News Archive
Smoking Cessation Program Plus Physical Activity May Curb Teen Smoking
University Park, PA (October 2011 HHDev News Website)
Preschool Program Improves Standardized Test Scores through Grade 5
University Park, PA (October 6, 2011, Newswire)
Two HHD Centers Train Young Scientists to Help Prevent Risky Behaviors
University Park, PA (August 1, 2011)
Dr. Matthew Sanders, Founder of Triple P—Positive Parenting Program, Will Present 2011 Bennett Lecture
University Park, PA (July 5, 2011)
Matthew Sanders, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre, University of Queensland, will be the 2011 Bennett Lecturer in Prevention Science.
Dr. Sanders is the Founder of the Triple P—Positive Parenting Program. Triple P was the first evidence-based public health model of parenting intervention to be experimentally tested and has now been disseminated to 22 countries worldwide, translated into 16 languages, with 58,000 practitioners having delivered the intervention to over 7 million children.
His work has had a major international impact on parenting and child research, policy, and practice. Dr. Sanders' research activities focus on the prevention and treatment of psychopathology in children and adolescents; and parent training and family intervention.
Dr. Sanders will be visiting Penn State University Park Campus in late October. His presentation for the Bennett Lecture is entitled, "Making a Public Health Approach to Parenting Support Really Work". The Lecture will be held on Thursday, October 27, 4 p.m., Board Room, Nittany Lion Inn.
For the Child Study Center, Dr. Sanders will speak on "Parenting Interventions for Complex Problems" on Wednesday, October 26, 4:15 p.m., Nittany Lion Inn Alumni Lounge. A reception will follow the talk.
Resource Page for Dr. Sanders' Visit
Prevention Action Features Domitrovich CASEL Award
University Park, PA (July 25, 2011)
Participants in Harrisburg Preschool Program Score Higher on Tests
University Park, PA (May 11, 2011)
Domitrovich Receives Zins Award from CASEL
University Park, PA (April 20, 2011)
Celene Domitrovich, Ph.D., received the Joseph E. Zins Award for Action Research in Social and Emotional Learning from CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning). Dr. Domitrovich received the award at this year's CASEL Forum, and was honored for her outstanding work as a researcher and scholar focusing on social and emotional learning and dedication to improving the lives of children.
PRC Director Mark T. Greenberg, Award Recipient Celene Domitrovich,
and CASEL President Roger Weissberg
Link to College Press Release (May 9, 2011)
Strong Relationships Improve Family Life
Article in Centre Daily Times by Mark Feinberg, Ph.D., March 9, 2011, on Family Foundations
Yoga, Meditation Program Helps City Youths Cope with Stress
Article in the Baltimore Sun, February 23, 2011, that includes section on Tamar Mendelson's and Mark Greenberg's work in Baltimore, MD
Say Om: Mindfulness Makes a Difference in the Lives of Urban Youth
(Center for Adolescent Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Adolescent Matters Issues Brief, Winter 2011)
Inner-City Inner Peace—The Mindful Society
Article on Shambhala Sun website (March 2011 issue) that includes section on Mark Greenberg's and Tamar Mendelson's work in Baltimore, MD
Penn State, DoD, and USDA Partner for Well-being of Military Families
University Park, PA (January 27, 2011)
Partners on new Penn State Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness (CMFR) include the Prevention Research Center
Penn State Experts Offer Strategies to Prevent Tobacco Use among Teens
University Park, PA (December 16, 2010)
New Penn State Research Tackles Drug Use, HIV in South African Youth
University Park, PA (December 3, 2010)
Relationship-Strengthening Class Improves Family Life for Years After Baby is Born [link to e!Science News article]
University Park, PA (December 1, 2010)
Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, Ph.D., was 2010 Bennett Lecturer
University Park, PA (November 3, 2010)
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Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, Ph.D., Bat-Yaacov Professor of Child Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences; Director, UCLA Global Center for Children and Families; and Director, UCLA Center for HIV Identification Prevention & Treatment Services (CHIPTS), was the 2010 Bennett Lecturer in Prevention Science. Her presentation, given on November 4, was "Mobile Technologies to Diffuse Preventive Interventions Globally". [abstract] [press release] |
Dr. Rotheram-Borus has spent the past 20 years developing, evaluating, and disseminating evidence-based interventions for children and families. She has worked extensively with adolescents, especially those at risk for substance abuse, HIV, homelessness, depression, suicide, and long-term unemployment.
Dr. Rotheram-Borus has directed and implemented several landmark intervention studies that have demonstrated the benefits of providing behavior change programs and support to families in risky situations. Several of these programs have received national and international recognition, including designation as model programs by the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, she has ongoing projects in Uganda, China, and South Africa, as well as the United States.
Dr. Rotheram-Borus has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles, including publications in Science, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Public Health. She has received more than 40 grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to design prevention programs for children and families at high risk for HIV, mental health problems, suicide, and substance abuse. In 2001, Science identified her as number two of the top-funded NIH multi-grant recipients; she was the only woman in the top ten.
Crowley to Receive Addiction Science Education Award
University Park, PA (September 20, 2010) [Full Press Release]
Daniel Crowley, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Human Development & Family Studies and a Prevention And Methodology Training (PAMT) Pre-doctoral Fellow, will receive the 2010 John T. and Patricia A. O'Neill Addiction Science Education Award at the Research Society on Alcoholism Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia in June 2011.
Mr. Crowley's proposal, titled "The PROSPER Project: PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience", was selected from among many highly-rated proposals, which were evaluated by senior scientists who are experts in alcohol, and drug abuse and addiction.
The award is funded by the Texas Research Society on Alcoholism.
Penn State, Government, Industry Helping Children Pick Healthier Food
University Park, PA (July 15, 2010)
A new initiative to improve children's nutrition education and increase the amount of healthy foods available in schools is a collaboration among Penn State researchers; Pennsylvania's Departments of Health, Education, and Agriculture; Pennsylvania food manufacturers and food distributors; and school districts across the state.
The project, led by Penn State and supported for two years by an $800,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seeks to improve children's understanding of nutrition and help them make smarter food choices. The funds come through the Pennsylvania Department of Health as part of the CDC's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
Researchers will increase the amount of nutrition information available in schools and at home, including innovative menu labeling systems for use in cafeterias across Pennsylvania. These menu systems will be age appropriate and will target everyone from kindergarteners to high school seniors. Children will have a baseline level of nutrient information, which will help them make healthier choices. Then, in conjunction with school districts and foodservice providers, Penn State will test the effectiveness of the labeling system.
"Penn State, with its tradition in nutrition and food innovation, was the perfect partner to develop and implement these initiatives," said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Everette James, who is playing a significant role in the project. "The College of Health and Human Development and the Center for Food Innovation are centered on how to improve nutrition for children in Pennsylvania. The health of children is already important to schools and now we're making it the top priority."
A major focus of the project is finding effective ways to share nutrition information with parents. Peter Bordi, associate professor of hospitality management and principal investigator on the project, plans to take a multimedia approach by using the Internet, new technologies and old technologies such as informational handouts.
"What may work for one school district may not work for another," said Bordi. This component is designed so that "parents can sit down and teach their children to make healthier choices -- in practice, not in theory," says Secretary James.
Penn State's Center for Food Innovation, directed by Bordi, will work with foodservice organizations to ensure that children have access to healthy, affordable foods in schools. The research team will identify ten foods that meet or exceed nutrition guidelines for both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Prices of these foods' prices will be reduced to be more competitive with other foods in the schools.
CFI, which regularly performs sensory testing to better understand why people like or dislike certain foods, will test new foods created in conjunction with food organizations such as ARAMARK Education, Metz & Associates, and Nutrition, Inc.
"The children will be able to give us feedback and help us create appealing, healthy foods," said Bordi. "You can't develop foods for kids if you can't get their input."
This project is being launched in conjunction with another new project headed by the Department of Health that ensures that children get at least thirty minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in school.
"The CDC tells us that more than half of chronic disease is preventable and it makes up nearly 75 percent of our health care costs," said Secretary James. "We're tackling two of the major factors that lead to chronic disease -- poor nutrition and lack of physical education."
"Ultimately, we hope that children will take this education outside of school so that it can impact their everyday life as well. It's exciting that we can all make a difference in our children's lives," said Bordi.
In addition to Bordi, David Cranage, associate professor of hospitality management, Penny Kris-Etherton, distinguished professor of nutritional sciences, and Meg Small, research associate in the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, all at Penn State are part of the project.
Foodservice organizations on the project include Benzel's Pretzel Bakery, Super Bakery, Knouse Foods, Sysco Central Pennsylvania, Metz & Associates, the Nutrition Group, and ARAMARK Education.
REAL Strategies Help Youth Resist Peer Pressure [more]
University Park, PA (June 14, 2010)
Ignoring Stress Leads Recovering Addicts to More Cravings
University Park, PA (June 23, 2010)
Recovering addicts who avoid coping with stress succumb easily to substance use cravings, making them more likely to relapse during recovery, according to behavioral researchers.
"Cravings are a strong predictor of relapse," said H. Harrington Cleveland, associate professor of human development, Penn State. "The goal of this study is to predict the variation in substance craving in a person on a within-day basis. Because recovery must be maintained 'one day at a time,' researchers have to understand it on the same daily level."
Cleveland and his colleague Kitty S. Harris, director, Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery, Texas Tech University, used data from a daily diary study of college students who are recovering addicts to identify the processes that trigger cravings and prevent some addicts from building a sustained recovery.
The researchers found that how addicts cope with stress -- either by working through a problem or avoiding it -- is a strong predictor of whether they will experience cravings when faced with stress and negative mood.
"Whether you avoid problems or analyze problems not only makes a big difference in your life but also has a powerful impact on someone who has worked hard to stay away from alcohol and other drugs," explained Cleveland. "When faced with stress, addicts who have more adaptive coping skills appear to have a better chance of staying in recovery." The findings appeared in a recent issue of Addictive Behaviors.
Researchers supplied Palm Pilots to 55 college students who were in recovery from substance abuse ranging from alcohol to cocaine and club drugs. The students were asked to record the their daily cravings for alcohol and other drugs, as well as the intensity of negative social experiences -- hostility, insensitivity, interference, and ridicule -- and their general strategies for coping with stress.
