DURHAM, NC, November 18, 2014—innovation Research & Training (iRT), a behavioral sciences research company, today announced the development of 10 additional assessment videos for its Social Information Processing Application (SIP-AP).
The new videos are aimed at measuring social information processing skills in girls. Previously, SIP-AP videos were only available to evaluate social information processing skills in boys in grades three through twelve and girls in grades seven through 12. The SIP-AP is an innovative, self-administered, web-based computer application that assesses thinking in youth around the decision to be aggressive to peers. The SIP-AP tool helps identify which specific biases or deficits in social cognition each individual child has and can help guide interventions for children who are experiencing these deficits. The SIP-AP is also a flexible tool for researchers who study social cognition in children and adolescents.
“Aggressive behavior used to be thought of as a problem only for boys; however, rates of aggression are rising in girls and becoming alarmingly more common,” said Dr. Janis Kupersmidt, iRT president. “The results of the SIP-AP can help provide clinicians with guidance about how to most efficiently intervene using cognitive-behavioral methods with aggressive youth.
“The SIP-AP has also been a valuable resource for researchers evaluating how children process social information. We are thrilled to extend this useful tool to allow for the evaluation of girls’ social information processing skills, too.”
To complete the SIP-AP tool, students view short video vignettes of children their own age interacting with one another in everyday social situations. Each video is filmed from the first person perspective such that the target child is the victim of some form of mild aggression, but the intent of the perpetrator is ambiguous. The vignettes are followed by a series of questions designed to assess the child’s social information processing skills such as a tendency to interpret others’ ambiguous behaviors as hostile, feelings of anger, revenge goals, aggressive strategies, outcome expectations, outcome values, and self-efficacy for aggression.
The SIP-AP automatically records all of the child’s responses to questions about each vignette and allows for immediate downloading of data into an Excel spreadsheet that can be imported into statistical analysis programs. The video stimuli included in the SIP-AP can also be used to create customized assessment tools for use by clinicians and researchers through the Social Emotional Assessment and Learning (SEAL) Programs web application. For more information about iRT’s SEAL programs, visit www.sealprograms.com.
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About innovation Research & Training
innovation Research & Training (iRT) is a behavioral sciences research company committed to identifying and solving significant real-world problems facing children, families, communities, and organizations. By using evidence-based and culturally sensitive methods, iRT researchers investigate, develop and evaluate behavioral, educational, psychological, social, and community assessment, prevention and treatment programs and services. iRT’s staff includes experts in basic and applied research in a wide variety of areas, including substance abuse prevention and treatment, youth mentoring, social and emotional development, mindfulness education, media literacy education, pregnancy prevention and sexual health, child and adolescent mental health, adult and juvenile justice programs, drug courts, drugged driving, tobacco use and underage drinking. For more information about iRT, visit www.irtinc.us.
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