Biomedical subjects

Karen L Bierman

Publications and source records attributed to Karen L Bierman.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The impact of classroom aggression on the development of aggressive behavior problems in children.

Prior research suggests that exposure to elementary classrooms characterized by high levels of student aggression may contribute to the development of child aggressive behavior problems. To explore this process in more detail, this study followed a longitudinal sample of 4,907 children and examined demographic factors associated with exposure to high-aggression classrooms, including school context factors (school size, student poverty levels, and rural vs. urban location) and child ethnicity (African American, European American). The developmental impact of different temporal patterns of exposure (e.g., primacy, recency, chronicity) to high-aggression classrooms was evaluated on child aggression. Analyses revealed that African American children attending large, urban schools that served socioeconomically disadvantaged students were more likely than other students to be exposed to high-aggressive classroom contexts. Hierarchical regressions demonstrated cumulative effects for temporal exposure, whereby children with multiple years of exposure showed higher levels of aggressive behavior after 3 years than children with primacy, less recent, and less chronic exposure, controlling for initial levels of aggression. Implications are discussed for developmental research and preventive interventions.

Aggression↗

PubMed2006

Examining clinical judgment in an adaptive intervention design: The fast track program.

Although clinical judgment is often used in assessment and treatment planning, rarely has research examined its reliability, validity, or impact in practice settings. This study tailored the frequency of home visits in a prevention program for aggressive- disruptive children (n = 410; 56% minority) on the basis of 2 kinds of clinical judgment: ratings of parental functioning using a standardized multi-item scale and global assessments of family need for services. Stronger reliability and better concurrent and predictive validity emerged for the 1st kind of clinical judgment than for the 2nd. Exploratory analyses suggested that using ratings of parental functioning to tailor treatment recommendations improved the impact of the intervention by the end of 3rd grade but using more global assessments of family need did not.

Aggression↗

PubMed2006

Aggressive marital conflict, maternal harsh punishment, and child aggressive-disruptive behavior: evidence for direct and mediated relations.

Direct associations between aggressive marital conflict and child aggressive-disruptive behavior at home and school were explored in this cross-sectional study of 360 kindergarten children. In addition, mediated pathways linking aggressive marital conflict to maternal harsh punishment to child aggressive-disruptive behavior were examined. Moderation analyses explored how the overall frequency of marital disagreement might buffer or exacerbate the impact of aggressive marital conflict on maternal harsh punishment and child aggressive-disruptive behavior. Hierarchical regressions revealed direct pathways linking aggressive marital conflict to child aggressive-disruptive behavior at home and school and a partially mediated pathway linking aggressive marital conflict to child aggressive-disruptive behavior at home. Further analyses revealed that rates of marital disagreement moderated the association between aggressive marital conflict and child aggressive-disruptive behavior at home, with an attenuated association at high rates of marital disagreement as compared with low rates of marital disagreement.

Aggression↗

PubMed2005

Decoupling the relation between risk factors for conduct problems and the receipt of intervention services: participation across multiple components of a prevention program.

This study examined whether the link between risk factors for conduct problems and low rates of participation in mental health treatment could be decoupled through the provision of integrated prevention services in multiple easily-accessible contexts. It included 445 families of first-grade children (55% minority), living in four diverse communities, and selected for early signs of conduct problems. Results indicated that, under the right circumstances, these children and families could be enticed to participate at high rates in school-based services, therapeutic groups, and home visits. Because different sets of risk factors were related to different profiles of participation across the components of the prevention program, findings highlight the need to offer services in multiple contexts to reach all children and families who might benefit from them.

Black or African American↗

PubMed2005

The impact of first-grade "friendship group" experiences on child social outcomes in the fast track program.

Many interventions for children's behavior problems successfully utilize a group format for social skills training, providing opportunities for practice and performance feedback from peers. Recent studies however, suggest that grouping aggressive children together may reduce intervention effectiveness or even increase risk. The present study examined the relative impact of children's own behavior and their experiences with peers in the first-grade "friendship groups" of Fast Track, a multi-component preventive intervention program. Two-hundred sixty-six children (56% minority, 29% female) participated in 55 friendship groups. Children's own positive and negative behavior in friendship groups was related to relative improvements in social cognitive skills, prosocial behavior, and aggression, assessed through child interviews, teacher ratings, and peer sociometric nominations. Results from hierarchical linear models also revealed that the amount of peer escalation children received for their disruptive behavior during sessions impeded some intervention gains, whereas mere exposure to other children's positive or negative behavior was rarely related to outcomes.

