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Educator mental health and well-being have received increased attention in response to the additional stress experienced during the coronavirus pandemic. Cultivating mental health and well-being can be facilitated by enhancing adult social emotional competencies. However, relatively limited research has explored how prevention programs promoting social emotional competencies have enhanced educator well-being and related attributes of self-care, efficacy, and skillful interactions with students. In this pilot study, we implemented and evaluated an innovative prevention program called Resilience in Schools and Educators (RISE) in eight Colorado schools with 53 educators. RISE builds knowledge and skills that promote educator social-emotional competencies, trauma responsivity, cultural responsivity, resilience, and well-being. The first study aim was to explore the fidelity and feasibility of the RISE program implemented in a school-based context. The second study aim was to explore whether RISE is associated with increases in educators' self-reported social emotional competencies, well-being, self-care practices, self-efficacy, and quality of interactions with students. As compared to field standards, facilitators reported high levels of fidelity and feasibility of RISE. Educators' pre- and post- self-report measures indicate significant improvements in social emotional competencies (emotional awareness, emotional clarity, non-reactivity, nonjudging), self-care practices, well-being, and student-educator conflict, with effect sizes indicating small to medium impacts. No findings emerged for self-efficacy or perceived closeness of student-teacher relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Research consistently finds that a comprehensive approach to school safety, which integrates the best scientific evidence and solid implementation strategies, offers the greatest potential for preventing youth violence and promoting mental and behavioral health. However, schools and communities encounter enormous challenges in articulating, synthesizing, and implementing all the complex aspects of a comprehensive approach to school safety. This paper aims to bridge the gap between scientific evidence and the application of that evidence in schools and communities by defining the key components of a comprehensive approach to school safety and describing how schools can assess their readiness to implement a comprehensive approach. We use readiness and implementation data from the Safe Communities Safe Schools project to illustrate these challenges and solutions. Our findings suggest that (1) readiness assessment can be combined with feasibility meetings to inform school selection for implementation of a comprehensive approach to school safety and (2) intentionally addressing readiness barriers as part of a comprehensive approach may lead to improvements in readiness (motivation and capacity) to effectively implement a comprehensive approach to school safety.

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Youth in the child welfare system (CWS) have substantially higher rates of mental health needs compared to the general population, yet they rarely receive targeted, evidence-based practices (EBPs). Caseworkers play the critically important role of "service broker" for CWS youth and families. This study examines preliminary caseworker-level outcomes of Project Focus Colorado (PF-C), a training and consultation program designed to improve access to EBPs for CWS youth. PF-C evaluation occurred in four child welfare offices (two intervention [n = 16 caseworkers] vs. two practice-as-usual, wait-list control [WLC; n = 12 caseworkers]). Receipt of PF-C was associated with significantly increased caseworker knowledge of (a) EBPs, (b) child mental health problems, (c) evidence-based treatment components targeting mental health problem areas, and (d) mental health screening instruments, compared to WLC. Dose of training and consultation was associated with greater ability to correctly classify mental health problems and match them to EBPs. These preliminary results suggest that targeted training and consultation help to improve caseworker knowledge of children's mental health needs, EBPs for mental health, and mental health screening instruments.

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In 2006, 3.6 million children in the United States received a child protective services' investigation and 905,000 children (about one-quarter of those investigated) were found to have been abused or neglected. Children who have been maltreated are at risk for experiencing a host of mental health problems, including depression, posttraumatic stress, dissociation, reactive attachment, low self-esteem, social problems, suicidal behavior, aggression, conduct disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and problem behaviors, including delinquency, risky sexual behavior and substance use. Given the high rate of mental health problems, it is not surprising that maltreated youth are in need of mental health services. Unfortunately, only a fraction of these children and adolescents receive services. Recently, several evidence-based practices have been rigorously tested and are demonstrating efficacy in reducing mental health problems associated with maltreatment. This article details these developments.

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OBJECTIVE: Pegfilgrastim is indicated to decrease the incidence of febrile neutropenia in patients with gynecologic malignancies who are receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy. We sought to compare the safety and efficacy of day 1 pegfilgrastim administration to day 2 administration in patients with gynecologic malignancies. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated patients receiving both chemotherapy and pegfilgrastim from June 1, 2006 to August 31, 2007 for a gynecologic malignancy. Abstracted data included patient demographics, pathology, blood counts, toxicity, and chemotherapy. After administration of chemotherapy, all patients either received 6 mg of pegfilgrastim subcutaneously on day 1 or day 2. RESULTS: 1226 administrations of pegfilgrastim in 230 patients were identified. 490 administrations of pegfilgrastim were given on day 1 compared to 736 on day 2. 70% of patients had ovarian cancer with a median age of 64 years (range 15-88). 79% of patients had stage III, IV, or recurrent disease and 67% were undergoing primary chemotherapy. The most common chemotherapy was docetaxel/carboplatin (53%) followed by paclitaxel/carboplatin (19%). The mean absolute neutrophil count (ANC) nadir was 4810/mm(3) in the day 1 cohort compared to 4212/mm(3) in the day 2 cohort (p=.004). The incidence of Grade 3/4 neutropenia was similar in both groups (4.9% in day 1 vs. 5.7% in day 2; p=.63). Grade 3/4 febrile neutropenia was uncommon in both cohorts (0 episodes vs. 3 episodes; p=.41). Treatment delays were similar in both cohorts (5.9% vs. 7.5%; p=.35). Dose modifications were also similar in both cohorts (2.8% vs. 5.3%; p=.06). CONCLUSION: Day 1 administration of pegfilgrastim is as effective as day 2 administration in the prevention of neutropenia in patients with gynecologic malignancies. Treatment delays and dose modifications were not increased after day 1 administration of pegfilgrastim. Administering pegfilgrastim on day 1 appears to be safe, effective, and convenient in selected patients receiving myelopsuppressive chemotherapy for gynecologic malignancies.