"We looked at variations in the number of cravings across days and found that these variations are predicted by stressful experiences," said Cleveland. "More importantly, we found that the strength of the daily link between experiencing stress and the level of cravings experienced is related to the participants' reliance on avoidance coping."
Statistical analyses of the survey data suggests that the magnitude of the link between having a stressful day and experiencing substance use cravings doubles for recovering addicts who cope with stress by avoiding it.
"We found that addicts who deal with stress by avoiding it have twice the number of cravings in a stressful day compared to persons who use problem solving strategies to understand and deal with the stress," explained Cleveland. "Avoidance coping appears to undercut a person's ability to deal with stress and exposes that person to variations in craving that could impact recovery from addiction."
According to Cleveland, the findings suggest the impulse to avoid stress is never going to help recovering addicts because stressful experiences cannot be avoided.
"If your basic life strategy is to avoid stress, then your problems will probably end up multiplying and causing you more problems," he added.
University Park, PA (June 1, 2010)
• Protection Against the Utraviolet B (UVB) Rays that Cause Sunburn [more]
University Park, PA (May 21, 2010)
Jennings Contributes "Mindful Education" Article to Greater Good
e-Newsletter [more]
University Park, PA (May 5, 2010)
Sibling Research by Feinberg, McHale Cited in Recent USA Today Article [more]
University Park, PA (March 8, 2010)
• Prevention Research Center helps establish Ph.D. program in Croatian university [more]
Harrisburg Preschool Program Improves Standardized Test Performance
University Park, PA (March 8, 2010) – Recent standardized test results show that participation in the Harrisburg Preschool Program (HPP) significantly affects children’s literacy and math skills. Third-grade children who had participated in the HPP scored significantly higher on Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests than did their peers who had not participated in the HPP.
Findings for mathematics achievement on the PSSA were dramatic: 51 percent of HPP students were classified as advanced or proficient while only 29 percent of non-attendees were similarly classified. There was also a strong increase in the number of students classified as advanced or proficient in reading achievement––45 percent among HPP attendees vs. 23 percent among non-attendees.
This indicates that enrollment in this particular high-quality preschool program has significant long-term effects on children’s learning outcomes. The academic advantages were evident regardless of length of time in preschool but were stronger for children who had been enrolled at age 3 and had participated for two years.
"This research demonstrates that there are substantial long-term effects of the HP Program on children’s reading and math achievement,” noted Dr. Mark Greenberg, principal investigator of the evaluation and director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State. “The fact that this advantage has now been documented on the state standardized achievement tests is additional evidence that preschool is critical for disadvantaged children—not only for their school readiness but for their longer-term achievement.”
Greenberg and his research team found similar results in January 2010, which showed that participation in the HPP improved children’s vocabulary level, writing ability, and cognitive ability (for more information, see www.hhdev.psu.edu/news/2010/1_19_10_preschool.html).
Greenberg noted, “The HP program has the important elements of high-quality preschool. This includes well-trained and well-equipped teachers; a vital and challenging curriculum in literacy, math, and social-emotional development; and a caring, supportive classroom environment that nurtures the learning of young children.”
Greenberg and Dr. Celene Domitrovich of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State received funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to evaluate the HPP’s short- and long-term effectiveness. The preliminary results they have found so far are important because success in the early elementary grades strongly influences long-term academic outcomes (achievement, dropout, graduation rates); the achievement gap is much more difficult to close after third grade. The Harrisburg School District has historically shown relatively poor outcomes on state-level indicators such as standardized achievement tests, so this finding speaks to the effectiveness of one of its major initiatives.
The evaluation of HPP has been funded to last eight years and the students will be followed through fifth grade.
The Harrisburg Preschool Program was established in 2002 with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a strong partnership with Capital Area Head Start, an early childhood agency. The initiative was part of a comprehensive strategy for improving the quality of education available to children in Harrisburg.
New school readiness intervention emphasizes family support [link to article on College News web page ]
Participation in preschool program has substantial effect on student achievement [link to article on College News web page]
Turrisi Gives Pattishall Lecture on February 16, 2010 [press release] [presentation]
New School Readiness Intervention Emphasizes Family Support
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (February 4, 2010). A new Penn State study will target families of kindergarten children at risk for doing poorly in school with an innovative at-home academic and behavioral readiness intervention. The study, led by Dr. Janet Welsh, research associate in the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, received a $3-million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The results of the study will have implications for parent involvement in children’s learning.
“Children who enter grade school with cognitive and social-emotional delays are at an increased risk for reading problems, academic underachievement, and becoming disengaged or disinterested in school,” says Welsh. “Our goal in developing this intervention was to improve parent support for child learning at home, thereby fostering gains in child oral language skills, emergent literacy skills, and adaptive approaches to learning.”
The intervention, called Focus on Learning, integrates approaches that strengthen academic and behavioral skills in children. Past studies have shown that both sets of skills are important when it comes to doing well and staying engaged in school. The intervention emphasizes parental support and involvement as a way to increase learning.
Families receive a laptop for the intervention, which Welsh and her colleagues found to be the best approach for building skills into a child’s daily life. The laptop contains applications and educational games that build vocabulary and reading skills, which is one component of the intervention.
“We tried to be mindful of what parents are or are not able to do, when we designed the intervention,” says Welsh. “Oftentimes what teachers can do differs from what parents can do, because there are much different demands. Many parents have low literacy themselves; to say they need to read to their kids is not always the most effective approach.”
To address these literacy issues, the intervention was designed so that parents do not need to read word for word from the page. Instead, they will be instructed to use a technique known as “dialogic reading,” which encourages parents to engage in a discussion with their children about what is happening on each page. This technique can strengthen communication between parent and child. Additionally, the books being used were designed specifically for the intervention and contain valuable social themes, such as problems young children face at home and at school.
Poor academic performance in school has been linked to aggressive behavior in some children, so parents in the intervention will also receive coaching lessons on how to use positive discipline strategies and manage noncompliant and aggressive behavior in children.
Children’s academic progress will be monitored until they reach at least third grade, and parent support and involvement in their children’s learning will be assessed. Nearly 300 kindergarten children from York. Juniata, and Mifflin counties in Pennsylvania will be involved in the randomized evaluation of the intervention, which is funded to last until 2014.
Other key faculty members involved in the study include Dr. Karen Bierman, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and Dr. Scott Gest, associate professor of human development and family studies.
Participation in Preschool Program has Substantial
Effect on Student Achievement
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (January 19, 2010). Researchers at Penn State have found that participation in a particular preschool program increases children’s literacy and math skills and cognitive abilities. The researchers evaluated children enrolled in the Harrisburg Preschool Program (HPP), a comprehensive program that provides preschool programming in collaboration with early childhood agencies in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
During their kindergarten year, children who had attended the preschool program were compared to a matched group of students who did not participate in HPP. All children in the HPP program were followed through the second grade. Some entered preschool at age 3 and others at age 4, which allowed a comparison of the effect of one year versus two years in the program.
Students who had enrolled in HPP had significantly higher early literacy and math skills. Those with two years in the program continued to exhibit significantly higher literacy skills both in terms of overall vocabulary level and writing ability, compared to children who only received one year of the program. In addition, the advantage of more time in the program was reflected on several measures of cognitive ability, including cognitive flexibility and working memory.
“These effects are very exciting and show that participation in the Harrisburg Preschool Program continues to have a substantial effect on children’s achievement,” noted Dr. Mark Greenberg, principal investigator of the evaluation and director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development. “Children who participate for longer (enter at age 3) have better outcomes than those with just one year of participation. This advantage has been evident since kindergarten and is maintained in several key domains in second grade. We are looking forward to examining outcomes for participants in the elementary years both at third and fifth grade.”
These findings are important because success in the early elementary grades strongly influences long-term academic outcomes (achievement, dropout, graduation rates). The Harrisburg School District has historically shown relatively poor outcomes on state-level indicators such as standardized achievement tests.
The Harrisburg Preschool Program was established in 2002 with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a strong partnership with Capital Area Head Start, an early childhood agency. The initiative was part of a comprehensive strategy for improving the quality of education available to children in Harrisburg. Drs. Greenberg and Celene Domitrovich of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State received funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to evaluate the HPP’s short- and long-term effectiveness.
Family Intervention Program may be Strengthened
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (January 5, 2010)-- Modifications to a program originally aimed at strengthening families have shown that parents improved their ability to control anger, exhibited less negativity and acted more positively toward their children, according to preliminary testing by Penn State researchers.
The study, funded by a $3.3-million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, will test changes to an intervention program called "Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14" (SFP 10-14), which educates parents and children on ways to enhance their relationships.
Researchers led by Douglas Coatsworth, associate professor of human development and family studies, are adapting SFP 10-14, which was established to prevent the onset of teen drug use and shows good results. Coatsworth believes the program can be strengthened and could also prevent other poor outcomes in teens, such as risky sexual behavior.
"The Strengthening Families Program is one of the most promising universal family-based preventive interventions," said Coatsworth. "Research shows that it delays the onset of substance use, improves parenting practices, increases youths' resistance to peer pressure and reduces aggressive or destructive behavior. However, most of those studies have been done by the same research group, and independent replication will strengthen the evidence for the program's efficacy."
This new study is not only an attempt to evaluate SFP 10-14, but is also charting new territories in prevention science. The adapted intervention is providing parents with a set of skills that has not been tested in any family-based prevention programs to date, according to Coatsworth.
The revised approach was created by a team of researchers and clinicians working closely with Virginia Molgaard, associate professor emerita, Iowa State University, who created the original SFP-10-14 program.
"We think that the new activities will help parents see their youths behavior and their parenting from a new, more positive perspective and is likely to enhance the parent-youth relationships more than earlier tests of this intervention," said Coatsworth.
A pilot study showed that parents did improve their anger control ability, showed less negativity and were more positive toward their children. For the full study, the researchers will test the intervention with 600 families of sixth- and seventh-grade children in five Pennsylvania school districts.
