Peers' Emotionality and Children's Academic Achievement in Second Grade: Testing the Moderating Role of Children's Behavioral Self-Regulation.

Although there is interest in the role of peers in children's schooling experiences, few researchers have examined associations and related underlying processes between peers' emotionality, an aspect of temperament, and children's academic achievement. This study evaluated whether target children's ( = 260) own self-regulation, assessed with two behavioral measures, served a moderating function for associations between peers' emotionality and children's own academic achievement in second grade. There was a positive association between peers' positive emotionality and reading scores for children with higher self-regulation.

Streamlined pediatric anxiety program for school mental health services.

There needs to be serious transformation of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) into real-world solutions; otherwise, EBIs will never achieve the intended public health impact. In a randomized trial, we reported effects of a redesigned anxiety program. Herein, we described the redesign process that led to the program.

Longitudinal relations between behavioral engagement and academic achievement: The moderating roles of socio-economic status and early achievement.

This study investigated developmental trajectories of observationally coded engagement across the early elementary years and whether these trajectories were associated with children's academic achievement. Furthermore, we evaluated if these relations varied as a function of children's family socio-economic status and early reading and math skills. Data were collected from 301 children who were studied from kindergarten (M = 65.

Brief, Non-Pharmacological, Interventions for Pediatric Anxiety: Meta-Analysis and Evidence Base Status.

In 1998, Ost published [One-session treatment of specific phobias-a rapid and effective method] [in Swedish] giving rise to the idea that brief, intensive, and concentrated psychosocial interventions could exhibit public health impact. At this juncture, and per criteria of the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, there are data supporting that brief, non-pharmacological intervention [prescriptions] for pediatric anxiety can be considered well-established or probably efficacious. In addition, data from 76 randomized controlled trials ( = 17,203 youth) yield an overall mean effect size of 0.

Streamlined Prevention and Early Intervention for Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

There is a need to optimize the fit between psychosocial interventions with known efficacy and the demands of real-word service delivery settings. However, adaptation of evidence-based interventions (EBI) raises questions about whether effectiveness can be retained. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluated a streamlined package of cognitive, behavior, and social skills training strategies known to prevent and reduce anxiety symptom and disorder escalation in youth.

Prediction of Children's Early Academic Adjustment from Their Temperament: The Moderating Role of Peer Temperament.

The goal of the study was to examine whether target children's temperamental negative emotional expressivity (NEE) and effortful control in the fall of kindergarten predicted academic adjustment in the spring and whether a classmate's NEE and effortful control moderated these relations. Target children's NEE and effortful control were measured in the fall via multiple methods, academic adjustment was measured via reading and math standardized tests in the spring, and observations of engagement in the classroom were conducted throughout the year. In the fall, teachers nominated a peer with whom each target child spent the most time and rated that peer's temperament.

Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions for Ethnic Minority Youth: The 10-Year Update.

This is the official update on the status of evidence-based psychosocial interventions for ethnic minority youth. Compared to a decade ago, there has been expansion of well-designed intervention studies, growth in the number (not type) of interventions meeting evidence-based criteria, and greater focus on testing ethnicity/race moderator effects. In terms of standard of evidence, 4 psychosocial interventions are now well-established and 10 are probably efficacious or possibly efficacious, with most protocols drawing on cognitive and behavioral change procedures and/or family systems models.

Trajectories of the Expression of Negative Emotion from Kindergarten to First Grade: Associations with Academic Outcomes.

We examined individual trajectories, across four time points, of children's ( = 301) expression of negative emotion in classroom settings and whether these trajectories predicted their observed school engagement, teacher-reported academic skills, and passage comprehension assessed with a standardized measure in first grade. In latent growth curve analyses, negative expressivity declined from kindergarten to first grade with significant individual differences in trajectories. Negative expressivity in kindergarten inversely predicted first grade school engagement and teacher-reported academic skills, and the slope of negative expressivity from kindergarten to first grade inversely predicted school engagement (e.

Reluctance to express emotion explains relation between cognitive distortions and social competence in anxious children.

Guided by social information processing and affective social competence models, the focal objective of this research was to examine the relations among anxious children's cognitive distortions, social skill competence, and reluctance to express emotion. In addition, we explored whether children's attention control played any meaningful role. Using a sample of 111 anxious children (M  = 9.

Usability of a Smartphone Application to Support the Prevention and Early Intervention of Anxiety in Youth.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric problems in youth, fail to spontaneously remit, and place some youth at risk for additional behavioral and emotional difficulties. Efforts to target anxiety have resulted in evidence-based interventions but the resulting prevention effects are relatively small, often weakening over time. Mobile health (mHealth) tools could be of use to strengthen the effects of anxiety prevention efforts.

Control Over Anxiety and Dispositional Coping Tendencies Are Associated With Presleep Arousal Among Children Referred for Anxiety Problems.

Anxious youth typically experience sleep-related difficulties, but little is known about the role children's coping and perceived control over anxiety may play in these relations. We examined children's perceived levels of control over external anxiety-provoking events and internal anxious emotional reactions, as well as two dispositional coping tendencies (avoidant, support-seeking), and whether these were associated with anxious children's (N = 86) presleep arousal. Low perceived control over anxiety was significantly associated with high levels of presleep arousal.

