Youth Central to Evaluation Efforts of Charlottesville’s Music Resource Center

Posted on May 3, 2013 by youth-nex

By Valerie Futch, Ph.D.

Futch is a postdoctoral fellow with Youth-Nex, studying adolescent identity development, youth-adult relationships in out-of-school programs, and emerging adulthood. She is the recent recipient of the emerging scholar award for the Out-of-School-Time Special Interest Group (OST SIG) at the 2013 American Educational Research Association AERA conference held in San Francisco.

(JPC Scholars: Courtney Fox, Allie Cooper, Becca Christensen, William Binion)

For the past 18 months I’ve had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of researchers to conduct a program evaluation of the Music Resource Center (MRC) in Charlottesville, as well as develop a way for them to sustainably collect data in the future. This project, which brought together four high-school MRC members, four undergraduate U.Va. researchers, two staff members and two U.Va. faculty, was funded by the Jefferson Public Citizens (JPC) program at U.Va. As this work winds down, we celebrate the release of the U.Va. students’ peer-reviewed article in the JPC journal as well as their second-place finish in JPC’s recent presentation competition, which awarded $250 to the MRC for continuation of the work. Continue reading →

A Novel, Strengths-Based Approach to ADHD

Posted on February 18, 2013 by youth-nex

By Michael J. Kofler, Ph.D.

Kofler joined the Curry School of Education in 2012 as a core faculty member and Assistant Professor in the Clinical and School Psychology Ph.D. program. He is the director of the Children’s Learning Clinic (CLC), a new, scientist-practitioner research clinic affiliated with Youth-Nex and Curry’s Ph.D. program in Clinical and School Psychology.

Discrimination: How being rejected by one’s own ethnic group affects youth

Posted on February 12, 2013 by youth-nex

By Joanna Lee Williams, Ph.D. Williams is Assistant Professor in Leadership, Foundations and Policy at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education and affiliated with Youth-Nex. Her research interests include the role of identity processes related to race/ethnicity, resiliency, and coping in adolescent development, with a particular emphasis on perceptions of stigma and discrimination among ethnic minority youth. She recently received a Racial Discrimination and Health Award of Excellence from the National Cancer Institute for a distinguished poster presentation at the 2011 Science of Research on Discrimination and Health meeting. Her current work examines the nature and frequency of racial microaggressions and their relation to racial ethnic identity development, psychosocial functioning, and achievement outcomes among adolescents and young adults.

News from the Virginia Driving Safety Lab

Posted on December 10, 2012 by youth-nex

The YN Blog will feature the research and experiences of five U.Va. undergraduates working in the University of Virginia Health System’s Virginia Driving Safety Laboratory.

Student contributors, Melissa Avalos, Annie Friedell, Emily Meissel, Glenda Ngo and Julia Thrash work with Ann Lambert and Youth-Nex Associate Director, Daniel Cox.

About the Virginia Driving Safety Laboratory: In order to improve the safety on our roadways, the lab conducts driving safety research and provides patients with the opportunity receive comprehensive assessments of their driving abilities.

Related posts will be found under Driving; and Ann Lambert, Dan Cox.

It is widely acknowledged that driving while under the influence of alcohol is dangerous. However, what many fail to realize is that distracted driving, or simultaneously making use of two of our most useful innovations, the cell phone and motor vehicle, is just as dangerous as drinking and driving, but in different ways, according to Strayer, Drews, and Crouch (2006). Continue reading →

Inspiration Through the Humanities at Maximum Security Facility – Residents Relay Impact

Posted on November 29, 2012 by youth-nex

A Resident at the Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center (Photo: Eva Russo/Richmond Times-Dispatch)

By guest contributor, Rob Wolman. Rob is the teaching assistant and primary research assistant for the Books Behind Bars / Awakening Youth Project. Rob is a Montessori teacher and corporate trainer.

Related posts: Research, Seed Funded Research, Community

Awakening Youth Through the Humanities is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods study that seeks to understand the outcomes of a U.Va. course called Books Behind Bars: Life, Literature, and Leadership. In this course, undergraduates travel to a maximum security correctional facility to lead incarcerated youth in discussions and creative activities related to great works of Russian literature. The course brings college students and correctional center residents together in a community of learning that uses the power of literature to inform, transform, and build connections between people from widely diverse backgrounds. Continue reading →

Applying Social Network Analysis to High School Students

Posted on November 2, 2012 by youth-nex

By Judy Beenhakker, Senior Research Coordinator with Youth-Nex.
Slides and audio of the talk can be found here.

