Current evidence-based prevention programming targeting child externalizing problems demonstrates modest overall effect sizes and is largely ineffective for a sizable proportion of youth who participate. However, our understanding of the youth and family characteristics associated with response to specific programming is quite limited. The current…

Executive function (EF), a set of neurocognitive processes, is central to students' emotional and behavioral well-being. Despite students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) being at risk for negative long-term outcomes, there is a paucity of EF research with students at risk for EBD in early elementary school, an important…

Objective: To examine the manifestation of cognitive control deficit of children with different levels of hyperactivity, an "at risk" dimension for ADHD. Method: A group of children with high hyperactivity (N = 40) and another group of children with low levels of hyperactivity (N = 38) performed a modified stop-signal anticipation task,…

Children born with very low birth weight (VLBW <1500 g) have a high risk of reading difficulties. Previous research has suggested that poor reading skills in VLBW children are associated with attention problems. In the current study, we examined the eye movements in VLBW children during reading and investigated their relationship with…

The number of low-income families in Singapore is increasing. Young children from impoverished backgrounds are at risk of development gaps and challenges. Research has shown that the accumulation of risk factors from adverse childhood experiences can lead to weaker outcomes later in life. The NTUC First Campus (NFC) launched the Child Support…

This explanatory sequential study examined and explored the understandings and perceptions a new cohort of K-12 teachers before and after they received Trauma Informed Care (TIC) training, which emphasized the prevention, recognition, and mitigation of secondary trauma (ST). TIC training is a requirement for all teachers. The study aimed at…

Children from disadvantaged families are at greater risk of developing regulation difficulties. Research suggests that family-level resources such as parental education or income are related to self-regulation development. However, most studies looking at the role of family resources have used single estimators of socioeconomic status or applied a…

This study examined the effects of early phonological training on emergent phonological and reading skills. Children (N = 364) were randomly assigned in small groups to a phonological training group (n = 117), or a control group (n = 247) including both a non-phonological training group and a non-trained control group. The phonological training…

Background: Both transactional and common etiological models have been proposed as explanations of why externalizing behavior problems (EBP) and internalizing behavior problems (IBP) co-occur in children. Yet little research has empirically evaluated these competing theoretical explanations. We examined whether EBP and IBP are transactionally…

Many children in developing countries do not acquire functional literacy skills despite being in school. We apply a cumulative risk (aggregate over a range of risk) and protection framework to assess Ghanaian kindergarteners' early academic skills (N = 1,852, M(age) = 5.3 years; 50.2% female), considering how family-level risk factors and…

When many of today's parents were students, the process of applying and enrolling in school was fairly simple and involved few choices. In many cases, a family visited the neighborhood public school at the start of the school year and enrolled the child at the school's office. But now, the proliferation of school-choice policies in districts…

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a family-centered preventive intervention, the Family Check-Up (FCU), on improving parenting skills during kindergarten and 1st grade, when children are challenged to engage in a variety of new behaviors, such as sustained attention and self-regulation of behavior in the classroom. Building…

Guided by models of family unpredictability, this study was designed to identify the distinctive sequelae of disorganized interparental conflict, a dimension of interparental conflict characterized by abrupt, inexplicable changes in parental emotional lability, conflict tactics, and verbalizations. Participants included 208 kindergarten children…

Recent efforts have focused on screening methods to identify children at risk for dyslexia as early as preschool/kindergarten. Unfortunately, while low sensitivity leads to under-identification of at-risk children, low "specificity" can lead to over-identification, resulting in inaccurate allocation of limited educational resources. The…

We analyzed a population-based cohort of 11,780 US children to identify risk and protective factors by kindergarten predictive of being frequently verbally, social, reputationally, or physically victimized during the upper elementary grades. We also stratified the analyses by biological sex. Kindergarten children displaying externalizing problem…