The Homogeneity and Heterogeneity of Moral Functioning in Preschool.

The current study examined relations between distinct aspects of moral functioning, and their cognitive and emotional correlates, in preschool age children. Participants were 171 typically developing 3- to 6-year-olds. Each child completed several tasks, including (a) moral tasks assessing both performance of various moral actions and evaluations of moral scenarios presented both verbally and nonverbally; and (b) non-moral tasks assessing general cognitive skill, executive functioning, theory-of-mind, and emotion recognition. Shyness and empathic concern were assessed from video acquired during participation. Results demonstrated positive associations among distinct moral actions, as well as among distinct moral evaluation tasks, but few associations between tasks assessing moral actions and moral evaluation. Empathic concern and inhibitory control each emerged as important predictors of preschoolers' moral functioning.

Preliminary evaluation of an observational measure of group cohesion for group psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: Group psychotherapy research would benefit from an observational measure of group cohesion to complement existing self-report measures. This study introduces the Therapy Process Observational Coding System-Group Cohesion scale (TPOCS-GC), which observationally assesses cohesion between each member and the group. METHOD: In total 27 parents participated in a group parent-training social competency intervention for children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Independent coders double-coded group cohesion and the alliance in 144 client-sessions. Parents, teachers, and children completed cognitive, behavioral, and therapy participation measures. RESULTS: The TPOCS-GC demonstrated modest to strong item-level interrater reliability and acceptable internal consistency. Group cohesion evidenced moderate stability over the course of treatment. Relations between TPOCS-GC and theoretically linked and unrelated variables provided some evidence for construct and predictive validity. CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary study suggests that the TPOCS-GC is a reliable instrument that may help fill an instrumentation gap in the field.

Relationships between Social Information Processing and Aggression among Adolescent Girls with and without ADHD.

This study investigated the relationship between social information processing and both relational and physical aggression in a longitudinally-followed sample of 228 adolescent girls (ages 11-18; 140 with ADHD and 88 comparison girls). During childhood, girls participated in naturalistic summer camps where peer rejection, overt physical aggression, and relational aggression were assessed via multiple informants and methods. Approximately 4.5 years later, these girls participated in follow-up assessments during which they completed a commonly-used vignette procedure to assess social information processing; overt and relational aggression were again assessed through multiple informants. Correlations between (a) overt and relational aggression and (b) maladaptive social information processing were modest in this female adolescent sample. However, relationships between aggression and social information processing were stronger for the comparison girls than for the girls with ADHD. The relevance of social information processing models for adolescent girls and clinical implications of findings are discussed.

Social Skills Deficits in a Virtual Environment Among Spanish Children With ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: Research assessing the social skills of children with ADHD has predominantly relied upon North American samples. In addition, most existing work has been conducted using methodology that fails to use a controlled peer stimulus; such methods may be more vulnerable to cultural influence. METHOD: We examined the social skills of 52 Spanish children (ages 8-12) with and without ADHD using a controlled Chat Room Task, which simulates a virtual social environment where peers' responses are held constant, so that participants' social skills may be assessed. RESULTS: After statistical control of typing and reading comprehension skills, Spanish children with ADHD gave fewer prosocial comments and had greater difficulty remembering central details from the conversation between the peers, relative to comparison children. CONCLUSION: The virtual Chat Room Task may be useful to assess social skills deficits using a controlled paradigm, resulting in the identification of common social deficiencies cross-culturally.

Enhancing Secondary School Instruction and Student Achievement: Replication and Extension of the My Teaching Partner-Secondary Intervention.

My Teaching Partner-Secondary (MTP-S) is a web-mediated coaching intervention, which an initial randomized trial, primarily in middle schools, found to improve teacher-student interactions and student achievement. Given the dearth of validated teacher development interventions showing consistent effects, we sought to both replicate and extend these findings with a modified version of the program in a predominantly high school population, and in a more urban, sociodemographically diverse school district. MTP-S produced substantial gains in student achievement across 86 secondary school classrooms involving 1,194 students. Gains were robust across subject areas and equivalent to moving the average student from the 50th to the 59th percentile in achievement scores. Results suggest that MTP-S can enhance student outcomes across diverse settings and implementation modalities.

EFFECTS OF A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ON BEHAVIORAL ENGAGEMENT OF STUDENTS IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL.

Student behavioral engagement is a key condition supporting academic achievement, yet student disengagement in middle and high schools is all too common. The current study used a randomized controlled design to test the efficacy of the My Teaching Partner-Secondary program to increase behavioral engagement. The program offers teachers personalized coaching and systematic feedback on teachers' interactions with students, based on systematic observation of videorecordings of teacher-student interactions in the classroom. The study found that intervention teachers had significantly higher increases, albeit to a modest degree, in student behavioral engagement in their classrooms after 1 year of involvement with the program compared to the teachers in the control group (explaining 4% of variance). In exploratory analyses, two dimensions of teachers' interactions with students-their focus on analysis and problem solving during instruction and their use of diverse instructional learning formats-acted as mediators of increased student engagement. The findings offer implications for new directions in teacher professional development and for understanding the classroom as a setting for adolescent development.