EVALUATING AN ABBREVIATED VERSION OF THE PATHS CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTED BY SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIANS

When evidence‐based prevention programs are implemented in schools, adaptations are common. It is important to understand which adaptations can be made while maintaining positive outcomes for students. This preliminary study evaluated an abbreviated version of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) Curriculum implemented by school‐based mental health clinicians in preschool/kindergarten classrooms. Results suggest that students (N = 80) demonstrated increases in emotional understanding and prosocial behavior. Children with low initial levels of problem behavior demonstrated large and continual increases in prosocial behavior over the entire course of the intervention, whereas children with high initial levels of problem behavior only demonstrated small gains in prosocial behavior during the first half of the intervention. These preliminary results support the general effectiveness of the adapted intervention, but also suggest the need for additional intervention to produce meaningful and sustained behavioral gains for higher‐need students.     

CRISIS PREPAREDNESS IN SCHOOLS: EVALUATING STAFF PERSPECTIVES AND PROVIDING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BEST PRACTICE

The current study investigated the content of school crisis plans and perceptions of crisis preparedness among school staff in six public elementary schools. Surveys were administered to 72 teachers, administrators, and other school staff members measuring their perceptions of crisis preparedness and performance of activities related to crisis response (i.e., trainings, familiarity with crisis plans, etc.). Respondents indicated positive perceptions of preparedness for the occurrence of a crisis at each of their schools; however, they reported lower participation in preparedness activities and provided inconsistent answers on response procedures. Regression analyses found that reading the crisis plan was a significant predictor of feelings of preparedness for fire, death, suicide, and extreme weather events. Researchers additionally found that school crisis plans lacked many of the components recommended by best practice. These findings and implications for educators are discussed.     

Comparing Multi-Informant Assessment Measures of Parental Monitoring and Their Links With Adolescent Delinquent Behavior

Objective. Parents’ poor monitoring of adolescents’ whereabouts and activities is commonly linked to adolescents’ increased engagement in delinquent behaviors. Yet, different domains of parental monitoring (parental monitoring behaviors versus parental knowledge) and reports from multiple informants (parent versus adolescent) may vary in their links to delinquent behavior. Design. Seventy-four parental caregivers and 74 adolescents completed survey measures of parental monitoring and knowledge, and adolescents completed self-report surveys of delinquent behavior. Results. We observed low-to-moderate magnitudes of correspondence between parent- and adolescent-reports of parental monitoring behaviors and parental knowledge. Adolescent self-reported delinquent behavior related to parent and adolescent reports of parental monitoring behaviors and parental knowledge, with adolescents who self-reported engagement in delinquent behaviors evidencing lower levels of parental knowledge and higher levels of poor monitoring compared to adolescents who did not self-report engagement in delinquent behaviors. Adolescent self-reported engagement in delinquent behaviors evidenced stronger links to parental monitoring when based on adolescent reports of monitoring (relative to parent reports), whereas stronger links held between adolescent self-reported delinquent behavior and parental knowledge when based on parent reports of knowledge (relative to adolescent reports). Conclusions. Links between monitoring and adolescents’ delinquent behavior vary by the kind of monitoring measure completed as well as the informant completing the measure. These findings inform measurement selection in research and clinical assessments of parental monitoring and adolescent delinquent behavior.`     

Focus in creative learning: drawing on art for language development

This article asks what happens to the learning of young children when they work regularly with a professional visual artist in their school. Through Creative Partnerships, a national programme initiated in 2002 to bring creative professionals into schools across England, some school children have had the opportunity for sustained project work with artists. Examined here is the context in which children (ages 4, 5, 6 and 7) worked one day a week during the academic year of 2003–2004 with Roy Smith, resident artist in Hythe Community School. Key to the children's drawing, painting and talking was close focused attention on details of three‐dimensional objects, portraits, still‐life works and their own creations. Smith's conversations with the children routinely included three and four‐syllable technical terms, biographical details of artists' lives and comparative critiques. Within several months, the art of the children reflected understanding of concepts such as foregrounding, and they showed confidence in working with problems Smith set up for them (“What do you think would happen if …?”). Particularly important here is the combination of manual and linguistic work that demands attention to detail, receptive understanding of complex terms and processes, and familiarity with the analytical and sequential thinking needed to identify and solve problems.     

Equating of Augmented Subscores

Recently, there has been an increasing level of interest in subscores for their potential diagnostic value. Haberman (2008b) suggested reporting an augmented subscore that is a linear combination of a subscore and the total score. Sinharay and Haberman (2008) and Sinharay (2010) showed that augmented subscores often lead to more accurate diagnostic information than subscores. In order to report augmented subscores operationally, they should be comparable across the different forms of a test. One way to achieve comparability is to equate them. We suggest several methods for equating augmented subscores. Results from several operational and simulated data sets show that the error in the equating of augmented subscores appears to be small in most practical situations.     

How Often Is the Misfit of Item Response Theory Models Practically Significant?

Standard 3.9 of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing ( 1999 ) demands evidence of model fit when item response theory (IRT) models are employed to data from tests. Hambleton and Han ( 2005 ) and Sinharay ( 2005 ) recommended the assessment of practical significance of misfit of IRT models, but few examples of such assessment can be found in the literature concerning IRT model fit. In this article, practical significance of misfit of IRT models was assessed using data from several tests that employ IRT models to report scores. The IRT model did not fit any data set considered in this article. However, the extent of practical significance of misfit varied over the data sets.     

Soreness-related changes in three-dimensional running biomechanics following eccentric knee extensor exercise

Runners often experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), especially of the knee extensors, following prolonged running. Sagittal knee joint biomechanics are altered in the presence of knee extensor DOMS but it is unclear how muscle soreness affects lower limb biomechanics in other planes of motion. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of knee extensor DOMS on three-dimensional (3D) lower limb biomechanics during running. Thirty-three healthy men (25.8?±?6.8 years; 84.1?±?9.2?kg; 1.77?±?0.07?m) completed an isolated eccentric knee extensor damaging protocol to elicit DOMS. Biomechanics of over-ground running at a set speed of 3.35?m?s^?1±5% were measured before eccentric exercise (baseline) and, 24?h and 48?h following exercise in the presence of knee extensor DOMS. Knee flexion ROM was reduced at 48?h (P?=?0.01; d?=?0.26), and peak knee extensor moment was reduced at 24?h (P?=?0.001; d?=?0.49) and 48?h (P?<?0.001; d?=?0.68) compared to baseline. Frontal and transverse plane biomechanics were unaffected by the presence of DOMS (P?>?0.05). Peak positive ankle and knee joint powers and, peak negative knee joint power were all reduced from baseline to 24?h and 48?h (P?<?0.05). These findings suggest that knee extensor DOMS greatly influences sagittal knee joint angular kinetics and, reduces sagittal power production at the ankle joint. However, knee extensor DOMS does not affect frontal and transverse plane lower limb joint biomechanics during running.     

Too Simple to Be Useful: A Comment on Feinberg and Wainer (2014)

Feinberg and Wainer (2014) provided a simple equation to approximate/predict a subscore's value. The purpose of this note is to point out that their equation is often inaccurate in that it does not always predict a subscore's value correctly. Therefore, the utility of their simple equation is not clear.