A large number of children in poor neighborhoods have mental health problems. The mechanism through which neighborhood economic effects operated was community social control and cohesion, which may be amenable to intervention.

Using a nationally representative sample of 13,609 kindergarten children in 2,690 classrooms and 788 schools from the base year of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999, along with three-level hierarchical linear models, this study investigates the impact of early literacy instruction on kindergarten children’s learning, as measured by direct cognitive test scores, indirect teacher ratings of children’s achievement in language and literacy, and indirect teacher ratings of children’s approaches to learning. Two composite measures of phonics and integrated language arts are constructed from teachers’ reports of their instructional practices. Findings show that classroom mean outcomes were significantly higher when classroom teachers reported using both integrated language arts and phonics more often. However, children with low initial performance benefited less from integrated language arts instruction, as measured by direct measures of achievement; such differential effects of instruction were not observed for teacher ratings of children’s achievement and learning style. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.

We investigated whether role models (individuals adolescents look up to) contributed to the resilience of adolescents who were exposed to negative nonparental adult influences. Our sample included 659 African American, ninth-grade adolescents. We found that adolescents' exposure to negative adult behavior was associated with increased externalizing, internalizing, and substance using behaviors, as well as more negative school attitudes and behavior. We found that role models had protective effects on externalizing and internalizing behaviors and compensatory effects on school outcomes. Collectively, our findings indicate that role models can contribute to the resilience of African American adolescents who are exposed to negative nonparental adult behavior.

Objectives-We examined the developmental trajectories of alcohol use and violent behavior and the longitudinal relationship between these behaviors from adolescence to emerging adulthood.Methods-Our sample includes 649 African-American youths (49% male) followed for 8 years. Violent behavior and alcohol use were measured by asking youths the frequency of each behavior in the past 12 months using pencil-and-paper questionnaires. Growth curve analyses were conducted to identify the developmental trajectories of these two behaviors and to explore longitudinal relationship between them.Results-Violent behavior peaked in mid to late adolescence and declined thereafter, while the frequency of alcohol use increased steadily over time. These developmental trajectories varied by sex. For both males and females, early violent behavior predicted later alcohol use, and early alcohol use also predicted later violent behavior. Moreover, changes in one behavior were associated with changes in the other.Conclusions-Our results support a reciprocal relationship between alcohol use and violent behavior. Efforts to reduce one problem would be expected to reduce the other. Programs and policies aimed at reducing youth violence or alcohol use should take into account this relationship.Both alcohol use and violent behaviors are prevalent among urban adolescents and are important public health problems in the United States 1, 2 . Violent injury is the leading cause of death among African-American youth 3 . A nationwide survey of high school students found that 36% of students reported having committed violent acts in the past 12 months and 19% reported carrying a weapon in the past 30 days 4 . Among 12th grade students, two-thirds (67%) have used alcohol in the past 12 months and nearly half (45%) are current drinkers (i.e., reported Correspondence should be addressed to: Yange Xue, Ph.D., Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., 600 Alexander Park, Princeton, NJ 08540, Phone: (609) Fax: (609) 799-0005, E-mail: yxue@mathematica-mpr.com. Contributors Y. Xue completed the analyses and led the writing. M. A. Zimmerman directed the research design and supervised the implementation of the study. R. Cunningham assisted with the writing. All authors helped to conceptualize the study, interpret findings, and review drafts of the manuscript. Human Participant ProtectionThis study was approved by the University of Michigan's institutional review board. Written informed consent from the participants and passive parental consent were obtained at the beginning of each data collection. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript using alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey) 2 . These problems continue to receive increased attention in recent years.In general, four competing theoretical explanations are proposed for the relationship between alcohol use and violent behavior 5,6 . The first model postulates that alcohol use causes violent behavior due to psychopharmacological effects 7 or a crim...

Neighborhood effects on adolescent cigarette use were contingent upon both contextual and individual characteristics. Participation in prosocial activities had a protective effect among adolescents in high-risk neighborhoods. Engaging adolescents in such activities may help offset the adverse effects of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood.

Teacher judgments of student learning are a key element in performance assessment. This study examines aspects of the validity of teacher judgments that are based on the Work Sampling System (WSS), a curriculum-embedded, performance assessment for preschool (age 3) to Grade 5. The purpose of the study is to determine if teacher judgments about student learning in kindergarten to third grade are trustworthy if they are informed by a curriculum-embedded performance assessment. A cross-sectional sample composed of 345 K-3 students enrolled in 17 classrooms in an urban school system was studied. Analyses included correlations between WSS and an individually administered psychoeducational battery, four-step hierarchical regressions to examine the variance in students’ spring outcome scores, and receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) curves to compare the accuracy of WSS in categorizing students in terms of the outcome. Results demonstrate that WSS correlates well with a standardized, individually administered psychoeducational battery; that it is a reliable predictor of achievement ratings in K-3; and that the data obtained from WSS have significant utility for discriminating accurately between children who are at risk (e.g., Title I) and those who are not at risk. Further discussion concerns the role of teacher judgment in assessing student learning and achievement.

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, as well as Francene Barbour, Joan Gutierrez, Patti Vinci, and Jenny Smith at the Survey Operations Center and all of the Mathematica field and telephone staff who collected the data. The research brief also benefited from careful editing by Betty Teller. We are also grateful for the contributions of our partners at Juarez and Associates and the Educational Testing Service. Most of all, we offer our gratitude to the staff, families and children of the 60 FACES 2009 programs across the country, who once again opened their doors and shared their time with us.