Using Emotional Literacy to Improve Youth-Serving Organizations

Principal Investigators: Marc Brackett, Ph.D., Peter Salovey, Ph.D., and Susan Rivers, Ph.D., Yale University
July 2007–June 2011
$1,810,220

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an increasingly popular focus in U.S. schools as educators work to improve school settings. The researchers are using Emotional Literacy in the Classroom (ELC), an SEL program, for this randomized field experiment. They are looking at the program’s effects on classroom processes, including the number of emotionally positive and supportive interactions students have with teachers, parents, and peers. They also want to see if these effects enhance social, emotional, and academic competence.

In the second year of the study, the researchers have added improved classroom measures (The Support for Social and Emotional Learning Scale) and facilitators to the study. The facilitators will help train classroom teachers in the implementation and use of the SEL intervention. The improved measures will help the team more accurately assess whether positive changes in the classroom translate to improved academic performance, more positive relationships, and increased emotional literacy. The study encompasses 65 schools in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, randomly assigned to the intervention or the control condition.

Student Incorporation and the Sociocultural Contexts of Schools

Principal Investigator: Prudence Carter, Ph.D., Harvard University
December 2006–November 2009
$456,582

What are the characteristics of both students’ group dynamics and the culture of high schools that promote or discourage black and Latino students’ inclusion in school life and academic advancement? Are these characteristics different in schools that are predominantly minority and those that are more multi-racial and predominantly white? This in-depth study is generating theory about how cultural practices between students and teachers, the social organization of students (for example, in tracking and participation in extracurricular activities), and school policies about student self-presentation and discipline affect the incorporation of black and Latino students. Data is being collected in two high schools in Jackson, Mississippi, and two in Boston, Massachusetts. This project uses a number of data collection methods, including ethnographic observations and interviews, semi-structured and group interviews, and student surveys.

Young Women Leaders: An Investigation of Mentoring Groups as Developmental Settings for Middle School Girls

Principal Investigators: Nancy Deutsch, Ph.D. and Edith Lawrence, Ph.D., University of Virginia
June 2008–May 2011
$497,136

How do mentoring groups foster improved one-on-one mentoring relationships and youth outcomes? Youth mentoring programs have grown in popularity in recent years. Most agree that it is important to learn how to make such programs stronger. The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP) is an established mentoring program that combines one-on-one mentoring with structured group experiences for adolescent girls and their mentors. Mentors and mentees are paired when the adolescent female mentees are in the 7th grade. These pairs meet at least four hours per month. In addition, groups consisting of 10 mentoring dyads and a facilitator meet for two hours a week. This grant allows Deutsch and Lawrence to add a substantial qualitative component to the ongoing random assignment evaluation of YWLP that is being funded by the Department of Education. This qualitative study is providing information about the usefulness of adding group work to a one-to-one mentoring program.

The Role of Youth Settings in Young Adult Development: The Ecological Context of Rural Poverty

Principal Investigator: Gary Evans, Ph.D., Cornell University
April 2009–March 2013
$406,399

Does the quality of the home, school, and community settings of rural adolescents affect subsequent levels of mental health and physiological stress? How does family poverty influence the relationship between setting-level quality and well-being? Evans and his team have been studying a sample of rural youth for more than a decade, and the Foundation has been funding this project since 2002. This grant allows Evans to continue his study of 267 youth from 30 rural communities in upstate New York. In previous waves of this study, Evans collected multiple setting measures, including measures of maternal responsiveness, family conflict, household chaos, student-teacher relationship quality, school quality, extracurricular resources, community social capital, youth resources in the community, relationships with community adults, and educational attainment. He also measured levels of psychological distress and physiological stress.

In analyzing data from earlier waves of the study, Evans found preliminary evidence of damage to the stress response system of 13-year-old, low-income children. The adverse impacts of accumulated stress are buffered by responsive parenting, but low-income mothers tend to be less responsive than their middle-income counterparts because they are under greater stress and have fewer social network resources. In this phase of the study, Evans explores how the family, school, and community settings of 17 year-olds living in poverty in rural areas influence mental and physical health by age 22.

