School Psychology Commons^™

Generalizability Of Multiple Measures Of Treatment Integrity: Response Card Intervention, Elizabeth Kelsey Wilson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Treatment integrity is essential for the implementation of interventions in schools as it determines the accuracy or consistency with which different components of a treatment are implemented. There are no current standards regarding the best practices in treatment integrity measurement; however, higher treatment integrity is associated with enhanced student outcomes. At present, there is no database that provides information related to treatment integrity for practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers to reference when choosing an appropriate level of treatment integrity needed for a given intervention. Consequently, there is a need to establish convergent validity among different methods of treatment integrity measurement using …

An Investigation Of Increased Rates Of Autism In U.S. Public Schools, Donald N. Cardinal, Amy Jane Griffiths, Zachary D. Maupin, Julie Fraumeni-Mcbride

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study is intended to enhance our understanding of the dramatic increase in autism prevalence rates across the United States. A robust national and multistate sample of children and youth (5–22 years of age) was gathered and analyzed, using visual and statistical analysis of autism eligibility over a 15‐ to 17‐year period. Although the impact of environmental or genetic influences cannot be entirely ruled out, we identified significant shifts in eligibility trends that substantially contribute to the remarkable increase in autism prevalence. Assessment procedures and criteria for autism have sustained an indelible influence from this diagnostic migration, which has had …

Evaluating The Effects Of A Brief Assertiveness And Help Seeking Skill Intervention, Madeline S. Blocker

LSU Master's Theses

Children in foster care lead their lives at an increased risk for mental health issues that are often complicated by the unstable and unpredictable nature of their living arrangements and interpersonal relationships. As such, there is substantial need to examine brief therapies and interventions for use with children in foster care and children who have experienced similar trauma and instability. Mental health care providers for children in foster care often may not have sufficient periods of time to implement treatment with fidelity. The present study investigated the efficacy of a summer camp based, brief behavioral intervention targeting help-seeking behavior and …

Socio-Emotional Learning As A Core Standard In Early Education: Producing Competent Adults, Talia Maras

University Honors Theses

A child’s foundational emotional proficiency is highly predictive of their academic success. It is therefore imperative that center-based, federally funded, public childhood education systems provide their students with a curriculum that facilitates the development of a strong socio-emotional baseline on which to build their cognitive, academic abilities. Drawing on government reports by the US Department of Education and empirical publications from an academic perspective, this paper reviews the nature of current efforts to reform the childhood education system, as seen through the implementation of the common core standards of learning. I review the quality of education that is provided by …

Promoting Critical Consciousness: The Role Of Positive Youth Development Programming, Mackenzie Jaclyn Hart

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of positive youth development programming and individual-level characteristics in promoting critical reflection (CR) in youth and adolescent participants. CR refers to the analytical component of critical consciousness (CC), or the exercise of challenging institutional practices that systemically marginalize or oppress certain subgroups. Survey and interview data were analyzed from at-risk high school students (N=250) participating in an after-school program across six sites in urban areas in the United States. Multiple regression models were used to predict the development of CR, and interviews were examined to look for themes related to quantitative findings. Results support that …

Components Of Psychological Flexibility And Inflexibility That Predict Risk-Taking Behaviors, Shelley Renee Upton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Psychological flexibility is conceptualized as contact with the present moment and the ability to persist or change one’s behavior to achieve valued ends. The opposite of this process is known as psychological inflexibility, which is posited to lead to the development and maintenance of various psychological disorders. There are 6 components underlying psychological inflexibility—these are cognitive fusion, experiential avoidance, fixating on the past or future, self-conceptualization, lacking contact with values, and inaction toward valued ends, as well as 6 components underlying psychological flexibility (i.e., defusion, acceptance, present moment awareness, self-as-context, contact with values, and committed action). Psychological inflexibility may be …

Resourcesmart Schools And Wellbeing. Main Study, Katherine Dix, Toby Carslake, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Shani Sniedze

Wellbeing

This report presents the findings of a study into the wellbeing impacts of the ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) program in Victoria, Australia. The findings are based on a literature review and a state-wide survey of program schools to inform the development of the ResourceSmart Schools wellbeing evaluation framework, as a first step in the ongoing monitoring of the program’s wellbeing impacts in RSS schools.

