Motivational interviewing (MI) is applied in a variety of clinical and coaching models to promote behavior change, with increasing interest in its potential to optimize school-based implementation fidelity. Yet there has been less consideration of fidelity indicators for MI-embedded coaching and links to outcomes. We leveraged secondary data from…

Though emerging research supports the effectiveness of school-based coaching models utilizing motivational interviewing (MI), an examination of the specific drivers behind these effects is notably lacking in the prevention field. This study leveraged sequential analysis to examine how teachers' verbalization of change talk (i.e., language in…

Disparities in exclusionary discipline practices are well-documented; however, variation in Black students' disciplinary experiences across different racial and ethnic school compositions remains understudied. Utilizing a state-wide dataset (N = 769,050 students in J = 1296 schools), we examined student- and school-level factors that contribute to…

The current study provided voice to nominated exemplar classroom teachers in identifying malleable, discrete aspects of the classroom environment, teacher behavior and practices that define culturally responsive instruction. Interview data from a sample of 13 teachers was analyzed using a consensual qualitative research approach. Results provided…

Propensity score matching and weighting methods are often used in observational effectiveness studies to reduce imbalance between treated and untreated groups on a set of potential confounders. However, much of the prior methodological literature on matching and weighting has yet to examine performance for scenarios with a majority of treated…

High quality teacher-student interactions are critical for the healthy social-emotional, behavioral, and academic development of middle school students. However, few studies have explored patterns of teacher-student interactions in middle school classrooms or the relation between teacher-, classroom-, and school-level factors and patterns of…

A growing body of research documents the positive impacts of teacher coaching, but research contrasting the effectiveness of different coaching approaches is limited. This study contrasted paired coaching -- delivered to two teachers simultaneously -- with traditional coaching for individual in-service teachers. We examined the effects of these…

School mental health practitioners and researchers are increasingly concerned about educator job-related stress and its implications for teacher burnout, teaching efficacy, turnover, and student outcomes. Educators' collegial networks in their schools are natural resources for stress support, yet little is known about the extent to which educators…

Power in multilevel models remains an area of interest to both methodologists and substantive researchers. In two-level designs, the total sample is a function of both the number of level-2 (e.g., schools) clusters and the average number of level-1 (e.g., classrooms) units per cluster. Traditional multilevel power calculations rely on either the…

Multilevel structural equation (MSEM) models allow researchers to model latent factor structures at multiple levels simultaneously by decomposing within- and between-group variation. Yet the extent to which the sampling ratio (i.e., proportion of cases sampled from each group) influences the results of MSEM models remains unknown. This paper…

Students often have differing perceptions of their school's climate. Although these subjective perceptions can be meaningful outcome predictors, discrepancies create challenges for those seeking to globally characterize or intervene to improve the climate of a school. Trained, outside observers can provide insights on perceptible and ostensibly…

Background: Synthetic and other drugs have become available to teens, yet little is known about risk factors of use. Objective: To examine adolescent use of one class of synthetic drugs and its association with perceptions about its prevalence, access, and risk of substance use. Methods: Adolescents from a convenience sample of 104 middle and high…

Propensity score matching and weighting methods are often used in observational effectiveness studies to reduce imbalance between treated and untreated groups on a set of potential confounders. However, much of the prior methodological literature on matching and weighting has yet to examine performance for scenarios with a majority of treated…

The extant literature suggests that a shared set of deficits (e.g., emotion dysregulation) underlies both internalizing and externalizing emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) among youth. As such, many Tier 2 interventions contain a similar set of core components, which in turn are associated with global symptom reductions. This conceptual…

The extant literature suggests that a shared set of deficits (e.g., emotion dysregulation) underlies both internalizing and externalizing emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) among youth. As such, many Tier 2 interventions contain a similar set of core components, which in turn are associated with global symptom reductions. This conceptual…