The study examines students' skills at kindergarten entry and gains in skills across the kindergarten through first-grade period (pre-COVID-19) for predicting literacy, language, math, inhibitory control, and social-adjustment outcomes in the spring of fourth grade, after schools reopened. In a large US school district, longitudinal data were…

In the fall of 2019, 3,355 10-year-old students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) students participated in the Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), part of an international effort led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with Houston serving as the only U.S. site. This report provides a…

This study examined relations among peer acceptance, inhibitory control, and math achievement in ninety-nine 4th and 5th grade early adolescents. Teachers rated students on peer acceptance and students completed a computerized executive function task assessing inhibitory control. Math achievement was assessed via end of year math grades. Results…

This action research study (ARS) describes the effectiveness of small group social skills lessons with elementary students, using "Too Good for Violence: A Curriculum for Non-violent Living" by the Mendez Foundation. The school counselor and school social worker taught the curriculum in a structured small group of 4th grade students in 8…

This quasi-experimental exploratory study investigated whether a social-emotional learning program, implemented during a 1-year period, could lead to gains in social-emotional competencies and a reduction in internalizing and externalizing problems. Furthermore, it showed which pupils would benefit most from the program. The program was applied to…

Early aggression is a problem in its own right and a risk factor for further developmental problems. Although both effortful control and social information processing (SIP) skills are negatively associated with aggression and are targeted by aggression prevention programs, little is known about the relation between them or about their joint…

Cross-age peer mentoring programs, in which teenagers mentor younger children, have proliferated in recent years, yet there is disagreement about the effectiveness of such programs. This study tested whether teen mentors' attitudes about children interact with their mentees' characteristics to moderate outcomes of cross-age peer mentoring. The…

This study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) to examine how children's skills and knowledge at kindergarten entry predict their achievement in later grades. It extends previous research by examining longer-term achievement outcomes, namely test scores at the end of fifth grade, and…