Observed emotion frequency versus intensity as predictors of socioemotional maladjustment.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether observed emotional frequency (the proportion of instances an emotion was observed) and intensity (the strength of an emotion when it was observed) uniquely predicted kindergartners' (N = 301) internalizing and externalizing problems. Analyses were tested in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework with data from multireporters (reports of problem behaviors from teachers and parents) and naturalistic observations of emotion in the fall semester. For observed positive emotion, both frequency and intensity negatively predicted parent- or teacher-reported internalizing symptoms.

Variations in the influence of parental socialization of anxiety among clinic referred children.

This study examined the relations between parental socialization of child anxious behaviors (i.e., reinforcement, punishment, modeling, transmission of information) and child anxiety and related problems at varying child sensitivity levels.

Assessment of anxiety symptoms in school children: a cross-sex and ethnic examination.

We evaluated the cross-sex and -ethnic (Hispanic/Latino, non-Hispanic White) measurement invariance of anxiety symptoms based on the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) as well as SCAS anxiety symptoms' correspondence with scores on the 5-item Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) and teacher ratings of child anxiety. Based on data corresponding to 702 children (M age = 9.65, SD = 0.

A personalized and control systems engineering conceptual approach to target childhood anxiety in the contexts of cultural diversity.

In the child and adolescent anxiety area, some progress has been made to develop evidence-based prevention protocols, but less is known about how to best target these problems in children and families of color. In general, data show differential program effects with some minority children benefiting significantly less. Our preliminary data, however, show promise and suggest cultural parameters to consider in the tailoring process beyond language and cultural symbols.

Predictors of Initial Engagement in Child Anxiety Mental Health Specialty Services.

Background: Child and family mental health services remain largely underutilized despite the relatively high rate of youth suffering from mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) disorders. As such, it is important to address challenges and examine factors related to child mental health service use and engagement, especially when it comes to children in need of services for anxiety.

Objective: Informed by the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (BMHS), the present study sought to examine predictors of service use and engagement for families seeking assistance for their anxious children.

Assessing social anxiety in African American youth using the social phobia and anxiety inventory for children.

Examined measurement invariance and cut-off scores of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) using data corresponding to a convenience sample of 501 African American and Caucasian youth ( = 11.62 years, 249 girls; 49% with social anxiety disorder) using exploratory structural equation modeling and a weighted least squares mean variance estimator. For the cut-off scores, Receiver Operator Characteristic analyses were used along with Youden’s index to evaluate the balance between sensitivity and specificity.

Indicated prevention and early intervention for childhood anxiety: a randomized trial with Caucasian and Hispanic/Latino youth.

Objective: This trial of a randomized indicated anxiety prevention and early intervention explored initial program effects as well as the role of ethnicity and language on measured outcomes.

Method: A total of 88 youth (M = 10.36 years; 45 girls, 52 Latino) received 1 of 2 protocols with varying degrees of parent involvement, and response was measured at posttest and 6-month follow-up.

The Factor Structure of Effortful Control and Measurement Invariance Across Ethnicity and Sex in a High-Risk Sample.

Measurement invariance of a one-factor model of effortful control (EC) was tested for 853 low-income preschoolers (M age = 4.48 years). Using a teacher-report questionnaire and seven behavioral measures, configural invariance (same factor structure across groups), metric invariance (same pattern of factor loadings across groups), and partial scalar invariance (mostly the same intercepts across groups) were established across ethnicity (European Americans, African Americans and Hispanics) and across sex.

Introduction to the Special Section: Prevention and Remediation of Emotional and Academic Problems in Youth.

Accessibility to prevention and remediation programs is critical for today's children who face a broad range of adversities placing them at risk for emotional and academic problems. This introduction briefly summarizes the articles in the Special Section, which provide an overview of different interventions aimed at preventing or ameliorating various youths' emotional and behavioral problems. The Special Section concludes with an article and related commentary pertaining to school-related functioning.

Psychosocial Interventions for School Refusal Behavior in Children and Adolescents.

This article reviews empirical evidence for the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for school refusal behavior. Data corresponding to eight experimental single-case and seven group-design studies are presented. Across studies, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatments emerged as promising lines of intervention.

Pre-sleep arousal and sleep problems of anxiety-disordered youth.

The current study examined sleep problems and pre-sleep arousal among 52 anxious children and adolescents, aged 7-14 years, in relation to age, sex, ethnicity, and primary anxiety disorder. Assessment included structured diagnostic interviews and parent and child completed measures of sleep problems and pre-sleep arousal. Overall, 85% of parents reported clinically-significant child sleep problems, whereas 54% of youth reported trouble sleeping.

Mediators and moderators of outcome in the behavioral treatment of childhood social phobia.

Objective: The current study examined mediators and moderators of treatment response among children and adolescents (ages 7-17 years) with a primary diagnosis of social phobia.

Method: Participants were 88 youths participating in one of two randomized controlled treatment trials of Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children. Potential mediators included changes in observer-rated social skill and child-reported loneliness after 12 weeks of Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children.