The impact of logistical resources on prereferral team acceptability.

This study investigated the impact of logistical resources on the acceptability of student assistance team consultation to school staff. Elementary and middle school staff (N = 113) completed a measure of the acceptability of prereferral intervention team procedures while also rating the importance of five logistical supports for effective team functioning. A multiple regression analysis showed that the team process was more acceptable to staff who perceived these teams to be effective for helping students and to those who identified three supports for effective teaming: sufficient staff training in team procedures, adequate numbers of staff, and ample time. Results are discussed in the context of prior investigations, directions for future research, and implications for school practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of a district-wide behavioral consultation prereferral intervention service on patterns of school psychological service delivery.

Investigated the impact of behavioral consultation prereferral intervention services on patterns of school psychology service delivery in a school district with a school-aged (kindergarten through Grade 12) population of 2,800 children, 50% of whom were Hispanic. Data from 2 yrs prior to initiation were compared with data from 4 yrs during implementation of a prereferral model. Analyses indicated that during the time period consultative prereferral intervention services were offered (a) more children were served by school psychologists, (b) a higher proportion of referred children achieved their educational objectives in regular classrooms, (c) a lower proportion of referred children were tested for special education services, and (d) a higher proportion of children tested were found eligible for special education programs' services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bridging the research-to-practice gap with mainstream assistance teams: A cautionary tale.

Difficult-to-teach students seem to be growing in number. Prereferral intervention is one strategy to help teachers better accommodate such children. During a three-year partnership with a local school district, we developed a prereferral intervention approach, called Mainstream Assistance Teams (MATs), which reflected the particular needs of the district. In Year 4, we explored whether district-employed consultants, whom we had trained the previous year, were ready to implement the prereferral interventions largely independently of our assistance. Eight MAT consultants were divided into two groups of four: one group received less technical assistance; the second group, more. Difficult-to-teach students associated with consultants and teachers supported by relatively little assistance performed as well as their counterparts in the "more" assistance group--and students in both groups outperformed controls from pretreatment to posttreatment. Such results signalled that district personnel had achieved a measure of ownership of an effective practice and, more generally, that we had successfully bridged the notorious research-to-practice gap. Nevertheless, one year later, nobody in the district was using MATs. Reasons for this surprising and disappointing turn of events are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

General education teachers' knowledge and self-reported use of classroom interventions for working with difficult-to-teach students: Implications for consultation, prereferral intervention and inclusive services.

Twenty 3rd- and 4th-grade teachers were interviewed about working with difficult-to-teach students (e.g, children with specific learning disabilities, mild mental handicaps, behavior disorders) in their classrooms. Using a referral case and a standardized vignette, teachers described problems, goals, interventions, data collection, and consultation practices employed across prereferral, prereferral Intervention, referral, and post-referral phases of service delivery. Most participants demonstrated only vague knowledge of classroom interventions. Few accommodations were made in general classrooms for mildly-handicapped children, particularly following the prereferral phase. Participants consulted primarily with other general educators and secondarily with special educators. Consultation with school psychologists was unusual. Discussion focuses on implications for consultation, prereferral intervention, and inclusive services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal problem solving: A descriptive study of individual differences.

Examined differences between students who have perceived themselves as successful and unsuccessful problem solvers. Differences were examined across a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral variables, with 2 types of problems—intrapersonal and interpersonal. 20 undergraduates who scored high and 20 who scored low on an independently developed problem-solving inventory (a) were questioned about how they solved interpersonal and intrapersonal problems within a 1-hr structured interview and (b) completed the Mooney Problem Checklist (MPC). Following the session, interviewers rated each S on several cognitive and behavioral variables, and they recorded behavioral observations and anecdotal events. Results reveal that the self-perceived successful and unsuccessful problem solvers differed (a) in the number of problems they acknowledged on the MPC; (b) on a number of self-report ratings about the personal problem solving process (e.g., attributions, expectations, intervention strategies, attitudes, and behaviors); and (c) on ratings made by the interviewers on several cognitive and behavioral variables. Results also indicate that the type of personal problem being solved affected the problem-solving process. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using organizational change procedures to promote the acceptability of prereferral intervention services: The school-based intervention team project.

