This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief Alcohol Expectancy Challenge, with the aim of reducing the prevalence of alcohol consumption amongst Maltese teenagers.119 students were randomly allocated to a control or a 3-hour expectancy challenge session. Alcohol consumption and alcohol expectancies were investigated via a…

The efficacy of attention training paradigms is influenced by many factors, including the specificity of targeted cognitive processes, accuracy of outcome measures, accessibility to specialized populations, and adaptability to user capability. These issues are increasingly significant when working with children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental…

This study examined the treatment efficacy of "PEERS"® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) among Chinese adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Hong Kong. The original "PEERS"® manual was translated into Chinese, and cultural adjustments were made according to a survey among 209 local…

This study aimed to assess the impact of educational intervention, based on health belief model (HBM) and collaborative learning techniques on diet quality in adolescents. In this field trial study, 311 students aged 13-15 years old were included, of which 163 and 148 allocated in the experimental and comparison groups, respectively. They were…

Evidence suggests that moderate physical activity (PA) positively relates to creativity and emotional intelligence (EI) in adolescents. However, it is unknown whether cooperative PA (physical exercises in pairs or small groups to enhance motivation, self-efficacy, and pro-social behaviours), performed over less time but at higher intensity, could…

Seventh- and 8th-grade students in a within-teacher randomized control study read from visual-syntactic formatted text for 44 min per week over the course of 1 year. On the annual state assessment, we found small statistically significant improvements on the overall English Language Arts scaled score (ES = 0.05, p < 0.05) and the writing…

Schools currently face problems in preparing students for their post-secondary pursuits. The current job market remains unsaturated and almost half of all students that attend college end up dropping out. Almost a third of the students that do graduate end up working in a field unrelated to their course of study and college costs and debt are on…

This study compared immediate and 4-month outcomes among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder randomly assigned to the PEERS curriculum (n = 10), a peer mediated PEERS curriculum (n = 12), or a delayed treatment control group (n = 12). Findings suggest a modest advantage in social skills knowledge and social functioning for participants in…

Purpose: This study documented the efficacy of visual-acoustic biofeedback intervention for residual rhotic errors, relative to a comparison condition involving traditional articulatory treatment. All participants received both treatments in a single-subject experimental design featuring alternating treatments with blocked randomization of…

This study examined the effectiveness of a brief theory-based intervention on muscular strength among adolescents in a physical education setting. The intervention adopted a process-based mental simulation technique. The self-reported frequency of practising for and actual levels of abdominal muscular strength/endurance as one component of…

Background: An Internet-based relapse prevention supplement to adolescent substance abuse treatment programming is a promising modality to reinforce treatment gains and enhance recovery; however, an evidence base is lacking. Objective: To assess the efficacy of the online Navigating my Journey (NmJ) program. Methods: 129 adolescent-aged…

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a randomized controlled trial of a social skills intervention, the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in "J Autism Dev Disord" 39(4): 596-606, 2009), by coding digitally recorded social interactions between adolescent participants with…

This study investigated the psychosocial adjustment and anxiety of adolescents during a 7-month exercise intervention programme. In addition, extensive research on the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents during intense physical activity was performed. The experimental group included adolescent girls (n = 110) and boys (n = 107) aged between 14…

There are few high-quality studies using randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the adventure and wilderness therapy literature. Thus, a unison call is heard for more such studies to be carried out. This article presents a Norwegian wilderness therapy research project that planned to incorporate this "gold standard" that is regarded as…

The present study evaluated long-term effects of a home-based smoking prevention program targeting smoking-specific parenting in families with children with and without asthma. A total of 1398 non-smoking children ("mean age" 10.1) participated, of which 197 (14.1%) were diagnosed with asthma. Families were blinded to group assignment.…