The propensity score is the probability of treatment assignment conditional on observed baseline characteristics. The propensity score allows one to design and analyze an observational (nonrandomized) study so that it mimics some of the particular characteristics of a randomized controlled trial. In particular, the propensity score is a balancing score: conditional on the propensity score, the distribution of observed baseline covariates will be similar between treated and untreated subjects. I describe 4 different propensity score methods: matching on the propensity score, stratification on the propensity score, inverse probability of treatment weighting using the propensity score, and covariate adjustment using the propensity score. I describe balance diagnostics for examining whether the propensity score model has been adequately specified. Furthermore, I discuss differences between regression-based methods and propensity score-based methods for the analysis of observational data. I describe different causal average treatment effects and their relationship with propensity score analyses.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00273171.2011.568786

An Introduction to Propensity Score Methods for Reducing the Effects of Confounding in Observational Studies

This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs. The use of 4 recommended practices for developing skills and the presence of implementation problems moderated program outcomes. The findings add to the growing empirical evidence regarding the positive impact of SEL programs. Policy makers, educators, and the public can contribute to healthy development of children by supporting the incorporation of evidence-based SEL programming into standard educational practice.

http://explorefhp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Durlak-Weissberg-Child-Development-Meta-Analysis.pdf

The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta‐Analysis of School‐Based Universal Interventions

A vital step in the development of an equal partnership for minorities in the academic, social, and economic life of the United States involves moving away from assumptions of the linear model of cultural acquisition. In this article we review the literature on the psychological impact of being bicultural. Assimilation, acculturation, alternation, multicultural, and fusion models that have been used to describe the psychological processes, social experiences, and individual challenges and obstacles of being bicultural are reviewed and summarized for their contributions and implications for investigations of the psychological impact of biculturalism. Emphasis is given to the alternation model, which posits that an individual is able to gain competence within 2 cultures without losing his or her cultural identity or having to choose one culture over the other. Finally, a hypothetical model outlining the dimensions of bicultural competence is presented.

Psychological impact of biculturalism: Evidence and theory.

There is emerging agreement that sustainability challenges require new ways of knowledge production and decision-making. One key aspect of sustainability science, therefore, is the involvement of actors from outside academia into the research process in order to integrate the best available knowledge, reconcile values and preferences, as well as create ownership for problems and solution options. Transdisciplinary, community-based, interactive, or participatory research approaches are often suggested as appropriate means to meet both the requirements posed by real-world problems as well as the goals of sustainability science as a transformational scientific field. Dispersed literature on these approaches and a variety of empirical projects applying them make it difficult for interested researchers and practitioners to review and become familiar with key components and design principles of how to do transdisciplinary sustainability research. Starting from a conceptual model of an ideal–typical transdisciplinary research process, this article synthesizes and structures such a set of principles from various strands of the literature and empirical experiences. We then elaborate on them, looking at challenges and some coping strategies as experienced in transdisciplinary sustainability projects in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. The article concludes with future research needed in order to further enhance the practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research.

/pdf/transdisciplinary-research-in-sustainability-science-4wi0tfk5i7.pdf

Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges

This meta-analytic review of 148 studies on child and adolescent direct and indirect aggression examined the magnitude of gender differences, intercorrelations between forms, and associations with maladjustment. Results confirmed prior findings of gender differences (favoring boys) in direct aggression and trivial gender differences in indirect aggression. Results also indicated a substantial intercorrelation (r = .76) between these forms. Despite this high intercorrelation, the 2 forms showed unique associations with maladjustment: Direct aggression is more strongly related to externalizing problems, poor peer relations, and low prosocial behavior, and indirect aggression is related to internalizing problems and higher prosocial behavior. Moderation of these effect sizes by method of assessment, age, gender, and several additional variables were systematically investigated.

/pdf/direct-and-indirect-aggression-during-childhood-and-3e5s5b36dw.pdf

Direct and Indirect Aggression During Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Differences, Intercorrelations, and Relations to Maladjustment

Effectiveness of family preservation services

The purpose of this article is to review substantive and methodological advances in interventive research. Three substantive advances are discussed: (a) the growing use of a risk factor perspective...

Intervention Research in Social Work: Recent Advances and Continuing Challenges

An experiment in family reunification: Correlates of outcomes at one-year follow-up

Resilience in Childhood: The Role of Risk and Protection by Jack Richman and Mark Fraser Psychosocial Adversity: Risk, Resilience and Recovery by Michael Rutter Neurobiological Mechanisms of Psychosocial Resiliency by J. Eric Vance Making Sense of Senseless Youth Violence by James Garbarino Youth Risk and Resilience: Community Approaches to Violence Prevention by Debra Prothrow-Stith Multisystemic Therapy with Serious Juvenile Offenders and Their Families by Scott Henggeler and Stephanie Hoyt Disaster, Trauma, and Children's Resilience: A Community Response Perspective by Lawrence Rosenfeld, Mooli Lahad, and Alan Cohen Resilience: Implications for Evidence-based Practice by Mark Fraser and Jack Richman Index

Mark W. Fraser

Papers

Effectiveness of family preservation services

Intervention Research in Social Work: Recent Advances and Continuing Challenges

An experiment in family reunification: Correlates of outcomes at one-year follow-up

The Context of Youth Violence: Resilience, Risk, and Protection

Families in Crisis: The Impact of Intensive Family Preservation Services