<p> This study examined the relationship between social-emotional intelligence and risky sexual behaviors in adolescence. Despite the introduction of sex education in public schools, there continue to be high rates of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the teenage population. Researchers have demonstrated numerous positive life outcomes for individuals with greater levels of social and emotional abilities. However, studies have failed to examine the precise relationship between such abilities and sexual behavior. In the current study, data was collected from 49 high school students in New York State. Using the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Version and a researcher-designed questionnaire on risky sexual behavior, teenagers with higher Interpersonal Emotional Intelligence reported less sexual risk taking. A significant relationship was also demonstrated between Risky Sexual Behaviors and a control variable, Delinquency. Due to limited participation and a homogeneous sample, the results of this study cannot be meaningfully generalized to the greater population. Therefore, these findings support the need for further research to clarify the relationships among these variables and validate the importance of teaching explicit social-emotional training in sex education curricula.</p>

<p> Autism Spectrum Disorder is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder characterized by deficits in three main areas: social interaction, communication, and an intense resistance to change which could include repetitive, self-stimulatory behaviors according to the American Psychiatric Association (2000). The National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) defines a receptive language disorder as exhibited by an inability to understand the words of others, difficulties enacting verbal directives, and deficits in thought organization. These deficits can cause individuals to have difficulties while participating in school, home, and social situations, and may lead to problem behaviors. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) has linked receptive language disorders with other disabilities including Autism Spectrum Disorder (Hoch, 2012). Because this is a largely unexplored area, research is needed to find and support therapeutic techniques addressing deficits in receptive language. </p><p> Three young adult males between the ages of 14 and 22 with a primary diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder were recruited by flyer and word-of-mouth from Northern Colorado. This study employed a multiple baseline across participants with repeated measures design. There were a total of 6 experimental observations with each research subject. Behavioral coding was utilized to determine if there were any mean time differences between the sung and verbal directive conditions. </p><p> Because data was coded separately by the researcher and research assistant, Pearson's r was used to test inter-rater correlation through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software (IBM Corporation, 2012). Pearson's <i> r</i> = + 0.997 signifying a positive correlation between the two coders. A Repeated Measures of Analysis of Variance was applied using SAS software to test for statistical significance between the verbal and sung conditions (SAS Institutue Inc., 2011). The RM ANOVA yielded no statistically significant results. However the <i>p</i> value of the statistic, <i>p </i> = 0.0769, was very close to the p value set for the present study, <i> p</i> &lt; 0.05. A power analysis revealed that if an average of 10.2 seconds with a standard deviation of 6.8 seconds remained constant after recruiting a total of 7 volunteer participants, then statistical significance could be reached. Even though statistical significance was not reached, trends in the data were discussed. </p><p> Overall there was a decrease in time between the verbal and sung conditions for each participant. However, this trend was not clear and variability was seen among the participants throughout the sung observations after separating and plotting the data on bar and line graphs. Future researchers should increase the sample size and eliminate inherent study design flaws to thoroughly test if there is a difference between the verbal and sung directives.</p>

<p> To explore the correlation between teacher frustration tolerance and discipline incidents among general and special education students, 38 teachers were asked to complete two surveys; 18 teachers responded. Teachers completed the Munich Personality Test with its measure of general frustration tolerance, plus a survey designed for this study of frustration tolerance for special education students. Results demonstrated negative correlations between teachers' general frustration tolerance and numbers of student discipline incidents among both general and special education children. Results indicated that teachers' frustration tolerance for special education students was highly correlated with student discipline incidents among special education students, suggesting that frustration tolerance for special education children is a separate construct from general frustration tolerance, and this it may be successfully measured by the instrument developed for this study. Results also indicated that teachers found specific disabilities to be more frustrating than others and that frustration tolerance of certain disabilities may predict numbers of discipline incidents for these children. Nevertheless, the direction of the correlation was the inverse of what was expected, with teachers having the greatest frustration tolerance for special education students also evidencing the greatest numbers of discipline incidents among these students. Among several explanations considered, it is suggested that the school administrator in the facility where this study occurred was aware of teachers' with high levels of frustration tolerance for special education students and thus assigned the most difficult students to these teachers, leading these teachers to have the greatest number of associated discipline incidents among special education students. Nevertheless, the ability to measure frustration tolerance specific to special education students can be a useful metric in teacher selection and student placement within other contexts where teachers' frustration tolerance is not well known to administrators. With this metric, school administrators may be better able to design behavior plans and train teachers to teach special education students successfully.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to design a program that provides "stepping stones" to reduce psychiatric recidivism among young adults between ages of 18-29 being discharged from psychiatric hospitalization. The goal was identify potential funding sources and write a grant proposal to fund a recidivist prevention program by focusing on engaging and collaborating with significant others while educating and providing support to both the individual and the significant others. An extensive literature review increased knowledge about barriers to stabilization individuals with a mental illness encounter, and barriers to engaging and supporting their significant others and/or mentors. A search for potential funding sources via the Internet resulted in selection of The California Endowment as the best funding source. A grant was then written to support a recidivist reduction program. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of the project. </p>

