Students as Prosocial Bystanders to Sexual Assault: Demographic Correlates of Intervention Norms, Intentions, and Missed Opportunities.

Sexual assault is a major public health issue. Bystander engagement programs are becoming widely used to combat sexual assault on college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine students' intervention norms, intentions, opportunities, and behaviors as bystanders to sexual assault. Undergraduate students (N = 779) completed the Sexual Assault Bystander Behavior Questionnaire in the fall of 2014. The t tests revealed differences in students' intervention norms, intentions, opportunities, and missed opportunities based on sex, race/ethnicity, athletic participation, and fraternity/sorority membership. The findings support the use of additional measures to assess bystander behavior and to identify student subpopulations that may benefit from programs aimed at increasing prosocial intervention.

Control, Norms, and Attitudes: Differences Between Students Who Do and Do Not Intervene as Bystanders to Sexual Assault.

Sexual assault is a major concern on the U.S. college campus. Engaging students as pro-social bystanders has become more common as a potentially effective mechanism for reducing the incidence of sexual assault and mitigating the harm of assaults that have already occurred. Understanding the influences of pro-social bystander behavior is imperative to developing effective programs, and the use of an evidence-based theoretical framework can help identify the differences between students who intervene and those who do not when presented with the opportunity. A sample of 815 undergraduate university students completed the Sexual Assault Bystander Behavior Questionnaire, a survey based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) that investigates students' perceived behavioral control to intervene, subjective norms that support intervening, attitudes toward intervening, and intent to intervene in the future. Two-tailed t tests revealed interveners reported significantly greater perceived behavioral control than non-interveners for eight of the 12 intervention behaviors, more supportive subjective norms than non-interveners for seven of the 12 intervention behaviors, more positive attitudes than non-interveners for only one of the 12 intervention behaviors, and greater intent to intervene in the future for six of the 12 intervention behaviors. Differences in the four TPB variables were not consistent for the 12 intervention behaviors. The use of a theoretical framework found to be effective in explaining-and changing-other health-related behaviors, and the inquiry into students' opportunities to intervene to compare against their reported intervention behaviors, is new to this body of literature and contributes to the understanding of the influences of pro-social bystander behavior.

Family-Centered Care Measurement and Associations With Unmet Health Care Need Among US Children.

OBJECTIVE: Family-centered care (FCC), including shared decision making (SDM), has become increasingly emphasized in pediatric health care delivery. Past studies using national surveys have used different FCC measurement approaches without determining their validity. We, therefore, sought to develop an FCC measurement model with Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) items previously used to assess FCC or SDM; and to determine temporal associations of FCC with unmet health care need. METHODS: Four longitudinal MEPS data files (2007-2011) were combined. The study sample included 15,764 US children aged 0 to 17 years. Eight items assessed FCC, and 5 items assessed unmet health care need. We performed exploratory factor analyses to develop an FCC measurement model and fit a cross-lagged structural equation model to determine temporal associations between FCC and unmet health care need. RESULTS: Results supported a 2-factor FCC model including family-provider communication and SDM. The family-provider communication factor was indicated by items reflecting general communication between the child's doctor and family. The SDM factor was indicated by items reflecting decision-making about the child's health care. Adjusted cross-lagged structural equation model results showed family-provider communication and SDM were associated with a reduced likelihood of unmet health care need the following year. Unmet health care need was not significantly associated with family-provider communication or SDM the subsequent year. CONCLUSIONS: Study results support differentiating between family-provider communication and SDM as interrelated aspects of FCC in future pediatric health care quality measurement and improvement. Family-provider communication and SDM may reduce the likelihood of unmet health care need the following year among US children.

Can Universal SEL Programs Benefit Universally? Effects of the Positive Action Program on Multiple Trajectories of Social-Emotional and Misconduct Behaviors.

Behavioral trajectories during middle childhood are predictive of consequential outcomes later in life (e.g., substance abuse, violence). Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are designed to promote trajectories that reflect both growth in positive behaviors and inhibited development of negative behaviors. The current study used growth mixture models to examine effects of the Positive Action (PA) program on behavioral trajectories of social-emotional and character development (SECD) and misconduct using data from a cluster-randomized trial that involved 14 schools and a sample of predominately low-income, urban youth followed from 3rd through 8th grade. For SECD, findings indicated that PA was similarly effective at improving trajectories within latent classes characterized as "high/declining" and "low/stable". Favorable program effects were likewise evident to a comparable degree for misconduct across observed latent classes that reflected "low/rising" and "high/rising" trajectories. These findings suggest that PA and perhaps other school-based universal SEL programs have the potential to yield comparable benefits across subgroups of youth with differing trajectories of positive and negative behaviors, making them promising strategies for achieving the intended goal of school-wide improvements in student outcomes.