Related posts are available under Research, Works In Progress Meetings

Rob Cross, professor of management at the U.Va. McIntire School of Commerce and Research Director of the Network Roundtable, gave a talk entitled “Applying Social Network Analysis to High School Students” at the October Works in Progress Meeting. His current work is primarily centered in the corporate world, examining social networks to gather insight on success or failure of a company. Using software that enlists mathematical algorithms to make predictions and summaries, survey-based data from company employees is analyzed and evaluated. Continue reading →

The Middle School Conversation Continues…

Posted on October 24, 2012 by youth-nex

Deb Zehner chats with Alma Powell after the keynote.

Welcome to the Youth-Nex blog. Let’s continue the conversation started at the Youth-Nex middle school conference. Simply reply to posts here or email edaniels@virginia.edu to contribute your own post. You can also subscribe at the top right of this post.

As they accumulate, related posts will be found “under one roof” so to speak, under Middle School Conference 2012.

The first entry is by Deb Zehner, Management Consultant (with a specialty in social network analysis), NetVision LLC. Deb works closely with U.Va. business professor Rob Cross. Their application of social network analysis has traditionally been in the business sector but they are transitioning to the educational sector as well. More on the business application of social networking can be found here. Comments from her 13-year old daughter follow her post.

Youth-Nex’s In Between Conference, held Oct. 18-19, surpassed my expectations. I attended for two reasons. First, to explore possible applications of social networking to benefit middle school students by better understanding what adolescents need and how the schools are serving those needs. Second, for practical ideas of how I could get involved in a hands-on way myself. A nice side benefit was that I gained knowledge helpful to better understanding my own 13 year old daughter and her friends (her thoughts are below). The conference blended the worlds of research, application, and policy, allowing for discussion with the speakers and other attendees. There were many interesting findings, but some of the most striking ones for me follow. Continue reading →

YN Helps Military Connected Youth

Posted on October 9, 2012 by youth-nex

Military Child Education Coalition

By Ellen Daniels, Youth-Nex Communications Director

Related posts are available under Research

Youth-Nex, has teamed up with the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC), an organization that seeks to ensure quality education for military youth, to fund four early career scholars to investigate topics to help military-connected youth.

The researchers, two from military families themselves, will focus on a range of issues to improve academic achievement such as mental and physical health, skill building, and problem solving. Continue reading →

What’s New in the Research on Childhood Obesity?

Posted on September 21, 2012 by youth-nex

2030: Adult Obesity Rates if the Current Trajectory Continues

Trajectory of Adult Obesity Rates in the U.S project Virginia to be 50%-55% Obese by 2030. Research shows obese children are very likely to become obese adults.

Arthur Weltman presented “Obesity in Children and Adolescents: Effects of Lifestyle Intervention” at the September’s Works In Progress Meeting.

Related posts are available under Research, Works In Progress Meetings, Health

Presentation Audio and Slides

Key Points from Weltman’s Talk:

Obese youth who do not show signs for Metabolic Syndrome are still at risk for several health conditions. A Type 2 diabetic diagnosis is just “the tip of the iceberg” with many health problems lying below the surface. There is a constellation of risk factors are already there. Continue reading →

Study Addresses Lack of Research on Adolescent Drivers with Autism

Posted on September 11, 2012 by youth-nex

By Daniel J. Cox, Youth-Nex associate director, University of Virginia professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, Internal Medicine, and Ophthalmology; and Ann Lambert, post-doctoral fellow, Virginia Driving Safety Laboratory, University of Virginia Medical Center.

The researchers’ study seeks to gain a better understanding of driving and
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) by surveying parents/caregivers of adolescents/
young adults with ASD who were currently attempting, or had previously attempted,
to learn to drive.
Daniel Cox

Related posts can be found under Research and Driving.

Optimizing Independence of Adolescents with High Functioning Autism

Driving has major implications for independence, employment and socialization. It also represents potential risk to personal health and the health of others. Safe operation of a motor vehicle is a responsibility that involves controlling a two-ton vehicle traveling through time and space, at high speeds, multi-tasking negotiating traffic, signal, road and weather conditions. Continue reading →

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