In 1990, when the Fast Track prevention trial began, scientific findings had highlighted the stro... more In 1990, when the Fast Track prevention trial began, scientific findings had highlighted the strong continuity in conduct disorder across the lifespan. Clinical practice debate focused on whether serious conduct disorder could actually be prevented, or would turn out to be a chronic condition. No intervention had successfully prevented adult externalizing psychopathology in a group of early-starting conduct problem children. The goal of the trial, and this presentation, is to test the efficacy of the Fast Track intervention in preventing externalizing psychopathology in young adulthood. 891 early-starting conduct-problem children were identified through multiple-gating screening of 9,594 kindergarteners in three cohorts in 55 high-risk schools in four communities and then randomly assigned by school cluster to a ten-year intervention or control condition. Eight years after intervention ended, condition-blinded adults clinically interviewed participants and knowledgeable peer raters....
During the past 15 years there has been great interest in the development of community prevention... more During the past 15 years there has been great interest in the development of community prevention delivery system infrastructures. The goal of developing these infrastructures is three-fold. First, by so doing, one potentially empowers local communities to make cohesive decisions about how to spend prevention dollars and carry on prevention activities; this can, as a result, improve community social capital and, possibly, outcomes for youth. Second, such systems have been shown to improve the implementation quality of evidence-based programs. Third, developing local expertise and decision-making creates the opportunity for communities to sustain coordinated structures that help to maintain high-quality prevention decision-making for local communities. This presentation will discuss findings from over 10 years of research with the PROSPER Partnership Model and 15 years of studying Communities that Care (CTC), in over 100 sites. PROSPER is a model for broad delivery of evidence-based ...
Significant advances have shown that prevention programs can significantly improve social, emotio... more Significant advances have shown that prevention programs can significantly improve social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes of their recipients. High quality implementation of these programs is a critical factor in this process. Yet, consistently achieving high quality implementation continues to be challenging in real-world conditions. This presentation addresses this challenge of scaling-up prevention systems. First, this presentation will summarize the implementation quality findings within PROSPER, including the lessons learned about supporting high quality implementation of evidence-based programs (EBP). Secondly, this presentation will describe how these lessons have been considered in scaling-up PROSPER. Ten years of data have been collected from a variety of sources at multiple time points to better understand factors related to quality implementation of EBPs in “real-world” settings. Technical assistance providers (PCs) rated the quality of team processes, recorded team r...
Fast Track is an ongoing, comprehensive, multisite intervention trial designed to prevent serious... more Fast Track is an ongoing, comprehensive, multisite intervention trial designed to prevent serious and chronic conduct problems in a sample of high-risk children. This collaborative project is being carried out at four sites (Seattle; Nashville; Durham, NC; rural central PA). The Fast Track intervention was based on a developmental model of conduct problems that posits the interaction of multiple influences (child, family, school, peer group, neighborhood) on the development of antisocial behavior and that vary in relative importance at different points in the developmental period. The high-risk sample consists of 891 children selected in kindergarten on the basis of high levels of home and school conduct problems. Children were randomly assigned (school as the unit of randomization) to receive the Fast Track intervention or services as usual in the schools. There is also a normative community comparison sample (N=387). The high-risk sample is comprised of approximately equal numbers...
Objectives This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; ... more Objectives This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; summarizes findings of experimental research on the impacts of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) on student outcomes in prekindergarten, primary, and secondary school settings (ages 4–18 years); discusses scientific limitations and wider critiques of this work; and offers suggestions for future research. Methods Public data are used to describe the emergence of science on SBMPs, the foci of this research, and the academic disciplines contributing to it. A narrative summary of scientific findings regarding the impacts of SBMPs on students, and critiques of this work, is also presented. Results Research is increasing and is primarily psychological and prevention-oriented. Evidence shows SBMPs can enhance students’ self-regulation abilities, but SBMPs’ impacts on other student outcomes at different ages are equivocal. The current research has significant limitations, and these, alon...