Aggression↗

PubMed2004

A conceptual framework for adaptive preventive interventions.

Recently, adaptive interventions have emerged as a new perspective on prevention and treatment. Adaptive interventions resemble clinical practice in that different dosages of certain prevention or treatment components are assigned to different individuals, and/or within individuals across time, with dosage varying in response to the intervention needs of individuals. To determine intervention need and thus assign dosage, adaptive interventions use prespecified decision rules based on each participant's values on key characteristics, called tailoring variables. In this paper, we offer a conceptual framework for adaptive interventions, discuss principles underlying the design and evaluation of such interventions, and review some areas where additional research is needed.

Child↗

PubMed2004

The effects of the fast track program on serious problem outcomes at the end of elementary school.

This study examines the effects of the Fast Track program, which is a multicomponent, intensive intervention for children with early-onset conduct problems and continues from 1st grade through high school. Prior research has shown that Fast Track produces small positive effect sizes on children's social and behavioral outcomes at the end of 1st and 3rd grades in comparison to control children. This study addresses the important question of whether this intervention reduces cases of serious problems that can occur during the 4th- and 5th-grade years. Fast Track did have a significant but modest influence on children's rates of social competence and social cognition problems, problems with involvement with deviant peers, and conduct problems in the home and community, compared to children in the control condition. There was no evidence of intervention impact on children's serious problems in the school setting at Grades 4 and 5. This evaluation indicates that Fast Track has continued to influence certain key areas of children's adjustment throughout the elementary school years, reducing children's likelihood of emerging as cases with problems in their social, peer, or home functioning. The stage is set to examine potential prevention effects on these youths' serious antisocial behaviors during adolescence.

Achievement↗

PubMed2003

Identifying at-risk children at school entry: the usefulness of multibehavioral problem profiles.

Found that 1st-grade teacher ratings of aggressive, hyperactive-inattentive, and low levels of prosocial behaviors made unique contributions to the prediction of school outcomes (measured 2 years later) for 755 children. Person-oriented analyses compared the predictive utility of 5 screening strategies based on child problem profiles to identify children at risk for school problems. A broad screening strategy, in which children with elevations in any 1 of the 3 behavior problem dimensions were identified as "at-risk," showed lower specificity but superior sensitivity, odds ratios, and overall accuracy in the prediction of school outcomes than the other screening strategies that were more narrowly focused or were based on a total problem score. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the screening and design of preventive interventions.

Aggression↗

PubMed2002

Using the Fast Track randomized prevention trial to test the early-starter model of the development of serious conduct problems.

The Fast Track prevention trial was used to test hypotheses from the Early-Starter Model of the development of chronic conduct problems. We randomly assigned 891 high-risk first-grade boys and girls (51% African American) to receive the long-term Fast Track prevention or not. After 4 years, outcomes were assessed through teacher ratings, parent ratings, peer nominations, and child self-report. Positive effects of assignment to intervention were evident in teacher and parent ratings of conduct problems, peer social preference scores, and association with deviant peers. Assessments of proximal goals of intervention (e.g., hostile attributional bias, problem-solving skill, harsh parental discipline, aggressive and prosocial behavior at home and school) collected after grade 3 were found to partially mediate these effects. The findings are interpreted as consistent with developmental theory.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2002

Predictors and consequences of aggressive-withdrawn problem profiles in early grade school.

Identified first-grade children who exhibited 4 different behavior problem profiles from an initial sample of 754: aggressive-withdrawn (n = 63.8%) aggressive only (n = 165, 22%), withdrawn only (n = 94, 12%), and nonproblem (n = 432, 57%). Group comparisons revealed that children who became aggressive-withdrawn in first grade exhibited deficits in attention and social skills in kindergarten. Furthermore, these kindergarten deficits contributed to the emergence of their aggressive-withdrawn behavior problems in first grade, after accounting for kindergarten levels of aggressive and withdrawn behaviors. In later grades, aggressive-withdrawn first-grade children were more likely than children in any other group to demonstrate poor peer relations and poor academic performance. In addition, kindergarten skill deficits added to first-grade aggressive and withdrawn behavior problems to predict third-grade social and academic adjustment difficulties. The results document the key role of early inattention and social skill deficits in the prediction of aggressive-withdrawn problem profiles, validate the significance of this problem profile at school entry, and identify potential developmental mechanisms that have implications for preventive interventions.

Achievement↗