Predictors of early growth in academic achievement: the head-toes-knees-shoulders task.

Children's behavioral self-regulation and executive function (EF; including attentional or cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control) are strong predictors of academic achievement. The present study examined the psychometric properties of a measure of behavioral self-regulation called the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) by assessing construct validity, including relations to EF measures, and predictive validity to academic achievement growth between prekindergarten and kindergarten. In the fall and spring of prekindergarten and kindergarten, 208 children (51% enrolled in Head Start) were assessed on the HTKS, measures of cognitive flexibility, working memory (WM), and inhibitory control, and measures of emergent literacy, mathematics, and vocabulary. For construct validity, the HTKS was significantly related to cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control in prekindergarten and kindergarten. For predictive validity in prekindergarten, a random effects model indicated that the HTKS significantly predicted growth in mathematics, whereas a cognitive flexibility task significantly predicted growth in mathematics and vocabulary. In kindergarten, the HTKS was the only measure to significantly predict growth in all academic outcomes. An alternative conservative analytical approach, a fixed effects analysis (FEA) model, also indicated that growth in both the HTKS and measures of EF significantly predicted growth in mathematics over four time points between prekindergarten and kindergarten. Results demonstrate that the HTKS involves cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control, and is substantively implicated in early achievement, with the strongest relations found for growth in achievement during kindergarten and associations with emergent mathematics.

Concordance of physical activity trajectories among middle-aged and older married couples: impact of diseases and functional difficulties.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined spousal concordance of physical activity trajectories among middle-aged and older married couples and the influences of recent diseases and functional difficulties on individuals' trajectories and those of their spouses'. METHOD: Participants included 5,074 married couples aged 50 or older in the Health and Retirement Study in 2004-2010. Participants were categorized into 4 physical activity trajectories (i.e., stable active, adopters, relapsers, and stable sedentary) using confirmatory latent class growth analysis. Individuals' trajectory memberships were predicted by their spouses' memberships, together with recent diseases and functional difficulties of both couple members. RESULTS: In the main, corresponding husbands' trajectories predicted wives' trajectories and vice versa. More functional difficulties predicted higher likelihoods of unfavorable trajectories among individuals but not of their spouses'. Among wives, more recent diseases predicted slightly more physical activity in subsequent data waves but not trajectory memberships. DISCUSSION: Results supported spousal concordance in physical activity trajectories. The negative impact of functional difficulties was considerably contained within individuals. Increases in physical activity after acquiring diseases among wives were small and short lived. More research is needed to understand the underlying processes, which can be used to improve the design of future physical activity interventions directed toward women, men, and couples.

Relations between Preschool Attention Span-Persistence and Age 25 Educational Outcomes.

This study examined relations between children's attention span-persistence in preschool and later school achievement and college completion. Children were drawn from the Colorado Adoption Project using adopted and non-adopted children (N = 430). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that children's age 4 attention span-persistence significantly predicted math and reading achievement at age 21 after controlling for achievement levels at age 7, adopted status, child vocabulary skills, gender, and maternal education level. Relations between attention span-persistence and later achievement were not fully mediated by age 7 achievement levels. Logistic regressions also revealed that age 4 attention span-persistence skills significantly predicted the odds of completing college by age 25. The majority of this relationship was direct and was not significantly mediated by math or reading skills at age 7 or age 21. Specifically, children who were rated one standard deviation higher on attention span-persistence at age 4 had 48.7% greater odds of completing college by age 25. Discussion focuses on the importance of children's early attention span-persistence for later school achievement and educational attainment.

Preventing negative behaviors among elementary-school students through enhancing students' social-emotional and character development.

