FOCUS AREAS

Preventing violence is a key concern for every school, youth-serving organization, and community; and it requires not only reducing violent behaviors, but also promoting positive behaviors that can buffer against the risk factors encountered by youth. iRT is dedicated to developing effective, scalable, developmentally appropriate, engaging interventions to address the issue of interpersonal violence.

Youth violence is a devastating problem that affects not only victims of violence, but also their families, friends, schools, and communities. Youth violence can take many forms, from subtle cyberbullying, to physical fighting, to sexual and relationship violence. In 2016, more than half a million youth were treated in emergency rooms for injuries incurred through violence. Preventing youth violence requires using multifaceted, strategic approaches that involve theoretical and practical understanding of how to curtail negative behaviors, foster positive cognitions, and promote social-emotional competence.

 

Given the multifaceted and multimodal nature of youth violence, iRT has developed conceptually-grounded, innovative, research-informed resources to prevent a range of different forms of violence.

iRT has cultivated a portfolio of research and resources in the youth mentoring field. For the past several years, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs has awarded youth mentoring programs with hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to provide youth with relationships with caring adults, who are supported by strong organizations utilizing best practices in the mentoring field, that would ultimately result in reduced involvement in the juvenile justice system. iRT has developed multiple resources to support mentoring programs in optimally delivering these types of mentoring services. For example, iRT developed a suite of research-informed and evidence-based courses for mentors, mentees, parents or guardians of mentees, and mentoring program staff members; a software system to assess and evaluate the use of benchmarked program practices; and are working with mentoring programs on special topics emerging in today’s world into their program delivery (e.g., e-Mentoring, anti-bullying, support to opioid-affected youth). iRT uniquely offers this suite of training, assessment, and evaluation resources to the positive youth development field through its eCommerce platform. In addition, iRT conducts outcome evaluations with many youth-serving mentoring programs to assess how the youth they serve are changing and growing across the life of their mentoring relationship, including examining changes in aggressive behavior over time.

Fostering healthy social-emotional skills is crucial in preventing violence in youth. iRT has created several manualized, evidenced-based intervention programs that focus on improving social-emotional understanding in children and adolescents that can be implemented in elementary, middle, or high school, or afterschool settings. Focusing on friendship, emotions, and social skills in naturalistic settings and during extracurricular activities is a strength of iRT’s curriculum development and research in exploring novel methods of delivering training in authentic settings for youth to learn and practice social and emotional skills with the goal of reducing aggressive behaviors. 

iRT also has engaged in the development and evaluation of studies designed to reduce violence in youth and young adults using other, less traditional intervention strategies. For example, iRT has conducted studies of the impact of media literacy education and mindfulness education on violent or aggressive behavior. iRT has also developed a cognitive-behavioral intervention that addresses contextual factors that influence the decision to fight.

To further our understanding of the factors that result in violence, iRT also has engaged in research to better understand children’s and adolescents’ social-emotional skills by developing psychometrically strong assessments of emotion recognition and social information processing skills—key skills that can play a pivotal role in preventing violent behavior in youth.

Dr. Alison Parker conducts research on school-based and online mindfulness programs that aim to reduce aggression and create more peaceful social climates through improving children and adolescents’ social-emotional and self-regulatory abilities. In addition, Dr. Parker conducts research on assessments related to aggression, emotion recognition, and social information processing in children and adolescents. 

Dr. Rebecca Stelter conducts research on youth mentoring, assessing social information processing skills, and social-emotional learning interventions implemented in afterschool settings, and aimed at reducing antisocial behaviors in children.

Dr. Janis Kupersmidt conducts research on contextually-based social cognitive interventions to prevent fighting; assessing emotional recognitions and social information processing skills in children and adolescents; mindfulness education; media literacy education for relationship health and violence prevention; youth mentoring; and the custom development and delivery of social-emotional learning interventions implemented in afterschool settings.

Dr. Katie Stump conducts research on youth mentoring, including incorporating anti-bullying concepts into mentoring curricula, and social-emotional learning interventions implemented in afterschool settings.

Dr. Tracy Scull conducts research on factors associated with violence in romantic relationships and the use of media literacy education to prevent or reduce this type of violence.

Dr. Christina Dodson conducts research on factors associated with violence in romantic relationships and the use of media literacy education to prevent or reduce this type of violence.