Objectives Research on school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) indicates promising, albeit mixe... more Objectives Research on school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) indicates promising, albeit mixed, effects. However, there has been a lack of consistency and completeness in implementation reporting, frustrating efforts to draw causal inferences about the implementation elements that influence program outcomes. To address these issues, we crafted a conceptual framework with an accompanying set of key terms for SBMP implementation elements to guide the development of flexible and practical implementation reporting recommendations for studies of SBMPs. Methods To develop the framework and recommendations, we drew insights from the implementation science and school-based prevention literature, explored reporting standards across behavioral science fields, and examined reviews and studies of SBMPs that had an implementation focus. Results The SBMP Implementation Framework (SBMP-IF) is organized by four broad categories (i.e., the program, participants, context, and implementation), whi...
The necessity to implement evidence-based programs to support the healthy development of youth an... more The necessity to implement evidence-based programs to support the healthy development of youth and families is becoming part of national policy. Organizations that are not “ready” to do so will likely lose resources, disallowing them to serve as they have set out to do. Consequently, the current survey study draws from a national sample of Cooperative Extension personnel in 2009 to examine characteristics within their organizational context that facilitate successful change related to youth/family programming. Data were collected from 946 4-H/youth development or Family and Consumer Sciences employees at all levels. Self-reported indices of each state organization’s openness to change, leadership, morale, communication, and resources were constructed to assess the organizational context. Dependent variables included indicators of readiness to implement prevention and evidence-based programming. Results suggest that the organizational context was strongly associated with indica...
Objective: This study tested the impact of the Fast Track conduct disorder prevention program on ... more Objective: This study tested the impact of the Fast Track conduct disorder prevention program on the use of pediatric, general health, and mental health services in adolescence. Patients and Methods: Participants were 891 public kindergarten boys and girls screened from a population of 9,594 children and found to be at risk for conduct disorder. They were assigned randomly (by school) to intervention or control conditions and followed for 12 years. Intervention lasted 10 years and included parent training, child social-cognitive skills training, reading tutoring, peer relations enhancement, and classroom curricula and management. Service utilization was assessed through annual interviews of parents and youth. Results: Youth assigned to preventive intervention had significantly reduced use of professional general health, pediatric and emergency department services relative to control youth, based on parent-report data. For control group youth, the odds of greater use of general healt...
There is evidence that universal school-based mindfulness training (SBMT) can have positive effec... more There is evidence that universal school-based mindfulness training (SBMT) can have positive effects for young people. However, it is unknown who benefits most from such training, how implementation quality impacts effects, and how training exerts effects. No known scoping reviews have comprehensively reviewed moderation, mediation and implementation factors of SBMT. This study aimed to provide an overview of the evidence on the mediators, moderators, and implementation factors of SBMT and propose a conceptual model that can be used both to summarize the evidence and provide a framework for future research. A scoping review was performed based on methodology outlined by the Joanna Briggs Institute’s Manual. Six databases and grey literature were searched. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to select relevant material. Quantitative and qualitative information was extracted from eligible articles and reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The search produced 5, 4...
Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become more central to education because of demand from e... more Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become more central to education because of demand from educators, parents, students, and business leaders alongside rigorous research showing broad, positive impacts for students and adults. However, all approaches to SEL are not equal. Systemic SEL is an approach to create equitable learning conditions that actively involve all Pre-K to Grade 12 students in learning and practicing social, emotional, and academic competencies. These conditions require aligned policies, resources, and actions at state and district levels that encourage local schools and communities to build the personal and professional capacities of adults to: implement and continuously improve evidence-based programs and practices; create an inclusive culture that fosters caring relationships and youth voice, agency, and character; and support coordinated school-family-community partnerships to enhance student development. Promoting social and emotional competencies-including the abilities to understand and manage emotions, achieve positive goals, show caring and concern for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions-are important for success at school and in life. In this article, we summarize key concepts and evidence for systemic SEL. Next, we explain interrelated Theories of Action and resources developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to implement and continuously improve systemic SEL in schools, districts, and states. We discuss research on nested, interacting settings and processes involved in systemic SEL at proximal (classrooms, schools, families, and communities) and distal (districts, states, national, and international) ecological levels. We conclude with recommendations for future SEL research, practice, and policy.
