Using a positive psychological framework, Broaden-and-Build Theory, we investigated whether and how positive and negative emotions (affective factors) and cognitive flexibility are related to flourishing. Participants are 151 bilingual adults from diverse backgrounds enrolled in a local community college. Results showed that both positive and…

Objective: This cross-sectional study examined correlations between physical activity and anthropometrics as well as sleep quality and anthropometrics. Participants College students (n = 85) with average age 25.6 ± 5.4 years. Methods Participants received full-body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans and completed validated surveys: Habitual…

As technology use continues to rapidly increase, so too does consumer use of web-based resources. While important, accessibility is often overemphasized by users when consuming and evaluating web resources. This prioritization may have particularly negative consequences for the selection of supports or interventions in educational settings. This…

Depression is a risk factor for suicide in adolescents making it essential for school nurses to identify and refer at-risk adolescents for resources. At the project site, there is no current practice to routinely assess for adolescent depression. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental quality improvement project was to determine if…

Viewed through a social justice lens, preschool expulsion is an educational equity issue. This study focused on prior expulsion from preschool and child-care in a longitudinal study of 203 autistic children, ages 4 to 7. By parent report, 16%--one out of six autistic children--had been expelled from a preschool or child-care setting prior to…

There has recently been a great deal of theoretical interest in the relevance of the intellectual virtues for education, including undergraduate education. This study introduces a novel online module, as part of a larger university-wide initiative, to introduce and potentially inculcate intellectual virtue in students. Using a non-experimental…

Public discourse often frames the value of undergraduate education in financial terms--credentialing and increased earning power. Students must prepare to be self-supporting, but are financial prospects their only important goals? We asked 1,500 students from 11 U.S. colleges to write about their goals, the reasons their goals were important, and…

We illustrate the application of mixture IRT [item response theory] models to evaluate the possibility of respondent confusion due to the negative wording of certain items on a social-emotional learning (SEL) assessment. Using actual student self-report ratings on four social-emotional learning scales collected from students in grades 3-12 from…

We illustrate the application of mixture IRT models to evaluate respondent confusion due to the negative wording of certain items on a social-emotional learning (SEL) assessment. Using actual student self-report ratings on four social-emotional learning scales collected from students in grades 3-12 from CORE Districts in the state of California,…

The use of the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) to improve early childhood education program quality is based in part on assumptions that the quality of programs can be measured and that quality ratings are associated with meaningful differences in learning outcomes for children. This report reviews all of the state QRIS validation…

This study of over 100 kindergarten through 12th grade teachers in southern California focused on the exploration of teacher spirituality, specifically relationship with God and spiritual connection to others, through investigating its predictive role on teacher self-efficacy, specifically efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies,…

Given the steady increase of students from diverse backgrounds in the U.S. educational system, in particular immigrant and Latino students, it is important to consider how to best support all students within our schools. The present study focuses on the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition (BASC-2) Behavioral and Emotional…

Research Findings: The quality of group care infants and toddlers experience relates to their concurrent and later development. Recent quality improvement initiatives point to the need for ecologically valid measures that assess the multifaceted nature of child care quality. In this article, we present the psychometric properties of an infant and…

Life span developmental psychology proposes that the ability to create a coherent life narrative does not develop until early adolescence. Using a novel methodology, 10-, 12-, and 14-year-old participants were asked to tell their life stories aloud to a researcher. Later, participants separated their transcribed narratives into self-identified…

This paper proposes three new measures of components STEM career preferences (affinity, certainty, and goal), and then explores which dimensions of "science learning activation" (fascination, values, competency belief, and scientific sensemaking) are predictive of STEM career preferences. Drawn from the ALES14 dataset, a sample of 2938…