Valerie R. Morgan

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with a myriad of challenges in later life, including difficulties related to cognitive processing, emotional regulation, social-behavioral functioning, and academic achievement. The current study investigated how childhood maltreatment may affect college students by examining the interrelationship of important variables known to be associated with maltreatment: trait mindfulness and rumination. Data was collected via convenience sampling. Self-report measures of childhood maltreatment, ruminative thoughts, and trait mindfulness were completed by college students attending a midsize, public, regional, four-year university in the southeastern United States. Data from a total of 374 participants were included in the analyses. Findings provide evidence that rumination may mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. In addition, results indicated that negative forms of ruminative thought, both depressive and maladaptive, partially accounted for the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. Adaptive rumination was not found to be a significant mediator in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. These findings may be useful for colleges and universities in considerations for providing a tiered system of support for students with maltreatment histories who experience ruminative thoughts. Addressing ruminative thoughts may help improve important life functions of those students.

Natural disasters have a lasting impact on the mental health of the children. The effects on children's mental health included posttraumatic stress symptoms, behavioral problems (e.g., disruptive behaviors), depression, and anxiety. Overall, parents have been an important factor in the lasting effects of natural disasters on children's mental health. Although most research has examined overall parental mental health outcomes on childhood outcomes, little research has concentrated on specific parental behaviors that might help children deal with natural disasters. One of those behaviors may be the level of parental accommodations. Considering parental accommodations are often used when a child is upset or distressed, it seems feasible that parental accommodations may also be associated with childhood outcomes after a natural disaster. This study examines the use of parental accommodations in the context of Hurricane Harvey and the associated effects on child outcomes. Participants (N = 129) who were parents, completed an online survey answering questions on their Hurricane Harvey experiences as well as shared about their parenting practices and their perception of their children's outcomes both during and after this time. Overall, parental accommodations were associated with more negative mental health outcomes for children, after a natural disaster. Given these results, it is important that professionals help parents understand how to be supportive of their children during or immediately following a natural disaster, without being overly accommodating to their child's anxiety.

The field of school psychology continues to further embrace a social justice perspective to address systemic racism, privilege, prejudice, and discrimination. To accomplish this mission, school psychologists must ensure that there is a solid literature base that is inclusive and representative of students from minoritized backgrounds. A review of student sociodemographic characteristics was conducted of all articles in four of the primary journals of school psychology from 2010 to 2019 (n = 1,213 articles). Compared to national estimates of school-age sociodemographic distributions, researchers tended to include samples more representative of students identifying as White/Caucasian and underrepresentative of students from low-income backgrounds. Authors rarely included or described participants’ sexual orientations and gender identities beyond the binary (female/male). We provide a discussion and recommendations for improving the inclusivity of students from minoritized backgrounds in future school psychology research. Impact Statement To provide evidence-based school psychological practices to all students, the field’s literature must be representative of the student population. In reviewing the past decade of school psychology research, the literature tends to overrepresent students who are White and come from middle to high socioeconomic backgrounds. There tends to be underrepresentation of sexual minority youth, youth from low SES backgrounds, and children at the elementary grade level. Supplemental data for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2021.1927831

The views of core subject coordinators in a sample of Northern Ireland primary schools were obtained on their specific responsibilities with regard to differentiation and on the difficulties being experienced in evaluating differentiation in practice. The extent of in-service training in differentiation for subject coordinators was described by curriculum support teachers and areas of need in this respect were identified by both groups. The results showed that the role of the coordinator in supporting differentiation is still developing and that its success is crucially dependent on the support of the head.