Within the school setting, students identified as having emotion regulation impairment (ERI) are at particularly high risk for negative academic and personal outcomes. These students often need additional support with mental health. Unfortunately, there are several barriers to providing evidence-based interventions in schools, including time and…

School counselors play an integral role in helping adolescents navigate and overcome the psychological distress that they experience. This study aimed to better understand the experiences of Jamaican school counselors who provide psychological support to adolescents in high school. Urie Bronfenbrenner's (2006) bioecological model of human…

High school athletes are not immune to mental health challenges. The persistent lack of state or national mental health guidelines for athletes has impacted high school athletes' abilities to access and apply resources in a mentally healthy manner. This can impact not only a high school athlete's career but can leave lasting effects on collegiate…

Insufficient sleep among high school students has become a pressing concern for its detrimental effects on academic performance, physical health, and mental wellness. This concern is amplified for students living away from their parents in a boarding school setting. The purpose of this action research study was to investigate and improve the sleep…

The October 2021 declaration of a national emergency for child and adolescent mental health resulted in the call for innovative methods for addressing barriers to seeking care, including the suggestion of mental health apps using transdiagnostic approaches. In line with this, the current study sought to validate the app "Amaru: The Self-Care…

Youth with and at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) served in alternative education settings often experience challenges with writing due to various deficits across academic, behavioral, and social-emotional domains, especially in the area of writing. These youth also are less likely to engage in self-determination skills such as…

School-based mental health treatment programs are vital for providing access to care, assessing trauma and risk to decreasing negative coping mechanisms for students attending public school in marginalized communities. This doctoral project focuses on a school-based mental health intervention program called PATHWAYS, which has been implemented in…

Adolescents in American classrooms are currently required to fulfill multiple roles, making them particularly vulnerable to stress due to intense academic demands and social pressures. This stress can be particularly challenging for adolescents who struggle with stress, anxiety, depression, and/or self-regulation. Previous research indicates a…

The purpose of the study was to discover and give voice to the perceptions of Black and Latino adolescent males regarding their school attitudes (attitudes toward school, attitudes towards teachers, motivation/self-regulation, goal valuation, and academic self-perception) and their level of hope (agency and pathways) for the future. This mixed…

Adolescents typically use the self-regulation skills that they develop earlier in childhood to explore their identities. However, some adolescents do not develop self-regulation skills for a variety of reasons. Identity formation and self-regulation could develop concurrently for adolescents with self-regulatory failure as they explore a valued…

Adolescents spend a significant portion of the day on digital devices, yet we know very little about their out-of-school reading practices. While screen recording technology allows researchers to record and view videos of digital reading, the majority of studies exploring digital reading limit participants' reading to researcher-selected texts and…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) were once considered lifelong disorders, but recent findings indicate that some children with ASDs no longer meet diagnostic criteria for any ASD and reach normal cognitive function. The current study examined social functioning in 24 of these individuals (ages 8-21), called 'optimal outcome' (OO), who did not…

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is one of the most common chronic diseases in youth and it has been shown that adolescents have the worst glycemic control of any age group. The objective of this study was to develop, test and evaluate the feasibility of an online intervention ("Can-Do-Tude") that uses the principles of motivational interviewing…

Adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) must develop self-efficacy and disease-management skills to transition successfully to adult medical care. This quantitative study explored whether self-efficacy, age, and gender were predictive of transition readiness of adolescents with SCD from pediatric to adult medical care.…

Many adolescent disruptive youth in Pennsylvania are removed from traditional school settings for externalizing behaviors including aggression, defying authority, poor relationships with peers and adults, disruptive behaviors, and bullying. Post-school outcomes of adolescent disruptive youth remain dismal, and these students are the most…