High rates of mental health problems in adolescents have been well documented; less is known about elementary school children in disadvantaged communities. We examined emotional and behavioral health needs in 202 third and fourth graders enrolled in a charter school in a largely Hispanic community. The child-reported Revised Child Anxiety and…

This article describes the development, implementation, and outcomes of a pilot intervention designed to enhance preschool programs' ability to support children's social-emotional development. Working with two Head Start programs, the intervention included (1) restructuring existing early childhood mental health consultation services; (2) engaging…

Emotions and behaviors observed during challenging tasks are hypothesized to be valuable indicators of young children's motivation, the assessment of which may be particularly important for children at risk for school failure. The current study demonstrated reliability and concurrent validity of a new observational assessment of motivation in…

The present study utilized a short-term longitudinal research design to model the relationship between shyness-anxiousness and receptive language skills. Hypotheses regarding the direction of the causal relationship, mediation, and moderation were evaluated. Subjects included 340 Head Start attendees from primarily English- and Spanish-speaking…

Research Findings: Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschool children, and relationships between families and professionals are an important contributor to school readiness. Furthermore, social-emotional competence is a key component of young children's school readiness. This study…

This paper reports the findings of a study that looked at the perceptions of self-competence in Head Start children of Caucasian and Hispanic background. The Joseph Pre-school and Primary Self-Concept Screening Test (JPPSST) was used to collect the needed data. Analyses of data indicate that there is a significant difference in the self-concept…

A family, whom out of necessity due to a lack of housing, must reside in a shelter, motel, vehicle, campground, on the street, or doubled up with relatives or friends, is considered homeless. Poverty, lack of affordable housing, domestic violence, veteran status, mental illness, and addiction disorders are among the factors that contribute to…