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Aware for High School Classrooms2024-06-18T20:16:03+00:00
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Aware for Teens with FASD2024-06-18T20:22:27+00:00
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Buddy Builder2024-06-18T20:32:15+00:00
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Building Your Mentoring Skills2024-06-18T19:33:42+00:00
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Child & Adolescent Recognition of Emotions (CARE)2024-06-18T20:32:30+00:00
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Fight Navigator2024-06-18T20:39:05+00:00
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Master Mind2024-06-18T20:22:33+00:00
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Media Aware for High School2024-06-18T20:07:59+00:00
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Media Aware for Young Adults2024-06-18T20:08:03+00:00
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Moment2024-06-18T20:22:38+00:00
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Preparing for Mentoring2024-06-26T17:16:43+00:00
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NEWS

RELATED PRESENTATIONS

Kupersmidt, J. B., Stump, K., & Stelter, R. L. (2019, April). The Buddy Builder Program: Integrating social-emotional learning into enrichment activities in elementary afterschool programs. Workshop presented at the Synergy Conference, Greensboro, NC.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Stump, K., & Stelter, R. L. (2019, March). Evaluation of the Buddy Builder afterschool program for promoting social-emotional skills in elementary school-aged children. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.

Parker, A. E., Smith, R. K., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Reeder, L C. (2019, March). Emotional self-efficacy beliefs in late elementary school-aged children. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.

Kupersmidt, J. (2018, April). The role of social cognitive strengths in buffering the effects of risk exposure on children of incarcerated parents. Paper presented at the 2018 National Conference on Children on Incarcerated Parents, Phoenix, AZ.

Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Hiatt, C., & Carmichael Olson, H. (2018). Social information processing and intentions to use substances in adolescents with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. In M. Van Rest (Chair), Individual and Contextual Social Factors Affect Social Decision-Making and Risk Behaviors such as Substance use and Aggression. Paper symposium presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence in Minneapolis, MN, April 2018. 

Stelter, R. L., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Parker, A. E. (2017). Social Cognitive Skills Rating Scale: A new measure assessing teachers’ perceptions of boys’ social information processing. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development, Austin, TX, April 2017. 

Dunsmore, J. C., Miller-Slough, R., Halberstadt, A. G., & Parker, A. E. (2017). Social contexts of emotion expression: Children’s emotion-related beliefs and judgments with parents and peers. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development, Austin, TX, April 2017.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Stelter, R. L., & Parker, A. E. (2016, October). SIP-AP: Web-based assessment of social information processing skills in children and adolescents. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Special Topics Meeting: Technology and Media in Children’s Development, Irvine, CA. 

Scull, T.M., Kupersmidt, J.B., & Keefe, E. (2016, October). A web-based media literacy education sexual health program for older adolescents. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development Special Topics Meeting:  Technology and Media in Children’s Development, Irvine, CA.

Scull, T.M., Malik, C.V., & Keefe, E. (2016, May). Meeting the needs of older adolescents:  Relationship and sexual health promotion using media literacy education. Workshop presented at the SHIFT NC Annual Conference: Durham, NC.

Scull, T.M., Malik, C.V., & Kupersmidt, J.B. (2016, May). The unique influence of media-related cognitions on predictors of adolescent sexual behaviors. Poster presented at the Society for Prevention Research, San Francisco, CA.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Stelter, R. L., & Parker, A. E. (2016, March). Social information processing, aggression, and executive functioning in adolescent boys. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD. 

Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Upton, S., Alter, M., & Olson, H. (2016, March). Online mindfulness program for adolescents with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder for healthy coping and decision-making skills. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence, Baltimore, MD. 

Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Willoughby, M. T. (2015, May). Mindfulness education and self-regulation in middle school. Poster presented at the Society for Prevention Research, Washington, DC. 

Parker, A. E., Upton, S., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2014, September). Mindfulness training and substance abuse prevention for youth. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Prevention Network, Hartford, CT.

Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Carmichael Olson, H., Grant, T., (2014, April). Online mindfulness training for adolescents with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Oral presentation at the 6th National Biennial Conference on Adolescents and Adults with FASD, Vancouver, BC. 

Upton, S., Stump, K., Parker, A. E., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2013, October). The Aware Program: Online mindfulness training for adolescents with FASD. Invited presentation at the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Cutting Edge Interventions Conference, Charlotte, NC.

