The articles appearing in this special section discuss the role that conscientiousness may play in healthy aging. Growing evidence suggests that conscientious individuals live longer and healthier lives. However, the question remains whether this personality trait can be leveraged to improve long-term health outcomes. We argue that even though it…

Skill-based Health Education is an approach to Health Education that is effective, interactive, engaging and meaningful. It focuses on skills and functional knowledge of health issues within a society. The importance of Health Education cannot be overemphasized as it plays significant role in preventing disease, prolonging life and protecting…

In two studies, the systematic approach to designing functional assessment-based interventions (FABIs) created by Umbreit, Ferro, Liaupsin, and Lane (2007) was used with high school students receiving special education services in self-contained classrooms reserved for students with persistent behavior problems. In Study 1, an AB design was used…

Background: Monitoring youth treatments requires outcome instruments sensitive to change. The Y-OQ and the Y-OQ-SR measure behavioral change during psychological treatment. Objective: The focus of this study was to compare treatment progress of youth in studies using the Youth Outcome Questionnaire (YOQ) or the Youth Outcome Questionnaire Self…

Aim: The aim of this study was to analyse experiences of a health promotion intervention implemented by the Therapeutic and Educational Unit at Villabona prison in Spain, which aimed to create drug-free spaces as part of a model of social rehabilitation. Design: As part of a larger participatory evaluation study concerning the efficacy of…

Video self-modeling is a powerful intervention that uses carefully planned and edited videos of self-imaging so students can view themselves performing a task, skill, or behavior at mastery. More than 45 years of research supports the efficacy of video self-modeling across an array of behaviors and disabilities, including: (1) Dysfluent speech;…

This case reports on a qualitative study that used grounded theory methodology to explore how interventions embedded in the principles of restorative justice contributed to a reduction in youth offending. These interventions were the focus of this study as it sought to elicit the perceptions of four Youth Offending Team workers about the merits of…

Phenomenological and cultural understandings of recovery from the perspective of individuals who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) are rare. The primary study objective was to understand similarities across three samples in (a) how young people define recovery from NSSI and (b) what they consider helpful approaches taken by parents and…

This study assessed the effectiveness of an attention intervention program (Computerized Progressive Attentional Training; CPAT) in improving academic performance of children with ASD. Fifteen 6-10 year olds with ASD attending a mainstream and a special school were assigned to an experimental (CPAT; n = 8) and active control (computer games; n =…

There is growing awareness of the importance of implementation fidelity and the supports, such as coaching, to optimize it. This study examined how coaching activities (i.e., check-ins, needs assessment, modeling, and technical assistance) related directly and indirectly to implementation dosage and quality of the PAX Good Behavior Game, via a…

Background: The evidence is limited comparing the effects of entertainment-education (E-E) narrative versus nonnarrative interventions to educate and motivate Latinas to engage in mammography screening. Aims: This study compared an E-E narrative intervention to two nonnarrative interventions' effects among Latinas on breast cancer knowledge and…

Previous research has suggested that early development may be an optimal period to implement cognitive training interventions, particularly those relating to attention control, a basic ability that is essential for the development of other cognitive skills. In the present study, we administered gaze-contingent training (95 min across 2 weeks)…

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often carry co-morbid diagnoses and present with impairing heterogeneous symptomatology (Leyfer et al. in "J Autism Dev Disord" 36(7): 849-861, 2006. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0123-0). However, research from controlled laboratory settings often fails to examine the vast number of…

In view of the theory that the attachment relationship provides a foundation for the development of emotion regulation, here, we evaluated (a) whether change in attachment security from 4 to 6 years predicts change in emotion regulation from 6 to 8 years and (b) whether "5-HTTLPR" moderates this relation in a Norwegian community sample…

Home food production plays a critical role in food security for residents of Trinidad and Tobago and around the world. The purpose of this study was to examine barriers and benefits that influence residents' engagement in or rejection of home food production to inform social marketing programs. To address study objectives, interviews were…