Faculty
Mark
T. Greenberg
Ph.D., University of Virginia, 1978
The Bennett Endowed Chair in Prevention Research; Founding Director, Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development; Professor of Human Development and Psychology, College of Health and Human Development
Program Areas: Family Science & Intervention; PEACE; School-based Prevention; Training; Translation, Dissemination & Implementation
Contact Information
306 Biobehavioral Health Building
Phone:
814-863-0112
Fax: 814-865-2530
Websites
Online Video and Articles
YouTube
Mind & Its Potential 2012 (October 2012), "Nurturing Mindfulness in Education", YouTube Video
Centre for Behavioural Research, University of Stavanger, Norway, September 2012, Presentation on Mindfulness and CARE, Video
Villanova University, April 2012, "Nurturing Mindfulness in Families, Schools, and Youth" YouTube Video
Garrison Institute, Contemplation and Education Initiative, November 2011 Education Symposium, "Advancing the Science and Practice of Contemplative Teaching and Learning" YouTube Video Presentation (PDF)
Developing Mindfulness in Families, Schools, and Youth (The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, SFU Vancouver, February 2011)
Implementing PATHS in Birmingham (PreventionAction, 2010)
Blueprints4VP, 2008, "Sustaining Model Programs Over Time: A View from the Field" YouTube Video
The Dalai Lama and Mark Greenberg at the Vancouver Dialogues, 2006
Online Articles
April 2010 APA Monitor story, Social awareness + emotional skills = successful kids
Interview on Children of the Code Website (2010)
Inner-City Inner Life—The Mindful Society (March 2011 issue of Shambhala Sun)
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)
Greenberg Says Mindfulness Can Alleviate Youth Stress (Feb. 2011, Dalai Lama Center)
Yoga, Meditation Program Helps City Youths Cope with Stress
Article in the Baltimore Sun, February 23, 2011
Preschool Program Improves Standardized Test Scores through Grade 5
Penn State Newswire, October 6, 2011 Science Newsline October 6, 2011
Harrisburg Patriot-News, October 6, 2011
May 2012 Shambhala Sun
Research Interests
Intervening in the developmental processes in risk and non-risk populations with a specific emphasis on aggression, violence, and externalizing disorders; promoting healthy social and emotional development through school-based prevention; the study of community partnerships and the diffusion of evidence-based programs; the interface of neuroscience and prevention
Lectures and Recent Honors
Examples of Current Prevention Projects
Partnership
Model for Diffusion of Proven Prevention
National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIH)
Start Date: 2001
Project Web Site
This project assesses the effectiveness of a model for the diffusion
of empirically validated prevention programs focused on adolescent
substance abuse and mental health. The project is being conducted
in 14 communities in Iowa and Pennsylvania.
Family Life Project/Children in Poverty
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH)
Start Date: 2002
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Penn State are examining biological, individual, family and community influences that affect rural children. About 1,400 subjects from selected rural counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania are being studied beginning in infancy and continuing over their first three years.
Head
Start (Head Start REDI––Research-based, Developmentally
Informed)
National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development
Start Date: 2003
This project will evaluate the impact of infusing current Head
Start programs with social-emotional support curricula (Preschool
PATHS) and language and emergent literacy skill support curricula.
A randomized trial will examine the impact on child school readiness
at the end of Head Start and on adjustment and achievement in
kindergarten and first grade.
Underlying Regulatory Mechanisms of Prevention Outcomes in the School-based PATHS® Curriculum Program (PI on Penn State Subcontract; Fishbein, RTI International, PI)
Start Date: 2010
This study is the first in-depth school-based intervention trial to infuse relevant aspects of cognitive neuroscience with existing theories of developmental psychology and prevention science. The ultimate goal is to identify underlying conditions (inhibitory control and emotional regulation) that may serve to both mediate and moderate intervention effects in the early years of schooling. We are conducting a theory-driven examination of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS)® Curriculum, an evidence- based model with replicated outcome effects, to understand how the intervention works and for whom. The PATHS® Curriculum is being implemented in kindergarten classrooms through first grade in 2–3 schools (N=150) with an additional 2–3 schools as an active control condition (N=150) using a randomized trial design.
Evaluation
of Pennsylvania Communities That Care
Pennsylvania
Commission on Crime and Delinquency
Start Date: 2001
This project provides an ongoing evaluation of the Communities
That Care Prevention Model in Pennsylvania.
School-based Effectiveness Research
Center for Prevention and Early Intervention, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
HealthWise II/HealthWise Dissemination: Translation to Multiple Schools
National Institute on Drug Abuse
Start Date: 2010
In the second phase of the HealthWise project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Penn State and its partners in South Africa will continue their work to: (1) advance Type 2 translational science and theory building by (2) targeting risk and protective factors for substance abuse and sexual risk (e.g., HIV/AIDS) among 8th- and 9th-grade South African youth.
