Robert Bostrom's seminal contributions to listening theory and research represent an impressive legacy and provide listening scholars with important perspectives on the complexities of listening cognition and behavior. Bostrom's work provides a solid foundation on which to build models that more realistically explain how listeners function…

The purpose of this compendium is to catalog NCER's and NCSER's contributions to social-behavioral research. Research undertaken as part of these projects is contributing to a knowledge base that ultimately aims to improve academic outcomes for students via improvements in students' social-behavioral competencies, teachers' practices, and the…

Facilitating successful focus groups requires both science and art. One element that can fully challenge focus group facilitators includes how to handle the unfocused focus group. This article describes "unfocus" and the benefits and disadvantages of unfocus in focus groups. Lessons learned from and approaches taken on this journey are shared to…

Leadership is a multifaceted construct. It requires mentoring as a lifelong experience. Leadership is not an isolated phenomenon, but an activity completely interrelated with those one leads. It can never be separated from its essential community or organizational context. This makes the experience of mentoring all the more critical. Adding yet to…

The number of children with autism served in early intervention or the public school system appears to be growing at an alarming rate. This article provides a basis for understanding this dramatic increase. In addition, the authors present a brief overview of the characteristics of autism, research on early behavioral indicators of infants and…

The strengths and weaknesses of behavioral couple therapy (BCT) are well documented and disseminated, and this couple therapy approach continues to evolve. Newer behaviorally based approaches share an openness to integration and can enhance the ability of BCT to address three key process-related variables: the therapeutic alliance, hope, and…

A recent approach to dealing with adolescent problems is social skills training, which emphasizes specific prosocial alternative responses for problematic situational interactions. Research has shown that social skills training has positive outcomes. However, it is not known whether an emphasis on the cognitive might enhance maintenance and…

Close relationships among children and adolescents are ordinarily considered to encompass friendliness and fun. Recent studies, however, reveal that many friendships have dark sides consisting of competitiveness, hostility, and conflict. Relationships based on aversion and antipathy may turn out to have major developmental implications, but more…