Moderate Mean Effect Research Articles

The link between school climate and violence in school: A meta-analytic review

There has been significant interest in whether and how school climate and violent behavior are meaningfully related. The present meta-analysis reviewed studies reporting a relationship between school climate and school violence in order to summarize the total effect and the direction of these research findings. Database consultation and literature hand searching yielded 145 articles which were reviewed by two experts. Studies were included if they reported a statistical effect size of the relationship between school climate and school violence. Exclusion criteria were unclear operationalization of the principal variables, research findings from multiple publications, studies using multi-level analysis and qualitative studies. The meta-analysis included 36 independent studies (N = 113,778) with correlations ranging from − .02 to − .53. Using a random-effects model a moderate mean effect size of r = − .26, CI [− 30, − 21] was found. Statistical findings indicated significant heterogeneity and a large range of variance between studies. Meta-regressions analyzed different potential moderators as relevant factors of heterogeneity, but none of these factors could be identified as a moderator. Due to the large variance between the studies, it remains difficult to draw final conclusions. Nevertheless, the moderate effect size underlines the role of environmental aspects for school violence intervention.

Indicated Truancy Interventions: Effects on School Attendance among Chronic Truant Students

Truancy is a significant problem in the U.S. and in other countries around the world. Truancy has been linked to serious immediate and far-reaching consequences for youth, families, and schools and communities, leading researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to try to understand and to address the problem. Although numerous and significant steps have been taken at the local, state, and national levels to reduce truancy, the rates of truancy have at best remained stable or at worst been on the rise, depending on the indicator utilized to assess truancy rates. The costs and impact of chronic truancy are significant, with both short- and long-term implications for the truant youth as well as for the family, school, and community. Although several narrative reviews and one meta-analysis of attendance and truancy interventions have attempted to summarize the extant research, there are a number of limitations to these reviews. It is imperative that we systematically synthesize and examine the evidence base to provide a comprehensive picture of interventions that are being utilized to intervene with chronic truants, to identify interventions that are effective and ineffective, and to identify gaps and areas in which more research needs to be conducted to better inform practice and policy.

Quantitative review of the efficacy of slow-frequency magnetic brain stimulation in major depressive disorder

Slow-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the frontal cortex has been suggested as a safer and better tolerable alternative to fast-frequency rTMS in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The aim of the present study was to examine the efficacy of slow-frequency rTMS to the frontal cortex in MDD. A literature search was carried out in the databases PubMed and Web of Science in the period between January 1994 and July 2009 with the search terms 'depression' and 'transcranial magnetic stimulation'. Nine double-blind sham-controlled parallel intention-to-treat studies (252 patients) fulfilled inclusion criteria and were entered in a random-effects meta-analysis. The test for heterogeneity was not significant (QT=9.63, p=0.38). An overall weighted moderate mean effect size (d=0.63, 95% confidence interval=0.03-1.24) for active treatment was observed. The findings suggest that slow-frequency rTMS to the frontal cortex is more effective than sham treatment and may be equally effective as fast-frequency rTMS in the treatment of MDD.

A meta-analysis of controlled research on social skills training for schizophrenia.

A meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials of social skills training for schizophrenia was conducted. Outcome measures from 22 studies including 1,521 clients were categorized according to a proximal-distal continuum in relation to the presumed site of action of skills training interventions, with content mastery tests and performance-based measures of skills assumed to be most proximal, community functioning and negative symptoms intermediate, and general symptoms and relapse most distal. Results reveal a large weighted mean effect size for content-mastery exams (d = 1.20), a moderate mean effect size for performance-based measures of social and daily living skills (d = 0.52), moderate mean effect sizes for community functioning (d = 0.52) and negative symptoms (d = 0.40), and small mean effect sizes for other symptoms (d = 0.15) and relapse (d = 0.23). These results support the efficacy of social skills training for improving psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia.

The effect of promoting heuristic literacy on the mathematical aptitude of middle-school students

Heuristic literacy – an individual's capacity to use heuristic vocabulary in discourse and to apply the selected heuristics to solution of routine and non-routine mathematical tasks – was indirectly promoted in a controlled five-month classroom experiment with Israeli 8th grade students (N = 92). The experiment achieved a moderate mean effect size, which is in line with some previous research on heuristics. The novel result of the study is that those students of the experimental group who were below sample average at the beginning of the experiment benefited from the heuristically-oriented intervention significantly more than the rest of the students. It is argued here that this is, in part, due to communicational aspects of the intervention.

Cognitive‐existential group psychotherapy for women with primary breast cancer: A randomised controlled trial

We conducted a randomised, controlled trial of cognitive-existential group therapy (CEGT) for women with early stage breast cancer receiving adjuvant chemotherapy with the aim of improving mood and mental attitude to cancer. Women were randomised to 20 sessions of weekly group therapy plus 3 relaxation classes or to a control arm receiving 3 relaxation classes. Assessments, independently done at baseline, 6 and 12 months, included a structured psychiatric interview and validated questionnaires covering mood, attitudes to cancer, family relationships, and satisfaction with therapy. Three hundred and three of 491 (62%) eligible patients participated over 3 years. Distress was high pre-intervention: 10% were diagnosed as suffering from major depression, 27% from minor depression and 9% from anxiety disorders. On an intention-to-treat analysis, there was a trend for those receiving group therapy (n=154) to have reduced anxiety (p=0.05, 2-sided) compared to controls (n=149). Women in group therapy also showed a trend towards improved family functioning compared to controls (p=0.07, 2-sided). The women in the groups reported greater satisfaction with their therapy (p<0.001, 2-sided), appreciating the support and citing better coping, self-growth and increased knowledge about cancer and its treatment. They valued the CEGT therapy. Overall effect size for the group intervention was small (d=0.25), with cancer recurrence having a deleterious effect in three of the 19 therapy groups. Psychologists as a discipline achieved a moderate mean effect size (d=0.52). CEGT is a useful adjuvant psychological therapy for women with early stage breast cancer. Interaction effects between group members and therapists are relevant to outcome. Group-as-a-whole effects are powerful, but the training and experience of the therapist is especially critical to an efficacious outcome.