Researchers involved in the project include Coatsworth; Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development and Edna P. Bennett Chair in Prevention Research in Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State; Larissa Duncan, former Penn State graduate student and now assistant professor, department of family and community medicine and the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine; Robert Nix, research associate, Penn State's Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development; Christa Turksma, prevention consultant, and Elaine Berrena, senior project associate, College of Health and Human Development, Penn State.
The project will be conducted through Penn State's Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development.
Participation in Conduct Problem Prevention Program Associated with Reduced Use of Health Services
Children at risk for conduct problems who participated in a 10-year intervention program used fewer health care services—both for general health and mental health needs—than at-risk children who did not participate. The study, “The Impact of the Fast Track Prevention Trial on Health Services Use by Youth at Risk for Conduct Problems,” published in the January issue of Pediatrics (appearing online December 14), looked at 891 children identified in kindergarten as at-risk for conduct disorder. The children were randomly assigned to participate in either the intervention group or a control group. The intervention program, which included parent training, child social-cognitive skills training, classroom conduct and more, lasted 10 years, and service use patterns were assessed during adolescence. Youth assigned to the intervention had significantly reduced use of professional general health, pediatric and emergency department services relative to the control group (based on parent report). Older adolescents were significantly less likely to receive outpatient mental health services (based on self report).
Authors are Damon Jones, J. Godwin, K. A. Dodge, Karen Bierman, J. D. Coie, Mark Greenberg, J. E. Lochman, R. J. McMahon, & Ellen Pinderhughes.
G. Alan Marlatt presents 2009 Prevention Lecture
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Dr. G. Alan Marlatt, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, was the 2009 Bennett Lecturer. The title of the Bennett Lecture was "Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors". [press release on College site] |
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Changes to NIH Forms, Applications Take Effect January 25, 2010
NIH is entering into the final phase of the Enhancing Peer Review initiative, implementing two major changes - restructured/shortened applications and new forms and instructions. These changes affect the majority of competing applications and resubmissions for January 25, 2010 due dates and beyond. Additional details describing which applications are affected can be found in a Guide notice NOT-OD-09-149.
The new, restructured application format seeks to align the structure and content of the application with newly enhanced review criteria, thereby focusing applicants and reviewers on the same elements. Similarly, shorter page limits focus both reviewers and applicants on the essentials of the science, avoiding information overload, and potentially enabling a larger number of reviewers to read each application.
The new application forms contain changes to the Research Plan, Resources, and Biographical Sketch sections:
*Research Plan has new language added to Specific Aims and has a new section titled Research Strategy (which is a combination of 3 current sections - Background and Significance, Preliminary Studies/Progress Report, and Research Design and Methods).
*The Facilities and Other Resources has been updated to better reflect the Environment criterion.
*Biographical Sketch has new instructions requiring a Personal Statement and limiting the number of references.
To view a side-by-side comparison of the current instructions and to those that will accompany the restructured applications, see Details of Application Changes.
Turrisi receives research award from college
Rob Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health, received the Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award at the College of Health and Human Development's awards ceremony on Wednesday, October 14. He was honored for his research on risky behaviors in adolescents and teens that has become a referent for shaping research and policy on health behavior and public health.
Turrisi has authored hundreds of articles and co-authored several books on topics that range from statistical analysis to the role of parenting in preventing risky behavior in children. He received a B.A. in psychology from Rhode Island University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University at Albany – the State University of New York in 1988, and he has been a Penn State faculty member since 2004. [college press release]
Program to train educational scientists gets under way
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (August 27, 2009) -- Faculty from three Penn State divisions -- the colleges of Education, Health and Human Development and the Liberal Arts -- are collaborating in a new interdisciplinary training program aimed at preparing the next generation of educational scientists.
Penn State’s Training Interdisciplinary Educational Scientists (TIES) program has been implemented to provide leadership for future educational scientists working with students who are at risk for school adjustment problems and poor educational outcomes. The goal is to enhance the literacy and social/emotional learning opportunities of at-risk students.
Thomas W. Farmer, associate professor of special education in the College of Education, and Karen L. Bierman, distinguished professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts, are co-directors of the TIES program.
Three associate directors are providing administrative support: James DiPerna, associate professor of school psychology in the College of Education, will support the TIES seminar series; Edward Smith, senior research associate in the College of Health and Human Development, supports TIES methodology training; and Robert Stevens, associate professor of educational psychology in the College of Education, is arranging the program’s summer institutes.
“The goal of TIES is to prepare individuals who can work collaboratively and across disciplines to address key issues in education that reflect the complex contributions of behavioral, biological, cognitive, emotional, environmental and sociocultural factors,” Farmer said. “This includes ensuring that each participating fellow develops expertise in research design, measurement, and analytic approaches that corresponds with her or his own individualized program of study.”
Twenty fellows will be recruited into the TIES program. They will undergo core research training that emphasizes cluster randomized trials -- experimental studies to evaluate interventions by taking into consideration the impact of multiple levels of influence including the community, school and classroom on students’ school adjustment and achievement. The training will also emphasize management of the research process, grant writing and applied research experiences. The fellows will participate in coursework, seminars, summer institutes and research apprenticeships.
During the latter years of training, the fellows will actively engage in their own research and then develop a programmatic line of inquiry to launch them into their professional careers. Their scholarship is intended to expose them to cutting-edge work in literacy and social/emotional learning that will underscore the developmental interplay between these two critical domains of school adjustment.
The TIES program enlists more than 30 faculty from 10 departments across the three participating colleges. The roster includes 17 members with expertise in literacy and social/emotional interventions as well as 14 members specializing in advanced research methods and statistics. This includes the design and analysis of cluster randomized trials.
TIES faculty are directing more than 40 federally funded research projects in literacy and social/emotional adjustment that are ongoing or that have recently completed the data collection phase and are available for analyses and dissemination.
“These studies will be used as a primary component of fellows’ research apprenticeships and will provide opportunities for field-based research experiences as well as hands-on exposure to data analyses and the preparation of research papers for presentation at national conferences and publication in research journals,” said Farmer.
The multiyear project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, which this year awarded predoctoral interdisciplinary research training to five universities: Penn State, Stanford University, Michigan State University, University of California–Berkeley, and the University of Washington.
Six Penn State research centers are supporting TIES activities: the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium; the Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts; the Child Study Center; the Methodology Center; the Prevention Research Center; and the Center for Educational and Developmental Sciences.
Farmer praised DiPerna and Stevens for their upfront coordination on the project. “They deserve the credit for initiating this effort and conceptualizing the general TIES framework,” he said. “If Jim and Bob had not done the initial work, we would have never gotten this off the ground.”
'keepin' it REAL' to partner with D.A.R.E. America in middle schools
UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (August 20, 2009)-- D.A.R.E. America, the internationally prominent substance abuse prevention program, has licensed a new curriculum as part of their middle school program nationwide. The program was jointly developed by Penn State and Arizona State University researchers.
"keepin' it REAL" is an effective, multicultural middle-school drug prevention program created by the Drug Resistance Strategies Project, headquartered at Penn State. The curriculum was developed by Michael Hecht, distinguished professor of communications arts and sciences and crime, law and justice, and Michelle Miller-Day, associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State through 20 years of research.
The program's lessons engage youth through their own stories or narratives and teach youth critical thinking skills and resistance strategies. The curriculum has 10 lessons, 5 of which use videos, and was designated as an evidence-based program on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.
"We are excited to form this partnership with Penn State to create new D.A.R.E. programming for middle school using this successful, research-based curriculum," said Charles Parson, D.A.R.E. Executive Director.
"keepin' it REAL" was honored in 2008 as one of 15 stellar community-university partnerships that enabled Penn State to receive the prestigious Classification in Community Engagement from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
"This is a great opportunity to expand the 'keepin' it REAL' program nationwide through D.A.R.E.'s outstanding network of officers" says Hecht. "We very much look forward to working with the D.A.R.E. America organization and its partner schools."
The "keepin' it REAL" program is a perfect fit for D.A.R.E. America. Hecht notes that "keepin' it REAL" has been proven through evaluation research studies to be effective in limiting alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use by 7th and 8th graders. It is one of the few multicultural evidence-based programs that is ideal for a national and international program such as D.A.R.E."
The program has been implemented at individual school districts in many states including Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, Delaware, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Currently, the researchers are testing the prevention curriculum among a new target audience in rural Pennsylvania and Ohio schools and studying how teachers adapt the strategies for rural youth.
"keepin' it REAL" will join the D.A.R.E. programs in 10,000 U.S. communities and 43 other countries, with 23,000 current D.A.R.E. instructors teaching millions of students. Currently, D.A.R.E. programs reach students in 75 percent of elementary schools but only 40 percent of middle schools. D.A.R.E. leaders would like to see this expanded with the new curriculum.
"For several years, we have been working with experts in the research, education and prevention fields in developing a new middle school and high school curricula for D.A.R.E., working closely with our supporters and critics." notes Frank Pegueros, executive director of D.A.R.E. America. "Our goal is to persuade school, community leaders and local law enforcement that students still need to participate in follow-up programs in middle and high school. The curriculum has to fit into a set number of lessons due to the many other demands on middle school administrators and is most effective in the 10-lesson format of 'keepin' it REAL.' "
"We reviewed several programs and determined that the 'keepin' It REAL' was the best match for our delivery systems by our trained law enforcement officers," he added. "It is research-based and its lessons incorporate key academic objectives such as critical thinking, health, language arts and mathematics."
Many middle schools have school resource officers to deal with safety issues. If these officers also are teaching D.A.R.E. classes, they can develop positive relationships with students. This can help prevent risky and unsafe behavior, according to Pegueros.
D.A.R.E. America formally announced the new middle school curriculum at its annual international training conference July 20-24 in Orlando, naming Hecht the 2009 "D.A.R.E. Champion."
For fall 2009, D.A.R.E. America will begin to transition the middle school curriculum to the "keepin' it REAL" program, with the goal of completion by fall 2010.
Research center highlights successful youth crime prevention efforts
UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (July 29, 2009) — An evaluation by researchers at Penn State of youth crime in Pennsylvania shows that research-based strategies have resulted in reduced rates of youth delinquency and drug use, improved academic achievement and cost-savings in communities across the state.
