Evidence-Based Innovation
​P S A s s o c i a t e s
- PRACTICE AND POLICY INFORMED BY NEUROSCIENCE -
explore the links below to learn more
about the science that informs our work
Preventing Child Maltreatment
"Child maltreatment is a complex issue. Its dynamics and the factors that drive it, as well as effective prevention strategies, all differ markedly according to the victim’s age, the setting in which the maltreatment occurs, and the relationship between victim and perpetrator."
"The traditional “privacy barrier” between the domestic and public spheres has inhibited the evolution of policies and legal instruments to prevent violence within the family and provide services for those affected by it. The absence of accurate and comprehensive data is one of the clear indications of the presence of this veil, hampering the development and evaluation of successful strategies to address this serious problem."
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Authors
Alexander Butchart, Ph.D.
Alison Phinney Harvey, Ph.D.
Marcellina Mian, M.D.
Tilman Fürniss, Ph.D.
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Thinking Developmentally:
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Nurturing Wellness in Childhood to
Promote Lifelong Health
Authors:
Andrew S. Garner, MD, PhD, FAAP
Robert A. Saul, MD, FAAP, FACMG
(c) 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics
​We are in a moment of national awakening to the lifelong effects of childhood adversity. Thinking Developmentally offers an evidence-based road map for building a healthier future for the next generation.”
~ Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH, FAAP
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Developmentally appropriate practice includes knowing about and implementing practices that reflect: child development and typical development at different ages, what is individually appropriate (the child’s interests, abilities, and developmental progress), and what is culturally important to create relevant, and respectful learning experiences for each child and family.
ACES Too High and Resilience QuestionNaire
"At the same time that the ACE Study was being done, parallel research on kids’ brains found that toxic stress damages the structure and function of a child’s developing brain. This was determined by a group of neuroscientists and pediatricians, including neuroscientist Martin Teicher and pediatrician Jack Shonkoff, both at Harvard University, neuroscientist Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University, and child psychiatrist Bruce Perry at the Child Trauma Academy."
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In 2006 and updated in 2013 a "questionnaire was developed by the early childhood service providers, pediatricians, psychologists, and health advocates of Southern Kennebec Healthy Start, Augusta, Maine" Ppsychologists Mark Rains and Kate McClinn .... developed a "scoring system modeled after the ACE Study questions. The content of the questions was based on a number of research studies from the literature over the past 40 years including that of Emmy Werner and others. Its purpose is limited to parenting education. It was not developed for research."
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Cultural Competence
"Cultural competence is the key to thriving in culturally diverse classrooms and schools - and it can be learned, practiced, and institutionalized to better serve diverse students, their families, and their communities. Cultural competence is the ability to successfully teach students who come from a culture or cultures other than our own. It entails developing certain personal and interpersonal awareness and sensitivities, understanding certain bodies of cultural knowledge, and mastering a set of skills that, taken together, underlie effective cross-cultural teaching and culturally responsive teaching." ~ National Education Association
Dual Pathways to a Better America:
Preventing Discrimination
and Promoting Diversity
(This report focuses on) "dual strategies: to prevent discrimination, and to nurture and maximize the benefits of diversity. It includes "a series of frequently asked questions, a very creative and clear way of presenting psychological research". It "describes the mechanisms, consequences and principles of discrimination, including how people cope". The report "describes the mechanisms of inclusion and beneficial diversity dynamics" and the "mechanisms and strategies for reducing exclusionary processes and promoting diversity by understanding inclusionary processes that can produce functionally beneficial settings, contexts, institutions and environments."
Transgender Youth
“What’s all this talk about gender pronouns? And what does it really mean to be transgender anyway? What’s up with this gender neutral bathroom thing?” We’ve all put our foot in our mouths when talking about gender. It’s a complicated topic! Gender is core to the identity and reality of children, youth, and families. The Transgender Toolkit includes a wide range of resources for educators, families, and communities.