Prereferral intervention programs represent a consultation-based approach for providing behavioral and/or instructional support to students before considering their eligibility for special class placement. Although research concerning the initial success of these programs has been promising, more information is needed relating program process variables to student outcomes in addition to effective procedures for promoting the adoption of these programs over time. This article describes organizational change procedures that were used to promote the acceptability of a prereferral intervention program at 4 pilot schools. Ss were school-based intervention team members (teachers, teaching assistants, school psychologists, and staff development facilitators) at each school. This article presents evaluation data concerning the program's acceptability to team members and participating teachers, integrity of the consultative process, and effect on numbers of children referred to special education. The implications of these results for school psychologists attempting to promote the acceptability and long-term adoption of prereferral intervention programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elementary teachers' referral to special education in light of inclusion and prereferral: "Every child is here to learn…but some of these children are in real trouble."

Social and legal changes since the 1970s have resulted in dramatic changes in the way children with disabilities are educated in public schools. The rapid growth in the number of children identified as disabled in the 1970s and 1980s, however, created cause for concern. High referral-to-placement rates raised issues of overidentification, misidentification, and bias. Research on teachers' referrals to special education helped support movements toward both prereferral intervention and inclusion. The present study investigated teachers' reasons for referral and evaluations of the referral process in an elementary school where prereferral and inclusion were being implemented. A modified analytic induction approach was used. Promising impacts of prereferral and inclusion were found, while bringing to light larger contextual and societal issues related to referral that continue to need researchers' attention, including the impact of poverty on children and issues in determining what is a disability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding the pre-referral factors associated with differential 6-month outcomes among children receiving system-of-care services.

The authors of this study used a subset of data from the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program to investigate the prereferral characteristics and experiences of children with serious emotional disturbance as they relate to indicators of clinically significant improvement and deterioration during their first 6 months of service. Minority racial/ethnic background, a history of substance and out-of-home placement were identified as predictors of deterioration at 6 months, higher levels of functional impairment, higher levels of caregiver strain, and poorer academic functioning were associated with significantly lower odds of deterioration. Initial service experience was examined in an effort to explain the relationship between identified prereferral characteristics and 6-month change status. Implications are considered and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On becoming a team: a view from the field

Early intervention services have expanded the concept of team participation for speech-language pathologists. Unlike traditional teams that grew out of the individual, direct service model of treatment, early intervention teams include the child's family along with professionals. Family members are invited to participate in assessing and treating their child, and the child is seen from a slightly different perspective by each team participant. Different viewpoints must be integrated and used to the benefit of the child. In this way, treatment options are expanded. Further, professionals may release their roles to other team members as well as learn new skills from other team members. The process of team development is illustrated through the experiences of one family-centered early intervention team.     

Effects of psychotherapy training and intervention use on session outcome.

Objective: This study was an investigation of the relationships among therapist training variables, psychotherapy process, and session outcome in a psychotherapy training clinic. The aims were to assess the relationship between “training as usual” and intervention use in individual psychotherapy, to investigate the relationship between therapist intervention use and session outcome, and to test whether training variables moderate this relationship. Method: Graduate student therapists (n = 19; mean age = 27 years; 79% women; 84% White) provided information about their training and completed a measure of intervention use (Multitheoretical List of Therapeutic Interventions; McCarthy & Barber, 2009) and clients (n = 42; mean age = 33 years; 64% women; 95% White) completed a measure of session outcome (Session Progress Scale; Kolden, 1991) after each session of individual psychotherapy. Results: With regard to intervention use and session outcome, no main effects were found for the training variables. Consequently, tests of moderation were not performed. The final model for intervention use and session outcome yielded main effects for time-varying interpersonal therapy and time-varying common factor use, and a 3-way interaction among time-varying cognitive–behavioral (CBT) intervention use, between-patient common factor use, and between-therapist common factor use. Patients who received more common factor interventions on average rated sessions as less helpful when more CBT interventions were employed; this finding was stronger for patients who were being treated by therapists with higher average levels of common factor use. Conclusions: Implications for training are discussed, with particular attention paid to the importance of clinical decision making and the complex interaction between common and unique technical factors in practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the well-being of nonclinical college students: Is knowledge of the presence of parental alcoholism useful?

