Disruptive school behaviors in the black male child are of much concern to educators. While not developed specifically for use with black males, the Getting Away Clean program was designed to help children develop productive thinking skills, and to empower children to negotiate the social environment. Decision-making skills are strengthened, and children learn to counteract negative peer pressure and to relate positively to others. Selected fifth and sixth grade black male students from two elementary schools in a metropolitan Virginia school system were identified for the study. Eight students who were identified as those who had exhibited disruptive behaviors in the school setting, or those who needed skills to counteract negative peer pressure,were assigned to the treatment group. A group of eight students from the elementary schools was identified for the control group. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL, Edelbrock and Achenbach, 1983) was used to obtain data from parents, and the Teacher's Report Form (TRF, Edelbrock and Achenbach, 1983) was used to obtain data from teachers. In order to obtain pre-test data, teachers of the treatment and control group subjects for the 1987-88 school year completed the TRF. At the end of the treatment post-test data were obtained by requesting that teachers of the 1988-89 school year complete the TRF for treatment and control group subjects. The CBCL was also completed by parents of subjects in the treatment group. The statistical analyses used to determine differences between the two measures were the Rank Tranform Analysis of Covariance, Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon nonparametric tests and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests. Results indicated positive, but nonstatistically significant, differences between the pre and post measures. In addition, four subscales (Anxious, Social Withdrawal, Inattentive, and Aggressive) were statistically analyzed with the Multivariate Tests of Significance. Positive, but nonstatistically significant, differences between the treatment and control groups on either of the subscales on the pre and post measures will all subjects were found. Parent responses were interpreted in case summaries. While a statistically significant difference was not found between the pre and post measures, positive effects are noted and the Getting Away Clean program can be considered an alternative strategy for reducing disruptive school behaviors. / Ed. D.

This investigation is concerned with determining the value, if any, of certain curiosity constructs and thought skill experiences upon "raw score" responses of black sixth grade pupils to selected standardized and experimenter made tests. The major purpose of this study is to determine whether the curiosity levels of black children will be increased and if gains will be made in reading comprehension and responses when selected questioning procedures are used. The study is confined to teacher-directed instructional situations where pupils are engaged in reading acts.

The problem of this study was the relationship of the self-concept of fifth-grade Negro students with their knowledge of Negro leaders and events. Sub-problems of this study were (1) the relationship between the self-concept of fifth-grade students and their reading achievement and (2) the relationship of their knowledge of Negro leaders and events and their reading achievement.

The problem of the present study was to determine the self concept of selected Negro boys and girls and to study the relationships of their self concept to their intelligence and academic achievement.

The problem of this study was to determine the influence of a short-term program to improve the self-concepts of elected Negro elementary school children. Particular emphasis was placed upon the development of positive self-concepts and self-expression.

My PhD projects were secondary analyses of data from a prospective study conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Two cohorts of low socioeconomic status, African-American children from Perry County, Alabama, were invited to participate. Children in the 1st Cohort (Cohort 1, n=98) were approximately six years old at baseline and followed for 6 years, while children in the 2nd Cohort (Cohort 2, n=95) were approximately one-year-old at baseline and followed for five years. For the first dissertation project, the prevalence and incidence of dental decay were assessed for children in Cohort 1. The findings of this report showed that 60-70% of the children had dental decay experience at each of the six annual exams. Approximately a third of the children had additional new tooth decay from age 6 to age 12. For the second project, risk factors for time to dental decay occurrence were assessed using a relatively new analytic approach which allowed the use of time-dependent risk factors for children in Cohort 1. This was the first time for this analytic approach to be used in the dental literature, although it is widely used in medical research. The merit of using this technique was that, since dental decay risk factors can change with time, the value of the risk factor was allowed to change over time. The second project showed that about 29% of the children had their first permanent tooth decay event during the six-year follow-up. Final results showed that greater consumption of water, milk and 100% juice were associated with lower dental decay hazards, while greater consumption of added-sugar juice was associated with greater hazard of having an event. The third PhD project was designed to assess the patterns of and the relationship between initial Mutans Streptococci detection and dental caries experience occurrence in African-American pre-school children with mean age of 1 year at baseline. The third project dealt with the MS variable as a “time-dependent variable”, using a statistical analysis called “Extended Cox hazards modeling”. To the knowledge of the author, this is the first published study which has used this relatively new analytic approach to assess the complex relationship between MS detection and dental caries experience. In addition, in the third project, the behavioral risk factors for having a positive salivary MS test were assessed. This study found that median MS acquisition survival (when 50% of the children had positive salivary MS test) was 2 years and mean survival time was 2.09±0.09 among African-American children who had valid MS acquisition tests (n=99). Approximately 23% of the children did not have any positive salivary MS test by age 4 years. Multivariable analysis showed that not having a positive salivary MS test at any of the study exams was associated with having acute illness in the previous 6 months and being recruited into the study before 10 months of age. Results of extended Cox proportional hazards modeling showed a significant relationship between having a caries experience event at any given time during the follow-up period and having a positive salivary MS test at any point in time (HR=2.25, 95% CI 1.06-4.75).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-85). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-85). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, August, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-201). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.