UNL reasearcher Susan Sheridan
Susan Sheridan sits in her office after returning from Haiti on Wednesday. Her article about child behavior was named 2012 Article of the Year by the academic journal of Psychology Review.
Posted: Friday, March 8, 2013 12:00 am
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Updated: 12:35 am, Fri Mar 8, 2013.
Daily Nebraskan
Years of research paid off for a team of University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers when an academic journal named their peer-reviewed article 2012 Article of the Year.
Susan Sheridan, lead author of the article and director of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, accepted the award Feb. 15 at the National Association of School Psychologists’ 2013 annual convention in Seattle. School Psychology Review, the association’s major journal, granted Sheridan and her team the award.
“It’s the major research publication in the field,” Sheridan said. “It has very broad reach and scope and impact. We are very excited.”
The article analyzes the results of a four-year, large-scale experimental trial of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, which is a structured consultation model aimed at improving behavioral problems of students identified as disruptive in the classroom, Sheridan said.
Under the model, a school psychologist works with the parents and teachers. They work through this process of identifying the behavior and developing an intervention plan that’s individualized for each student, Sheridan said.
“All parents want to do what’s best for their children, but they don’t always know how and they don’t always have the support,” Sheridan said. “This model provides that opportunity for parents to be involved and to be meaningful participants in their child’s education.”
The students were divided into two groups. The students who took part in the eight-week consultation program displayed significantly greater increases in social skills than those in the control group, Sheridan said.
“We are very encouraged that this intervention framework is effective at promoting social skills in students who are struggling in their behaviors,” she said. “A lot of times these behaviors are affecting the student’s learning.”
Sheridan said an integral part of the behavior change in the CBC children was the program’s positive impact on parent-teacher relationships.
“The goal is to create the notion of a shared partnership and meaningful parent involvement in their children’s education,” Sheridan said.
The trial was conducted with children in kindergarten through third grade at schools in Lincoln, Crete and Elmwood-Murdock public schools.
Amanda Witte, a graduate student in psychological studies in education and CYFS project manager for the center, said the participating schools were very welcoming to the UNL researchers.
“It was fun to work with so many teachers who were open to new ideas and who were eager to learn new strategies, and they were really willing to do what it takes to meet the needs of their students,” Witte said. “We see it extend not only to the kids who are participating; a lot of time the whole classroom climate becomes more positive.”
Sheridan, who has been doing research on the CBC model for 20 years, said the scope of the study was much more extensive than prior studies have been.
“To be honored by this and to have the findings validated by the National Association of School Psychologists and the Psychology Review is very rewarding,” Sheridan said.
Sheridan and the other CYFS researchers are testing the same model in a second large-scale study in rural schools in Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas.
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