Implications of Genetic Variance for Substance Use Interventions in Adolescence
National Institute on Drug Abuse
State Date: 2011
This study will examine gene x environment interplay by adding a large panel of candidate genes implicated in substance use to the PROSPER study, a prospective cohort study of preventative interventions’ impact on adolescent substance use.
Start Date: 2012
The Prevention Research Center has been awarded a grant to evaluate the implementation of the Evidence2Success pilot. A mixed-method quantitative and qualitative assessment of the Evidence2Success process is planned to be a part of this effort in the first city involved in the project.
U.S. Department of Education Institute of Educational Sciences
Start Date: 2012
We are conducting a multi-site cluster randomized controlled trial to determine the efficacy of the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) professional development program in 32 New York public elementary schools (kindergarten through fifth grade). Our partners in this effort are Fordham University (Joshua Brown, Ph.D.) and the Garrison Institute.
CALM (Comprehensive Approach to Learning Mindfulness)/The CALM Teachers Study
1440 Foundation/Children, Youth, and Families Consortium, Penn State
Start Date: 2012
The three-year pilot involves the development and delivery of a regular daily stress-reduction program to a sample of school teachers randomly assigned to receive the intervention during the first or second years (with a wait-list control group). Psychological and physiological assessments will be conducted pre-and post-intervention at a follow-up assessment during the fall of the second year.
Recent Publications
Greenberg, M. T., Domitrovich, C. E., Graczyk, P. A., & Zins, J. E. (2004). The study of implementation in school-based preventive interventions: Theory, research, and practice. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services. Final project report. [Project Report]
Greenberg, M. T. (2004). Current and future challenges in school-based prevention: The researcher perspective. Prevention Science, 5, 5–13. PMID: 15058907 [PDF]
Greenberg, M. T. (2006). Promoting resilience in children and youth: Preventive interventions and their interface with neuroscience. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 1094, 139–150. PMID: 17347347 [PDF]
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2007). The Fast Track randomized controlled trial to prevent externalizing psychiatric disorders: Findings from grades 3 to 9. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 1263–1272. [abstract]
Greenberg, M. T., Feinberg, M. E., Meyer-Chilenski, S., Spoth, R. L., & Redmond, C. (2007). Community and team member factors that influence the early phases of local team partnerships in prevention: The PROSPER Project. Journal of Primary Prevention, 28, 485–504. PMID: 17602297 [PDF]
Dodge, K. A., Malone, P. S., Greenberg, M. T., & the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2008). Testing an Idealized Dynamic Cascade Model of the development of serious violence in adolescence. Child Development, 97, 1907–1027. PMCID: PMC2597335 [PDF]
Duncan, L. J., Coatsworth, D. J., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). A model of mindful parenting: Implications for parent-child relationships and prevention research. Child Clinical and Family Psychology Review, 12, 255–270. PMCID: PMC2730447 [PDF]
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to child and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79, 491–525. [PDF]
Greenberg, M. T., & Rhoades, B. L. (2009). Self-regulation and executive function: What can teachers and schools do? In C. L. Cooper, J. Field, J. U. Goswami, R. Jenkins, & B. J. Sahakian (Eds.), Mental capital and wellbeing (pp. 377–382). London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2010). Fast Track intervention effects on youth arrests and delinquency. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 6, 131–157. [abstract]
Feinberg, M. T., Jones, D. J., Greenberg, M. T., Osgood W. O., & Bontempo, D. (2010). Effects of the Communities That Care model in Pennsylvania on change in youth risk and problem behaviors. Prevention Science, 11, 163–171. PMID: 20020209 [PDF]
Greenberg, M. T. (2010). School-based prevention: Current status and future challenges. Effective Education, 2, 27–52. [PDF]
Mendelson, T., Greenberg, M. T., Dariotis, J., Feagans-Gould, L., Rhoades, B., & Leaf, P. (2010). Feasibility and preliminary outcomes of a school-based mindfulness intervention for urban youth. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 985–994. PMID: 20440550; doi 10.1007/s10802-010-9418-x [PDF]
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2010). The effects of a multi-year randomized clinical trial of a universal social-emotional learning program: The role of student and school characteristics. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78(2), 156–168. PMID: 20350027 [abstract]
Lanza, S. T., Rhoades, B. L., Nix, R. L., & Greenberg, M. T. (2010). Modeling the interplay of multilevel risk factors for future academic and behavior problems: A person-centered approach. Development and Psychopathology, 22(2), 315–335. PMID: 20423544; PMCID: PMC3005302 [online]