PURPOSE: Examine the effects of a comprehensive, school-wide social-emotional and character development program using a positive youth development perspective. Specifically, we examined a mediation mechanism whereby positive academic-related behaviors mediated the intervention effects on substance use, violence, and sexual activity. DESIGN: Matched-pair, cluster-randomized, controlled design. SETTING: Twenty (10 intervention and 10 control) racially/ethnically diverse schools in Hawaii. SUBJECTS: Elementary-aged students (N = 1784) from grade 5. INTERVENTION: The Positive Action program. MEASURES: Students self-reported their academic behaviors, together with their substance use, violence, and voluntary sexual activity; teachers rated students' academic behaviors, substance use, and violence. ANALYSIS: Structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Students attending intervention schools reported significantly better academic behavior (B = .273, SE = .039, p < .001) and significantly less substance use (B = -.970, SE = .292, p < .01, incidence-rate ratio [IRR] = .379), violence (B = -1.410, SE = .296, p < .001, IRR = .244), and sexual activity (B = -2.415, SE = .608, p < .001, odds ratio = .089); boys reported more negative behaviors than girls. Intervention effects on student-reported substance use, violence, and sexual activity were mediated by positive academic behavior. Teacher reports corroborated these results, with rated academic behavior partially mediating the effects of the intervention on rated negative behaviors. CONCLUSION: This study (1) provides evidence that adds insight into one mechanism through which a social-emotional and character development program affects negative outcomes and (2) supports social-emotional and character development and positive youth development perspectives that posit that focusing on youths' assets may reduce negative behaviors.

Measuring behavioral regulation in four societies.

The present study examined the psychometric properties of scores from a direct measure of behavioral regulation, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS) with 3- to 6-year-old children in the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Specifically, we investigated (a) the nature and variability of HTKS scores, including relations to teacher-rated classroom behavioral regulation; and (b) relations between the HTKS and early mathematics, vocabulary, and literacy skills. Higher HTKS scores were significantly related to higher teacher ratings of classroom behavioral regulation in the United States and South Korea but not in Taiwan and China. Also, higher HTKS scores were significantly related to higher early mathematics, vocabulary, and literacy skills beyond the influence of demographic variables and teacher-rated classroom behavioral regulation. These initial findings suggest that HTKS scores may be interpreted as reflecting early behavioral regulation in these 4 societies and that behavioral regulation is important for early academic success in the United States and in Asian countries.

Effects of the Positive Action programme on problem behaviours in elementary school students: a matched-pair randomised control trial in Chicago.

This study examined the effects of the Positive Action (PA) programme in Chicago Public Schools on problem behaviours among a cohort of elementary school students from grade three through grade five. Using a matched-pair, randomised control design with 14 elementary schools, approximately 510 fifth-graders self-reported lifetime substance use, serious violence-related behaviour, and current bullying and disruptive behaviours. Three-level (i.e. students nested within schools within school pairs) overdispersed Poisson models were used to examine programme effects on the number of items endorsed for each of the four outcomes. Findings indicated that students in the intervention endorsed 31% fewer substance use behaviours (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.69), 37% fewer violence-related behaviours (IRR = 0.63) and 41% fewer bullying behaviours (IRR = 0.59), respectively, compared to students in the control schools. Reduction in reported disruptive behaviours was of a similar magnitude (27%, IRR = 0.73), but was not statistically significant. These results replicate findings of an earlier randomised trial of the PA programme and extend evidence of its effectiveness to youth attending large urban school systems.

School climate and teachers' beliefs and attitudes associated with implementation of the positive action program: a diffusion of innovations model.

Teacher- and school-level factors influence the fidelity of implementation of school-based prevention and social character and development (SACD) programs. Using a diffusion of innovations framework, the relationships among teacher beliefs and attitudes towards a prevention/SACD program and the influence of a school's administrative support and perceptions of school connectedness, characteristics of a school's climate, were specified in two cross-sectional mediation models of program implementation. Implementation was defined as the amount of the programs' curriculum delivered (e.g., lessons taught), and use of program-specific materials in the classroom (e.g., ICU boxes and notes) and in relation to school-wide activities (e.g., participation in assemblies). Teachers from 10 elementary schools completed year-end process evaluation reports for year 2 (N = 171) and 3 (N = 191) of a multi-year trial. Classroom and school-wide material usage were each favorably associated with the amount of the curriculum delivered, which were associated with teachers' attitudes toward the program which, in turn, were related to teachers' beliefs about SACD. These, in turn, were associated with teachers' perceptions of school climate. Perceptions of school climate were indirectly related to classroom material usage and both indirectly and directly related to the use of school-wide activities. Program developers need to consider the importance of a supportive environment on program implementation and attempt to incorporate models of successful school leadership and collaboration among teachers that foster a climate promoting cohesiveness, shared visions, and support.