The effectiveness of an empathy-based intervention, Harnessing Empathy Results in Opportunities for Everyday Success (HEROES), was evaluated using a randomized waitlist control design with follow-up interview questions. HEROES consists of evidence-informed activities, including feelings identification, role-playing, the use of induction and distancing to consider alternative perspectives, management of personal distress through mindfulness, and gratitude. Results showed statistically significant increases in affective empathy with a large effect size. There was also a large effect size seen for increased cognitive empathy and a medium effect size for increased positive school experiences. HEROES did not exacerbate aggressive behaviors or participants’ experiences of anger. Further, no changes in prosocial behaviors were seen. Results of this study support the viability of interventions that target underlying positive psychosocial constructs.

Utilizing a strengths-based framework, the proposed study sought to build upon and respond to recommendations in the literature regarding conducting more holistic assessments of adolescent mental health. First, an overview of various models of positive based mental health and adolescent development frameworks, including the newly developed model of covitality—a combination of 12 core positive psychological schemas that are associated with student’s positive mental health—is provided. Using a diverse sample of 12,279 adolescents from 17 high schools in California, this study implemented a three-part mixture model (latent profile and class analysis) to investigate underlying mental health profiles among adolescents. Specifically, profiles underlying student covitality were first explored in detail. Subsequently, a latent class investigation of adolescent psychosocial distress was conducted using ratings of externalization and internalization symptoms. Next, a dual-component measurement model was implemented to provide an example of a potential application of the covitality construct as part of a dual-factor method for screening for complete mental health among adolescents. A three-step model for inclusion of covariates was also implemented to better understand how students from different sociocultural backgrounds and schools might uniquely experience mental health. Post-hoc investigations of adolescent risk behavior, quality of school life, and academic achievement are also reported for each covitality profile. Implications for researchers and practitioners interested in conducting strengths-based investigations of complete mental health among adolescents from a dual-component framework are provided.

Stigma and homonegativity contributes to a hostile climate of victimization for LGBTQ individuals inside and outside of school (Katz-Wise & Hyde, 2012; Kosciw, Greytak, Palmer, & Boesen, 2014). Additionally, many LGBTQ youth struggle with increased mental health risk, lower psychological well-being, and poorer school performance (e.g., Haas et al., 2011; Kosciw et al., 2014). Fortunately, researchers have found that feeling supported by school figures can buffer the adverse effects of both LGBTQ-based victimization and prejudice (e.g., Fisher et al., 2008; Kosciw et al., 2014). Using a structural equation model moderation approach with a sample of 235,064 adolescents, this analysis integrates Meyer’s (2003) minority stress model and the buffering hypothesis (Cohen & McKay, 1984) to investigate to what extent self-reported school support may protect against potential effects of marginalized sexual orientation status and/or sexual orientation victimization (SOV; i.e., victimization based on being or being perceived as lesbian or gay). Results indicated that both sexual minority status and SOV significantly predicted negative and psychological outcomes, while school support predicted positive academic and psychological outcomes. Although LGB students reported worse outcomes overall, the negative impact of SOV was significantly greater for heterosexual students’ reports of school safety, School Motivation, Truancy, and Psychological Distress. School Support had a significantly stronger protective effect on heterosexual students’ grades and Psychological Distress, on LGB students’ Truancy, and on non-SOV students’ School Motivation. Lastly, a significant three-way interaction was found between sexual orientation, SOV, and School Support for Psychological Distress, indicating that School Support buffered each group from Psychological Distress, although it appeared to have a greater buffering effect for heterosexual students in comparison to LGB students, particularly comparing LGB students without SOV to heterosexual students with SOV.

School discipline reform has gained considerable attention at the local, state and national levels in recent years, and in 2011 the U.S. Department of Education and Justice called for a focus on rigorous research that can guide school discipline policy decisions. School discipline climate, or the degree to which schools demonstrate student support and disciplinary structure, has been found to predict several outcomes associated with school discipline, including the racial suspension gap, student disengagement, and school safety. Based in authoritative parenting theory, researchers have theorized that entire schools can be characterized as having a school discipline climate typology, which reflect authoritative (high support, high structure), authoritarian (low support, high structure), permissive (high support, low structure), and uninvolved (low support, low structure) styles, and that these school discipline climate typologies are strongly related to the socialization of students to school norms and their success in school. In an effort to better understand this construct at the student and school-levels, the current study used multilevel latent class analysis (MLCA) to identify latent classes of student perceptions of school discipline climate, model school-level variation in these student experiences, and examine the relation between school discipline climate and important student and school demographic characteristics. Using a nationally representative sample of approximately 12,610 students nested within 580 public high schools in the U.S. from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, results show that student perceptions of school discipline climate fall into four classes: authoritative, permissive, authoritarian, and uninvolved, which are consistent with authoritative parenting theory and the school discipline climate literature. In addition, schools tend to have one school discipline climate type that is experienced by more students than the others (a predominant school discipline experience), although considerable variability in individual student experiences exists. Student gender, ethnicity/race, and SES all impact a student’s likelihood of membership in these classes. Current findings address gaps in the previous literature on school discipline climate and have important implications for future research and school policy decisions.