The effectiveness of prevention programs is often assessed by examining program effects of a variety of factors that are known to elevate or reduce risk for delinquent involvement. It is necessary to identify whether differential programming is required for significantly represented offender subpopulations, including those with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) or learning disabilities (LD). This study sought to determine the relevance of specific individual, family, and school-risk factors for delinquency across three categorical subtypes ofjuvenile offenders: (a) those with E/BD, (b) those with LD, and (c) those offenders considered nondisabled.

Research has shown that students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) typically have poor life outcomes. Students with EBD who are placed in an alternative education setting are likely to continue a path toward failure without carefully designed effective services. Existing studies have independently examined resilience in children and youth and alternative education settings. However, there is a gap in research examining resilience in students who have graduated from alternative education settings. Using semi-structured interviews, the present interpretive and descriptive qualitative study sought to explore factors of resilience in individuals who graduated from alternative education settings. The study sought to identify elements, specific to alternative education settings, that have contributed to resilience in young adulthood and to further our understanding of how alternative education placements have contributed to the participants’ current life status. Findings revealed three themes specific to alternative education settings that contributed to participants’ resilience: teachers who show that they care about their students, a positive learning environment, and a small student-teacher ratio where participants were able to get more one-on-one instruction. Additionally, two other themes arose from the data: having a supportive family and an innate sense of self.

The thesis is focused on problems of bullied pupils and teachers in elementary schools. The theoretical part describes the matter of bullied pupils and teachers. The terms like bullying and cyber bullying are explained. The thesis also deals with main signals, phases and forms of bullying. It defines main actors of bullying, their relations and the consequences which bullying causes. The thesis also deals with the characteristic of bullying and its preventing. The practical part is made by the research which is focused on the issue of bullying in children collective and bullying teachers. The research instruments were questionnaires about bullying, their goals were to find out the occurence of bullying between the pupils and the teachers. The results proved that the bullying occures in a third of the pupils who were also able to describe how and how often they are hurt. It was also proved that the bullying is such an unpleasant topic between teachers that they are not able to accept its existence and that it is very problematic to find the way to solve it. The results are processed both in written form and graphic form in wiev of the theoretic knowledge from the first part.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen Myers-Bowman / The reciprocal interaction between children and their environment can affect their development. Certain environmental interactions such as problematic parent-child relationships or peer rejection in school are associated with the development of emotional and behavioral disorders. Children with emotional and behavioral disorders experience difficulties in a variety of areas including academics, social relationships, behaviors, and life outcomes. These emotional and behavioral disorders can progress or regress depending on relationships occurring within the child’s environment. Positive, healthy, and caring parent and teacher involvement in the lives of these children is an important factor. When parents and teachers become involved, especially when they work together to set mutual goals to help with success, children with emotional and behavioral disorders may see improvements in their problem behaviors, experience more successful achievement in academics, and develop in a direction that is more normative rather than problematic. This information can be applied through an online educational module for parents of children with EBD that aims to educate these parents on the avenues to and importance of involvement.

Parenting self-efficacy is one factor identified as relevant to parent distress and child therapy outcomes. Theories for parenting self-efficacy suggest parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be at risk for lower parenting self-efficacy than other parents. Parents who have low parenting self-efficacy may then have higher risk for poor treatment outcomes. Previous researchers found inconsistent results related to parenting self-efficacy rates for parents of children with ASD. They suggested the results were due to sample sizes, measurement insensitivitiy, comparison groups, and the limited range of children's ages (Fields, 2006; Meirsschaut, Roeyers, and Warreyn, 2010; Palafox, 2004; and Rutgers et al., 2007). In the current study, the researchers invited 598 parents to complete a series of questionnaires. Participants included the parents of children with ASD (n = 57), Down syndrome (n = 24), ASD and Down syndrome (n = 41), emotional and behavioral disorders (n = 287), and no identified diagnoses (n = 189). The parents who participated were 90.2% female and 84.9% Caucasian. Participants from the ASD, ASD with Down syndrome, and Down syndrome groups lived in higher income households (75.2% above $30,000 annually) than those in the emotional and behavioral disorder group (94.1% below $30,000 annually). The questionnaires asked parents to rate themselves regarding parenting self-efficacy, parent distress, parenting skills, social support, and answered demographic questions. Parents from the diagnostic groups also rated their child's behavior and symptom severity. Parents from the ASD, Down syndrome, and ASD with Down syndrome groups answered additional questions found to be relevant in Fields, 2007 (e.g. age of symptom onset, number of siblings, and parent's age). Parents of children with ASD were found to have the lowest rates of parenting self-efficacy across the five groups. ANOVA rejected the null hypothesis that the groups would be the same (F = 8.24, df = 4, 595, p < .01, adjusted R² = .05). The effect size for the relationship between diagnosis and parenting self-efficacy was small to moderate, accounting for 5% of the variance of parenting self-efficacy scores. Pairwise comparisons between groups found parents of children with ASD to have significantly lower parenting self-efficacy than the Down syndrome (mean difference = -3.32, se = .81, 95% CI = -5.86, -.78), and community groups (mean difference = -2.89, se = .58, 95% CI = -4.47 to -1.31). Parents from the community group were also found to have higher parenting self-efficacy than the parents of children with emotional and behavioral disorders (mean difference = 1.43, se = .37, 95% CI = 1.31, 4.47). Parenting self-efficacy was also related to parent distress, social support, parenting skills, and child's age. Parenting self-efficacy may warrant monitoring in the treatment of ASD and may be an important point of intervention in therapy.

