consensus underlying the landscape of this literature, offering inconsistent guidance for research examining this important construct. In order to best assist the efforts of developing causal models that describe how school climate functions, we propose the Systems View of School Climate (SVSC). This theoretical framework was formed by deconstructing prior models and empirical research on school climate into themes and highlighting their implicit assumptions. Using the SVSC to synthesize this existing literature, school climate is defined as the affective and cognitive perceptions regarding social interactions, relationships, values, and beliefs held by students, teachers, administrators, and staff within a school. School climate is situated within Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner 1989) to guide future research in this domain and help specify levels of research or analysis, thereby providing utility as a theoretical framework for future causal models. The SVSC provides a roadmap for research by demarcating school climate from related constructs, suggesting related contextual and structural constructs, and delineating proximal and distal systems which may shape the nature of school climate.     

Pink ... with shades of grey: mediating moments of diversity in urban secondary classrooms

In this paper, the authors trace the policy documents and legislation in Canada that have set, over the last twenty years, the context for ‘inclusion’ in Ontario's public schools. The authors then enliven this historical account of multicultural policy innovation by turning to a particular critical episode in a secondary classroom wherein they consider the pedagogical strategies of a teacher in a drama classroom who deftly navigates the unsettled terrain of race and power. Using a provocative monologue set in South Africa's apartheid, the teacher opens up a space for dialogue and whole‐group interaction with her class of Grade 11 (16‐ 17‐year‐old) students. Serving as an illustrative episode from a larger ethnographic study of four school sites (2 Canadian, 2 American), the analysis here, of one teacher's interactions with her students, and the students’ engagement with one another, points to many of the features of drama pedagogy that elucidate the study's broader interests in understanding the problems of social cohesion in richly diverse urban schools. In this discussion, the aims of inclusion and the possibilities of interactive pedagogy are clear, as are their limits, in the charged public space of an urban classroom.     

Texturing the narrative paradigm: Folklore and communication

Although communication theory is often informed by other disciplines, scholarly connections with folklore have been few. As communication scholars become increasingly interested in narrative as a topic of study for the future, it seems important to return to the past: To folklore, and to Walter Fisher's work in communication that yielded the narrative paradigm. This paper suggests ways in which complementary understandings of narrative in folklore and in Fisher's paradigm could coinform each other and thereby enrich both disciplines. Many ideas about communication and the narrative paradigm can be empirically strengthened by the work of folklore scholars. At the same time, communication scholarship informs folklore's attempts to merge aesthetic and social processes in folklore and encouraging the conversation between disciplines to continue.     

ATTITUDES OF OLDER ADULTS TOWARD A COMPUTER TRAINING PROGRAM

Many older adult have an interest in learning to use computers. The study reported in this article examined whether older adults' attitudes toward computers can be influenced by direct, customized computer training. Thirty older participants who registered for introductory computer courses offered at a SeniorNet computer lab completed the Attitudes Toward Computers Questionnaire (ATCQ) before and after class participation. Attitudes were assessed on seven dimensions. There was borderline statistical significance for the “comfort” attitude dimension, which assesses the respondent's feeling of comfort with the computer and its use. No significant differences were found for the remaining six attitude dimensions. The results underscore the importance of the intervention design in eliciting attitude change. Based upon the findings of this research, several actions have taken place to increase comfort and efficacy and to control attitudinal dimensions, thereby providing more meaningful experiences for the participants.     

Inhibitory Control in Young Children and Its Role in Emerging Internalization

We examined inhibitory control as a quality of temperament that contributes to internalization. Children were assessed twice, at 26–41 months ( N = 103) and at 43–56 months ( N = 99), on repeated occasions, in multiple observational contexts and using parental reports. Comprehensive behavioral batteries incorporating multiple tasks were designed to measure inhibitory control at toddler and preschool age. They had good internal consistencies, corresponded with maternal ratings, and were developmentally sensitive. Individual children's performance was significantly correlated across both assessments, indicating stable individual differences. Girls surpassed boys at both ages. Children's internalization was observed while they were alone with prohibited objects, with a mundane chore, playing games that occasioned cheating, being induced to violate standards of conduct, and assessed using maternal reports. Inhibitory control was significantly associated with internalization, both contemporaneously and as a predictor in the longitudinal sense. The implications for considering children's temperament as a significant, yet often neglected contributor to developing internalization are discussed.     

Physical movement demands of elite-level netball match-play as measured by an indoor positioning system

ABSTRACT

Physical movement demands in elite netball match-play have been limited to notational analysis or accelerometer-derived measures, due in part to the indoor environment in which they are played. Commercially available local positioning systems (LPS) using ultra-wideband communication have been designed to bring similar capabilities as global positioning systems (GPS) to indoor environments. This study aims to quantify both spatiotemporal and traditional accelerometer-derived measures, to assess the movement demands of all playing positions, during Australian national netball league matches. Total distance, metreage per minute, acceleration density, acceleration density index, acceleration load, jumps, velocity bands, acceleration bands and PlayerLoad variables have been presented for each position. Mean total distance-covered in match-play differed substantially between positions. Centre position accumulated the highest mean distance (5462.1 ± 169.4 m), whilst the Goal Shooter consistently covered the lowest mean distance (2134 ± 102.6 m). Change of direction relative to movement area was highest for the two most restricted positions based on average acceleration per 10 m covered during match-play (Goal Shooter; 7.21 ± 0.88 m · s ^{? 2} and Goal Keeper; 6.75 ± 0.37 m · s ^{? 2}, remaining positions; 5.71 ± 0.14 m · s ^{? 2}). The positional profiles outlined in this study can assist skill and conditioning coaches to prescribe training sessions that will optimise the athlete’s physical preparation for the demands of competition.