A Component Analysis Of Implementation Planning: Examining Mechanisms That Underlie A Teacher Implementation Support Strategy, James Jaran Upright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

To maximize instructional time, teachers must be able to effectively manage student behavior. However, surveys consistently reveal that a significant portion of teachers feel underprepared to address challenging classroom behavior. One of the most effective ways to reduce problem behaviors in school is with systematic classroom management strategies, such as the good behavior game. However, teachers often struggle to effectively implement such procedures. Promising evidence has emerged for implementation planning as an effective support strategy to improve teachers’ intervention implementation. Implementation planning is a one-time consultation process for intervention procedure planning (action planning) and identification and resolution of implementation barriers …

Safe Schools For Teens: Preventing Sexual Abuse Of Urban Poor Teens, Proof-Of-Concept Study - Improving Teachers' And Students' Knowledge, Skills And Attitudes, Bernadette J. Madrid, Gilda Dans Lopez, Leonila F. Dans, Deborah A. Fry, Francis Grace H. Duka-Pante, Alberto T. Muyot

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a difficult form of abuse to detect, with the peak age of reports from 13 to 15 years old. The recent revision of the Philippine school curriculum provided an opportunity to incorporate an educational intervention for prevention of CSA. This study aimed to improve the teachers’ and students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes on disclosure, identification, and reporting of CSA. This research is a two-phase proof-of-concept cross-sectional study of 237 teachers and 1,458 Grade 7 students from 2 public high schools in metro Manila over a two-year period. Phase 1 involved in-service training curriculum for all …

Bullying Hurts, Katrina Marie Gonzalez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research projects purpose was to research the prevalence of bullying/harassment in schools in a city within the Inland Empire. The city is left confidential to protect the confidentiality of study participants. The researcher utilized the post positivist approach to guide the research processes. The study was completed through interviews with parents which contained qualitative questions. The researcher will create a webpage that’s link was posted to Facebook city sites. This website lead to a more private location where research participants were able to gather more information about the study and sign up to participate.

The research participants needed to …

Effects Of And Preference For Fixed Ratio And Time-Based Exchange Production Schedules In A Token System, Sarah Christian Holmes

LSU Master's Theses

Token systems have been implemented to change behavior across species and settings. Token systems involve token-production, exchange-production, and token-exchange schedules. In the current study, we evaluated the effects of fixed-ratio and yoked time exchange-production schedules on 4 preschoolers’ rate of responding on a marble spooning task, mean pause duration between responses, and percentage of session spent engaging in the target task. Following an initial reversal demonstrating a primary reinforcement effect, we used a multielement design to compare exchange-production schedule conditions and a control condition in which participants earned tokens that were not exchangeable. Following the exchange-production schedule comparison, we examined …

Video-Based Interventions: Teaching Adults And Preschoolers, Philip Ross Richard Iii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Long gone are the days in which technology is looked upon as a trivial novelty. Whether evoking positive or negative reactions, advancements in technology continue to alter our daily environments. One such example is Video Based Interventions (VBI). VBI utilize video recording to facilitate the acquisition of various skills and behaviors (Rayner, Denholm, & Sigafoos, 2009). While it may sound like a simple intervention at first, many procedural variations of have been examined in research and practice. The two experiments comprising the current study examined the effectiveness of video models when used in conjunction with other instructional methods. Experiment I …

Art Therapy In Public Education, Sophie Edelman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review explores the history of art therapy in education. By understanding the history it is clear that art therapy has always been a positive force for students. By learning from the successes and challenges in our history we are better able to plan for future programing and expansion of art therapy programs. Because art therapy was developed in part by educators, the history of art therapy itself is linked with the history of art therapy in schools. In today’s application of art therapy in education there are three models most typically used. The research discusses the strengths and …