International Journal of Educational Research Review, 2017
The aim of study was to examine the effectiveness of PATHS program on children's and teachers' be... more The aim of study was to examine the effectiveness of PATHS program on children's and teachers' behaviors by evaluating perceptions of children and teachers in regard to their relationships with each other. The sample included 129 children (5-6 aged) and 28 teachers in the intervention group and 114 children (5-6 aged) and 30 teachers in the comparison group. The Classroom Atmosphere Rating Scale, the Teaching Style Rating Scale, Teacher Self Report Assessment, Head Start Competence Scale, Student-Teacher Relationship Scale-STRS, and Semi-Structured Play Interview were used to gather data. According to the results, teachers in PATHS classrooms were observed to be more competent in terms of quality of the classroom climate though there were no differences between social-emotional behaviors of children. While teachers' perceptions did not yield any differences in regard to their relationships with children, children in intervention classes described relationships with teachers significantly more positively than the others.
As interest increases in mindfulness in education programs for youth, there is a need to develop ... more As interest increases in mindfulness in education programs for youth, there is a need to develop reliable measures of the quality of program implementation. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a measure that can be used to assess and monitor quality of implementation of mindfulness programs/curricula in typical classroom or out-of-school settings. The Teaching Mindfulness in Education Observation Scale (TMEOS) is a 28-item instrument that integrates qualitative and quantitative aspects of mindfulness instruction. Items focus on procedural adherence as well as aspects of implementation that reflect embodiment during instructional delivery (e.g., alignment with the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness). Reliability and validity data were examined and indicated that the four major scoring domains and key features showed adequate inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. We conclude that observational assessment of multiple dimension of implementation quality, including adherence and process-oriented aspects of implementation such as embodiment, can be reliably used to assess implementation quality of mindfulness programs in education settings. However, adequate preparation and training are critical. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
This qualitative collective case study investigates elementary teachers' experience with stress a... more This qualitative collective case study investigates elementary teachers' experience with stress and the mechanisms of change related to developing resilience following a mindfulness-based intervention, Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE). Results suggest that the amount of stress teachers experience is less important than how they conceptualize their stress. Teachers who developed resilience exercised mindful awareness and nonreactivity coupled with a healthy distress tolerance and sense of efficacy. Other protective factors included community support, self-care, and sustained use of practices focused on emotion regulation. Combined, these capacities enabled teachers to respond more compassionately to their students. Implications for professional development that fosters teachers' resilience are discussed.
In this study, we investigate the experiences of first-year college students with Just BREATHE (J... more In this study, we investigate the experiences of first-year college students with Just BREATHE (JB), an eight-session voluntary mindfulness-based wellness program. We collected qualitative interview data from 26 participants selected as a convenience sample from the larger quantitative study at three points in time: pre-implementation, post-implementation, and one semester to 1 year post-implementation. During the interviews, participants described stressors, coping skills, their perceptions of JB, and changes resulting from the program. The interview data reveal that JB provides college students with coping strategies to combat common stressors and may help address underlying causes of stress. Students described changes in several areas: (a) improved organization and time management, (b) commitment to a healthy lifestyle, (c) improved emotional awareness and relationships, and (d) self-compassion. Our findings suggest that mindfulness programs could be utilized and incorporated into required first-year courses to promote the adaptive, social and emotional skills necessary for effective stress management.
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2018
Objective: There is growing interest in mindful parenting and how this form of intentional, compa... more Objective: There is growing interest in mindful parenting and how this form of intentional, compassionate interactions with youth are associated with developmental outcomes. We investigated how mindful parenting changes over time, either naturally or in response to interventions, and how that change is associated with other proximal developmental changes. Method: We used data from a longitudinal, randomized-controlled study design (N = 432 families) to investigate the associations between changes in mindful parenting and 3 outcomes: positive parenting, parent-youth relationship quality, and youth aggression. Differences across 3 intervention conditions and between mothers and fathers were tested. Results: Across conditions, changes in mindful parenting were strongly associated with changes in all 3 outcomes for both fathers and mothers. Changes in mindful parenting showed considerable variability within and across conditions. For fathers, differences in mindful parenting change were driven primarily by changes in the core mindful parenting dimension of emotional awareness. Mothers showed comparable changes in mindful parenting across conditions. Conclusions: Findings illustrate how changes in mindful parenting are associated with proximal changes that could lead to reduced youth behavior problems (e.g., aggression or substance use) and provide additional evidence for the contribution that mindfulness activities can make to standard parent training.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 2016
To examine patterns of conduct problems across the home and school context, we used latent class ... more To examine patterns of conduct problems across the home and school context, we used latent class analysis to analyze primary caregivers' and teachers' ratings on the conduct problems subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (R. Goodman, 1997) in the Family Life Project (N = 1,292), a prospective study of child development in rural and small town contexts. We found a similar four-class solution at five and seven years of age. In decreasing prevalence, the following classes were identified: (1) low symptoms reported by both informants (low cross-context); (2) high parent-reported symptoms, low teacher-reported symptoms (home context); (3) low parentreported symptoms, moderate teacher-reported symptoms (school context); and (4) high symptoms reported by both informants (high cross-context). Classes exhibited stability from age five to age seven: children were more likely to remain in the same class than to transition to a different class, and longitudinal stability was especially high for children in the low cross-context class at age 5. A number of child and family characteristics measured in early childhood (executive function, verbal ability, poverty-related risk, sensitive parenting, and parental depressive symptoms) were associated with class membership at age five and age seven, but were generally not associated with longitudinal transitions between classes.
