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Category: Social, Emotional & Behavioral Well-being

Project trains rural educators, encourages sustainability

CYFS project manager Amanda Witte and Rural Futures Institute director Chuck Schroeder. The Rural Futures Institute is funding a new project that is training rural Nebraska school personnel to facilitate TAPP, a family-school partnership model.
CYFS project manager Amanda Witte and Rural Futures Institute director Chuck Schroeder. The Rural Futures Institute is funding a new project that trains rural Nebraska school personnel to facilitate TAPP, a family-school partnership model. View photo gallery. For more information, visit the TAPP website.

As the school year begins at North Bend Elementary School, preschool teacher Morgan Root is supporting students of all grade levels with an evidence-based model developed by CYFS researchers.

Root is learning to facilitate the model, Teachers and Parents as Partners, as part of a new project focused on training rural school personnel. TAPP supports collaborative relationships between parents and teachers to improve students’ social, behavioral and academic outcomes. It also features a facilitator who guides the problem-solving process. Full Article

CYFS team earns $3.5M grant to support Latino students

A CYFS team has earned a federal grant to support Latino K-5 students in schools across Nebraska, including Everett Elementary School in Lincoln. The team includes, from left, Lorey Wheeler, Brandy Clarke (UNMC), Susan Sheridan and Kristen Derr.
A CYFS team has earned a federal grant to support Latino K-5 students in schools across Nebraska, including Everett Elementary School in Lincoln. The team includes, from left, Lorey Wheeler, Brandy Clarke (UNMC), Susan Sheridan and Kristen Derr.

Though nearly one of every four U.S. students identifies as Latino, the country’s fastest-growing minority demographic faces many disparities in education outcomes.

The Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools has earned a $3.5 million grant to explore how to better support Latino students by connecting their experiences at home and school. Full Article

Rudasill studying effects of temperament on early childhood achievement

Kathleen Moritz Rudasill
Kathleen Moritz Rudasill

Some preschoolers listen to the teacher as others tune her out. While some stay within the lines, others color outside them. Some play by themselves; others share toys. And though some sit still, others fidget endlessly.

Collectively, Kathleen Rudasill sees these routine activities as a window into the emerging personalities of young children – one that potentially offers new perspectives on helping those from difficult backgrounds reach their potential. Full Article

Faculty affiliate Swearer launches Empowerment Initiative

Susan M. Swearer, Ph.D.
Susan Swearer

UNL professor Susan Swearer, whose research on bullying has yielded collaborations with the White House and Lady Gaga, has launched a new initiative to support personal, social and cultural acceptance from childhood through adulthood.

Swearer’s Empowerment Initiative will facilitate translational research and outreach efforts designed to foster healthy communities, schools and families free from bullying and other negative behaviors. Full Article

Sociologist Crosnoe addresses challenges of high school

The University of Texas at Austin’s Robert Crosnoe addressed how social marginalization affects teenage development during a recent Distinguished Lecture hosted by the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools.

Crosnoe, a professor of sociology at UT Austin, presented “Adolescence, Peers and the Challenges of High School” April 10 in the Nebraska Union’s Colonial Room. Full Article

Doctoral affiliate Hubel studying risk factors of child maltreatment

The Early Head Start program aims to give young children exactly that. However, the program has fought a recurring battle against the maltreatment of those children by the same low-income families it seeks to assist.

In 2009, CYFS Doctoral Student Affiliate Grace Hubel began working as a mental health consultant with a local Early Head Start center in Lincoln, Neb. Through her interactions with families and conversations with staff, Hubel realized that the program’s children seemed especially susceptible to the neglect and abuse that research has linked with psychiatric disorders, poor communication skills and antisocial behavior. Full Article