Emergence delirium (ED), also known as emergence agitation, is a postoperative condition characterized by aberrant cognitive and psychomotor behaviors following general anesthesia. The incidence of ED is 3 to 8 times higher in children 5 years of age or less. There is no standard of nursing practice for managing ED symptoms in the pediatric surgical population. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to address a gap in knowledge needed to inform clinical decision-making when managing ED in the postoperative setting. Using an educational presentation for post anesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses, this project introduced the use of non-pharmacological interventions to mitigate symptoms of ED in the pediatric population as inspired by The Green Star Initiative, an Army program at Fort Carson. The project aim was to describe the effectiveness of ED-specific interventions from the nursing perspective. Using tenets of the Iowa model, this quality improvement project included a needs assessment survey, PowerPoint presentation, parent education leaflet, ED cheat sheet, and a post-intervention survey. Applying the context, input, process, product model for evaluation, this project increased knowledge of ED-specific interventions used by nurses that demonstrates a change in clinical decision-making. PACU nurses rated the interventions 43% effective on pediatric patients. This project addressed the gap in practice by providing structured education on ED, inspiring the use of ED-specific interventions, and promoting readiness to care for the pediatric surgical population. Outcomes add to the nursing literature by introducing ED-specific interventions to manage pediatric ED in facilities nationwide. A social implication of this project is to improve the care of pediatric surgical patients.

The Student Risk Screening Scale—Internalizing/Externalizing (SRSS-IE) was developed to screen elementary-aged students for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD). Its use has been extended to middle schools with little evidence that it measures the same constructs as in elementary schools. Scores of a middle school population from the SRSS-IE are analyzed with Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MCFA) to examine its factor structure, factorial invariance between females and males, and its reliability. Several MCFA models are specified, and compared, with two retained for further analysis. The first model is a single-level model with chi-square and standard errors adjusted for the clustered nature of the data. The second model is a two-level model. Both support the hypothesized structure found in elementary populations of two factors (Externalizing and Internalizing). All items load on only one factor except Peer Rejection, which loads on both. Reliability is estimated for both models using several methods, which result in reliability coefficients ranging between .89-.98. Both models also show evidence of Configural, Metric, and Scalar invariance between females and males. While more research is needed to provide other kinds of evidence of validity in middle school populations, results from this study indicate that the SRSS-IE is an effective screening tool for EBD.

The primary purpose of this study was to test the assumption that function-based interventions developed using the Function-Based Intervention Decision Model (Umbreit, Ferro, Liaupsin, & Lane, 2007) must consist of three method elements (i.e., adjustment of antecedent conditions, providing appropriate reinforcement for replacement behaviors, and eliminating reinforcement for target behaviors) for an optimal effect on changing behavior. In this study, the contribution of the extinction procedure was examined with three elementary school-aged students who were at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 consisted of a descriptive FBA involving assessment and intervention development. Phase 2 consisted of data collection in three conditions: baseline, intervention consisting of all three method elements, and intervention consisting of only antecedent adjustments and reinforcement of replacement behavior. Intervention phases were systematically introduced to each student using a multi-element reversal design (A-B-A-B-C-B) and resulted in improvements in the intervention conditions. Interventions using all three method elements were more effective in increasing replacement behaviors and decreasing target behaviors than those in which the extinction procedure was removed. Social validity using the Intervention Rating Profile-15 and Children's Intervention Rating Profile resulted in high acceptability ratings for interventions consisting of all three method elements. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

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In this qualitative study, parental perspectives were sought about the overall experiences of seeking support for children with Emotional/Behavioural Disorders (E/BD), from the early signs of disordered behaviour through the processes of diagnosis, assessment, and treatment. The parents of 4 children with Severe E/BD participated in interviews exploring child and family history, previous access to supports and services, and the perceived need for additional services for the child and/or family. Results were examined using multiple case study design, and indicated that parenting a child with E/BD results in significant impact on parental stress, employment, and health. The processes of assessment and diagnosis were perceived as confusing and overwhelming, and relationships with school personnel were often strained. The participants had variable experiences accessing supports outside of school. Examination of these perspectives suggests that continuity, collaboration, and communication continue to be necessary building blocks for developing effective child and family supports. / Special Education