The prospect of improving “noncognitive” skills through intervention increases the need to unders... more The prospect of improving “noncognitive” skills through intervention increases the need to understand how to represent them in evaluations. Economic assessment of such efforts rarely incorporates these factors, especially when a benefit-cost approach is employed. Programs targeting such skills are more likely to be assessed through approaches that do not monetize noncognitive ability (e.g., using cost-effectiveness analysis). This could lead to ineffective policy formulations in situations where policy is swayed toward programs that can show monetized effects. Benefit-cost analyses (BCAs) that are employed for programs that target noncognitive competencies currently may underestimate the true economic impact if such skills are left out of the equation. The limitations in valuing these skills impede thorough economic assessment for important and effective programs that target noncognitive competencies. This is especially the case for programs for younger children where readily moneti...
The authors call for a broad agenda to create comprehensive models and research on the developmen... more The authors call for a broad agenda to create comprehensive models and research on the development and promotion of empathy and compassion. This wish would lead to a new level of developmental/ecological understanding of the growth of compassion as well as effective policies and practices and interventions that nurture caring, compassion, and service to others in our schools and communities. The authors define empathy and compassion, briefly discuss the outline of early developmental processes, and call for basic research on these essential aspects of human development. The authors conclude by discussing the need to develop new ways to promote empathy and compassion in families, schools and communities.
In 1990, when the Fast Track prevention trial began, scientific findings had highlighted the stro... more In 1990, when the Fast Track prevention trial began, scientific findings had highlighted the strong continuity in conduct disorder across the lifespan. Clinical practice debate focused on whether serious conduct disorder could actually be prevented, or would turn out to be a chronic condition. No intervention had successfully prevented adult externalizing psychopathology in a group of early-starting conduct problem children. The goal of the trial, and this presentation, is to test the efficacy of the Fast Track intervention in preventing externalizing psychopathology in young adulthood. 891 early-starting conduct-problem children were identified through multiple-gating screening of 9,594 kindergarteners in three cohorts in 55 high-risk schools in four communities and then randomly assigned by school cluster to a ten-year intervention or control condition. Eight years after intervention ended, condition-blinded adults clinically interviewed participants and knowledgeable peer raters....
During the past 15 years there has been great interest in the development of community prevention... more During the past 15 years there has been great interest in the development of community prevention delivery system infrastructures. The goal of developing these infrastructures is three-fold. First, by so doing, one potentially empowers local communities to make cohesive decisions about how to spend prevention dollars and carry on prevention activities; this can, as a result, improve community social capital and, possibly, outcomes for youth. Second, such systems have been shown to improve the implementation quality of evidence-based programs. Third, developing local expertise and decision-making creates the opportunity for communities to sustain coordinated structures that help to maintain high-quality prevention decision-making for local communities. This presentation will discuss findings from over 10 years of research with the PROSPER Partnership Model and 15 years of studying Communities that Care (CTC), in over 100 sites. PROSPER is a model for broad delivery of evidence-based ...
Significant advances have shown that prevention programs can significantly improve social, emotio... more Significant advances have shown that prevention programs can significantly improve social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes of their recipients. High quality implementation of these programs is a critical factor in this process. Yet, consistently achieving high quality implementation continues to be challenging in real-world conditions. This presentation addresses this challenge of scaling-up prevention systems. First, this presentation will summarize the implementation quality findings within PROSPER, including the lessons learned about supporting high quality implementation of evidence-based programs (EBP). Secondly, this presentation will describe how these lessons have been considered in scaling-up PROSPER. Ten years of data have been collected from a variety of sources at multiple time points to better understand factors related to quality implementation of EBPs in “real-world” settings. Technical assistance providers (PCs) rated the quality of team processes, recorded team r...