Strategies include the use of “Communities That Care,” a model that engages communities in implementing programs in schools and communities. These evidence-based programs are intended to reduce drug and alcohol use, improve parenting and promote social and emotional learning in schools.
Research by the Evidence-based Prevention and Intervention Support Center (EPISCenter) at Penn State found that youth in these communities have better long-term academic achievement than youth in comparison communities.
In addition to the findings of lower delinquency and drug use, research by the center also found that prevention programs generated substantial cost-savings through reduced crime, drug treatment, social service and welfare use, increased graduation and employment rates and increased tax revenue, that they not only paid for themselves but represented a return on investment to the state measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.
Brian Bumbarger, director of the EPISCenter, provided testimony to the United States House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security about Pennsylvania’s successful and cost-effective efforts to prevent delinquency and youth drug use on July 15. Congress wants to develop similar initiatives nationally.
“It’s rare that we see such definitive positive impact from taxpayer-supported programs,” said Bumbarger. “This is clearly an example of effective government policy at work.”
According to Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania benefits in two ways from the research that the EPISCenter conducts.
“First, we’re finding that it’s not just the children and families directly involved in the programs that are benefiting. We’re seeing better outcomes – both delinquency and academic achievement – across the entire community. Second, the economic analysis shows these programs are a very good investment of scarce taxpayer resources because they ultimately save taxpayers between $5 and $25 for every dollar invested in the programs.”
Bumbarger went on to say that Pennsylvania’s Research-based Violence Prevention and Evidence-based Prevention Programs Initiatives are seen as models throughout the U.S. and abroad.
“In addition to requests by Congress, I’ve also presented on Pennsylvania’s prevention efforts to other state legislatures, to the Council of State Governments, and even to foreign governments. Pennsylvania’s progressive stance on prevention has made it a recognized leader in this area of government policy.”
The EPISCenter, a project of the Prevention Research Center in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, was created last year to support efforts by Pennsylvania’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency and Department of Public Welfare to reduce youth crime and drug use and strengthen families and communities, using community prevention coalitions and evidence-based prevention programs.
Sibling relationships target of intervention program
UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (July 1, 2009)-- A pilot prevention program targeting fifth graders and their younger siblings, "Siblings are Special," recently received $1.45 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of the National Institutes of Health's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. The award is for two years.
The program aims to enhance the quality of sibling and family relationships and thereby decrease risky behavior and use of drugs among youth as they move into middle school. Previous research has shown that siblings are powerful influences on each other's development and well being, yet sibling conflict and rivalry -- which parents say is their number one stressor at home -- has largely been ignored by researchers.
Mark Feinberg, senior research associate, Prevention Research Center, Penn State's College of Health and Human Development and Susan McHale, professor of human development and director, Penn State's Social Science Research Institute, developed the program and are co-principal investigators on the project.
Participants will be chosen from fifth grade students with siblings no more than three years younger than them. Half the sibling pairs will go through the pilot program while the other half will be in the control group. The sibling pairs will attend weekly after school sessions over 12 weeks and parents will join the children for four "Family Fun Nights" where parents will be engaged as collaborators in the program. The siblings will receive homework each week.
The program combines the power of family intervention within the context of elementary school and a non-stigmatizing family focus on sibling relationships. Schools in rural and semi-rural Pennsylvania will participate in this pilot study, which will run for two years.
For more information on the NIH's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, visit http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/. To track the progress of Health and Human Services activities funded through the recovery act, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery. To track all federal funds provided through the recovery act, visit http://www.recovery.gov/.
Zero tolerance alcohol policy good choice for parents
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (June 10, 2009) — Restaurants in Germany legally sell alcohol to teenagers after their sixteenth birthdays and French children drink wine with dinner at an early age, but U.S. parents who follow this relaxed European example, believing it fosters a healthier attitude toward alcohol, should be careful — it may increase the likelihood that their children binge drink in college.
Research conducted by Caitlin Abar, graduate student, human development and family studies and member of Penn State's Prevention Research and Methodology Centers, suggested that parents practice a zero-tolerance policy in the home and said that there is no scientific basis to the common belief that prohibiting alcohol turns it into a "forbidden fruit" and encourages abuse. She presented her results at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Washington, D.C. and they appear in the current issue of Addictive Behaviors.
In 31 states, parents can legally serve alcohol to their underage children. Though U.S. teenagers drink less often than adults, they tend to drink more at a time — on average, five drinks in a sitting — according to Ralph Hingson of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. About 87 percent of college students try alcohol, and 40 percent say that they regularly engage in some type of high-risk drinking.
To see if parents permitting underage alcohol use might be an underlying cause of binge drinking, Abar surveyed almost 300 college freshmen and related their drinking habits to their parents' modeling and permissibility of alcohol use. Those students whose parents did not permit them to drink underage — about half of the group — were significantly less likely to drink heavily in college, regardless of gender. In addition, "the greater number of drinks that a parent had set as a limit for the teens, the more often they drank and got drunk in college," said Abar. Whether the parents themselves drank, on the other hand, appeared to have little effect on predicting their children's behaviors when accounting for the permissibility they exhibited toward teen alcohol use.
Further research is needed to confirm the preliminary study, said Abar. For one thing, she did not separate students who specifically drank with their parents at meals from those whose parents allowed their children to drink both inside and outside of the house.
A previous study in 2004 by Kristie Foley, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, North Carolina, showed that teenagers who received alcohol from their parents for parties were up to three times more likely to binge drink within a month, while those who drank only with the family were less likely to binge. So the context in which a parent provides alcohol may be key.
The difference also could be due to some other factor, for example, parents who prohibit their children from drinking may simply provide more structure in general.
However, this sample of college students is not necessarily representative of the entire U.S. population, said Alexander Wagenaar, a social epidemiologist, University of Florida, Gainesville, who has charted the effects of raising the drinking age for nearly three decades. The survey group in Abar's sample was composed almost entirely of white students who lived on campus.
Wagenaar finds the data convincing, though, because previous research uncovered a similar effect in low-income African-American and Hispanic students. A 2007 study of 1,388 children by Kelli Komro, University of Florida, showed that schoolchildren who were permitted alcohol in the home by their parents in sixth grade were up to three times more likely to get drunk and almost twice as likely to drink heavily (five or more drinks) at ages 12-14.
Abar's coauthors were Beau Abar, graduate student, human development and family studies, and Rob Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse supported this work.
Adapted from Inside Science News Service
Professor to conduct first large-scale steroid study
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (May 14, 2009). Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, will play a major role in conducting the first large-scale survey of both legal and illegal steroid usage in teenagers. The study, a collaboration between Skidmore College and Penn State, is targeting up to 6,000 first-year college students.
“In the past, steroids were mainly used with athletics, to give athletes an edge. Now we’re seeing a shift and people are using steroids more commonly for cosmetic purposes and for body-building,” Turrisi said.
Turrisi and his colleagues are concerned that many teenagers do not understand the negative side effects of steroids, both short term, damage to the central nervous system, and long term, damage to the endocrine system in some cases; in other cases, tumors. Teenagers are also likely to perceive the most famous steroid users such as Alex Rodriguez, Jose Canseco and Jason Giambi, as successful, which can be appealing.
“Right now, most researchers estimate that five to ten percent of teenage males use over-the-counter or illegal steroids,” Turrisi said. “That’s a significant number when you know that this is behavior happens in high schools across the country. The reality is that high school students are using these substances.”
Turrisi will be gathering and analyzing information, which will be used to inform future research aimed at preventing steroid use. Through surveys, he will be assessing steroid usage, motivation behind steroid usage and knowledge about steroids, including their negative side effects.
“Part of the difficulty with this project is keeping up-to-date with all of the new legal performance enhancers that are put on the market, which anyone can buy in drug stores,” Turrisi said.
Turrisi will also be determining if there are correlations between over-the-counter performance enhancer usage and illegal steroid usage, and possibly assessing whether over-the-counter drug usage can lead to illegal steroids.
Other key persons on the project include Tanya Dodge, assistant professor of psychology at Skidmore University (principal investigator), Miesha Marzell, doctoral student in biobehavioral health, and Chuck Yesalis, professor emeritus of health policy and administration and exercise and sport science in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, who now works as a consultant. Yesalis was a major player in bringing to light some of the steroid activity in baseball today.
The project, which received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in September 2008, will last for two years.
Teaching teachers mindfulness to foster education, improve well-being
UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (April 10, 2009) -- Teachers who encounter stressful classroom situations can become upset and their teaching may suffer. However, by analyzing teachers' emotional reactions in the classroom and how those emotions affect teaching, Patricia Jennings developed innovative teaching methods to help teachers from preschool through college.
Jennings, research associate, Penn State Prevention Research Center, looks at 'mindfulness' -- maintaining awareness of one's thoughts and emotions -- as a way to reduce stress and improve performance.
"Many new teachers have problems managing their behavior when they get upset by challenging student behaviors," says Jennings. "Oftentimes, they end up resorting to punitive and harsh responses, which can lead to power struggles with children and derail learning."
Starting in May 2009, Jennings will spend two years finalizing and testing a professional development program, Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE), funded by a $932,361 grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Educational Sciences. CARE was developed at the Garrison Institute, where Jennings is director of the Initiative on Contemplation and Education.
CARE stresses the importance of emotional awareness and self-regulation when interacting with students. This empowers teachers to make calm, effective responses to children's behavior rather than unconscious reactions that are often ineffective. During the first year, researchers will measure the results of the CARE program through surveys and focus groups of elementary school teachers participating in the program. They want to establish which aspects of CARE are most effective in improving teacher-student interactions and relationships, and to develop the parts of CARE that help foster an optimal educational environment.
Researchers will spend the second year observing teachers in the classroom, before and after the teachers have completed CARE. The researchers will measure disruptive behavior, student compliance, cooperation, communication, problem-solving, interest level, focus, and responsiveness.
By giving teachers the skills to be aware of their emotions and observing the results, Jennings is hoping to understand better which factors are associated with effective teaching.
"Many people think that good teaching is most associated with such factors as years of teaching experience or the amount of training a teacher has received. Those are important factors, but if a teacher doesn't respond and interact with their students in a way that fosters a positive learning environment, then the education tends to get left behind," says Jennings.
