Julie C. Rusby

Relationships between Peer Harassment and Adolescent Problem Behaviors.

Concurrent and predictive relationships between peer harassment and problem behavior were examined for middle and high school students as well as gender differences in these relationships. Students recruited in fifth through seventh grades (n = 223) and their parents provided quarterly questionnaire data and were followed up into high school. As hypothesized, experiencing frequent peer harassment in middle school was associated with greater problem behavior concurrently and prospectively into high school. Students experiencing frequent harassment exhibited more aggressive and antisocial behavior and were more likely to associate with deviant peers and use cigarettes during middle school than those experiencing some or no harassment. In regression analyses, frequent verbal harassment predicted antisocial behavior, alcohol use, and deviant peer association in high school, and frequent physical harassment predicted later antisocial behavior, aggression, deviant peer association, and multiple problem behavior. Gender interactions were found for prediction of later aggressive and antisocial behavior.

Training Needs and Challenges of Family Child Care Providers

The quality of experiences in child care has significant, lasting impact on childrens development. With the growing number of young children attending child care homes, it is imperative to provide a safe environment which nurtures their development. In efforts to offer family child care providers with useful education and resources, this descriptive study summarizes the results of a survey of 178 family child care providers on their training needs. Focus group feedback from family child care providers attending training workshops on safety, environmental arrangements, and proactive behavior management is also described. The caregivers reported that training in behavior management has the highest priority. Participants described a need for low-cost training in the evening or on weekends that is relevant to family child care settings with one caregiver serving children of varying ages.

The Value of Workshops on Psychological Flexibility for Early Childhood Special Education Staff.

High stress and burnout are common for early childhood special educators, contributing to high rates of attrition, diminished educational effectiveness, and high turnover. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a promising approach for the prevention and treatment of a wide variety of problems. Using a randomized wait-list control design, this pilot study evaluated whether ACT workshops delivered to preschool teachers who serve children with developmental disabilities would improve stress-related problems of teachers (i.e., stress, depression, and burnout) and increase collegial support. At pretest, measures of experiential avoidance (EA) and mindful awareness (MA) showed significant relationships to reports of depression, stress, and burnout. The intervention reduced staff members’ EA, increased teachers’ MA and valued living (VL), and improved teachers’ sense of efficacy. This suggests that ACT workshops can help influence factors affecting depression, stress, and burnout in an early childhood special education setting.

Observations of the middle school environment: The context for student behavior beyond the classroom

This article describes the use of an observation system to measure middle-school staff practices, environment characteristics, and student behavior in the school common areas. Data were collected at baseline from 18 middle schools participating in a randomized controlled trial of school-wide Positive Behavior Support. The observations were reliable and showed sensitivity to differences between school settings and between schools. Multilevel models with students nested in schools were used to examine the associations of staff practices and the school environment with student behavior. Less effective behavior management and more staff criticism, graffiti, and percentage of low-income students were associated with student problem behaviors. Greater use of effective behavior management and positive attention, and fewer low-income students were associated with positive student behavior. The use of data-based feedback to schools for intervention planning and monitoring is illustrated. Implications for school-wide efforts to improve student behavior in middle schools are discussed. This article reports on an observation system for measuring middle-school staff practices, environment characteristics, and student behavior in school common areas. The observation system was developed to measure the outcomes of school-wide interventions aimed at improving middle-school practices and environmental characteristics in an effort to decrease problem behaviors and increase positive behaviors in middle-school students. Almost two thirds of aggressive incidents at school occur outside of the classroom in a school common area (Lockwood, 1997). Middle-school students feel particularly unsafe in school areas that are lacking adult supervision (Astor, Meyer, & Pitner, 2001). The observation system therefore focuses on common areas of the school―places where students spend time before and after school starts, during passing times between classes, and during school breaks―such as hallways, the cafeteria, outdoor areas, the gym or game room, and school entryways and bus areas. The aims of this article are to describe the observation system procedures, reliability, and sensitivity to detect differences and to examine associations of observed staff practices and school environment characteristics with student behavior. The use of such descriptive and correlational information from baseline data can inform researchers and educators about potential mechanisms of school-wide efforts for student behavior improvement.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder toward Adults and Oppositional Defiant Disorder toward Peers: Initial Evidence for Two Separate Constructs.

Confirmatory factor analysis of 25 items on the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory (CADBI, Version 2.3; G. L. Burns, T. K. Taylor, & J. C. Rusby, 2001) was conducted on teacher ratings of 824 kindergarten children and replicated on 534 children. Model fit was improved when correcting for 2 method effects: (a) adjacent items and (b) identical behaviors (e.g., argues with adults, argues with peers). The results show that the 25 items loaded on 3 distinct but correlated factors: Hyperactivity, Oppositional to Adults, and Oppositional to Peers. These more refined constructs from the CADBI may be useful for practitioners in identifying children who are at risk and for helping define appropriate contexts in which to intervene. The CADBI and analytic procedures also may contribute to future psychoeducational research on the development of problem behavior.