Fast Track is an ongoing, comprehensive, multisite intervention trial designed to prevent serious... more Fast Track is an ongoing, comprehensive, multisite intervention trial designed to prevent serious and chronic conduct problems in a sample of high-risk children. This collaborative project is being carried out at four sites (Seattle; Nashville; Durham, NC; rural central PA). The Fast Track intervention was based on a developmental model of conduct problems that posits the interaction of multiple influences (child, family, school, peer group, neighborhood) on the development of antisocial behavior and that vary in relative importance at different points in the developmental period. The high-risk sample consists of 891 children selected in kindergarten on the basis of high levels of home and school conduct problems. Children were randomly assigned (school as the unit of randomization) to receive the Fast Track intervention or services as usual in the schools. There is also a normative community comparison sample (N=387). The high-risk sample is comprised of approximately equal numbers...
Objectives This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; ... more Objectives This paper describes the emergence of the scientific study of mindfulness in schools; summarizes findings of experimental research on the impacts of school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) on student outcomes in prekindergarten, primary, and secondary school settings (ages 4–18 years); discusses scientific limitations and wider critiques of this work; and offers suggestions for future research. Methods Public data are used to describe the emergence of science on SBMPs, the foci of this research, and the academic disciplines contributing to it. A narrative summary of scientific findings regarding the impacts of SBMPs on students, and critiques of this work, is also presented. Results Research is increasing and is primarily psychological and prevention-oriented. Evidence shows SBMPs can enhance students’ self-regulation abilities, but SBMPs’ impacts on other student outcomes at different ages are equivocal. The current research has significant limitations, and these, alon...
Objectives Research on school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) indicates promising, albeit mixe... more Objectives Research on school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) indicates promising, albeit mixed, effects. However, there has been a lack of consistency and completeness in implementation reporting, frustrating efforts to draw causal inferences about the implementation elements that influence program outcomes. To address these issues, we crafted a conceptual framework with an accompanying set of key terms for SBMP implementation elements to guide the development of flexible and practical implementation reporting recommendations for studies of SBMPs. Methods To develop the framework and recommendations, we drew insights from the implementation science and school-based prevention literature, explored reporting standards across behavioral science fields, and examined reviews and studies of SBMPs that had an implementation focus. Results The SBMP Implementation Framework (SBMP-IF) is organized by four broad categories (i.e., the program, participants, context, and implementation), whi...
The necessity to implement evidence-based programs to support the healthy development of youth an... more The necessity to implement evidence-based programs to support the healthy development of youth and families is becoming part of national policy. Organizations that are not “ready” to do so will likely lose resources, disallowing them to serve as they have set out to do. Consequently, the current survey study draws from a national sample of Cooperative Extension personnel in 2009 to examine characteristics within their organizational context that facilitate successful change related to youth/family programming. Data were collected from 946 4-H/youth development or Family and Consumer Sciences employees at all levels. Self-reported indices of each state organization’s openness to change, leadership, morale, communication, and resources were constructed to assess the organizational context. Dependent variables included indicators of readiness to implement prevention and evidence-based programming. Results suggest that the organizational context was strongly associated with indica...
Objective: This study tested the impact of the Fast Track conduct disorder prevention program on ... more Objective: This study tested the impact of the Fast Track conduct disorder prevention program on the use of pediatric, general health, and mental health services in adolescence. Patients and Methods: Participants were 891 public kindergarten boys and girls screened from a population of 9,594 children and found to be at risk for conduct disorder. They were assigned randomly (by school) to intervention or control conditions and followed for 12 years. Intervention lasted 10 years and included parent training, child social-cognitive skills training, reading tutoring, peer relations enhancement, and classroom curricula and management. Service utilization was assessed through annual interviews of parents and youth. Results: Youth assigned to preventive intervention had significantly reduced use of professional general health, pediatric and emergency department services relative to control youth, based on parent-report data. For control group youth, the odds of greater use of general healt...