Researchers will also evaluate the self-reported social-emotional status of teachers. They will determine whether the teachers have problems with sleep, anxiety, depression, or caring for themselves.
"Even the most caring of teachers are known for ignoring themselves," says Jennings. "This can be problematic. About 50 percent of teachers leave the profession after only five years. By teaching skills on how to be more self-aware, we hope to lower this number, and increase the number of positive role models in our education system."
In the pilot study that helped secure funding for her project, Jennings saw success with CARE.
"An English teacher in a Philadelphia school hit a wall of resistance from her students one day. The students were not interested in her grammar lesson and they became disruptive. Through her own practice with mindfulness, the teacher was able to calm herself down and not react with anger, and in doing so, she was able to tune in to her students and really listen to their complaints with genuine interest. After an open discussion with her students she decided to shift her lesson in response to these feelings. The students were enthusiastic about the new assignment, and the teacher helped them channel their frustration into a creative outlet."
That teacher was able to avoid frustration, and in doing so reduced her stress levels and encouraged learning in the classroom. Those are the results that Jennings is hoping to see and promote through CARE.
CARE was developed by Jennings, Richard Brown, chair of the Contemplative Education Department at Naropa University, and Christa Turksma, prevention consultant. The evaluation will be performed simultaneously in Harrisburg and State College schools. Additional courses on mindfulness are available through the Garrison Institute (www.garrisoninstitute.org).
Any elementary school teachers interested in being a part of the CARE evaluation can contact Patricia Jennings at paj16@psu.edu
Mark Greenberg Receives Award from Society for Research in Child Development
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (March 26, 2009) – Dr. Mark T. Greenberg, Edna Peterson Bennett Chair in Prevention Research and director of the Penn State Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, will be a co-recipient of the Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children Award at the 2009 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Greenberg is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the prevention of family violence and child delinquency and the promotion of social competence in children. He is the co-creator of Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS), a program designed to improve the social, emotional and cognitive competence of elementary-aged children. The curriculum, which has been implemented in more than 1,500 schools worldwide, is one of 11 programs designated as a “Blueprints for Violence Prevention” program by the U.S. Department of Justice and one of 25 programs designated as a “model program” by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Within Pennsylvania, Greenberg played a key role in former Governor Mark Schweiker’s Early Childhood Care and Education Task Force and currently serves on a stakeholder commission that supports the work of Governor Ed Rendell’s Commission on Children and Families. He also serves as principal investigator on a number of projects designed to enhance the health and well-being of children, including PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER), Communities That Care, Family Life and Reaching Early Achievement for Children in Harrisburg (REACH).
Throughout his distinguished career, Greenberg has written more than 200 journal articles and book chapters on child development, aggression, violence and externalizing disorders. He has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Research Scientist Award from the Society for Prevention Research, the Faculty Outreach Award from Penn State and the Pauline Schmitt Russell Research Achievement Award from Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development.
The Society for Research in Child Development is a multidisciplinary, nonprofit, professional association with a membership of approximately 5,500 researchers, practitioners and human development professionals from over fifty countries. The purposes of the Society are to promote multidisciplinary research in the field of human development, to foster the exchange of information among scientists and other professionals of various disciplines and to encourage applications of research findings. These goals are pursued through a variety of programs with the cooperation and service of its governing council, standing committees and members.
Students who feel connected to peers, teachers are more inclined to warn of dangerous fellow student
Zero tolerance policies can work against cohesion in schools
[PDF: Syvertsen et al., Journal of Educational Psychology article]
WASHINGTON – Students who feel connected to their peers and teachers are more inclined to alert a teacher or principal if they hear a fellow student "wants to do something dangerous," according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
But those students who don't feel connected are less likely to act. Researchers from The Pennsylvania State University and Missouri State University looked into why some students adopt a "code of silence" when faced with a fellow student's dangerous intentions. Their findings appear in the February Journal of Educational Psychology, published by APA.
The researchers presented a hypothetical scenario of a peer's plan "to do something dangerous" to 1,740 middle and high school students from 13 schools. The students were asked if they would (1) intervene directly, (2) tell a teacher or principal, (3) talk it over with a friend but not tell an adult, or (4) do nothing.
High school students (964) were less likely than middle school students (776) to talk directly to the peer planning to do something dangerous or tell a teacher or principal, said lead author Amy K. Syvertsen, MEd. "High schools are generally larger than middle schools and provide less opportunity for teachers and students to interact, which is the foundation for building trust, caring and community between the two."
Most students who said they would take action favored directly approaching the peer rather than telling an adult. "This may be a reflection of where many of these students are developmentally. They want to assert their autonomy, make decisions and handle the situation on their own," said the authors.
Students who generally felt a sense of pride in their school and concern for others were more likely to say they would act rather than ignore the situation. For all students, Syvertsen said, knowing they could voice their opinions and be heard by a school official along with their sense of belonging – how they and their friends fit into the school culture – best predicted whether they would confront the peer themselves or tell an adult.
Fear of getting into trouble makes students less willing to go to a teacher or principal with their concerns about a peer's potentially dangerous plan and more likely to ignore the situation, said the authors. Yet those students who said they would speak directly to the peer said they didn't believe they would get into trouble.
Certain school policies, such as zero tolerance, may create an atmosphere that prevents students from confiding in a teacher or school administrator because of the perceived repercussions, said Syvertsen. "Blanket policies that are often not clearly explained to teachers or students can create an atmosphere in which rules get in the way of relationships between students and teachers, to the detriment of keeping the schools safe," said the authors.
"Fostering a caring school climate where students and teachers look out for each other to keep one another safe can't be taught in a single lesson or by using deterrents, like metal detectors or harsh policies," Syvertsen added. "It is built on daily interactions between the teachers and students."
Although the nature of the dangerous school event used in the study was hypothetical, the results of this study provide some sense of students' willingness to act should a similar situation arise.
Faculty member's research aims to assure quality child care
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
University Park, Pa. — Child care is part of the daily routine for millions of American families with more than 12 million children under age 5 in some type of out-of-the-home facility each week.
As a result, the quality of these settings where children spend a large part of their time is a continuing matter of public and governmental concern.
"There’s a lot of child care out there, but some is not very good," said Penn State Harrisburg Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies Richard Fiene who has spent more than 30 years assisting parents and state agencies define quality in preschool care.
A faculty member in the Penn State Harrisburg School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, Fiene's teaching responsibilities include classes in the undergraduate Human Development and Family Studies major which prepares graduates to work in a wide range of professions, including day care centers, child and domestic abuse facilities, and runaway shelters.
Fiene's ongoing research in which he has identified 13 key indicators of child care quality is now being used by one of the leading advocacy organizations in the nation. The National Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) has made the list of indicators available to parents through the Child Care Aware program on its web site at www.naccrra.org. Fiene explains, “NACCRRA is the foremost national organization assisting parents to choose high-quality child care and the provider of guidelines for all states in the U.S.”
When interested parents and agencies visit the NACCRRA Web site and visit the “Child Care Aware” presentation, a link to Choosing Child Care takes them directly to an overview and the 13 indicators developed by Fiene. Originally developed by Fiene for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the indicators each include checklists for parents to determine overall quality of a facility. Fiene suggests parents visit a number of child care providers and use the checklist before making a final decision.
The indicators of quality include standards that deal with the supervision of staff, hand washing and diapering, director qualifications, lead teacher qualifications, child-to-staff ratio and group size, immunizations, unavailability of toxic substances, emergency plans, fire drills, child abuse prevention, medications, staff training and fire drills, and playground safety.
He notes there are several things that parents should look for and that a program can do to foster an effective and harm-free child care experience. They include: increased caregiver support, a focus on positive behavior, and training opportunities.
"Really good child care will give children a good start in school," Fiene advised. "It's very important for us to be concerned about the social aspect of early care."
"For 30 years, I have worked every six years on longitudinal studies in Pennsylvania for the governor's office to document how quality changes based on changes in public policy. Things have come a long way. I got discouraged at times, but we’ve turned it around. Things are much better in Pennsylvania and great strides have been made in child care quality," he says reflecting on governmental regulations.
In a related endorsement of his efforts, The National Association for Regulatory Administration has posted links to 44 of Fiene’s publications profiling his research on quality child care. They can be accessed at www.naralicensing.org.
As an extension of his child-centered research and scholarship, Fiene was also one of three Penn State faculty members to recently be awarded a $130,000 grant to conduct a national study of early childhood professional development programs and earlier this year he was granted funding to resurrect the Harrisburg Collaborative Research Scholar Initiative which addresses health and human services needs in the capital region.
Penn State program aims to reduce teen pregnancy rates
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Spring education workshops will equip teachers and community and health care professionals with the latest knowledge and strategies to help young people develop into sexually literate and healthy adults
The rate of teen pregnancy is rising after a 14-year decline, and so are the societal costs. Nationally, teen childbearing costs taxpayers at least $9.1 billion a year, according to a study published by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. In Pennsylvania, nearly $400 million in tax dollars is spent annually for public health care, child welfare and other services for teen mothers, the study concludes. The Pennsylvania Academy for Sexuality Education (PLASE) has been established to combat issues like unintended teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmissible diseases by helping young people to develop into sexually literate and healthy adults.
"Adolescent pregnancy is a complex issue. We do know, however, that comprehensive sexuality education that provides young people with accurate information and health-promoting skills decreases the risk of negative outcomes," reports Patricia Barthalow Koch, Penn State professor of biobehavioral health and faculty director of PLASE.
PLASE workshops are designed for Pennsylvania teachers, counselors, health care providers and other professionals who present sexuality education to students, families, clients, patients and others. The academy is based in the Department of Biobehavioral Health in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development and is a collaborative effort with the Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The one-day spring workshops are underwritten, in part, by the Penn State Outreach Thematic Initiative Fund. Workshops will be delivered through Penn State Conferences, a unit of Penn State Outreach, at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel at University Park campus. The workshops, which will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., are:
• Sex and Alcohol: The Double Whammy, Monday, Feb. 23
• Don't Touch that Dial! Sexuality and Media Literacy, Monday, April 13
• Love or Lust? Building Healthy Relationships, Wednesday, May 6
For more information and to register for a workshop, visit http://www.programs.psu.edu/PLASE09 online.
