Research shows rural students are experiencing social-behavioral and mental health challenges at unprecedented rates, placing them at risk for long-term negative outcomes.
With the effectiveness of family-school interventions in addressing social-behavioral and mental health needs at both school and home — especially in rural settings — professional development of rural practitioners is a priority.
Throughout the United States, the number of teachers qualified to support students with special needs is declining. In Nebraska, school leaders are concerned the shortage of special education teachers will put these students at risk for compromised learning and growth.
Searching for the right health care resources — and the most efficient way to access them — can be overwhelming.
For families seeking health care for young children, the task can be even more daunting.
Early childhood health systems are often complex, siloed and disconnected, which leads to inadequate supports and services for families.
When it comes to measuring student outcomes, grading individual schools can be complicated.
Although federal, state and local mandates are continually added to school-based policies and practices used to measure student performance — and hold schools accountable — research indicates that such measures have mixed effects on student achievement, graduation rates and equity in learning.
As the COVID-19 epidemic escalated to a pandemic in early 2020, millions of Americans began working from home — and millions of students left their classrooms to continue their studies remotely.
In March 2020, all 983 Nebraska public schools sat vacant, and all the state’s 330,000 children from pre-kindergarten to grade 12 were learning in out-of-classroom environments.
For sexual minority youth, dating violence and problem drinking are frequently intertwined, often leading to depression and even suicide.
Katie Edwards, associate professor, CYFS and educational psychology, and Heather Littleton, associate professor and director of research operations at the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience at the University of Colorado–Colorado Springs, are developing an online initiative for LGBTQ+ youth ages 15 to 18 to prevent dating violence and alcohol use. The program is the first culturally adapted and affirming program designed specifically for sexual minority youth.
A March 30 youth-led webinar hosted by the Interpersonal Violence Research Laboratory highlighted successes, challenges and the future of Youth Voices in Prevention (Youth VIP).
During the event, youth leaders and adult mentors discussed how and why they became and remained involved in the program, and how Youth VIP has impacted their lives — and the lives of those closest to them.
The religiously unaffiliated, including atheists, are the fastest-growing (non)religious population in the United States. But the social stigma associated with atheism leaves this population vulnerable to isolation and poor mental health outcomes.
Dena Abbott, assistant professor of counseling psychology, is using a one-year Research Council grant to investigate the psychological well-being of two groups of atheists — rural-residing and woman-identified atheists — in the context of anti-atheist discrimination in the U.S.
