Design of INSPIRE: Evaluation of the effectiveness of practice facilitation on implementation of screening, brief interventions, referral to treatment and medication for unhealthy alcohol use identification and treatment in primary care.

Background: Unhealthy alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable mortality and a risk factor for an array of social and health problems. The Intervention in Small primary care Practices to Implement Reduction in unhealthy alcohol use (INSPIRE) study is part of a nationwide campaign to improve the identification and treatment of patients engaging in unhealthy alcohol use.

Methods: We conducted a single arm, pragmatic study consisting of seventeen primary care practices in the Chicago metropolitan area, Wisconsin, and California across two waves with a 6-month latent period, a 12-month intervention period, followed by a 6-month sustainability period.

Cascading Effects of the Family Context in Adolescence: Implications for Young Adult Antisocial Behavior and Intergenerational Transmission of Risk.

Inspired by the tremendous impact of Robert McMahon's career, this study evaluated an intergenerational cascade model in which young adult conduct problems may serve as a risk pathway linking generation 1 (G1) parenting and family climate in adolescence with generation 2 parenting quality and family climate with their children (G2-G3). Our sample included 396 parents (M = 28.3; 70% women; child M = 3.

Review and Evidence Gap Map of mentoring programs for adolescent males with disabilities.

Introduction: Adolescent males with disabilities face unique challenges, and mentoring programs designed for this population could support more positive long-term outcomes. In the current study, a scoping review of empirical research on such programs was conducted. The review was intended to capture the characteristics of existing mentoring program for males with disabilities and map those characteristics in a way that sheds light on the overall status of the field.

Technology-supported cooperative learning as a universal mental health intervention in middle and high school.

Background: Adolescent mental health issues are a major public health concern, highlighted by the US Surgeon General as a crisis. Traditional school-based interventions show inconsistent success, creating a demand for effective solutions.

Aims: This study evaluates the impact of technology-supported cooperative learning (CL) on adolescent mental health, focusing on positive peer relations and peer victimization.

Universal School-Based Substance Use Prevention Using Technology-Supported Cooperative Learning.

Substance use in adolescence is a significant public health issue, particularly in early-to-mid adolescence, which represents a window of risk in the etiology of substance abuse and dependence. Substance use during this development period often results from affiliation with deviant peers, who model, facilitate, and reinforce use. Existing school-based substance use prevention programs have historically aimed to build adolescent knowledge regarding the dangers of substance use and/or enhance peer refusal skills.

Student-centered instruction can build social-emotional skills and peer relations: Findings from a cluster-randomized trial of technology-supported cooperative learning.

Given the uneven track record of adjunctive social-emotional learning (SEL) programs and waning effects by middle and high school, we propose a more integrative approach to SEL through cooperative learning (CL). CL has demonstrated the ability to improve social-emotional, behavioral, academic, and mental health benefits, but CL lessons are complex and thus can be difficult to design and consistently deliver with fidelity. The present study attempted to address this barrier by examining the effects of technology-assisted CL on five social-emotional competencies, as well as social and behavioral outcomes.

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Peer Relations and Empathy and their Joint Contribution to Reducing Bullying in Middle School: Findings from a Randomized Trial of Cooperative Learning.

The positive peer relations arising from cooperative learning can contribute to the development of affective empathy, which in turn can reduce bullying (Van Ryzin & Roseth, 2019). However, from a theoretical perspective, the direction of effects between peer relations and empathy could be in the opposite direction, or bi-directional. In the current paper, we employed a process-oriented approach (i.

Reciprocated Friendship as a Mediator of the Effects of Cooperative Learning on Peer Victimization in Middle School.

Peer victimization represents a pervasive problem, particularly for students in middle school. Although curriculum-based prevention programs have generated small to moderate effects on victimization, these effects tend to weaken beginning with the transition to middle school. In this study, we evaluated cooperative learning (CL) as a mechanism to prevent victimization, and evaluated reciprocated friendships as a mediator of these effects.

Peer learning can modify the reciprocal relationship between peer support and victimization in middle school.

Introduction: This research investigated how peer victimization and support are reciprocally related and how Cooperative Learning (CL) can reverse the progressive cascade that, unchecked, can culminate in youth mental health problems.

Methods: The sample (N = 1890; 53% male) was derived from a randomized trial of CL in 15 middle schools in the United States. Students were recruited in the 7th grade.

A Longitudinal Process Model Evaluating the Effects of Cooperative Learning on Victimization, Stress, Mental Health, and Academic Engagement in Middle School.

Mental health is a significant concern among young people, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, mental health problems can significantly reduce student performance in school, including both engagement and achievement. Both mental health problems and reduced student performance often arise due to , which can include teasing, racial- or gender-based discrimination, and/or physical assault.

Costs and benefits of cooperative learning as a universal school-based approach to adolescent substance use prevention.

Substance use during early adolescence implies a greater likelihood of abuse and dependence in later adolescence or adulthood. In turn, substance abuse and dependence are linked to a variety of maladaptive long-term health-related outcomes that imply significant individual and societal costs. In this paper, we evaluated an approach to substance use prevention that relies on the vital role of peers, who comprise a key risk factor for adolescent substance use.

Socialization processes within adolescents' relationships with parents and peers predicting couples' intimate partner violence in adulthood: A social learning perspective.

Previous studies have established that individual characteristics such as violent behavior, substance use, and high-risk sexual behavior, as well as negative relationships with parents and friends, are all risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). In this longitudinal prospective study, we investigated whether violent behavior, substance use, and high-risk sexual behavior in early adulthood (ages 22-23 years) mediated the link between family conflict and coercive relationship talk with friends in adolescence (ages 16-17 years) and dyadic IPV in adulthood (ages 28-30 years). A total of 998 individuals participated in multimethod assessments, including observations of interactions with parents and friends.