PLASE is also sponsoring an annual Teen Pregnancy Prevention Conference at University Park campus. The theme for the 2009 conference is "The Future of Sex Education." The conference will also be held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on May 4 and 5.
Further PRC Faculty, Student Honors in 2008
Dr. Mark Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University, received the 2008 Friend of ECPN (Early Career Preventionist Network) Award from the Society for Prevention Research, for supporting and encouraging early career persons or issues.
Dr. Michael Hecht of Pennsylvania State University presented a paper at the 2008 Annual International Communication Association Convention in Montreal, Quebec, Canada held May 22-26 2008. The paper by Matsunaga, M., Ndiaye, K., Hecht, M.L., & Elek, E.E. (May 2008), "Punctuated Equilibria of Ethnic Identity Development: The Case of Mexican-Heritage Youth in the United States," received an award as the top paper in intercultural communication.
Dr. Stephanie Lanza, Scientific Director of the NIDA-funded Penn State University Methodology Center (P50) and PI for the Methodology Center's annual Summer Institute on Longitudinal Methods (R13), was presented the Early Career Prevention Network (ECPN) Early Career Award at the annual meeting for the Society for Prevention Research in San Francisco, CA on May 29, 2008. This award is bestowed to someone who has shown a commitment to prevention science through outstanding research, policy or practice.
Dr. Melissa Tibbits, Dr. Michael Cleveland, Dr. Monique Faulk, and Dr. Amy Syvertsen, current and former fellows on the NIDA supported Prevention and Methodology Training program at Pennsylvania State University, along with pre-doctoral student Joche Gayles won the 2008 SPR Sloboda & Bukoski Cup, an annual Society for Prevention Research competition where independent groups of scientists, each working with the same data set prior to the conference, conduct a study that is presented at SPR and evaluated by a panel of judges and audience members on the quality of the research and presentation.
New Center Gives Technical Support to Communities for Youth Well-being
University Park, Pa. — The Penn State Prevention Research Center (PRC) has opened its new Evidence-based Prevention and Intervention Support Center, created to support the PRC's continuing efforts to work with Commonwealth agencies and Pennsylvania communities to promote the well-being of children, youth and families and reduce violence and delinquency through tested and effective programs.
EPIS Center is funded for four years at about $3.6 million by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) and the state Department of Public Welfare.
"This is a strong testament to the commitment of our public officials to address social problems in communities in a way that provides positive outcomes for families with accountable and cost-effective solutions for taxpayers," said Brian Bumbarger, director of EPIS Center.
Over the past 10 years, the PCCD has invested more than $60 million to assist communities in adopting these evidence-based programs. Recent studies by the PRC show that these programs are having a significant impact on reducing delinquency, and represent a $317 million return on the Commonwealth's investment -- delivering strong, positive outcomes for families and youth and providing substantial cost savings for taxpayers.
The EPIS Center was established to provide greater technical support to communities implementing these effective strategies, with the objective of ensuring even better outcomes and cost savings for Pennsylvania in the future.
Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center, part of the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State, noted, "The support for the EPIS Center signals that Pennsylvania has taken another important step toward ensuring healthy outcomes for children, youth, and families. Penn State takes seriously the mission of integrating research and outreach for Pennsylvania's citizens and is excited to be a partner in this important mission."
Arthur E. Grim, chairman of the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, said, "Those of us who are responsible for making decisions that affect the future of our children youth, and families, as well as the communities in which they reside, salute the new EPISCenter. The Prevention Research Center recognizes the importance of promoting strong, evidence-based, outcome-measured programs and the need to provide technical assistance so communities can implement these effective strategies."
The EPIS Center is located at 403 South Allen St., Suite 206, in State College. For more information about the EPIS Center, please call (814) 863-2568 or e-mail EPISCenter@psu.edu.
Contact Lee Carpenter src5@psu.edu http://prevention.psu.edu/ 814-865-3877
Roger Weissberg is 2008 Bennett Lecturer
Roger Weissberg, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Education and President, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), University of Illinois at Chicago, is the 2008 Bennett Lecturer in Prevention Science. Dr. Weissberg visits the Penn State University Park campus from November 12-14, 2008.
The 2008 Bennett Lecture is on Thursday, November 13, from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Nittany Lion Inn Boardroom. The lecture title is: "Social and emotional learning: Strategies to improve the lives of millions of children?".
Dr. Weissberg also spoke on "Social and emotional learning: A dialogue about inputs, outputs, and mediators" on Wednesday, November 12, at 4:15 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge, Nittany Lion Inn, as part of the Child Study Center's speakers series.
Professor Weissberg has authored about 200 publications focusing on preventive interventions with children and adolescents and has written curricula on school-based programs to promote social competence and prevent problem behaviors including drug use, high-risk sexual behaviors, and aggression. His Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents received a model program designation from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Some of his major published volumes include: Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators (1997), Enhancing Children’s Wellness (1997), Establishing Preventive Services (1997), Children and Youth: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (1997), Promoting Positive Outcomes (1999), The Promotion of Wellness in Children and Adolescents (2000), Long-term Trends in the Well-being of Children and Youth (2003), a Special Issue of the American Psychologist on “Prevention for Children and Youth that Works” (2003), Safe and Sound: An Educational Leader’s Guide to Evidence-based Social and Emotional Learning Programs (2003), Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What Does the Research Say? (2004), School-Family Partnerships for Children’s Success (2005), and Sustainable Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning (2006).
Louis Brown, Sarah Chilenski, Receive Awards from SCRA
Louis Brown, Ph.D., Research Associate with the Prevention Research Center, and Sarah Chilenski, Research Assistant Professor with the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, were both honored recently by the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) with dissertation awards. Dr. Brown received the Emory L. Cowan Dissertation Award for the Promotion of Wellness; Dr. Chilenski received the Best Dissertation on a Topic Relevant to Community Psychology Award. Each award includes a monetary prize, a one-year membership in SCRA, and reimbursement of some travel expenses to a conference of the winners' choice. Well done, Louis and Sarah!
Penn State Study Shows Large Payoff for Crime Prevention Efforts
June 2, 2008 (Harrisburg, PA) – According to a report released today by the Penn State Prevention Research Center, a $60 million investment by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) over the last decade in evidence-based programs across the state has resulted in a $317 million return on just seven of those programs.
Study results reveal that by reducing arrests, drug and alcohol treatment, victimization, welfare and social service usage and increasing school performance, graduation rates, employment and subsequent tax revenue, these prevention programs not only pay for themselves but generate a significant return-on-investment of between $1 and $26 for every dollar spent. The programs involve prevention strategies that address youth crime and violence, including mentoring programs, school-based skill building programs, family strengthening programs, and individual and family therapy for juvenile offenders. The seven programs––Big Brothers Big Sisters, LifeSkills Training, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, Multisystemic Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Strengthening Families 10-14––were found to offer a positive cost-benefit ratio ranging from $54 to nearly $80,000 per youth, collectively representing a total statewide return of over $317 million.
“These programs have been carefully researched and proven to prevent and reduce youth violence, delinquency and drug use, improving developmental outcomes for children and families,” said Dr. Mark Greenberg, Director of the Penn State Prevention Research Center. “The results are indisputable: these programs are not only effective for families, they are also a cost-effective, wise investment of taxpayer dollars that will continue to pay dividends for years to come.”
“We’ve made very deliberate, thoughtful investments in programs that we know work,” said Michael Pennington, Director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. “It is one thing to get tough on crime, but we also need to be smart about preventing kids from becoming the next generation of adult criminals.”
“This report comes at a critical time. Pennsylvania is facing a prison overcrowding crisis and the Department of Corrections is asking for nearly $700 million to build more prison cells,” said Brian Bumbarger, Director of Policy Research and Outreach for the Penn State Prevention Research Center and co-author of the report. “Given the current rate of inmate population growth, the Commonwealth can spend $700 million on new prison construction and we’ll still be overcrowded by more than 9,000 inmates within 5 years. Investing in prevention programs that work is the only way we’re going to get a handle on prison overcrowding over the next decade.”
“Those of us on the front lines in the fight against crime understand that we’ll never be able to just arrest and imprison our way out of the crime problem,” said Cumberland County District Attorney David J. Freed. “Pennsylvania’s commitment to putting criminals in jail must be matched by our commitment to keeping kids from becoming criminals in the first place by investing in programs shown by research to be effective.”
The report reveals that the adoption of policies developed to ensure a greater investment in prevention and promotion of the use of evidence-based programs will ultimately result in fewer prison admissions. The programs have the very real potential to reduce the juvenile and adult prison population over time. A reduction of only 5% in the number of adults and juveniles locked up in one year would free nearly $84 million to support new or expanded prevention programs.
The full report, The Economic Return on PCCD’s Investment in Research-based Programs: A Cost-benefit Assessment of Delinquency Prevention in Pennsylvania, is available on the Penn State Prevention Research Center’s website at www.prevention.psu.edu.
Prevention Research Center to study ways to reduce aggression in youth
March 28, 2008
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State Prevention Research Center has received a $3.9 million state grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health to study interventions to build resilience and reduce aggression in young children.
The Penn State project continues long-term partnerships with The Harrisburg School District and Hempfield Behavioral Health.
The project will focus on gaining a better understanding of factors related to aggressive behavior and social-emotional competence in children when they first enter school. Researchers will develop and evaluate a multi-component prevention program targeted to help parents and teachers support healthy social and academic development in children who show early signs of aggression. Five areas of development and functioning will be enhanced: parenting in the home; peer relations; child coping and problem-solving skills; classroom atmosphere and curriculum; and home-school relations.
Researchers also will assess various neurobiological factors may be related to aggressive behavior and how they are modified by this preventive program. This information can be used to better assess and support children to improve school readiness and mental health.
The leaders of the Penn State project include Dr. Mark Greenberg, PRC Director; Dr. Karen Bierman, distinguished professor of psychology, College of the Liberal Arts; Drs. Lisa Gatzke-Kopp, assistant professor of human development, Clancy Blair and Emilie Smith, both associate professor of human development and family studies, College of Health and Human Development; and Dr. Tom Farmer, associate professor of special education, College of Education.
