Disruptive behavior problems develop along multiple causal pathways and are associated with a wide variety of co-occurring problems, including mood disorders. In usual care, effective treatment practices for youth disruptive behavior might differ from what the efficacy research suggests, given treatment setting and population demographic…

To design PARTNER-MH, a peer-led, patient navigation program for implementation in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) mental health care settings, we conducted a pre-implementation evaluation during intervention development to assess stakeholders' views of the intervention and to explore implementation factors critical to its future adoption.…

Latino youth represent more than one quarter of the overall public school population in the United States. For decades, Latinos have been found to perform significantly lower than their peers in standardized academic and some social and emotional measures. A unique subpopulation of this ethnic group, Latino Youth of Immigration (LYOI), has…

Promoting healthy development for youth requires understanding the factors that predict positive outcomes. Although cognitive skills are important for student development, research has also identified social-emotional and behavioral growth as key developmental contributors. Social-emotional and behavioral skills, such as adaptability, emotional…

Student behavior within our school system has been and still is an area of concern. There are many different approaches to maintaining a healthy and safe culture for learning. Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) programs can have a powerful impact on schools. No matter the goal of the PBIS program, a school's climate and culture…

Nearly half of all U.S. students who declare science majors in college do not graduate with science degrees within six years. Improvements in science outcomes are linked with active-learning pedagogies such as Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). However, despite the need for education reform particularly in Alabama,…

This study had two research questions: how do special educators describe their experiences implementing mindfulness and their perceptions of its usefulness for students with autism spectrum disorder. Multiple data sources were used, including interviews, document analysis, and analytical memoing. A qualitative multiple-case descriptive case study…

Estimates indicate that transfer of newly learned knowledge and skills varies between 10% (Fitzpatrick, 2001) and 62% (Saks, 2002) despite organizations spending a significant amount of resources on training. The Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI; Bates et al., 2012; Holton et al., 2007) was developed to provide a consistent measurement…

Excessive drinking is commonplace among college students and can lead to numerous negative consequences. Alcohol expectancies are a well-studied correlate of alcohol consumption, and greater understanding of expectancies in relation to drinking behavior and alcohol-related consequences could inform future assessment and intervention. Past research…

Developmental education, in which college students deemed unprepared for college-level coursework enroll in non-credit bearing courses, is widespread in American higher education. The current study evaluates the effect of mobile app courseware on the college outcomes of developmental education students, using a research design which randomly…

Developmental education, in which college students deemed unprepared for college-level coursework enroll in non-credit-bearing courses, is widespread in American higher education. This study evaluates the effect of mobile app courseware on the college outcomes of developmental education students. We used a research design that randomly assigned…

The problem of vaping, or e-cigarette use, is of epidemic proportions in secondary schools in the United States, so administrators face the daunting challenge of dealing with it on their campuses and keeping students safe, healthy, and as focused as possible on learning. To address a gap in the existing literature, this phenomenological,…

The local problem under study was that a non-Title I school implemented a 25-minute response-to-intervention (RTI) remediation block to address the fact that students were scoring below proficiency on literacy assessments; however, teachers were unsure of how to best use this time to improve literacy instruction and were unsure which RTI…

Identifying early risk factors for the development of social anxiety symptoms has important translational implications. Accurately identifying which children are at the highest risk is of critical importance, especially if we can identify risk early in development. We examined continued risk for social anxiety symptoms at the transition to…

Intervention research in education investigates whether and how particular educational programs help students learn. Treatment effect heterogeneity, or variation in a program's impact, makes this effort more complicated, because it means more work must be done to understand what works, for whom, and in what contexts. This dissertation consists of…