An ecological model for school-based mental health services that targets urban low-income aggressive children--a highly vulnerable and underserved population--is presented. The goals of the model are to increase children's and teachers' involvement in the delivery of services and to increase the integration of these services into existing school resources and activities. The model proposes that mental health service providers work in collaboration with teachers to deliver services that (1) can be managed by existing school resources and personnel, (2) are related to empirically based factors associated with reduced aggression and increased social functioning, and (3) are group administered to increase the number of children served and to reduce stigmatization associated with mental health services. The model is individualized and flexible by acknowledging that contexts for aggression differ across classrooms and children and by providing services specific to those contexts. Two studies are presented illustrating the application of this model to decrease aggression and increase academic engagement in low-income urban public schools.
Using data from the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study (PEATS), a short-term longitudinal study of northwestern Pennsylvania adolescents undergoing the transition from elementary to junior high school, physical attractiveness (PA) and objective and subjective measures of academic competence were interrelated in order to test two alternative models: The direct effects model stresses intraorganism, noncontextually mediated links, while the developmental contextual model emphasizes social interactional processes between students and teachers. In support of the developmental contextual notion, the results of LISREL analyses across three times of testing during the sixth grade indicated that significant paths existed between PA and initial teachers' ratings of students' academic competence; in turn, these ratings were related to end-of-year grade point averages and to scores on a standardized achievement test. These findings are discussed in regard to alternative ways to model the role of social interactions in PA -academic competence relations and to the possible role of PA in early adolescent stress and coping.
Male and female adolescents who differed in physical attractiveness (PA) were also expected to differ in peer and parent relations, classroom behaviors, and self-perceptions, with adolescents higher in PA expected to score more favorably than those lower in PA. To test these expectations, sixth graders from the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study were longitudinally assessed at the beginning, middle, and end of sixth grade. Across time, adolescents who saw themselves as competent were rated similarly by their teachers and had better peer and parent relations than was the case with the adolescents who saw themselves as less competent. As expected, PA was associated with these differences. Within and across time, adolescents higher in PA tended to have more favorable ratings than did adolescents lower in PA. The stimulus information value of PA for cuing a stereotype regarding attractiveness is discussed.
This study examined whether early adolescents in four sociometric groups (peer-rejected, -neglected, -popular, and -controversial) vary in their perceptions of peer social support and in their behavioral, psychosocial, and scholastic adjustment. Subjects were 101 sixth-graders who participated in the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study. Sociometric groups were formed using results from a peer nomination questionnaire. Self-ratings were used to index subjects' perceptions of social support from peers, and teacher-, parent-, and self-ratings of subjects' scholastic, behavioral, and psychosocial functioning served as indices of adjustment. The results indicated that peer-rejected youngsters were most deficient in perceived peer social support and exhibited the highest rate of adjustment problems. The effect of peer status on the social support received from peers and the importance of peer support in early adolescence are discussed.
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