It is important to explore the relationship between teachers' perceptions of their cultural responsiveness as well as students' classroom behavior and risk, as these relationships may impact decisions about equitable access to school behavioral health supports. This paper includes two studies conducted with teachers in two large suburban school districts. Study 1 investigated the relationship between teachers' (n = 20) ratings on a measure of cultural responsiveness, the Assessment of Culturally and Contextually Relevant Supports (ACCReS), and students' classroom behavior. Results indicated that higher ACCReS scores significantly predicted lower classwide disruptive behavior. Study 2 investigated the relationship between teachers' (n = 30) ratings on the ACCReS and ratings of their students' risk on the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener. For social behavior, higher ACCReS scores predicted teachers perceiving lower social risk; however, identification as a Black student and a student with a disability predicted higher risk. Findings are preliminary, yet implications include recommendations for high-quality professional development to promote teacher cultural responsiveness. Such support could guide teachers to create educational environments in which fewer discipline referrals for behavior occur, teachers perceive less social risk, and access to school behavior supports is more equitable.

: To explore the influence of health communications on the emotional consequences of delays in transfer from acute hospital into a spinal rehabilitation unit (SRU) or delays in discharge from SRU. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in this exploratory, thematic qualitative research design in an SRU, Melbourne, Australia.: Six patients experienced delay in admission to ( = 4) or discharge from ( = 3) the SRU, with one person experiencing both an admission and discharge delay. Median admission delay was 41.5 days, primarily related to bed availability and staffing issues. Participants experiencing a delay in transfer from the acute hospital reported feelings of uncertainty, frustration, disappointment, and concern due to a perception that their functional recovery was compromised because of delayed access to specialist rehabilitation. Psychological issues were less common than emotional responses. One participant spent some of the delay period waiting for admission to the SRU in a non-spinal rehabilitation unit and reported no concerns about his recovery. Median discharge delay was 27 days, largely due to a wait in obtaining funding for equipment. Emotional and psychological responses to delayed discharge, particularly frustration, appeared to be influenced by having a sense of control over the discharge process. : Patients' experiences during the delay periods partially mitigated the emotional and psychological consequences of a delayed admission or discharge on their psychological well-being. Locus of control, where participants reported being able to effect some influence on their situation, appeared to moderate their emotional state. The findings suggest that clinicians can draw on the concept of control to better support patients through periods of delay.

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Autistic students experience greater social difficulties and heightened internalizing behaviors (e.g., anxiety, depression, withdrawal) relative to their nonautistic peers, yet little is known about how these domains influence one another over time. This 1.5-year longitudinal study analyzed the associations between teacherreported social skills and internalizing behaviors across three time points for 177 autistic students aged 4-7 years. Cross-lagged panel analyses indicated an association between earlier internalizing behaviors and later social skills for autistic students, whereby lower internalizing behaviors predicted greater growth in social skills from one school year to the next. These changes in social skills followed children across multiple teachers and classroom contexts. The opposite cross-lagged path was not supported as early social skills did not predict changes in internalizing behaviors over time. Internalizing behaviors showed similar associations with later social skills for autistic students regardless of cognitive ability, for those in general and special education classrooms, and for those whose teachers did and did not have autism-specific training. Findings suggest that promoting students' early emotional well-being and targeting internalizing behaviors may indirectly enable social development over time. Impact and ImplicationsThis study examined developmental cascades of young autistic students' social skills and internalizing behaviors (e.g., anxiety, depression, withdrawal) across the early school years. Those with higher internalizing behaviors early in elementary school showed attenuated growth in social skills over 1.5 years relative to children who had fewer early internalizing behaviors. These findings can aid school psychologists efforts to intentionally support young autistic students social-emotional transition to formal schooling.