Nine doctoral student affiliates of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools received recognition for their research at the 2013 Rural Futures Conference, earning multiple graduate student poster awards presented Nov. 5 in Lincoln, Neb.
Amanda Witte, Michael Coutts and Shannon Holmes received the competition’s top honor for presenting a poster titled “The Impact of Teacher Motivation for Intervention on Rural Student Behavioral Outcomes.” The poster summarized a study of how teachers’ motivation influences the impact of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC), a family-school partnership approach co-developed by CYFS director Susan Sheridan.
Holmes, Witte, Coutts and Tyler Smith also took second place for “Supporting Family-School Partnerships in Rural Communities: Preliminary Results of a Randomized Trial.” The group highlighted an investigation into how CBC shapes the beliefs and practices of parents and teachers as they contend with children’s behavioral issues across the classroom and home.
Two groups of CYFS affiliates tied for third place in the competition. Coutts, Holmes and Smith placed third for “Providing Specialized Services to Rural Educators: An Introduction to Conjoint Behavioral Consultation via Distance Delivery (CBC-D).” The presenters detailed the use of distance technology for delivering the CBC approach to isolated rural communities, outlining the considerations and implications of adopting this approach.
Smith, Amanda Moen and Zach Myers also took third for “A Quantitative Synthesis of Family Engagement Interventions: A Preliminary Examination in Rural Context,” which explored the prevalence and specific types of intervention strategies used to engage rural families in their children’s education.
Two student affiliate posters earned honorable mention at the conference. Mary Hellwege and Maureen O’Connor were recognized for “Advancing Rural Education Research: Importance of Interdisciplinary Research Partnerships.” The poster featured a qualitative analysis that identified the primary themes of roundtable discussions held at Connect-Inform-Advance, the 2013 National Conference on Rural Education Research.
Moen, Holmes and Sonya Bhatia also received mention for presenting “Mental Health Challenges and Parenting Attributes in a Rural Early Head Start Sample,” which examined the connections among maternal health, parental competence, and relationships with supporting caregivers in the context of highly impoverished rural communities.
CYFS director Sheridan, research associate professor Gina Kunz and research professor Gwen Nugent also contributed to several of the award-winning posters. The first-, second- and third-place finishers won $750, $500 and $250, respectively. Those receiving honorable mention earned $100.
The conference was hosted by the Rural Futures Institute, a University of Nebraska collective that aims to assist rural Nebraska and the Great Plains in creating a resilient and sustainable future built upon a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.