<p> This study was designed to explore four primary research questions. Why do schools and districts adopt PBIS? Which stakeholders were included in the decision-making process to adopt PBIS? Do these adoption dynamics influence PBIS Tier 2 implementation? With PBIS Tier 2 implementation fidelity as a desirable outcome, what are the relevant facilitators, constraints, and obstacles? </p><p> These main research questions and additional sub-questions derived from a gap in the literature. Five related priorities have not received sufficient attention: (a) PBIS adoption dynamics in schools and districts, (b) Roles and responsibilities of teachers and pupil personnel professionals such as school psychologist, (c) District office and the roles of district leaders as units of analysis, (d) PBIS Tier 2 implementation benchmarks for schools, and (d) Relevant knowledge about PBIS' institutionalization and sustainability. </p><p> Guided by a conceptual framework for organizational readiness (AVICTORY model) this study proceeded with a multi-site case study design, using multiple methods. A purpose sample was employed, involving two elementary schools in one school district. This study included three units of analysis: Two elementary schools and district office. </p><p> This study's comparative results yielded multiple analytic generalizations such as: (a) Implementation phases directly or indirectly influence the other phases. (b) Adoption and implementation hinge on organizational capacity and individual/team competence. (b) Leaders' diffusion of PBIS is necessary, but insufficient to achieve implementation fidelity for both PBIS Tiers. (c) Short-term PBIS Tier 1 implementation fidelity does not guarantee long-term institutionalization. (d) Implementation fidelity and institutionalization depend on workforce competency and stability. Future research should improve this study's AVICTORY Tier 2 surveys with particular reference to an important need. Do the survey results provide formative data to facilitate PBIS Tier 2 implementation fidelity? Finally, future research should include observational studies of how PBIS is interpreted and operationalized in all settings, especially by teachers in classroom settings.</p>

<p> Survey administrators go to great lengths to make sure survey questions are easy to understand for a broad range of respondents. Despite these efforts, respondents do not always understand what the questions ask of them. In interviewer-administrated surveys, interviewers can pick up on cues from the respondent that suggest they do not understand or know how to answer the question and can provide assistance as their training allows. However, due to the high costs of interviewer administration, many surveys are moving towards other survey modes (at least for some respondents) that do not include costly interviewers, and with that a valuable source for clarification is gone. </p><p> In Web surveys, researchers have experimented with providing real-time assistance to respondents who take a long time to answer a question. Help provided in such a fashion has resulted in increased accuracy, but some respondents do not like the imposition of unsolicited help. There may be alternative ways to provide help that can refine or overcome the limitations to using response times. </p><p> This dissertation is organized into three separate studies that each use a set of independently collected data to identify a set of indicators survey administrators can use to determine when a respondent is having difficulty answering a question and proposes alternative ways of providing real-time assistance that increase accuracy as well as user satisfaction. </p><p> The first study identifies nine movements that respondents make with the mouse cursor while answering survey questions and hypothesizes, using exploratory analyses, which movements are related to difficulty. The second study confirms use of these movements and uses hierarchical modeling to identify four movements which are the most predictive. The third study tests three different of providing unsolicited help to respondents: text box, audio recording, and chat. Accuracy and respondent satisfaction are evaluated for each mode. There were no differences in accuracy across the three modes, but participants reported a preference for receiving help in a standard text box. These findings allow survey designers to identify difficult questions on a larger scale than previously possible and to increase accuracy by providing real-time assistance while maintaining respondent satisfaction.</p>

