· To examine the extent to which elementary and secondary schools differ in the degree of school and classroom variation.
Status · Data Analysis has been completed and a manuscript has been drafted.
Objectives Paper 1: To examine the multilevel factor structure of school climate (student and school level)) and to examine measurement equivalence in the factor structure for elementary versus secondary school.
Status · Data Analysis has been completed and manuscripts have been drafted for both papers.
· How contextual measures of school climate and safety moderated this indirect relationship, specifically between peer victimization and school belonging.
· Plan for 2 independent research papers in addition to the thesis.
· To identify modifiable school factors where schools should be investing their resources to reduce risky substance use.
· Belongingness at the individual level was associated with an increased odds of binge drinking but decreased odds of cannabis and tobacco use.
Status · Manuscript has been drafted.
· Determining final steps to analysis and interpretation.
Emerging Findings · Teacher-student relationship quality in a school, and classroom teachers’ responsiveness to students’ emotional concerns, were each uniquely associated with increased odds of intentions to seek help at school for emotional or behavioural concerns.
· Classroom teachers’ responsiveness to students’ emotional concerns was uniquely associated with an increased likelihood of mental health service use.
· These associations were found both at the individual student perception level as well as the classroom and school contextual levels.
· Determining final steps to analysis and interpretation with plans to submit.
· To identify characteristics of schools and classrooms that are associated with cannabis use and physical activity among students in grades 6-12 in schools in Ontario.
Status · Master’s Thesis completed.
· Plan to make some adjustments to the analysis and format for the purposes of 1-2 publications.
Status · A manuscript has been drafted and currently undergoing editing and finalizing interpretation of findings.
Objectives · To determine the distribution of reported use of evidence-informed classroom management strategies in a large representative sample of teachers in the province of Ontario, Canada and the extent to which these approaches vary across grades (junior kindergarten to grade twelve).
Emerging Findings · Among the PBSQ items, “Expected student behaviors and routines are taught directly” was the most frequently endorsed at the “always” level (60.5%), while “Rewards are varied to maintain student interest” was the least frequently endorsed at this same level (30.6%).
· Among the EIBHQ items, “Provided social rewards, such as praise, encouragement, and affection, to promote desired behaviors” was the most frequently endorsed at the “daily” level (71.1%), while “Taught the student to solve problems by outlining steps, such as identifying the problem, generating multiple solutions, and selecting the best alternative” was the least frequently endorsed (24.8%).
· For all 16 items, frequency of endorsement significantly decreased with increasing grade level suggesting that students in higher grades may be less likely to be exposed to these evidence-informed strategies.
Status · Accepted for a poster presentation at AACAP 2018.
Objectives · Examining the moderating effects of immigrant concentration (schools, classrooms) on the link between students’ immigrant background and victimization and the extent to which school and classroom climate account for these effects.
Emerging Findings · School immigrant concentration in elementary schools (but not classroom concentration) was negatively associated with victimization.
Status · The team is currently in the process of re-conceptualizing the approach to this paper.
· Preliminary results were presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence, 17th Biennial meeting, Minnesota, USA.
· To examine how various dimensions of school climate (i.e. aggregates vs. concordance or divergence between classrooms, informant groups, or students or teachers) can inform our understanding of these associations.
Objectives · To explore possible “homogeneous” clusters of schools based on the mental health promotion/prevention and/or intervention programs endorsed by the school principal.
· To categorize the identified clusters of schools.
· The impact of the aforementioned individual, familial and school-level factors on youths odds for scoring in the highest 10th percentile.
Are classroom management strategies reported by teachers related to disruptive student behaviour?
Objectives · To examine the representativeness of the composition of children in elementary schools in the SMHS study compared to all the elementary schools in the province.
· To examine the association between school level mental health reported by adolescents with school level mental health of children in Senior Kindergarten reported by teachers.
· To use historic school level EDI data to examine changes in school level mental health.