The effects of covert audio coaching, a form of performance feedback delivered remotely through a two-way radio and earbud speaker, was examined on the classroom attending behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Four elementary-aged students with ASD participated. This study was conducted in a private, separate day school for…

The overall purpose of this study was to examine children's physical activity (PA) during primary physical education (PE). This was achieved through the following two research objectives: (1) to measure children's PA, lesson context and teacher promotion of PA during PE lessons; and (2) to explore teachers' and children's perspectives on PA levels…

Food Talk: Better U (FTBU) is a healthful weight management curriculum developed by the University of Georgia's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) team. FTBU addresses the high burden of obesity among low-income Georgians by focusing on healthful weight management practices. Topics include practicing portion control,…

Background: An adaptation of multisystemic therapy (MST) was piloted to find out whether it would yield better outcomes than standard MST in families where the adolescent not only shows antisocial or delinquent behaviour, but also has an intellectual disability. Method: To establish the comparative effectiveness of MST-ID (n = 55) versus standard…

Background: The health of children is undeniably important. Especially with the soaring epidemic of childhood overweight and obesity, physical health is a large concern. Emotional health is also an area of great significance, because it is essential to overall health. Children's health promotion interventions have been developed and implemented;…

Introduction: African women who migrate to the USA have a rich tradition of using herbs and spices to promote health. We conducted formative research on nutritional practices among East and North African women in the USA, focusing on whether traditional herbs and spices could support adherence to the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans."…

This preliminary research examined the effectiveness of an app-based classroom counseling intervention on student social skill development. Two kindergarten classrooms in a high-poverty school were randomly assigned to receive social skills training as usual (TAU) or TAU plus intervention. Teachers completed the Social Skills Improvement System…

When a child doesn't respond to initial attempts to improve behavior, the first response is to try again. When that still doesn't work, teachers might do something else, and keep trying until they run through an entire repertoire of ideas. When they still don't get what they want, teachers begin to think: "What's wrong with this child?"…

Morbidity and mortality related to chronic diseases are a primary concern of health professionals, including Health Educators. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one half of the adult population in the United States suffer from one or more chronic conditions. Understanding the health risk behaviors that contribute to…

This study involved the development of the Stages of Change in Relationship Status (SOCRS) measure in 2 samples of college students. This scale is designed to measure how individuals progress through stages of change when terminating violent and nonviolent intimate relationships. Results indicated that the SOCRS is a reliable and valid tool to…

Witnessing violence can negatively affect students' outcomes, but their friendships may mitigate those effects. This study investigated the extent to which seeing someone shot in the last year related to seven school-related outcomes. Additionally, it examined the extent to which prosocial and deviant friends moderate these relationships. This…

Leadership strategies for school turnaround and how to prioritize improvement efforts seem to lack a clear pattern for leaders of failing schools. The purpose of this study was to determine successful leadership strategies and methods for school turnaround and how best to prioritize the efforts by surveying a panel of experts through a Delphi…

Background: The Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adolescent substance use. Objectives: We examined mechanisms by which a TTI-guided social-emotional and character development program, "Positive Action" (PA), influences adolescent substance use. Study data come from the PA-Chicago,…

We compared the effectiveness of a "stepped care" approach with increasing treatment intensity ("Step Care") to one with repeated treatments ("Recycle") among cigarette smokers interested in quitting smoking. Step 1 of the Step Care intervention consisted of a single counseling session, nicotine patch for six weeks…

Interventions based on functional analyses may result in better treatment outcomes than those using arbitrary reinforcers. However, functional analyses may be impractical in some situations, or an immediate intervention may be necessary while a functional analysis is being conducted. In these situations, delivering the social reinforcers most…