Helpless behaviors in 5-to 7-year-old children of depressed and nondepressed mothers were assessed through direct observation, interviews, and teacher ratings. The affective tone the mothers set in a joint puzzle task and their tendency to encourage mastery or become intrusive when their children became frustrated at the task were also assessed. Although depressed mothers set a more negative affective tone than nondepressed mothers during solvable puzzles, there were few significant differences between the 2 groups of mothers and children. Still, mothers who were more negative and hostile and less able to encourage mastery in their children had children who exhibited more helpless behaviors in the puzzle task, who were less likely to endorse active problem-solving approaches to frustrating situations, and whose teachers rated the children as less competent and more prone to helpless behaviors.

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A total of 271 early childhood professionals completed pre- and post training knowledge assessments in True-False only (TF) or True-False with ‘‘unsure’’ option formats (TFU). In Study 1, only TFU format was used. In Study 2, participants were randomly assigned to TF or TFU formats. Responses which were initially ‘‘unsure’’ were more likely than confident responses to become ‘‘correct’’ at post test. Hence, teachable moments may be created when individuals acknowledge being unsure, and adding ‘‘unsure’’ to these tests may help identify such moments. The TFU format, in addition, better captured participants’ gains in knowledge, and helped identify three types of responses: confidently correct (correct at pretest and post test), confidently incorrect (incorrect at pretest and post test), and unsure-then-correct. The latter two responses may help target instructions. In sum, adding an ‘‘unsure’’ option may improve sensitivity of tests, and inform continuous quality improvement of early childhood professional development trainings.

This study evaluated a school-based intervention to enhance adolescent peer relationships and improve functional outcomes, building upon Ed Zigler’s seminal contribution in recognizing the potential of academic contexts to enhance social and emotional development. Adolescents (N = 610) primarily from economically or racially/ethnically marginalized groups were assessed preintervention, postintervention, and at 4-month follow-up in a randomized controlled trial. At program completion, intervention participants reported significantly increased quality of peer relationships; by 4-month follow-up, this increased quality was also observable by peers outside of the program, and program participants also displayed higher levels of academic engagement and lower levels of depressive symptoms. These latter effects appear to have potentially been mediated via participants’ increased use of social support. The potential of the Connection Project intervention specifically, and of broader efforts to activate adolescent peer relationships as potent sources of social support and growth more generally within the secondary school context, is discussed.