Mental Health of Transgender Youth: The Role of Family, School, and Community in Promoting Resilience indicates "schools and youth-serving organizations need to implement intervention and prevention strategies that disrupt the experiences of victimization and negative outcomes for transgender youth. Further, as many cisgender youth experience bias, bullying, harassment, or worse in connection to stereotypes associated with their gender, the supports and interventions discussed here may be expected to
contribute to healthier learning environments for all students."
LGBTQ Youth
"The Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the University of Connecticut released the largest-of-its-kind survey ever of more than 12,000 LGBTQ teenagers across the nation, revealing in distressing detail the persistent challenges so many of them face going about their daily lives at home, at school and in their communities. The respondents, ranged in age from 13 to 17, and from all 50 states and Washington D.C., participated in the online 2017 LGBTQ Teen Survey. It found that these teenagers are not only experiencing heartbreaking levels of stress, anxiety and rejection, but also overwhelmingly feel unsafe in their own school classrooms. LGBTQ young people who participated in the survey also made crystal clear that supportive families and inclusive schools are key to their success and well-being."
Prejudice and effective
anti-bullying intervention:
Evidence from the bullying of “minorities”
"Members of certain“minorities” are considerably more at risk of being bullied .... tackling prejudice is indeed a serious cause for concern. Improved legislation is always a possibility, but the very obvious existence of affective and cognitive components of all attitudes, including attitudes of prejudice, has implications for many areas of educational practice, including initial teacher training and teachers’ continuing professional development. Improving the “learning environment”, as Lødding and Vibe (2010) suggest, may yet prove a sensible way forward; but the evidence still points to this broad strategy necessarily involving the direct addressing of the problems of bullying and prejudice. I believe that making a contribution to jointly addressing these interlocking problems may prove possible through the improved design of school-based anti-bullying intervention programmes."
Overindulgence
"Overindulgence is a form of child neglect.
It hinders children from performing
their needed developmental tasks, and
from learning necessary life lessons".
"Overindulging children is giving them too much of what looks good, too soon, too long. It is giving them things or experiences that are not appropriate for their age or their interests and talents. It is the process of giving things to children to meet the adult's needs, not the child's. Overindulgence is giving a disproportionate amount of family resources to one or more children in a way that appears to meet the children's needs but does not, so children experience scarcity in the midst of plenty. Overindulgence is doing or having so much of something that it does active harm, or at least prevents a person from developing and deprives that person of achieving his or her full potential."
~ Clarke, Dawson & Bredehoft, 2014, How Much is Too Much? p. 5
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Effectiveness of anti-bullying school programs: A meta-analysis
"This study presents a meta-analysis of random clinical trials that assess the efficacy of 14 anti-bullying school programs. Sample size was of 30,934 adolescents aged between 7 and 16 years of whom 16,243 made up the Intervention Groups and 14,691 made up the Control Groups. Meta-analysis was conducted for each outcome measure, as well as heterogeneity analysis. Analysis of subgroups was performed when necessary, as well as analysis of publication bias."
Highlights of findings include: "There is evidence of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing bullying. There is a great heterogeneity in the design of such school interventions. Outcome measures most frequently used were frequency of bullying and victimization. The impact of the interventions on attitudes is weak and insignificant." In general the results of the meta-analysis "indicate that bullying and violence prevention programs in school settings are obtaining beneficial, albeit discrete, results in the outcome measures evaluated."
Children and Youth Services Review
Volume 61, February 2016
Bullying Today: Bullet Points and Best Practices
The authors have "distilled nearly 15 years of research, offering "strategies and real–world examples to put ideas into action." Topics included are "prevention strategies distinguishing bullying from other hurtful behaviors, the connection between cyberbullying, and in-person bullying, and responses that work and those that don't"
Authors:
Justin W. Patchin
Sameer Hinduja
2016
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Building Resilience
"It’s not possible to protect our children from the ups and downs of life. Raising resilient children, however, is possible and can provide them with the tools they need to respond to the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood and to navigate successfully in adulthood. Despite our best efforts, we cannot prevent adversity and daily stress; but we can learn to be more resilient by changing how we think about challenges and adversities."
~ HealthyChildren.org by The American Academy of Pediatrics
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