See It Be It: Interactive Technology to Increase School Engagement and Prevent Dropout

NIMHD
ID: 2R44MD007143-02A1
PI: MELISSA DEROSIER, JAMES THOMAS
TERM: 09/14 – 05/17

Dropping out of school costs the nation up to $350 billion annually, in lost wages, unemployment, incarceration costs, welfare dependence, and health care costs. Moreover, poorer individual health and well-being result from dropping out. Despite recent reductions in the total number of dropouts, minority students remain twice as likely to drop out as White students. Because the transition to high school is a particularly risky time for dropout, interventions that focus on building academic success and resilience before high school are needed. Enhancing students’ academic possible selves and increasing resilience strategies are established methods for promoting school success for minority students.

The proposed Phase II SBIR project will finalize the development of See It, Be It, an online dropout prevention program for middle school students that uses narrative generation software to develop individualized stories of success. Building on tenets of Positive Youth Development, this program enhances identification with “academic possible selves” and teaches resilience strategies designed to promote school engagement and foster self-efficacy for minority youth. Strong support for the See It, Be It product was demonstrated in Phase I feasibility and usability testing with key stakeholders (teachers, administrators, parents, and middle schoolers). For Phase II we will accomplish the following three specific aims: 1) fully develop the See It, Be It product, including content for four topic modules (peer pressure, student-teacher relationships, positive self-image, and academic future orientation) and accompanying materials, including iterative testing with minority middle school students (n=30) to establish usability; 2) conduct two pilot tests of the full See It, Be It product, collecting data from minority middle school students (n=180) and their teachers, as well as from minority middle school students and counselors involved in an after-school program (n=120) for students at risk for dropping out (Student U), to determine program impacts on student self-image, academic motivation, and school engagement; and 3) finalize the program for commercialization, conducting focus groups with participating students and parents (n=40) and teachers/counselors (n=9) to inform implementation guidelines and supplemental support tools needed for maximizing the effectiveness of the program.

To our knowledge, no other dropout prevention program exists that focuses specifically on the challenges and strengths of minority students and promotes school success using innovative online technology. This Phase II project will be instrumental in establishing See It, Be It as a valuable resource for schools with the potential to reduce the likelihood of dropout for minority students as well as boosting their potential for future career success.

DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.