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Biomedical subjects

M J Elias

Publications and source records attributed to M J Elias.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Primary prevention: educational approaches to enhance social and emotional learning.

The 1995 publication of Goleman's Emotional Intelligence triggered a revolution in mental health promotion. Goleman's examination of Gardner's work on multiple intelligences and current brain research, and review of successful programs that promoted emotional health, revealed a common objective among those working to prevent specific problem behaviors: producing knowledgeable, responsible, nonviolent, and caring individuals. Advances in research and field experiences confirm that school-based programs that promote social and emotional learning (SEL) in children can be powerful in accomplishing these goals. This article reviews the work of the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), its guidelines for promoting mental health in children and youth based on SEL, key principles, and examples of exemplary programs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Implementing prevention programs in high-risk environments: application of the resiliency paradigm.

Little is known about what happens when validated model prevention programs are introduced into the schools, typically without systematic evaluation and with the assumption that they will have positive impact. This study examines the outcome of such initiatives in schools at "high risk" for program failure, identifies factors related to goal attainment in both high- and low-risk school districts, and suggests practices to guide implementation of successful prevention programs.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Suicide prevention in an educational context: broad and narrow foci.

This paper reviews the needs and conceptual bases of school-based youth suicide prevention programs, summarizes their current status, and recommends objectives, processes, and evaluation strategies for focused educational programs in this area. In addition, a broad systemic approach is called for that reorganizes the school context to increase students' contributions, to and involvement with the educational process. Such approaches appear to have been effective with a variety of youth deviant behaviors such as dropout and delinquency, and seem to be particularly appropriate to suicidal behavior that is characterized by alienation and withdrawal from social supports. A combination of these broad and narrow foci may be necessary to address suicidal behavior in the educational context.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Social decision-making and life skills development: a critical thinking approach to health promotion in the middle school.

This article discusses a classroom-based social decision-making intervention for health promotion and prevention of problem behaviors. The social decision-making approach brings together social-cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social relationship areas with critical thinking skills important for academic achievement. These skills are the same ones needed to promote children's health and prevent substance abuse and related health-compromising behaviors. Key components of this program, its development, and theoretical background are discussed, focusing on implications for school-based health promotion. As such, social decision-making provides an approach to health promotion that enhances coordination among classroom and health education personnel. The middle school years, a time of increasing risk for negative health-related outcomes, are examined as a key period for intervention. Finally, empirical evidence supporting use of social decision-making and related approaches is discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1994

Adolescent health promotion and risk reduction: cementing the social contract between pediatricians and the schools.

In this article the implications of a biopsychosocial model of adolescent health promotion for the delivery of relevant services in the schools are examined. Adolescent health status is reviewed and is found, despite existing efforts for health promotion and risk reduction, to be in need of substantial improvement. For this to happen, having an early and sustained positive impact on the health trajectory of children is essential; further school-based and school-linked curricular efforts for health promotion are a necessary feature of a successful strategy for adolescent health promotion. In fact, this approach brings to life the social contract between pediatricians and the public to apply the biopsychosocial model at both clinical and societal levels. Curricula serve as the glue that binds diverse health-related concerns and findings emerging from health research into a coordinated, thorough, and detailed strategy and set of actions for school-based and school-linked health promotion efforts. School-linked health programs are consistent with a biopsychosocial perspective, from which the school is best viewed as a health-promoting environment, centered in concepts and practices outlined in and conveyed through the curriculum and associated instructional practices and delivery systems. Many benefits can result from pediatricians and other medical professionals taking a renewed, prominent role in comprehensive school-based and school-linked health promotion efforts, beginning in the early grades, when the trajectory of adolescent health is strongly set into motion.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

An ecological, interpersonal skills approach to drop-out prevention.

Interventions to keep students in school have tended to be deficit-oriented and have met with little success. Attention to the school ecology and its ability to support the diverse needs and interests of students, and efforts to increase students' engagement and teach them skills to meet everyday challenges are proposed that begin long before students become disengaged from school.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Alcohol and aggression: a social information processing analysis.

The present study represents a preliminary exploration of the effects of alcohol on aggression (a hypothetical response to a videotaped provocation), using a social information processing model. Subjects were male social drinkers who received either a control beverage (ginger ale), placebo, .45 g/kg alcohol or .85 g/kg alcohol. Subjects observed a series of videotaped scenes of potential conflict occurring in the lounge of a college dormitory. In these scenes, an intruder switched the channel on a television set without asking the person watching for permission. The four groups were similar in their ability to encode and interpret social cues. Subjects in the 0.85 g/kg group were less able to generate competent (nonaggressive) solutions and were less likely than controls to select adaptive (nonaggressive) solutions. Subjects in the .85 g/kg group were more likely than control subjects to respond aggressively after being frustrated by the intruder's negative reaction to the initial attempt to resolve the conflict.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The promotion of social competence: longitudinal study of a preventive school-based program.

A two-year, intensive, elementary school-based primary prevention program aimed at the promotion of social competence was followed up six years later. Findings suggest beneficial effects for program recipients on indices of social adjustment and psychopathology when compared to controls, although overall strength of effects was not large and notable gender differences emerged.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1987

Establishing enduring prevention programs: advancing the legacy of Swampscott.

The recent anniversary of the 1965 Swampscott Conference provided an opportunity to reconsider the implications of that meeting for prevention research. An unfulfilled aspect of the Swampscott legacy is the relative paucity of demonstration programs that become enduring parts of their host settings. A macrolevel, systems-oriented reformulation of Albee's (1982) prevention formula is presented to help conceptualize the linkage of prevention programs to their host settings. Finally, structural considerations necessary for weaving efforts at prevention and health promotion into adaptive, enduring organizational niches are reviewed.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1986

Impact of a preventive social problem solving intervention on children's coping with middle-school stressors.

Children receiving 1 year or 1/2 year of a preventive social problem solving program in elementary school were compared with each other and with a no-treatment group upon entry into middle school. One year of training was significantly related to reductions in the severity of a variety of middle-school stressors. Most importantly, a clear mediating role for social problem solving (SPS) skills was found. Children lacking in SPS skills were more likely to experience intense stressors; however, possessing the skills was not necessarily predictive of adjustment to stressors. The results are discussed in terms of the implications of this asymmetry and the strong support given to the value of social problem solving as a preventive intervention for children.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1983

Improving coping skills of emotionally disturbed boys through television-based social problem solving.

Ten specially selected videotapes, showing children involved in working through problem situations, were shown twice a week for five weeks to boys in special education classes at a residential treatment center, and were followed by discussions led by teachers and aides. Multiple overlapping control groups were used in a pretest, posttest, follow-up design. Results indicated clear gains in emotional control, personality functioning, and prosocial behavior and, at a two-month follow-up, gains in self-reliant learning by boys subject to the experimental condition.

Adolescent↗