The development of gratitude in youth has received increasing attention during the past several years, and gratitude-based interventions have often been recommended for use in schools. Yet, the empirical status of the correlates of gratitude and the effects of gratitude-based interventions on youths' outcomes remains unclear. The present study addressed this ambiguity by systematically reviewing and meta-analyzing original empirical journal articles investigating gratitude in youth through September 2014 (N = 20). Findings from the meta-analysis of correlates indicate small-to-moderate convergent and discriminant evidence for gratitude as a subjective well-being indicator in youth, yet other results indicate that gratitude measures have relatively poor test-retest reliability and/or predictive validity and that they have questionable concurrent validity with other gratitude measures. Moreover, findings from the meta-analysis of intervention outcomes indicate that gratitude-based interventions are, as a whole, generally ineffective and that much more intervention research is warranted. Implications of these findings for theory, future research, and the practice of school psychology are discussed. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The current study investigated the content of school crisis plans and perceptions of crisis preparedness among school staff in six public elementary schools. Surveys were administered to 72 teachers, administrators, and other school staff members measuring their perceptions of crisis preparedness and performance of activities related to crisis response (i.e., trainings, familiarity with crisis plans, etc.). Respondents indicated positive perceptions of preparedness for the occurrence of a crisis at each of their schools; however, they reported lower participation in preparedness activities and provided inconsistent answers on response procedures. Regression analyses found that reading the crisis plan was a significant predictor of feelings of preparedness for fire, death, suicide, and extreme weather events. Researchers additionally found that school crisis plans lacked many of the components recommended by best practice. These findings and implications for educators are discussed.
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