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OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this pilot study was to examine emotion management skills (i.e., emotional understanding, emotion regulation) in children who had experienced neglect and a control group to determine the ways that neglect may interfere with children's emotional development. METHOD: Participants included children 6--12 years of age and their mothers (neglect group, N=24; control, N=24). Participants completed questionnaires and an interview that assessed children's emotional understanding and emotion regulation. RESULTS: Findings indicated that neglected children, compared to their non-maltreated peers, demonstrated lower understanding of negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness) and fewer adaptive emotion regulation skills. Further, neglected children expected less support and more conflict from mothers in response to displays of negative emotion and reported that they were more likely to attempt to inhibit the expression of negative emotion. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that neglect may interfere with the normal acquisition of emotional understanding and emotion regulation skills, highlighting the importance of addressing these skills in the context of clinical intervention with neglected children.

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This study investigated maternal emotion socialization in physically maltreating and nonmaltreating mother-child dyads (N = 63 dyads) to examine the relation between maternal support in response to children's emotional displays and children's psychological adjustment (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems). Child participants consisted of both boys (64%) and girls (36%) and ranged from 6 to 12 years of age. Findings indicated maltreatment negatively predicted maternal support and positively predicted children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Further, maternal support negatively predicted children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Finally, maternal support partially mediated the relation between maltreatment and internalizing problems. No mediation was indicated for externalizing difficulties. Findings suggest that a lack of maternal support in response to children's emotion is particularly important to the development of children's internalizing behavior problems.

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OBJECTIVES: Although women with histories of child sexual abuse (CSA) perceive themselves as less competent mothers and report greater parenting difficulties than nonabused women, few investigators have actually observed the parenting behaviors of CSA survivors. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether incest history was related to maternal perceptions of parenting efficacy and interactional patterns with their children. The secondary aim of this study was to explore the constructs of internal working models of relationships and maternal psychological adjustment as potential mediators of the relation between incest history and parenting. METHODS: A community sample of 17 incest survivors, 18 nonabused women and their 3-6 year-old children participated. Mothers completed self-report measures of parenting efficacy, parental bonding (i.e., internal working models of relationships), and psychological adjustment. In addition, mothers interacted with their children in a problem-solving task. RESULTS: Although incest survivors reported less parenting self-efficacy than did nonabused mothers, their interactional styles with their children were positive overall and comparable to those of nonabused mothers. Specifically, survivors displayed moderate to high levels of support, assistance, and confidence, and their children showed high levels of affection towards their mothers. Incest survivors reported less bonding with their own mothers in childhood and poorer current psychological adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that incest survivors' perceptions of their parenting abilities may be more negative than their actual parenting behaviors.

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This study investigated the influence of maternal socialization (i.e., maternal support, discussion of emotion, negative affect) on children's emotional understanding in 24 neglectful mother-child dyads and a matched control group. Mothers and children were administered an interaction task. Mothers were also assessed for negative emotional experience, and children were assessed for emotional understanding and expectations of maternal support. Findings indicated that neglectful mothers, compared with nonneglectful mothers, provided less support in response to their children's emotional displays, engaged in less emotional discussion, and reported more negative emotion. As well, neglected children demonstrated lower levels of emotional understanding than nonmaltreated children. Further, maternal support mediated the relation between neglect and children's emotional understanding. Findings are discussed from the functionalist approach to emotional development, emphasizing the importance of social context and socialization on children's emotional understanding.

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This study examined emotion regulation skills in 22 sexually maltreated girls and 22 nonmaltreated girls between 6 and 12 years of age to determine how the experience of sexual maltreatment might interfere with normative emotional development. Findings indicated that sexually maltreated girls, compared to nonmaltreated peers, reported different goals (i.e., inhibiting emotion to avoid conflict vs. displaying emotion to rectify, a situation) for managing their emotional expressivity with their parents. They also reported expecting less support and more conflict from parents in response to emotional displays. Finally, maltreated girls expected less practical assistance from all social partners (i.e., mother, father, best friend) following their emotional displays. Surprisingly, however, there were no group differences in girls' ability to generate effective strategies for coping with emotionally arousing situations. Findings are discussed from the functionalist approach to emotional development, emphasizing the importance of social context (i.e., maltreating, nonmaltreating) in the development of children's emotion regulation skills.

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The American Psychological Association (APA) has called for improving knowledge regarding child abuse and neglect among psychologists by increasing training. The present study examined the extent of child abuse training provided by APA-accredited doctoral programs in clinical, counseling, and school psychology by surveying the training directors in 1992 and 2001. The survey assessed available coursework, practica, and research experience in the area of child maltreatment. Findings indicated that more than half of all programs cover child maltreatment in three or more courses, and most programs discuss child maltreatment in ethics/professional seminars. Most students have some exposure to clients with abuse-related problems, and some have opportunities to participate in maltreatment research. Nonetheless, training falls short of APA recommendations for minimal levels of competence in child maltreatment, with no change in training in the past decade. Recommendations for improving training include more discussion among program faculty, attention to essential competencies, and specific suggestions for developing interdisciplinary training.

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Examined the relation between children's self-reported anger and sadness regulation and the presence of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Participants were 121 boys and 106 girls in the fourth and fifth grades who completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), Emotion Expression Scale for Children (EESC), and Children's Emotion Management Scales (CSMS, CAMS) and rated each other on aggressive behavior. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that the inability to identify emotional states, the inhibition of anger, the dysregulation of anger and sadness, and the constructive coping with anger predicted internalizing symptoms. The dysregulated expression of sadness and constructive coping with anger were inversely related to externalizing symptoms.

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