Abstract Art And Its Effects On Stress In High School Students: Development Of A Method, Shera Weintraub

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

Stress in schools has become an increasing problem within the United States. Adolescents struggle with high rates and high levels of anxiety due to many pressures surrounding them, especially expectations from school. Due to their growing brains, stress and anxiety during this time can affect future functioning. It is crucial that teens learn ways to manage stress levels now, so they can develop healthy coping skills that can continue into adulthood. There has been plenty of research on art therapy and its benefits for mental health in this population. This study investigates the effects of abstract art on stress …

Connecting To The Self: Increasing Self-Awareness In Children With Asd, Development Of A Method, Madison Janke

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Dance/movement therapy is a popular method utilized with the autism spectrum population due to its focus on increasing social skills, developing relationships, improving function, increasing positive body image, and expanding movement repertoire. The literature indicated that mirroring is the most common and most utilized DMT intervention for this population, but it provided minimal alternative dance/movement therapy interventions. The dance/movement therapy method implemented through this research attempted to provide an alternative to mirroring through the creation of a body outline. This method was developed through the theoretical framework of relational-cultural theory, emphasizing the impact that relationships can have on the shaping …

Student Wellbeing And Open Studio Process In The School Curriculum, Maria Kim

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study aimed to explore whether Open Studio Process (OSP) increased wellbeing of middle and high school students when facilitated by teachers as a part of the regular art curriculum. It was hypothesized that OSP might increase the sense of wellbeing among middle and high school students as well as facilitating teachers. The research was conducted as a mixed methods study in South Korea where students need preventative interventions for their wellbeing. The researcher trained eight teachers to facilitate OSP and five of them implemented it with their classes for seven sessions. Quantitative data (K-YSR; pre- and posttest) were collected …

The Impact Of Anxiety On College Students' Academic Lives, Alex Connolly

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Anxiety appears to be a problem facing many college students. The literature on anxiety in college students is expansive, but there is very little research on how students are able to balance their anxiety with academics. The researches in this study conducted semi-structured interviews with five students, four males and one female, at James Madison University on how their anxiety impacts their academics and what they do to succeed. The students came from a limited sample size but were varied in their mental health diagnoses. The results of the study showed many different techniques that students used to combat anxiety. …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Marginalized Populations In The United States: A Research Agenda, Neeta Kantamneni

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

International and national crises often highlight inequalities in the labor market that disproportionately affect individuals from marginalized backgrounds. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting changes in society due to social distancing measures, has showcased inequities in access to decent work and experiences of discrimination resulting in many of the vulnerable populations in the United States experiencing a much harsher impact on economic and work-related factors. The purpose of this essay is to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic may differentially affect workers of color, individuals from low-income backgrounds, and women in complex ways. First, this essay will discuss disproportionate representation of …

The Academic Success And Beyond-Academic Wellbeing Of High Functioning Autistic Boys: A Policy-Professional Care-School-Parent Ecological Perspective, Evelyn Sauceda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High Functioning Autistic (HFA) boys have significant social, emotional, and cognitive difficulties and unique cognitive abilities that require special support from stakeholders in their ecology (policy makers, care providers, schools, and parents). The quality of such support and its ecological integration are of poor quality. The purpose of this study was to report on the perceptions of parents of HFA boys about their children’s academic and beyond-academic experiences as understood within a policy-care provider-school-parent ecological framework. This study contributes to the limited ecological literature on the topic. This exploratory, qualitative, phenomenological, non-experimental, and cross-sectional research study used a non-probability, purposive, …

Navigating "Technoference" In The Family System, Kathlynn Sergent

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

This integrative literature review explores the increase of technology use in families, with a focus on how technology is disrupting in-person social interactions within the family system. Many studies have been conducted on how technology impacts a couple’s romantic relationship, and only a few have examined the relationship between the parent and child. This review is one of the first to examine how technology may affect the entire family unit from before children to raising adolescents. Each section of the family unit is examined, beginning with before children, followed by the early bonding and attachment associated with infant/childhood, and then …