There is evidence that universal school-based mindfulness training (SBMT) can have positive effec... more There is evidence that universal school-based mindfulness training (SBMT) can have positive effects for young people. However, it is unknown who benefits most from such training, how implementation quality impacts effects, and how training exerts effects. No known scoping reviews have comprehensively reviewed moderation, mediation and implementation factors of SBMT. This study aimed to provide an overview of the evidence on the mediators, moderators, and implementation factors of SBMT and propose a conceptual model that can be used both to summarize the evidence and provide a framework for future research. A scoping review was performed based on methodology outlined by the Joanna Briggs Institute’s Manual. Six databases and grey literature were searched. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to select relevant material. Quantitative and qualitative information was extracted from eligible articles and reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The search produced 5, 4...
Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become more central to education because of demand from e... more Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become more central to education because of demand from educators, parents, students, and business leaders alongside rigorous research showing broad, positive impacts for students and adults. However, all approaches to SEL are not equal. Systemic SEL is an approach to create equitable learning conditions that actively involve all Pre-K to Grade 12 students in learning and practicing social, emotional, and academic competencies. These conditions require aligned policies, resources, and actions at state and district levels that encourage local schools and communities to build the personal and professional capacities of adults to: implement and continuously improve evidence-based programs and practices; create an inclusive culture that fosters caring relationships and youth voice, agency, and character; and support coordinated school-family-community partnerships to enhance student development. Promoting social and emotional competencies-including the abilities to understand and manage emotions, achieve positive goals, show caring and concern for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions-are important for success at school and in life. In this article, we summarize key concepts and evidence for systemic SEL. Next, we explain interrelated Theories of Action and resources developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to implement and continuously improve systemic SEL in schools, districts, and states. We discuss research on nested, interacting settings and processes involved in systemic SEL at proximal (classrooms, schools, families, and communities) and distal (districts, states, national, and international) ecological levels. We conclude with recommendations for future SEL research, practice, and policy.
International Journal of Educational Research Review, 2017
The aim of study was to examine the effectiveness of PATHS program on children's and teachers' be... more The aim of study was to examine the effectiveness of PATHS program on children's and teachers' behaviors by evaluating perceptions of children and teachers in regard to their relationships with each other. The sample included 129 children (5-6 aged) and 28 teachers in the intervention group and 114 children (5-6 aged) and 30 teachers in the comparison group. The Classroom Atmosphere Rating Scale, the Teaching Style Rating Scale, Teacher Self Report Assessment, Head Start Competence Scale, Student-Teacher Relationship Scale-STRS, and Semi-Structured Play Interview were used to gather data. According to the results, teachers in PATHS classrooms were observed to be more competent in terms of quality of the classroom climate though there were no differences between social-emotional behaviors of children. While teachers' perceptions did not yield any differences in regard to their relationships with children, children in intervention classes described relationships with teachers significantly more positively than the others.
As interest increases in mindfulness in education programs for youth, there is a need to develop ... more As interest increases in mindfulness in education programs for youth, there is a need to develop reliable measures of the quality of program implementation. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a measure that can be used to assess and monitor quality of implementation of mindfulness programs/curricula in typical classroom or out-of-school settings. The Teaching Mindfulness in Education Observation Scale (TMEOS) is a 28-item instrument that integrates qualitative and quantitative aspects of mindfulness instruction. Items focus on procedural adherence as well as aspects of implementation that reflect embodiment during instructional delivery (e.g., alignment with the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness). Reliability and validity data were examined and indicated that the four major scoring domains and key features showed adequate inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. We conclude that observational assessment of multiple dimension of implementation quality, including adherence and process-oriented aspects of implementation such as embodiment, can be reliably used to assess implementation quality of mindfulness programs in education settings. However, adequate preparation and training are critical. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
This qualitative collective case study investigates elementary teachers' experience with stress a... more This qualitative collective case study investigates elementary teachers' experience with stress and the mechanisms of change related to developing resilience following a mindfulness-based intervention, Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE). Results suggest that the amount of stress teachers experience is less important than how they conceptualize their stress. Teachers who developed resilience exercised mindful awareness and nonreactivity coupled with a healthy distress tolerance and sense of efficacy. Other protective factors included community support, self-care, and sustained use of practices focused on emotion regulation. Combined, these capacities enabled teachers to respond more compassionately to their students. Implications for professional development that fosters teachers' resilience are discussed.