Toward an Understanding of Classroom Context: A Validation Study

Principal Investigators: Drew Gitomer, Ph.D., Educational Testing Service, and Courtney Bell, Ph.D., University of Connecticut
September 2008–August 2011
$529,016

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is a promising observational instrument that measures student-teacher classroom interactions in elementary school classrooms. Gitomer and Bell will use this grant to test the validity of the CLASS-S—an altered version of the CLASS meant for use in secondary school classrooms. They will also assess different ways to implement the CLASS, seeking to optimize its efficiency. They will gather data in 150 New York City 8th and 9th grade algebra classrooms using 3 different strategies for completing the CLASS: the conventional observation by a classroom rater, video recording of classrooms to allow for off-site coding, and teacher self-assessment. For the validity analyses, the researchers will collect measures of teacher and student characteristics, teacher’s math knowledge for teaching (MKT) and teachers’ and students’ views of intelligence. The team will compare CLASS and other scores to the changes in student scores on a standardized algebra test.

In Search of Structure: A Theory-Based, Mixed-Methods Examination of Parental Structure in Families of Young Adolescents

Principal Investigator: Wendy Grolnick, Ph.D. and Esteban Cardemil, Ph.D., Clark University
June 2008–May 2011
$322,616

Among dimensions of parenting, parental structure has not been adequately studied as it relates to youth outcomes. The researchers will measure six dimensions of structure in parental practices (parents provide clear/consistent communication of rules and expectations; opportunities to succeed by meeting or exceeding expectations; predictability and consistency; positive informational feedback; rationales for their actions; and ultimate authority) across six domains relevant to young adolescents (homework, grades, curfew, bedtime, after-school activities, and unsupervised activities). This sequential mixed-method, two-wave (before and after the transition) longitudinal study will examine how parental structure relates to competence, adjustment, and achievement over the transition to junior high school. It will also examine the influence of culture on these parenting practices. The study includes 250 Worcester, Massachusetts-area, 6th and 7th grade students from primarily low-income schools and their mothers (mainly European-American and Latino, specifically Puerto Rican and Dominican), who volunteer to participate in the study.

Processes of Developmental Change in Youth Development Settings

Principal Investigator: Reed Larson, Ph.D., Robin Jarrett, Ph.D., and David Hansen, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
June 2005–August 2009
$302,241

Initiative, motivation, teamwork, connections to adults, and responsibility are outcomes that are related to success in school, the labor force, and other aspects of life. How do youth programs promote these outcomes? The investigators are analyzing data from a recently completed in-depth study of 12 effective programs for high school aged youth to theorize how programs shape youth development. These theories will help to guide interventions meant to improve youth programs, assist program administrators in designing programs, and guide practitioners in their daily interactions with youth. Findings captured in initial papers are posted on the principal investigators’ website at: http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/youthdev/index.htm.

Everyday Family Life and Susceptibility to Upper Respiratory Infections

Principal Investigator: Theodore Robles, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
January 2009–June 2012
$500,000

How do negative family dynamics influence children's biological processes and their subsequent susceptibility to upper respiratory infections (URI)? URIs are the most common and costly childhood infections, resulting in significant missed days of school. They have been linked to psychological stress—specifically familial stress—but little is known about how high-risk settings influence the biological and behavioral pathways that may lead to deleterious effects on health. Robles and his colleagues are testing these hypothesized linkages by asking the following questions: Are children who frequently experience URIs more likely than those who don't to live in family settings with risky characteristics? How are the characteristics of family risk related to URI incidence and severity over time? What are the biological and behavioral pathways that mediate associations between URI and family risk behaviors? A diverse set of 80 families from Southern California with at least one child between the ages of 8 and 11 are participating in the study. Half of the families have a child who has had seven or more URIs in the past year and the other half have a child who has had no more than two URIs in the past year. Both parents and children will keep daily self-report diaries for eight weeks, recording experiences and activities, including mood, stress, peer interactions, school success, sibling conflict, parental warmth and neglect, parent-child conflict, inter-parental affection and conflict, and URI symptoms. Other measures of individual and familial function will also be collected. Biological measures (saliva samples) will be collected during the third and sixth weeks of the study.