The theoretical basis of the proposed study is drawn from an ecological-transactional (Lynch & Cicchetti, 1998) systems approach to development, which focuses on contexts, and correspondingly, overlays the gender affirmative model’s (GAM) transactional model of support (Keomeier & Ehrensaft, 2018) to reveal protection in the school ecology. Combining these two approaches provides unique insights into protective factors in the school ecology, distinct from developmental systems approaches driven by the minority stress model (Meyer, 2003), which are designed to highlight the multidimensional quality of risk (Eisenberg et al., 2019). The dissertation had two central aims: 1) to report on the development of the Gender Affirmative School Climate (GASC) scale, a self-report survey designed to capture high school climate specific to the domain of gender, and 2) to explore how gender affirmative school climate (GASC) relates to student self-esteem and school belongingness. Unique from risk factors approaches the central aims sought out to identify protective factors within a developmental system ecology of the high school context.In two pilot studies (N=12; N=758; trans = 413, non-trans = 344) and primary study (N=813; trans = 482, non-trans = 328) results for scale development provide evidence to validate assumptions that the proposed (GASC) construct captures what was intended, that is, school climate specific to the domain of gender. However, measurement invariance procedure showed that not all items operated equivalently across trans and non-trans groups, and confirmed that the proposed scale meets criteria for “weak measurement invariance”. High school students that reported more positive school climate reported lower self-esteem scores. Only one protective moderator was consistent with hypotheses: More feelings of similarity to peer group gender (boys) emerged as a protective factor for transgender identified high schoolers attenuating the negative relationship between perceptions of school climate and self-esteem. Latent measurement models for each gender group demonstrated that the school belongingness construct is highly related to the proposed (GASC) construct. This demonstrated domain overlap with “feelings of school belongingness” signals that the proposed scale showed good convergent validity. The results provide insight about ways high schools can be pro-active to promote a healthier school climate for transgender students.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs abound in schools worldwide, adopted in large part on limited and varied evidence that the social/SEL skills acquired in these programs contribute to academic achievement. However, large-scale studies with the most common SEL program in the United States (Second Step®) have yielded no evidence of academic benefits, despite revisions to the Second Step® measure (i.e., DESSA – SSE) to include “skills for learning” (i.e., executive functioning skills). The dearth of academic effects could reflect programmatic or measurement flaws. The purpose of this paper is to explore the latter and unpack the core “inputs” of Second Step® to determine whether the social-emotional or executive functioning components may be differently related to academic achievement. Such questions have important implications for evaluating program theory/logic and for the SEL field more broadly. The current study addresses this broader aim by assessing the longitudinal, bi-directional relationship among Executive Functioning, Prosocial Skills (as a proxy for SEL skills), and academic achievement in Kindergarten and Grade 1 students (N = 3,029) from rural and urban schools (N = 61). Widely utilized curriculum-based measures of reading and math tests were administered directly to students to assess academic achievement, while teachers reported on students’ Prosocial Skills using an established measure. A bi-factorial measure of executive functioning was derived from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses from teacher-reported rating scale data. Results based on autoregressive cross-lagged panel model using accelerated longitudinal design lend some support for a longitudinal bidirectional relationship between the executive functioning components of shifting and emotional regulation (EF 2) and Prosocial Skills. Furthermore, while results support extant research that the executive functioning components of working memory, planning, and problem solving (EF 1) positively predict academic achievement, the executive functioning components of shifting and emotional regulation (EF 2) and Prosocial Skills are not meaningful nor consistent predictors of academic achievement. Implications and limitations are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to create an evaluation plan for the Preventing Abusive Conduct (PAC/Peace) program, within the community-based organization Chrysalis. PAC/Peace is a program that provides treatment for domestic abuse offenders through psycho-educational counseling groups. This study analyzed evaluation methods used by similar programs to determine which methods were successful, as well as what criteria were used to evaluate these programs. A literature review was conducted on similar studies to find which measures should be used to determine whether a treatment program met the desired goals for its participants. The literature review, along with interviews with Chrysalis staff were used as resources to create a cost-effective evaluation plan for Chrysalis to measure the effectiveness of their offender treatment program. The results indicated a two part evaluation plan would be the most beneficial for Chrysalis at this time. The first part consists of official reports of recidivism collected at one year, and three years post-graduation from the program. The second is utilization of The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale as an offender self-reporting measure, administered at program intake and exit, as well as one year post-graduation. When implemented, the results of this evaluation will give Chrysalis insight to which aspects of the treatment are working, and which aspects might be improved upon. The results acquired from the evaluation may also help PAC/Peace to become an evidence-based program.

Psychotic-Like Experiences (PLEs) are prevalent in the general population and may be a marker of risk for psychosis, yet little is known about the everyday functioning of individuals with PLEs. The purpose of this study was to compare everyday functioning of people with and without PLEs. Participants were 108 college students enrolled in an introductory psychology course who were selected for participation in the study because they scored in the top and bottom 10% of a screening test for PLEs. Informants were emailed questionnaires and asked to report on the participants' functioning in three domains: interpersonal functioning, disorganized behavior, and cognitive-perceptual functioning. Informants also reported on participants' attention and memory problems. Results showed that, consistent with prior research, individuals high in PLEs were from lower SES families and reported more depression, anxiety, and substance use. Moreover, informants for participants high in PLEs reported more unusual/disorganized behavior than informants for participants low in PLEs. No differences were observed between individuals high versus low in PLEs for informant-reported interpersonal functioning and attention and memory problems, however. Findings suggest that noticeable difficulties among individuals with PLEs are limited to disorganized behavior. More research is needed to determine the functional consequences of disorganized behavior among individuals with PLEs.