In this study, we investigate the experiences of first-year college students with Just BREATHE (J... more In this study, we investigate the experiences of first-year college students with Just BREATHE (JB), an eight-session voluntary mindfulness-based wellness program. We collected qualitative interview data from 26 participants selected as a convenience sample from the larger quantitative study at three points in time: pre-implementation, post-implementation, and one semester to 1 year post-implementation. During the interviews, participants described stressors, coping skills, their perceptions of JB, and changes resulting from the program. The interview data reveal that JB provides college students with coping strategies to combat common stressors and may help address underlying causes of stress. Students described changes in several areas: (a) improved organization and time management, (b) commitment to a healthy lifestyle, (c) improved emotional awareness and relationships, and (d) self-compassion. Our findings suggest that mindfulness programs could be utilized and incorporated into required first-year courses to promote the adaptive, social and emotional skills necessary for effective stress management.
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2018
Objective: There is growing interest in mindful parenting and how this form of intentional, compa... more Objective: There is growing interest in mindful parenting and how this form of intentional, compassionate interactions with youth are associated with developmental outcomes. We investigated how mindful parenting changes over time, either naturally or in response to interventions, and how that change is associated with other proximal developmental changes. Method: We used data from a longitudinal, randomized-controlled study design (N = 432 families) to investigate the associations between changes in mindful parenting and 3 outcomes: positive parenting, parent-youth relationship quality, and youth aggression. Differences across 3 intervention conditions and between mothers and fathers were tested. Results: Across conditions, changes in mindful parenting were strongly associated with changes in all 3 outcomes for both fathers and mothers. Changes in mindful parenting showed considerable variability within and across conditions. For fathers, differences in mindful parenting change were driven primarily by changes in the core mindful parenting dimension of emotional awareness. Mothers showed comparable changes in mindful parenting across conditions. Conclusions: Findings illustrate how changes in mindful parenting are associated with proximal changes that could lead to reduced youth behavior problems (e.g., aggression or substance use) and provide additional evidence for the contribution that mindfulness activities can make to standard parent training.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 2016
To examine patterns of conduct problems across the home and school context, we used latent class ... more To examine patterns of conduct problems across the home and school context, we used latent class analysis to analyze primary caregivers' and teachers' ratings on the conduct problems subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (R. Goodman, 1997) in the Family Life Project (N = 1,292), a prospective study of child development in rural and small town contexts. We found a similar four-class solution at five and seven years of age. In decreasing prevalence, the following classes were identified: (1) low symptoms reported by both informants (low cross-context); (2) high parent-reported symptoms, low teacher-reported symptoms (home context); (3) low parentreported symptoms, moderate teacher-reported symptoms (school context); and (4) high symptoms reported by both informants (high cross-context). Classes exhibited stability from age five to age seven: children were more likely to remain in the same class than to transition to a different class, and longitudinal stability was especially high for children in the low cross-context class at age 5. A number of child and family characteristics measured in early childhood (executive function, verbal ability, poverty-related risk, sensitive parenting, and parental depressive symptoms) were associated with class membership at age five and age seven, but were generally not associated with longitudinal transitions between classes.
The prospect of improving “noncognitive” skills through intervention increases the need to unders... more The prospect of improving “noncognitive” skills through intervention increases the need to understand how to represent them in evaluations. Economic assessment of such efforts rarely incorporates these factors, especially when a benefit-cost approach is employed. Programs targeting such skills are more likely to be assessed through approaches that do not monetize noncognitive ability (e.g., using cost-effectiveness analysis). This could lead to ineffective policy formulations in situations where policy is swayed toward programs that can show monetized effects. Benefit-cost analyses (BCAs) that are employed for programs that target noncognitive competencies currently may underestimate the true economic impact if such skills are left out of the equation. The limitations in valuing these skills impede thorough economic assessment for important and effective programs that target noncognitive competencies. This is especially the case for programs for younger children where readily moneti...
The authors call for a broad agenda to create comprehensive models and research on the developmen... more The authors call for a broad agenda to create comprehensive models and research on the development and promotion of empathy and compassion. This wish would lead to a new level of developmental/ecological understanding of the growth of compassion as well as effective policies and practices and interventions that nurture caring, compassion, and service to others in our schools and communities. The authors define empathy and compassion, briefly discuss the outline of early developmental processes, and call for basic research on these essential aspects of human development. The authors conclude by discussing the need to develop new ways to promote empathy and compassion in families, schools and communities.
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Papers by Mark Greenberg