Previous research has studied the assumed effects of parental alcoholism on children in rather narrow ways, which has resulted in misleading assumptions about the psychological well-being of adult children of alcoholics (ACAs). This study takes a broader perspective and confirms and extends prior research by examining the relationship of parental alcoholism and family functioning to problem-solving appraisal, perceived social support, interpersonal cognitive schema, and substance use. The 40 ACA participants were similar to the 40 non-ACAs on all measures except substance abuse: ACAs were at greater risk for moderate and high substance use. Participants from dysfunctional family systems reported more negative problem-solving appraisal and interpersonal cognitive schemata as compared with participants from functional family systems. Psychological adjustment appears multidetermined and not a simple consequence of parental alcoholism. Implications for future research are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Six month follow-up: the crucial test of multidisciplinary developmental assessment

Participation of parents in the developmental assessment process is thought to be beneficial in promoting understanding of their child's disability, and improving consensus between parents and professionals about appropriate intervention programmes. If costly multidisciplinary assessments are to be justified, it is necessary to establish long-term benefits for the child. This highlights a need for research identifying how families use services after diagnostic assessment and what they understand to be important for their child. Poor parent-professional agreement about diagnosis may be a factor contributing to low compliance with recommendations. The major purpose of the current study was to follow-up families 6 months after developmental assessment, in order to investigate use of recommended intervention services. In addition, mothers' opinions about diagnostic findings, recommendations and early intervention services were examined. Subjects were 40 pre-school children who presented for developmental assessment, and their mothers. The majority were diagnosed with developmental problems in multiple domains. Results indicated that most mothers recalled and agreed with their child's diagnosis, but underestimated the severity of developmental delay. Families had not accessed the range of multidisciplinary intervention programmes recommended, given the complexity of their children's disabilities. Speech therapy was considered the service of highest priority by mothers, and was the treatment most frequently received. Mothers recognized a need for more therapeutic interventions for their child. An unexpected finding was the high prevalence of families who organized nonprescribed therapies. Possible explanations of the findings and implications for service delivery are discussed.     

Interpersonal and impersonal problem-solving skills in mildly and clinically depressed university students.

Administered the Beck Depression Inventory and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to 20 nondepressed and 20 depressed university students and 8 nondepressed and 10 depressed university students being treated at a university counseling service. Ss were then tested on the Means–Ends Problem-Solving Procedure (a measure of interpersonal problem-solving ability) and the anagram task used in the investigations of learned helplessness (a measure of impersonal problem-solving ability). All Ss were administered the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry version of the Vocabulary subscale of the WAIS. A significant negative correlation was found between depression and interpersonal problem-solving ability, while only anxiety was correlated with anagram performance. Differences between groups were found only in interpersonal problem-solving performance. Nondepressed Ss performed significantly better than the other 3 groups, while depressed counselees obtained the lowest scores on the interpersonal measures. No relationship was found between performance on the anagram task and performance on the Means–Ends Problem-Solving Procedure. Results are consistent with predictions generated by interpersonal theories of depression, but they raise questions about the validity of the learned helplessness model as an analog of clinical depression. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective contributions of cooperative and group goal structures.

92 high school students were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental conditions to assess the affective benefits of using cooperative and group goal structures on problem-solving tasks. Results show that students who work in groups (cooperation and intergroup competition) not only perform better on tasks but also express greater certainty about their answers (commitment) and more enjoyment of tasks than students who work alone (interpersonal competition and individualization). Findings also show that "pure" cooperation improves interpersonal attraction and influences more positive ratings toward tasks than does intergroup competition. Similar comparisons on affect between interpersonal competition and individualization are also discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Harming high performers: A social comparison perspective on interpersonal harming in work teams.