<p> Depression affects about 20% of the U.S. population at some point in their lifespan (Gotlib &amp; Hammen, 2002). One symptom of depression is impairment in cognitive functioning. Extensive research has previously identified a link between depressed mood and memory difficulties (Burt, Zembar, &amp; Niederehe, 1995; O'Conner, Pollitt, Roth, Brook, &amp; Reiss, 1990; Watkins &amp; Teasdale, 2004). The purpose of the current study is to better understand the relationship between negative affect and memory impairment. I hypothesized that rumination would moderate the relationship between negative affect and working memory such that individuals who respond to negative affect with rumination would be particularly likely to show impairment in working memory. This was a single time point study in which participants were randomly assigned to one of two possible conditions. In each condition, participants were given a stressor task, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT). This was followed by either failure feedback or success feedback. 146 undergraduate students, ages 18 to 30 were recruited and randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. The sample was approximately 79% female and 78% Caucasian and had a mean age of 18.77 (SD = 1.36). Participants completed measures of current depressive symptoms, trait rumination, affective state pre and post stressor task, and working memory. This study's findings lend support to previous research in that these results yielded a significant main effect of both the failure condition (F (1, 143) = 124.20, p = .00, partial &eegr;² = .47) and self-reported negative mood (F (3, 145) = 14.59, p = .00, R² = .22) on lower working memory scores. Greater rumination appeared to have a main effect of lower working memory scores (F (2, 139) = 12.59, p = .00, partial &eegr;² = .15) with rumination accounting for approximately 4% of the difference in working memory scores. However, results did not find support for a moderated model (F (2, 139) = .02, p = .98, partial &eegr;² = .00). Although negative affect and rumination predicted working memory scores, rumination did not moderate the relationship suggesting that a different model may explain the cognitive effects of depression.</p>

The aim of this randomized, controlled trial was to test whether sweet taste and chewing modify self-report of pain intensity and negative affect caused by blood-draws and vaccination in children. Subjects were recruited (age mean +/- SD; 9.82 +/- 0.8 years) from schools (n = 115) and a hospital (n = 101). Subjects were assigned to Control, Sweet, Chew or Sweet+chew interventions. Pain intensity was rated on the Coloured Analogue Scale (CAS) and affective quality on the Faces Pain Scale (FPS). / In school and hospital settings a Sex by Sweet by Chew interaction was seen on CAS (p = 0.29; p < 0.01) and FPS (p < 0.05; p < 0.05) respectively. A consistent pattern was seen in which chewing reduced and sweet taste increased pain ratings in boys. The opposite effect was seen in girls. When sex was not considered no significant differences between groups were seen. / Sweet taste and chewing appear not to have useful analgesic effects. Sex must be considered in future investigations.

Variations in maternal care permanently alter the expression of behavioral and endocrine responses to stress. Thus, in the rat, increased levels of maternal licking and grooming over the first week of life are associated with decreased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and behavioural responses to stress in the offspring in adulthood. Interestingly, such variations in maternal care are associated with individual differences in the neurochemistry and fearfulness of the dams themselves. Adult female rats which are more fearful exhibit less licking and grooming of their pups than do less fearful mothers. These more fearful females also possess greater levels of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) receptors in the amygdala and the locus coeruleus. Oxytocin receptor expression is also different in these animals. The females which exhibit greater levels of licking and grooming of their pups have more oxytocin receptors in the medial preoptic area (MPOA) as well as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). The differences in maternal behavior may constitute a mechanism for the non-genomic, transgenerational transmission of fearfulness from parent to the offspring. The results of these thesis studies support this idea and also demonstrate that environmental events during early development that decrease fearfulness can serve to break the cycle of transmission.

<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of the study was to identify the most challenging and frequently occurring types of student behavioral problems that paraprofessionals in the K-12 public school setting encounter. In addition, the purpose of the study included identifying the most effective ways to prepare special education paraprofessionals to manage the most challenging and frequently occurring student behaviors through effective professional development practices. </p><p> <b>Methodology:</b> The mixed methods study primarily involved collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data through on-line surveys of paraprofessionals, special education teachers, and school principals. Phenomenology and grounded theory elements served as the descriptive study&rsquo;s theoretical foundations. A policy Delphi method used an expert panel that represented a diverse group of public school districts in Riverside County, California. </p><p> <b>Findings:</b> Analysis of data revealed the 12 most challenging student behavior types, including eight most frequently occurring student behaviors in the k-12 school setting. Key topics and effective professional development delivery methods for special education paraprofessionals in the area of managing challenging behaviors were identified. </p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> As a result of the study and review of prior research, an outline of suggested professional development activities was developed. Effective training delivery methods involving the principles of andragogy were also identified. </p><p> <b>Recommendations:</b> Schools and districts must (1) include paraprofessionals&rsquo;, teachers&rsquo;, and principals&rsquo; input when developing professional development activities for special education paraprofessionals; (2) focus the behavioral training for paraprofessionals on the most challenging and frequently occurring student behaviors in the k-12 school setting; (3) apply principles of andragogy when providing professional development to paraprofessionals; (4) make a shift from one-day training events to on-going, systematic, research-based, consistent, relevant training that involves practice time, meaningful feedback, modeling, and activities aiming at the higher level thinking skills identified in Bloom&rsquo;s taxonomy.</p>