Droutman, V., Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Read, S. J. (2013, February). A pilot study of a mindfulness education program: The Moment Program. Poster presented at the Bridging Hearts and Minds of Youth, San Diego, CA. 

Kupersmidt, J. B., Rhodes, J. E., & Stelter, R. L. (2013, January). Mentor training: Cutting edge training tools and resources and innovations in collaborative partnerships. Paper presented at the 2013 National Mentoring Summit: Washington DC. 

Parker, A. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Mathis, E. T., Scull, T. M., & Sims, C. (2012, April). Preliminary investigation of a mindfulness education, substance abuse prevention program for elementary school children. Poster presented at the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, Denver, CO. 

Kupersmidt, J. B., and Parker, A. E. (2012, February). Social information processing assessment with aggressive children and adolescents. Mini-skills workshop presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Philadelphia, PA.

Parker, A. E., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2012, February). Mindfulness in education:  Tools and strategies for the classroom. Mini-skills workshop presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Philadelphia, PA.

Warren-Khot, H. K., Parker, A. E., Mathis, E. T., McKown, C. A., Allen, A., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2012, February). Preliminary validity of a web-based measure of preschoolers’ emotion identification. Poster presented at the National Association of School Psychologists, Philadelphia, PA.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Rhodes, J. E., & Stelter, R. L. (2012, January). MentoringCentral.net: Research-based mentor training and support. Paper presented at the 2012 National Mentoring Summit: Invest in the Future: Mentor a Child, Washington, DC. 

Parker, A. E., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2011, May). School-based mindfulness improves early adolescents’ self-regulatory abilities. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Science convention, Washington, DC.

Stelter, R., Kupersmidt, J. B., & Dodge, K. A. (2011, March). Development of the SIP-AP:  A web-based measure of social information processing patterns in elementary school-aged boys. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, CA.

Parker, A. E., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (2010, June). The Moment Program: Mindfulness-based, middle school academic achievement program. Poster presented at the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, Garrison, NY.

Kupersmidt, J. B., & Parker, A. E. (2010, June). Master Mind:  Mindfulness program for substance abuse prevention for elementary school students. Poster presented at the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, Garrison, NY. 

Voegler-Lee, M. E., Kupersmidt, J. B., Willoughby, M. T., Bryant, D., Arnold, D., & Peisner-Feinberg, E. (2010, June). The Building Bridges Program: Promoting children’s self-regulation and social competence. In J. A. Griffin (Chair), Promoting Research on Integrated Approaches to Improving Early Childhood Education: The Interagency School Readiness Consortium. Paper presented at Head Start’s Tenth National Research Conference, Research on Young Children and Families: Launching the Next Decade for Policy and Practice, Washington, DC.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Stelter, R. S., Parker, A. E., Parker, K. M., & Dodge, K. A. (2009, March). Elementary school age boys’ social information processing cognitions in ambiguous situations. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Denver, CO.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Voegler-Lee, M. E., Bryant, D. M., Arnold, D. H., Peisner-Feinberg, E. S., Willoughby M. T. (2007, March). Initial Findings from the Building Bridges Kindergarten Readiness Program. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston MA.

Kupersmidt, J. B. (March, 2006). Antisocial and conventional adolescents’ cognitions about challenges in friendships. In A. J. Rose & M. J. Prinstein, Maladaptive friendships in adolescence. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Francisco, CA.

Kupersmidt, J. B., & Brewster, A. B. (2005, May). The social contexts of adolescent substance use. In K. A. Dodge, (Chair). Findings from the Duke Transdisciplinary Prevention Research Center. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Washington, DC.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Bryant, D., & Voegler-Lee, M. E. (2005, May). The Preschool Behavior Program:  Effectiveness of a universal preventive intervention for use with Head Start children. In C. A. Boyce, (Chair), Prevalence and prevention for emotional and behavioral disorders among diverse preschoolers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Washington, DC.

Kupersmidt, J. B., & Bryant, D. (2003, April). The Preschool Behavior Project:  Effectiveness of classroom and parenting interventions for aggressive preschoolers. In C. A. Boyce & M. Lopez (Chairs), Strengthening children’s mental health within Head Start:  The Head Start Mental Health Research Consortium. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FLA.

Kupersmidt, J. B., Floyd, F. J., & Asher, S. R. (2003, March). Social tasks analysis of children with mental retardation, Down’s Syndrome and learning disabilities. Poster presented at the Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Annapolis, MD.

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