Truancy is a common problem facing nearly all high schools across the nation (Baker, Sigmon, & Nugent,2001). Although estimating national truancy prevalence rates is difficult due to inconsistent definitions most current national surveys have found that 4.3% of 9th grade students, 7.5% of 10th grade students, 8.7% of 11th grade students, and 13%…

The purpose of this study was to identify what southwestern area high school principals reported as the enactment of school crisis plans as described in the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA (CMHS, 2008), "Resource Aid: Responding to a Crisis at School." The conceptual framework guiding the study was an adaptation of the Crisis…

This invited commentary seeks to encourage a critical dialogue about youth homelessness that might assist in re-energizing a field that seems increasingly stagnant with a research body focused primarily on analyses of risk, hopelessly inadequate policy frameworks in most cities, diminishing funds for services, and decreasing media attention.…

The substantial increase in the enrollment of women in batterer intervention programs (BIPs) over the past 30 years has greatly outpaced research on women who perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV). As a result, it is unknown whether existing programs, which were originally designed to treat male perpetrators, are effective at preventing…

Community coalitions are a recognized strategy for addressing pressing public health problems. Despite the promise of coalitions as an effective prevention strategy, results linking coalition efforts to positive community outcomes are mixed. To date, research has primarily focused on determining organizational attributes related to successful…

Programmatic social interventions attempt to produce appropriate social-norm-guided behavior in an open environment. A marriage of applicable psychological theory, appropriate program evaluation theory, and outcome of evaluations of specific social interventions assures the acquisition of cumulative theory and the production of successful social…

Background: Several studies stress the importance of alcohol-specific rules during adolescence to prevent them from drinking early and heavily. However, most studies have short follow-up periods and do not cover the relevant developmental period in which direct parental control diminishes and adolescent alcohol use increases. The current study…

Although numerous studies have established a link between alcohol use and partner violence in adulthood, little research has examined this relation during adolescence. The current study used multivariate growth models to examine relations between alcohol use and dating aggression across Grades 8 through 12, controlling for shared risk factors…

This article explores how teachers can foster an environment that facilitates social problem solving when toddlers experience conflict, emotional dysregulation, and aggression. This article examines differences in child development and self-regulation outcomes when teachers engage in problem solving "for" toddlers and problem solving "with"…

Increasing the number of bone marrow (BM) donors is important to ensure sufficient diversity on BM registries to meet the needs of patients. This study used an experimental approach to test the hypothesis that providing information about the risks of BM donation to allay unsubstantiated fears would reduce male and female participants' perceptions…

Understanding of preadolescent sexuality is limited. To help fill this gap, we calculated frequencies, percentages, and confidence intervals for 1,096 preadolescents' reports of sexual thoughts, intentions, and sexual behavior. Cochran-Armitage trend tests accounted for age effects. Findings show that 9-year-olds are readying for sexual activity,…

In this commentary on the special series, I argue that whereas a zero-tolerance approach to school discipline is "something stupid" (Kauffman & Brigham, 2000) the use of suspension might not be. Despite its limitations, suspension and other forms of punishment serve as effective deterrents of behavior problems for most children, especially when…

School bullying is a serious problem. It is associated with negative effects for bullies, targets, and bystanders. Bullying is related to school shootings, student suicides, and poor academic outcomes. Yet, this issue cannot be solved by way of simple, one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, school bullying is a complex, systemic issue that requires…

Sexual abuse of individuals with disabilities occurs in alarming proportions, although the prevalence and incidence of such abuse is difficult to determine. Although all states maintain statistics on child sexual abuse, the rate of victimization for individuals with disabilities is not specific. This paper reviews several studies conducted on…

The purpose of this study is to identify factors associated with adolescent alcohol or drug (AOD) abuse/dependence, mental health and co-occurring problems, as well as factors associated with access to treatment. This is a secondary analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) 2000. The 12-month prevalence rate of…