The grant is one of five recently awarded by the state with funds from Pennsylvania's share of the national tobacco settlement. The 2007 grant priorities were regenerative medicine and violence prevention. Each research grant is also required to address the reduction of health disparities among underserved segments of the population, and to include research training programs for minority students and faculty in order to diversity the applicant pool for high-level training positions. These grants are awarded as part of the Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement Program, which supports clinical, health services and biomedical research.
State Health Secretary Dr. Calvin Johnson says, "This research involves collaborative 'Center of Excellence' efforts integrating research from several disciplines to address diseases and medical conditions, health disparities and health outcomes. These grants reaffirm Governor Rendell's commitment to using the tobacco settlement dollars to improve public health and increase the research infrastructure and capacity in Pennsylvania."
Greenberg Moderates Panel with The Dalai Lama at Historic Gathering to Celebrate Children and Compassion
Dr. Mark Greenberg, Director of the Penn State Prevention Research Center and Edna Bennett Chair and Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, moderated a panel of international scholars with His Holiness The Dalai Lama at the “Exploring the Seeds of Compassion” event in Seattle, Washington, on April 11–15, 2008. The panel was part of a five-day discussion featuring The Dalai Lama on ways that parents and caregivers can show love and compassion that positively affect the social and emotional learning of children from birth to age five.
Dr. Greenberg’s panel, “From Knowledge to Compassion Action: What We All Can Do,” occurred on Friday, April 11, from 12:30–2 p.m. PST, and featured John Gottman, author of “How to Raise an Emotionally Secure Child”; Bob Marvin, Co-Originator of Circle of Security; Karen Gordon, Founding Executive Director of Whole Child International; Mary Gordon, Founder/President, Roots of Empathy; and Roger Weissberg, President, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
The Seeds of Compassion event was organized to celebrate and explore the relationships, programs, and tools that nurture and empower children, families, and communities to be compassionate members of society. A fundamental part of the dialogue held at this gathering explored the scientific basis for the development and growth of compassion and foundational social and emotional skills beginning at birth.
The event was webcas and can be viewed at: www.seedsofcompassion.org/webcast/index.html
New Evaluation Report Demonstrates Effectiveness of Harrisburg Preschool Program
Harrisburg, PA – According to a recently completed evaluation of the Harrisburg Preschool Program (HPP), a five-year project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation that focused on at-risk 3- and 4-year-old children in the Harrisburg School District, HPP students who now attend kindergarten in the District are demonstrating significantly higher academic skills in early literacy and mathematics than children who did not attend HPP.
HPP is a collaborative program involving the Harrisburg School District (HSD) and Capital Area Head Start (CAHS), commissioned by Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed in 2001 to provide comprehensive, high-quality preschool services to at-risk 3- and 4-year-old children in the District. [more]
Proven-effective Programs Reducing Youth Violence and Delinquency in Pennsylvania
A report recently completed by the Prevention Research Center at Penn State shows communities are beginning to experience the positive impact of violence prevention efforts supported by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Research-based Programs Initiative. The report confirms that the PCCD’s investment of more than $60 million since 1998 in the implementation of over 140 proven-effective prevention programs is making a significant difference in Pennsylvania communities by reducing youth drug use and antisocial behavior, preventing school bullying, and strengthening families. Each of the programs in this initiative has been selected based on strong evidence of effectiveness in well-controlled research studies. [more]
Penn State Receives $5.7 Million Grant to Help Youth Avoid Problems
Penn State University has received a $5.7 million federal grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to continue the development of community partnerships that strengthen families and help young people avoid substance abuse and behavioral problems. The new award will support PROSPER—PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience—for an additional five years. The total award to Penn State and its partner, Iowa State University, is $11.6 million.
Since 2002, in collaboration with Iowa State and through partnerships established with local communities and assisted by Penn State Extension, the Penn State Prevention Research Center (PRC) has been conducting research to promote capable and healthy youths, adults and families. PROSPER seeks to strengthen families and communities, promote positive youth development, and reduce youth substance use and other problem behaviors––literally helping families and their communities "prosper" through various intervention methods recommended by Penn State researchers. [more]
New study identifies four major motivators to drink alcohol
Most high school seniors drink because they want to experiment with alcohol, some drink for the thrill of it, and others because it helps them relax. A new study finds that a fourth group of high school students share all those reasons for drinking, but they also drink to get away from problems and to deal with anger or frustration issues. Kids with multiple reasons to drink, including reasons related to coping with life, show the heaviest and most problematic drinking behaviors, according to the study by Penn State researchers and published in the December issue of Prevention Science, a peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Prevention Research. The data for the study came from 1,877 students from the national Monitoring the Future survey conducted annually.
Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/27677?nw=1
Thomas Dishion, Ph.D.
Dr. Thomas Dishion gives the 2007 Bennett Lecture in Prevention Science
Thomas Dishion, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Director of Research, Child and Family Center, University of Oregon, was the 2007 Bennett Lecturer in Prevention Science. Dr. Dishion visited Penn State on October 24-26, 2007.
Some kids more sensitive to bad parenting
By Megan Rauscher
(From the Archives of General Psychiatry, April 2007)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Faced with harsh and cold parenting, some children are more likely than others to develop antisocial behavior, such as delinquency and aggression, researchers found, based on in-depth studies of 720 families with at least 2 children between 9 and 18 years of age.
The difference in children's sensitivity to problematic parenting is due to genetic factors, according to the team's report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"We don't know all the specific genes involved, but we can expect that those children whose blood relatives have a history of antisocial behavior will be most sensitive to harsh and cold parenting," Dr. Mark E. Feinberg of the Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University in University Park told Reuters Health.
The same cannot be said for the influence of poor parenting on depression, according to the study. "Children whose blood relatives are depressed would not be more liable to depression than other children faced with harsh or cold parenting," Feinberg said.
The current study suggests that harsh or cold parenting does not affect all children the same way. Some children are more resilient and other children more sensitive to problematic parenting.
It's important to know which children are most vulnerable for developing emotional and behavior problems, such as depression and antisocial behavior, so they can receive help, Feinberg noted.
"The bottom line," he said, "is that if we have limited resources for parenting support programs, we will get the most 'bang for the buck' by focusing intervention on the families of children whose biological relatives show antisocial behavior."
Smith and Caldwell Receive Awards from the Society for Prevention Research
Ed Smith and Linda Caldwell The SPR International Collaborative Prevention Science Award for their work in South Africa. Congratulations Ed and Linda!
Head Start REDI Program Teaches Preschoolers Tools for School-Readiness
(From the Penn State Newswire, 1/5/07)
If you're observing a preschool class in York, Pa., you may see the following behavior: two children are playing and a disagreement ensues. Suddenly one of the children stops arguing, and hunches over with her arms crossed over her chest, as if protecting herself. Chances are, the other child will watch and do the same. What are they doing? They're acting like Twiggle the turtle. "The theory behind Twiggle is, when you're feeling upset, you go into your shell," explains Karen Bierman. "It stops the behavior, and keeps you from acting impulsively. Then you take a deep breath and say the problem and how it makes you feel. That's the beginning of effective self-control and problem-solving." Twiggle is just one tool preschool children are learning through Bierman's project, Head Start REDI, which has grown out of the School Readiness Initiative, a collaborative effort supported by Penn State's Child Study Center (in the College of the Liberal Arts), the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development (in the College of Health and Human Development), and Head Start Programs in three Pennsylvania counties. The initiative blends an interdisciplinary group of researchers who are interested in developmental research and early elementary educational programs. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/21530
NIH Director Offers Prognosis for Budget Squeeze on Research Grants
Washington
The National Institutes of Health expects to receive more than twice as many grant applications in 2007 as in 1998, which helps to explain why many researchers are lamenting that the grants are harder to get. The number of people filing applications has also risen sharply during that time, while the agency's budget growth has fallen below inflation since 2003. (more)
Dr. Mary Ann Pentz Gives 2006 Bennett Lecture in Prevention Science
Dr. Mary Ann Pentz
Mary Ann Pentz, Ph.D., director of the Center for Prevention Policy Research and professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, gave the 2006 Bennett Lecture in Prevention Science on October 12, 2006.
For over 20 years, her research and program development have focused on community and policy approaches to preventing tobacco, alcohol, drug use, and violence in youth. Her findings contributed to the formulation of a U.S. Senate bill and use of evidence-based criteria for appropriating funds for prevention under the Safe and Drug Free Schools Act. (more)
Friends Have Greater Sway on College Students' Beliefs on Drinking Behavior
(From the Penn State Newswire, October 6, 2006)
College students' friends have a greater influence on the students' drinking behavior or beliefs about campus drinking than social norms campaigns, according to a Penn State study. Social norms campaigns are based on the rationale that binge drinkers will be more likely to reduce their drinking if they believe other students on campus drink less than they themselves do. A survey of 277 college students at a northeastern university found that nearly 73 percent did not believe the norms message. "Disbelief in the campaign message may have resulted from the behavior observed by students among their friends and acquaintances, which contrasted with the 0-4 message," said co-author Ann Major, professor of communications and director of the Jimirro Center for the Study of Media Influence at Penn State. "Also, some students may discount social norms campaigns as an attempt by university administrators to control their behavior."
Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/index.php?sec=vs&story=19866
Positive parenting helps encourage healthy sun habits in children
(From the Penn State Newswire)
Monday, August 21, 2006
A program that helps parents talk to their children about skin cancer risks may promote sun-safe behaviors, especially when parents and children have a high-quality relationship, according to a team led by a Penn State researcher in the August issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the Journal of the American Medical Association/Archives journals.
Approximately one in six individuals will develop skin cancer during his or her lifetime, according to background information in the article. The recent increase in skin cancer incidence has been attributed to various forms of high-risk sun exposure among young people, including sunbathing, inadequate use of sunscreen and other protective measures and the use of tanning beds or lamps. Recent preventive interventions have targeted children in school or community settings, but widespread rates of dangerous behaviors persist in young people.
