The authors used child fixed effects models to estimate the effects of parental divorce and death on a variety of outcomes using 2 large national data sets: (a) the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (kindergarten through the 5th grade) and (b) the National Educational Longitudinal Study (8th grade to the senior year of high school). In both data sets, divorce and death were associated with multiple negative outcomes among children. Although evidence for a causal effect of divorce on children was reasonably strong, effect sizes were small in magnitude. A second analysis revealed a substantial degree of variability in children’s outcomes following parental divorce, with some children declining, others improving, and most not changing at all. The estimated effects of divorce appeared to be strongest among children with the highest propensity to experience parental divorce.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The SSIS SEL Brief Scales-Student Form (SSIS SELb-S) was developed to create an efficient assessment of students' social and emotional learning (SEL). Using item response theory with ratings from 800 students in Grades 3-12 from the standardization sample, 20 items were selected from the full-length SSIS SEL Rating Form -Student to maximize score information and rating efficiency. After identifying items for the SSIS SELb-S, we conducted several reliability and validity analyses. These analyses provided initial support for the use of the SSIS SELb-S for low-stakes decision making contexts. As such, the SSIS SELb-S holds promise for incorporating the perspectives of students ages 8 -18 into assessments of their SEL competencies. Impact and ImplicationsThere is increasing need for efficient assessments targeting students' social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies to support school-based SEL programming. To address this need, the current study used advanced psychometric approaches to develop the SSIS SEL Brief Scales -Student Form, a brief version of the prominent SSIS SEL Rating Form-Student. The resulting measure holds promise to extend and support SEL programming and incorporate students' self-perceptions into the SEL assessment and intervention process.