Does substance use moderate the association of neighborhood disadvantage with perceived stress and safety in the activity spaces of urban youth

BACKGROUND This study investigates the association of activity space-based exposure to neighborhood disadvantage with momentary perceived stress and safety, and the moderation of substance use on those associations, among a sample of 139 urban, primarily African American, adolescents. METHOD Geospatial technologies are integrated with Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to capture exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and perceived stress and safety in the activity space. A relative neighborhood disadvantage measure for each subject is calculated by conditioning the neighborhood disadvantage observed at the EMA location on that of the home neighborhood. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) are used to model the effect of relative neighborhood disadvantage on momentary perceived stress and safety, and the extent to which substance use moderates those associations. RESULTS Relative neighborhood disadvantage is significantly associated with higher perceived stress, lower perceived safety, and greater substance use involvement. The association of relative neighborhood disadvantage with stress is significantly stronger among those with greater substance use involvement. CONCLUSION This research highlights the value of integrating geospatial technologies with EMA and developing personalized measures of environmental exposure for investigating neighborhood effects on substance use, and suggests substance use intervention strategies aimed at neighborhood conditions. Future research should seek to disentangle the causal pathways of influence and selection that relate neighborhood environment, stress, and substance use, while also accounting for the role of gender and family and peer social contexts.

Psychosocial Correlates of Physical and Sedentary Activities of Early Adolescent Youth

This study examines physical and sedentary activities of early adolescent boys and girls using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), a method that can link mood and behaviors in specific social situations. Twenty-seven assessments were collected across 7 days from 82 participating adolescents, three times in seventh grade and one time in eighth grade. Assessments were completed during nonschool hours when youth had “free time.” Gender differences, longitudinal trends, and associations of physical activities (PA) and small screen recreation (SSR) with moods and peer presence are examined. Boys were engaged in PA more than girls. Patterns of PA differed by gender; boys significantly decreased PA from seventh to eighth grade, whereas girls had increased PA only during the spring. PA was associated with happier mood and was more likely to occur in the presence of peers. SSR significantly increased from seventh grade to eighth grade for both boys and girls. SSR occurred more when youth were alone and was not associated with mood. Neither PA nor SSR was more likely to occur during weekdays or weekends. Implications for intervention efforts to increase PA in youth are discussed.

Promoting Positive Social Development in Family Childcare Settings

The quality of experiences in childcare has significant, lasting impact on children&s social development. With the growing number of young children being served in family childcare settings, it is imperative that the care provides a quality environment that nurtures children&s social development. Empirically supported interventions that specifically target family childcare, however, are lacking. The development and evaluation of a video-based program aimed at training family childcare providers in setting up their childcare environment to promote social development in young children is described. Forty-two family childcare providers were randomly assigned to an intervention group and a wait-list control group. A majority of the participants felt they learned some to very much new, practical information and said they found the interactive discussions particularly helpful. This study illustrates the feasibility of doing training and evaluation research in family childcare settings.

Multiple Levels and Modalities of Measurement in a Population-Based Approach to Improving Parenting

The goal of a public health approach to improving parenting is to increase the prevalence of effective parenting practices in a population. Achieving this goal requires that a large proportion of the population be reached with a spectrum of effective parenting supports, widely accessible in the community, and delivered in a variety of formats, through a variety of settings, and at different levels of intensity. Similarly, measuring the effectiveness of such a public health approach to improving parenting requires a spectrum of measurement tools at multiple levels so that child and family outcomes can be assessed at multiple levels of intervention. The levels of measurement include: (1) micro-focused observational measures, (2) easy-to-administer parent survey measures, (3) population-level prevalence indicators, and (4) program implementation measures. This chapter discusses these four levels of measurement, providing examples of each and exploring the contribution that each makes to a public health strategy.

Influence of parent–youth relationship, parental monitoring, and parent substance use on adolescent substance use onset.

The quality of parent–child relationships likely influences many decisions and behaviors made by early adolescents, including their alcohol and marijuana use. We examined how parent–youth relationship quality, parental monitoring, and parent substance use were associated with initiation of alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use by 400 adolescents by the spring of 8th grade (ages 13–14), and changes in initiation through 9th grade (assessed 3 times; fall, winter, and spring). We measured both parent and adolescent report of parent–youth relationship quality and parental monitoring, expecting that both perspectives would uniquely contribute. Discrete Time Survival models showed that youth report of both a poorer parent–youth relationship and lower parental monitoring were associated with alcohol use, binge drinking, and marijuana use onset. Parent binge drinking also predicted youth alcohol onset and parent report of poor quality relationship predicted marijuana onset. Youth report of a poor relationship with parents was a stronger predictor for girls than boys on their alcohol use onset, and youth report of parental monitoring was more protective for girls than boys for both alcohol and marijuana use onset. Implications for preventing use of these substances during early and mid-adolescence are discussed.