This study developed a multilevel model of the interpersonal harming behavior associated with social comparison processes in work teams. We tested this model using temporally lagged data from a sample of student teams (Study 1) and cross-sectional data from a sample of work teams in a telecommunication services company (Study 2). In both studies, social relations analyses revealed that in teams with less cooperative goals, comparison to a higher performing team member was positively associated with interpersonal harming behavior, but only when expectations of future performance similarity to that member were low. The interactive relationship of social comparison and expected future performance similarity with interpersonal harming was buffered, however, in teams with more cooperative goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evolved cognitive–behavioral view of the case of David.

A cognitive–behavioral conceptualization of depression is presented, identifying distorted perceptions, ineffective actions, and/or an unresponsive environment as possible causative factors. Acknowledging that information about a patient’s early history can inform the cognitive–behavior therapist about possible areas of vulnerability that are triggered by current life events, a transtheoretical case formulation model is presented and illustrated for the case of David. The case formulation highlights the intrapersonal and interpersonal issues that should be the focus of the therapeutic intervention, and an integrated cognitive–behavioral intervention that follows from this formulation is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of a social-problem-solving training program for suburban and inner-city third-grade children.

Assessed the effects of a 52-lesson, class-taught, social-problem-solving (SPS) training program, with 3 questions in mind: (a) Does training improve interpersonal problem-solving abilities? (b) Does it enhance behavioral adjustment? (c) Are problem solving and adjustive gains related? 243 suburban and inner-city program 3rd graders and controls were evaluated on a variety of problem-solving and behavioral-adjustment measures. Program Ss improved more than controls on several cognitive skills, including problem identification, alternative-solution thinking, and consequential thinking as well as on behavioral problem-solving performance. The intervention positively affected the adjustment of suburban but not urban Ss. However, relationships between problem-solving skill improvements and adjustive gains were not found. Variables such as program curriculum and the age and sociodemographic attributes of its targets must be better understood in exploring the potential of SPS training to promote behavioral adjustment. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional outcome analysis: A good heuristic that went a bridge too far.

Comments on G. H. Noell and F. M. Gresham's (see record 1994-07602-001) article on functional outcome assessment (FOA) as it applies to service delivery by school psychologists using a model of prereferral interventional and problem-solving consultation. It is argued that while much of FOA is useful in a heuristic manner, the concept of efficiency ratios as a unifying aspect of FOA is not supportable. There are also limitations on the interpretability of FOA, including differential skills of personnel and intervention biases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Student success skills: Impacting achievement through large and small group work.

A structured group intervention, Student Success Skills (SSS), targeting academic and social outcomes, involving over 1,100 students in grades 5, 6, 8, and 9 is described. The goal of the project was to evaluate a combination guidance/psychoeducational and counseling/interpersonal problem-solving group model using rigorous research methods. Results from a series of four studies that consistently demonstrate the effectiveness of the SSS intervention are presented along with a sample large group lesson and sample small group session. A discussion of effective group work practices supporting effective implementation of the SSS intervention and other structured group interventions follows. The article concludes with tips for helping professionals in schools who want to show they make a difference in academic and social outcomes for students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring effects of a skills training intervention for drug abusers.

Examined the effectiveness of a supplemental skills training and social-network-development aftercare program with 130 drug abusers (aged 15–55 yrs) from 4 residential therapeutic communities. The program included training in assertiveness, problem-solving, stress management, and giving and receiving praise; training techniques included group discussion, modeling, role playing and feedback. Pre- and posttesting with a problem situation inventory showed that the intervention produced positive effects on Ss' performance at the conclusion of treatment. Performance improved in situations involving avoidance of drug use, coping with drug relapse, social interaction, interpersonal problem solving, and coping with stress. It is concluded that as a reentry strategy, the supplemental intervention is an effective adjunct to residential treatment. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)