Over the last decade, community leaders have connected with students through school-based mentoring (SBM) programs (e.g., adults who mentor at-risk students). However, research in the area of SBM is only on the cusp of understanding relationship elements for impacting youth. In this collective case study, we examined the perceptions and experiences of 11 selected mentors in dyadic relationships (i.e., mentee and mentor) to understand better ways to retain and to engage mentors for longer-lasting mentoring relationships, providing a sense of connectedness for students. Specifically, we investigated purposes and approaches of mentoring through the voices and experiences of mentors working with elementary-aged students in SBM. Results revealed self-sustaining synergy within the dyads (with little or no program support) and themes of consistency, commitment, spirituality, playfulness, the use of self-disclosure, creativity, and emphasis on the present. In addition, implications for cross-cultural and, in particular, cross-age mentoring are discussed. One exemplar case illustrates specific profile characteristics used to bridge age, gender, and cultural differences.

This article provides an overview of medications used frequently in the treatment of pediatric depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. The need for a collaborative relationship between the prescribing physician, school personnel, and the family is outlined. School psychologists can play crucial roles by providing the physician with information at the time of referral, developing school-based psychosocial interventions that augment pharmacological treatment, completing periodic evaluations to assist in symptom monitoring, and alerting the family and physician to any adverse side effects.

Drawing on early research on parental involvement and its effect on children's school functioning, it was hypothesized in this study that parents’ educational involvement is positively related to two indicators of school functioning: academic self-competence and academic achievement. However, in light of research on the distinction between parents’ home- and school-based educational involvement in terms of their different provisions of parents’ school-related support, this study examined the relationship between each of these two bases and two adolescent outcomes: self-evaluation (consisting of global self-worth and scholastic self-evaluation) and school-reported academic achievement. Analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM) on data collected from 397 (187 girls) Israeli seventh-graders (first year of junior high school) confirm the distinction between home- and school-based parental involvement and their different links to adolescent outcomes. SEM analyses carried out separately for girls and boys showed positive links between home-based parental involvement for girls and parent's volunteering for boys and global self-worth. This analysis also showed direct negative links between school-based parental involvement and academic achievement for boys. The discussion addresses these differences and their implication for the school experiences of young adolescents in the wake of the transition to junior high school.

Although the use of mindfulness is increasing in other areas of applied psychology, school psychology has yet to embrace it in practice. This article introduces school psychologists to the burgeoning field of mindfulness psychology and to the possibilities that it offers to their discipline. A background on the Western scientific study and application of mindfulness provides a theoretical foundation to those unfamiliar with the topic. We then discuss the application of mindfulness technologies to various forms of service provision in the professional practice of school psychology. The innovative and novel avenues that mindfulness psychology offers to psychological science

Previous research suggests that social–cognitive factors mediate the association between social–environmental risk and aggression in high-risk samples, but less is known about the relation among these factors in suburban youth. The present study examined whether such an association occurred for suburban youth exposed to low levels of social rejection and community violence. Using data from 184 adolescents (mean age = 14.97 years, SD = .84) and their homeroom teachers, analyses with structural equation modeling revealed a significant relation between relatively mild levels of social–environmental risk and aggression. This association was partially mediated by negatively biased social–cognitive factors (i.e., general knowledge structures and social information processing). Findings suggest that even relatively low levels of social rejection and community violence exposure characterizing suburban youth (in contrast to urban youth) put them at an increased risk for problems with aggression.

This study focused on violent and prosocial behaviors by adolescents toward parents and teachers, and the relation between such behaviors and adolescents’ perceptions about the family and school environment. Gender differences in child-to-parent violence and student-to-teacher violence were also studied. The sample comprised 687 adolescents from secondary schools in the province of Gipuzkoa, Spain, aged between 12 and 16 years. Participants responded to the relationship domains of the Family Environment Scale and the Classroom Environment Scale, among other instruments. A positive family relationship was related to less violent and more prosocial behavior toward parents. However, a positive classroom relationship was associated only with more prosocial behavior toward teachers. The results show that criminal and antisocial behaviors had a mediating influence on the relation between family and school relationships and violence against authority. The implications for intervention and prevention programs are discussed.

This research examined whether prospective teachers’ emotion regulation styles, dispositional empathy, and conceptions of competent student emotion and behavior were predictive of their attitudes about bullying and proposed responses to peer conflict. Overall, participants perceived physical bullying as more serious than verbal and relational bullying. Prospective teachers also expressed higher levels of sympathy for victims and a greater likelihood of intervention in response to physical bullying. Regression analyses demonstrated that valuing emotional competence and the role of teachers in supporting its development were meaningfully associated with expressed support for victims and with proposed responses to the perpetrators of this type of classroom aggression. Interestingly, those respondents who reported higher levels of situationally specific sympathy for victims (and not dispositional empathy) also reported that they would be more likely than their counterparts to intervene on their behalf. The emotional reactivity component of dispositional empathy was, however, positively associated with regulated responses to peer conflict involving a difficult child. The emotion regulation variables, although associated with the outcome measures in correlational analyses, were not unique predictors of prospective teachers’ bullying attitudes.

This study explored differences in test anxiety on high-stakes standardized achievement testing and low-stakes testing among elementary school children. This is the first study to directly examine differences in young students’ reported test anxiety between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) achievement testing and classroom testing. Three hundred thirty-five students in Grades 3 through 5 participated in the study. Students completed assessments of test anxiety following NCLB testing and typical classroom testing. Students reported significantly more overall test anxiety in relation to high-stakes testing versus classroom testing on two measures of test anxiety, effect sizes r = −.21 and r = −.10. Students also reported significantly more cognitive (r = −.20) and physiological (r = −.24) symptoms of test anxiety in relation to high-stakes testing. This study adds to the test anxiety literature by demonstrating that students experience heightened anxiety in response to NCLB testing.

This article reports on a content analysis of six school psychology journals spanning the years 2005–2009, with a particular focus on published intervention research. The analysis showed that (a) research articles were the most frequently published, with the largest category being descriptive research; (b) the percentage of intervention studies was higher (9.3%) than previously reported but lower than reported in special education journals (15.9%); (c) of the published interventions, the most frequent design was quasi-experimental, followed by single-subject research; (d) most intervention studies were conducted in school settings utilizing children in kindergarten through Grade 5, followed as a distant second by middle school settings; (e) the preponderance of intervention studies were academic or social/behavioral, with emotional interventions being the least represented; and (f) of the academic interventions, the most widely studied dimension was reading, followed as a distant second by math. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for addressing the research-to-practice gap as well as their implications for school psychology research and practice.

There continues to be a critical shortage of school psychologist practitioners and academicians. Undergraduate students in psychology, education, and other majors (N = 674) from a large comprehensive university in the southwest completed an examiner-made web-based questionnaire designed to assess their attitudes and preferences for choosing graduate training in psychology. There were differences among the participants on Interest in Graduate School, Child Interests, Attitude toward Research, and Exposure to School Psychology. Psychology majors were more interested in graduate school than all other majors in the sample and were more interested in research than “other” majors. Psychology majors reported significantly less exposure to school psychology than “other” majors. Examination of the endorsement patterns of the participants indicated the following. Generally, misconceptions about school psychology were not endorsed at high levels. Sixty seven percent of the sample indicated they would attend graduate school. And 77% of the participants also endorsed items indicating they had interests in focusing on children and child related problems. The participants did specify there were some geographic restraints related to choice of graduate school. Fifty to 60% of the participants agreed they had personal qualifications which would make them highly competitive for graduate school admission. Implications for school psychology recruitment are offered.