Social-emotional competence has received increased attention as being critical to a student's success in the classroom. Social-emotional strengths are multidimensional and include assets such as social competence, self-regulation, empathy, and responsibility; however, previous research has not investigated which of these strengths contribute most to a student's academic success. Additionally, limited research has investigated the use of multiple informants (e.g., parents and teachers) to determine whose perceptions are more predictive of academic achievement in kindergarten students. This study examined the relationship between social-emotional strengths, as rated by parents and teachers on the SEARS (Merrell, 2011), and academic outcomes, using the AIMSweb Tests of Early Literacy (Shinn & Shinn, 2008) and Missing Number Fluency (Clarke & Shinn, 2004b), in kindergarten students (n = 154). A moderate, positive relationship between parent and teacher ratings of social-emotional strengths was obtained. When prior achievement was removed from the regression equation, social competence, as measured by parents, was the only significant predictor of current achievement in early literacy. No social-emotional strength, as rated by parents, was a significant predictor of early math achievement regardless of including or removing prior achievement from the regression equation. Additionally, teacher-rated total strengths were predictive of current achievement in reading, when controlling for prior achievement, and for math, when prior achievement was removed from the equation. Teacher ratings of total strengths were thus found to be more predictive than parent ratings of academic achievement in reading, but not math. Implications of findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a chronic health condition that is increasingly affecting both children and adolescents (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Although many studies have investigated the impact of HIV on cognitive, physical, academic, and psychosocial functioning, little is known about the self-perception of health-related quality of life, subjective well-being, social-emotional well-being, and psychopathology risks of youth who are infected with HIV. This study is one of first to examine the presence of these positive and negative health indicators and the relationship among these factors in youth with HIV and a community-based sample. A total of 84 youth (n=42 in each group) between 13-18 years old participated in this study. All participants completed a packet of self-report measures, which included the Pediatric Quality of Life Scale (PedsQL™ 4.0; Varni, Burwinkle, Seid, & Skarr, 2003), Student Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner, 1991), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale-Children (PANAS-C; Laurent et al., 1999), Social Emotional Assets and Resiliency Scale-Adolescent Form (SEARS-A; Merrell, 2011), and Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-2 BESS; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007). The data were analyzed for significant correlations, group differences, and social-emotional predictors of physical functioning and subjective well-being. Specifically for youth with HIV, several health-related quality of life indicators were found to be positively correlated with life satisfaction and social-emotional strengths indicators, but negatively correlated with negative affect and psychopathology symptoms. Stronger, but non-significant correlation coefficients were noted for participants in the HIV group than youth in the community-based sample. In particular, stronger associations between the positive mental health indicators (i.e., subjective well-being and social emotional strengths) were observed for youth with HIV than youth in the community-based sample. Youth with HIV also reported a greater association between their subjective well-being and psychopathology when compared to youth in the community-based sample. Additionally, there was a significant main effect of family structure on participants’ perceptions of their social functioning and psychopathology symptoms. When the differences in family structure were controlled for, the overall mean ratings of participants’ health-related quality of life, subjective well-being, social-emotional well-being, and psychopathology risks did not significantly differ between groups. Furthermore, family structure and self-rated empathy skills significantly predicted physical functioning of youth with HIV, but no significant or meaningful variables were found to predict their subjective-well being. Finally, no significant variables were found to predict the physical functioning or subjective well-being of youth in the community-based sample. The limitations of the current study, implications of findings, and directions for future research are discussed.

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Most children exposed to interpersonal violence experience multiple forms of victimizations that are more predictive of trauma symptomatology than single traumatic incidents. This exploratory study seeks to extend research that suggests a child’s intrinsic strengths may help mitigate the development of serious psychiatric symptoms for children experiencing multiple interfamilial victimizations. Utilizing a diverse clinical sample (N= 106) of children 7 to 18 years of age who were exposed to multiple family traumas or to non-interpersonal traumas, path analysis models (moderation, mediational, and moderated mediational) were employed across potential explanatory or attenuating demographic factors (age, ethnicity, and gender) to ascertain the associations between multiple interpersonal maltreatment types experienced, childs’ behavioral and emotional strengths, and their posttraumatic stress symptomatology and/or behavioral and emotional difficulty symptoms. / text