The Cascading Effects of Reducing Student Stress: Cooperative Learning as a Means to Reduce Emotional Problems and Promote Academic Engagement.

Adolescents, particularly early adolescents, are vulnerable to stress created by negative peer interactions. Stress, in turn, can lead to increased mental health problems and reduced academic engagement, in addition to negative long-term consequences for cognitive development and physical health. Using four waves (2 years) of data from a cluster randomized trial ( = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.

Mediators of Effects of Cooperative Learning on Prosocial Behavior in Middle School.

In this study, we tested the effects of cooperative learning on students' prosocial behavior. Cooperative learning is a small-group instructional technique that establishes positive interdependence among students and, unlike most current school-based programs, does not mandate a formal curriculum. Given the emphasis in cooperative learning on peer reinforcement for positive and helpful behavior during learning activities, we hypothesized that cooperative learning would promote higher levels of prosocial behavior, and that these effects would be mediated by peer relatedness.

Cooperative Learning Effects on Peer Relations and Alcohol Use in Middle School.

We tested a prevention approach aimed at reducing growth in alcohol use in middle school using four waves (2 years) of data from a cluster randomized trial ( = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White).

Peer Relations and Delinquency Among Girls in Foster Care Following a Skill-Building Preventive Intervention.

There is evidence that risk for delinquency is elevated among girls with foster care histories, and one correlate of delinquency is affiliating with peers who engage in delinquent behavior. Although intervention studies have shown positive effects of interventions that target delinquent peer affiliation on reductions in delinquency among adolescents with juvenile justice histories, the success of such interventions for younger girls in foster care, without prior involvement with juvenile justice, is unknown. We analyzed data from a randomized clinical trial of the middle school version of the Keep Safe intervention in a sample of girls in foster care ( = 100).

Behavioral Science and the Prevention of Adolescent Substance Abuse.

This article reviews the evidence regarding behavioral science approaches to the prevention of substance use disorders. Prevention science grew out of research on family and school-based interventions that were designed to treat common behavioral problems of children and adolescents. That research showed that the amelioration of problems such as aggressive behavior could prevent the development of later problems including substance use, depression, and academic failure.

The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Peer Relations, Academic Support, and Engagement in Learning Among Students of Color.

Despite , prejudice still exists in the American school system. These attitudes can give rise to negative social experiences for students of color (i.e.

The socialization of boys and men in the modern era: An evolutionary mismatch.

This paper examines the misalignment between modern human society and certain male phenotypes, a misalignment that has been highlighted and explored in great detail in the work of Tom Dishion. We begin by briefly enumerating the ongoing developmental difficulties of many boys and young men and how these difficulties affect them and those around them. We then suggest that the qualities that have been advantageous for men and their families in our earlier evolution but that are often no longer functional in modern society are a source of these problems.

An Experimental Test of Reward & Reminder as a Stand-Alone Program to Prevent Alcohol Sales to Underage Youths.

Reward & Reminder has been a component of community-based preventive efforts against sales of substances (e.g., tobacco) to youth.

Effects of cooperative learning on peer relations, empathy, and bullying in middle school.

Although researchers have developed prevention programs to reduce bullying, the results are mixed, and this may be due to a degree of uncertainty in their theoretical foundation. In particular, these programs share an emphasis on empathy as a personal attribute that can be enhanced among students through the application of specific curricula that will, in turn, contribute to a reduction in bullying behavior. However, the link between empathy and bullying is unclear, as is the ability of bullying prevention programs to actually impact student empathy.

Cooperative Learning in Middle School: A Means to Improve Peer Relations and Reduce Victimization, Bullying, and Related Outcomes.

Peer victimization is a highly stressful experience that impacts up to a third of all adolescents and can contribute to a variety of negative outcomes, including elevated anxiety, depression, drug use, and delinquency, as well as reduced self-esteem, school attendance, and academic achievement. Current prevention approaches (e.g.

A prospective test of the temporal sequencing of risk factor emergence in the dual pathway model of eating disorders.

Prospective studies have identified risk factors that predict future onset of eating disorders, but none has provided a test of the temporal sequencing of the emergence of risk factors hypothesized in a multivariate etiologic model of eating disorder development. Using data from an 8-year prospective study of 496 adolescent girls, we first conducted receiver operator characteristic plots to identify cut-points for each risk factor that optimally predicted future onset of threshold or subthreshold bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and purging disorder. We then used growth curve models to estimate the age at which each participant crossed the disorder-predictive cutpoint for each risk factor, or if they did not, during follow-up, permitting a test of whether the risk factors emerged in the sequence hypothesized in the Dual Pathway etiologic model.

Peer influence processes as mediators of effects of a middle school substance use prevention program.

Background: Peer influence processes have been linked to escalation in substance use during the middle school years, particularly among at-risk youth. In this study, we report on an approach to prevention that attempts to counteract peer influence by interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering, in which socially marginalized youth self-aggregate and reinforce delinquent behavior, including substance use. We aimed to interrupt this process by implementing collaborative, group-based learning activities in school (i.

Enlisting Peer Cooperation in the Service of Alcohol Use Prevention in Middle School.

This article reports on a cluster randomized trial of cooperative learning (CL) as a way to prevent escalation in alcohol use during middle school (N = 1,460 seventh-grade students, age 12-13, seven intervention and eight control schools). We hypothesized that CL, by bringing students together in group-based learning activities using positive interdependence, would interrupt the process of deviant peer clustering, provide at-risk youth with prosocial influences, and in turn, reduce escalations in alcohol use. Results indicated that CL significantly reduced growth in deviant peer affiliation and actual alcohol use, and effects for willingness to use alcohol were at the threshold of significance (p = .