Rob Turrisi, professor of biohaviorial health in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development, and colleagues evaluated a parent-based intervention and assessed family characteristics that may contribute to the effectiveness of such a program in 469 parent-child pairs. (more)
Penn State researchers to develop training for state's personal-care workers
(From the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Newswire)
Friday, June 2, 2006
University Park, Pa. -- A broad-based collaboration between Penn State and community organizations will result in more effective training and assessment for the workers who provide personal-care services for the elderly and people with mental and physical disabilities.
Matthew Kaplan, associate professor of intergenerational programs and aging in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, and Richard Fiene, associate professor of human development and director of Penn State's Capital Area Health and Human Development Institute, have received a $250,000 grant to assist the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare's Adult Residential Living Program in developing an innovative online training and testing system for front-line personal-care workers. (more)
Dr. David L. Olds
Dr. David L. Olds Gives 2005 Bennett Lecture in Prevention Science
Dr. David L. Olds, Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, gave the 2005 Bennett Lecture in Prevention Science on November 3, 2005 in the Living Center, 110 Henderson Building, from 4-5 p.m. The title of his presentation was "The Nurse-Family Partnership: From Trials to Practice." (more)
College Announces Creation of Capital Area Health and Human Development Institute
(from the College of Health and Human Development Office of College Relations)
The Penn State College of Health and Human Development announces the creation of the Capital Area Health and Human Development Institute (CAHHDI), the new urban research, training, technical assistance and outreach arm of the College in the Harrisburg area. The Institute will be directed by Dr. Richard Fiene, Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies.
CAHHDI is a leader in higher education-based infant and toddler program quality activities and prevention research interventions in the United States. This new, integrated center, which includes the Capital Area Early Childhood Training Institute, Harrisburg Center for Healthy Child Development, and the Urban Community Partnership under the CAHHDI umbrella, has been established to coordinate research, training and technical assistance activities underway in the Harrisburg and South Central Pennsylvania areas. It will serve as the hub for faculty and students in the College of Health and Human Development who seek to take advantage of internships and other research and training opportunities in the Harrisburg area. (more)
When Parents Say 'Don't Drink,' Students Actually Listen, Scholar Reports
(from the Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/22/05)
In tens of thousands of households this month, parents will have one last anxious conversation with their 18-year-old children before sending them off to college. Don't take foolish risks, they will say, with drugs, alcohol, or sex. At the end of the talk, the parents might wipe their brows and wonder if their advice has had any effect.
The answer appears to be yes -- at least if parents are encouraged to use certain communication strategies. Recent experimental evidence suggests that parental conversations can have powerful effects on students' drinking behavior, a scholar said here on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
Rob Turrisi, a professor of biobehavioral health at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, has been working for more than six years on a simple idea: Colleges might mail pamphlets to the parents of every newly admitted student, encouraging them to talk about alcohol abuse and suggesting specific methods for navigating the conversation.(more)
Greenberg is Co-Editor of New Book on Enhancing Early Attachments
Enhancing Early Attachments: Theory, Research, Intervention, and Policy, is a new co-edited volume by Lisa J. Berlin, Ph.D., Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University; Yair Ziv, Ph.D., Child and Family Studies Group, Westat; Lisa Amaya-Jackson, MD, MPH, UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress; and Mark T. Greenberg, Ph.D., Prevention Research Center, Penn State University. The book was published by Guilford Press and is a volume in the Duke Series in Child Development and Public Policy.
Synthesizing the latest theory, research, and practices related to supporting early child-parent attachments, this volume provides a unique window into the major treatment and prevention approaches available today. Chapters address the theoretical and empirical bases of attachment interventions; explore the effects of attachment-related trauma and how they can be ameliorated; and describe a range of exemplary programs operating at the individual, family, and community levels. Throughout, expert authors consider cross-cutting issues such as the core components of effective services and appropriate outcome measures for attachment interventions. Also discussed are policy implications, including how programs to enhance early child-caregiver relationships fit into broader health, social service, and early education systems.
Click here for a flyer about this book.
Educating Against AIDS
(from Research/Penn State, July 2005)
Penn State researchers Edward Smith and Linda Caldwell are collaborating with South African colleagues to promote HealthWise in the sub-Saharan region. Read the story on the Research/Penn State web site.
Penn State Prevention Research Center Announces 2005-2006 Bennett Faculty Scholars
(from the College of Health and Human Development Office of College Relations)
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (May 2, 2005) - Three members of the Penn State faculty - Dr. Linda Caldwell, professor of recreation, park and tourism management; Dr. John Graham, professor of biobehavioral health; and Dr. Patricia Koch, associate professor of biobehavioral health - have been named 2005-2006 Bennett Faculty Scholars by the Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development. (more)
Greenberg Appointed to the NIDA National Advisory Council
(from the College of Health and Human Development Office of College Relations)
Dr. Mark T. Greenberg, holder of the Edna Peterson Bennett Chair in Prevention Research and director of the Penn State Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, has been appointed to serve a four-year term on the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse. (more)
Carl to Receive Award for Distinguished Service
Barb Carl, Associate Director of the Harrisburg Center on Healthy Child Development, will be receiving the Award for Distinguished Service in Community Psychology and Social Change from the Penn State Capital College in mid-April 2005.
Recent Work by Turrisi and Colleagues Featured in Society for Prevention Research Press Release
(from the Society for Prevention Research)
Click here to read the press release on "Strategies to Stop Drinking Problems on Campus: Colleges Consider Changes to Dorm Life, Campus Concerts". This work is part of Dr. Turrisi's "Campuses Selling Alcohol" project.
Mental Health Service Costs Offset by Savings in Other Public Sectors
(from the Penn State Newswire)
Penn State researchers have found that reduced expenditures for inpatient hospitalization, the juvenile justice system, the child welfare system and the special education system offset the costs of the improved mental health services delivered to youth through the system of care approach now being tried in communities in every state in the U.S. Mental health services for youth delivered via system of care have been criticized as too expensive compared to communities that don't adopt the approach. However, the Penn State study, the first of its type, shows that including spending in other service sectors in the analysis reduced the between-community cost difference from 81 percent to only 18 percent more for system of care. E. Michael Foster, professor of health policy administration and demography who led the study, says, "Mental health services that keep youth out of the juvenile justice system, for example, not only save tax dollars that would have to be spent on that sector but also reduce the suffering of the youth and their families. In addition, by not having a juvenile justice record, youth improve their chances of finishing high school and making a successful transition to adulthood and becoming future taxpayers." (more)
Dialogue & Personal Example Work Best for Parents in Drug Talks with Teens
(from the Penn State Newswire)
Parents can more effectively advise teens about alcohol and drug use if, first, they try dialogue instead of lecture and, second, they set an everyday example, rather than give the one-time drug sermon, according to a Penn State researcher. Drug talks can work best when parents and teens routinely share insights on the benefits and risks of drug use, says Dr. Michelle Miller-Day, associate professor of communication arts and sciences. One tactic would be for parents to ask teens what they hope to gain from use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco (e.g. relaxation, especially around the opposite sex; greater peer acceptance). The parent can then suggest wholesome alternatives to achieve the same end. (more)
New Parent-Child After-School Program Increases Literacy
(from the Penn State Newswire)
A collaborative after-school literacy program, piloted last fall in Somerset County, has sparked the interest of early elementary students and parents alike. The program proved to be highly successful in its first pilot. For the second pilot, the program will be repeated in Somerset for a longer period of time with a new group of students and will be expanded to another location.
Drucie Weirauch, project assistant in Penn State's Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy and Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy and doctoral candidate in the College of Education, copiloted the project with Claudia Mincemoyer, assistant professor of agricultural and extension education in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The project is a collaboration among the two colleges and local family literacy programs, cooperative extension educators and Title 1 elementary schools. (more)
Penn State Study Verifies Positive Impact of Early Head Start on Children, Families
(from the Penn State Newswire)
Results from a five-year study conducted by Penn State researchers on the Lehigh Valley Early Head Start program indicate that the cognitive development of children from birth to age three improved profoundly as the result of their participation in the Early Head Start program relative to a comparison group. Cognitive development is one of the significant indicators for school readiness. Results of this study support the importance of early intervention for children at risk and also identified numerous factors that can place families and children at risk, including depression. Research over the last few decades indicating the importance of early intervention for children at risk compelled the Administration on Children, Youth and Families to introduce the Early Head Start program. (more)
Penn State Specialist Offers Tips on Dealing with School Bullies
(from Penn State Ag. Sciences News)
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- They've got new clothes and backpacks, and they can find the right school bus. But children returning to a new school year may need adult help facing an old problem: the school bully. A family and youth specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences offers techniques and tips to help kids and their parents manage bullying in schools.
Even though violent acts in schools are declining, bullying remains a major issue that can affect your child's scholastic performance and social well-being, says Daniel Perkins, associate professor of family and youth resiliency. The first challenge for kids, he says, is to get adults to take it -- and them -- seriously. (more)
Prevention Research Center Celebrates Five-Year Anniversary
(from the College of Health and Human Development Office of College Relations)
(University Park, Pa) Approximately 120 educators, policy makers and childcare advocates from Pennsylvania and beyond gathered at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center on October 30 to help the Penn State Prevention Research Center celebrate its fifth anniversary. (more)
Faculty
making life better for families in state, nation
Monday, June 14, 2004
(from the Penn State Newswire)
Former Pennsylvania First Lady Michelle Ridge and Dr. Mark Greenberg prepare to kick off the Prevention Research Center's five-year anniversary celebration.
University
Park, Pa. -- As the youngest child of seven, Daniel
Perkins learned the lessons of family life early on. "I experienced
family in such a great way and always really enjoyed being around
people," says Perkins.
Those formative experiences led Perkins to his work with children,
youth and families. Now at Penn State as an associate professor
in the department of Agricultural and Extension Education and a
Cooperative Extension faculty member, Perkins' work, along with
that of Penn State Cooperative Extension professors James E. Van
Horn (whose focus is rural sociology) and Matt Kaplan (focusing
on intergenerational programs and aging), are helping to transform
lives in Pennsylvania and across the nation through initiatives
aimed at strengthening family bonds. (more)