Why rethinking wellness could help students and teachers thrive

 

Teachers supervising students in school-sponsored work sites tend to prioritize emotional and social well-being in the workplace, according to research from Rutgers Health.

 

The study, published in Occupational Health, examined how educators approach student wellness and the factors they prioritize when preparing students to enter the workforce.

 

Led by Maryanne Campbell, assistant director of the New Jersey Safe Schools Program at the Rutgers School of Public Health, researchers evaluated a pilot activity based on the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness model. The activity was offered as an optional module during the required New Jersey Safe Schools Program training for secondary school work-based learning supervision.

 

“The results of this ‘Eight Dimensions of Young Worker Wellness’ activity revealed both overlaps among the wellness dimensions and how teachers could distinguish the environment’s social and physical aspects from its biological and chemical aspects through their qualitative responses,” Campbell said. “This supports the idea that wellness is multifaceted and interconnected.”

 

Between February and November 2024, 67 teachers participated in virtual training sessions and completed the optional activity, reflecting on student worker scenarios and identifying how each of the eight wellness dimensions – emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual – applied.

 

Analysis of open-ended responses found that educators most frequently prioritized emotional and social dimensions when identifying key factors that contribute to young workers’ overall well-being.

 

According to Rutgers Health researchers, the study addresses a gap in occupational health research by exploring how teachers conceptualize and apply wellness principles for themselves and their students in real-world work settings.

 

Findings from the study also suggest the activity can serve as a professional development tool designed to enhance educator wellness while strengthening protective factors for students.

 

“Given the roles and responsibilities teachers have with school-aged students, it is important for schools to prioritize the wellness of teachers and educational support professionals,” Campbell said. “The goal is to create school environments where teachers can teach and thrive professionally in nurturing and stable settings.”

 

In the study, the framework encouraged teachers to consider how emotional, social and environmental factors shape workplace experiences for young workers, offering insights to schools and districts seeking to strengthen their support systems.

 

The Eight Dimensions of Wellness model broadens the conversation around health by emphasizing that well-being extends beyond physical and mental health alone, the researchers said.

 

"This new training intervention with evaluation research is another example of the interdisciplinary strength of our School of Public Health and when we collaborate with other schools and institutes within Rutgers Health and the broader Rutgers University,” said Derek Shendell, a professor at the School of Public Health, director of the New Jersey Safe Schools Program and senior author of the study.

 

Shendell said several of his grant-funded initiatives led to working with Margaret Swarbrick, a research professor in the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology and co-director of ScarletWell.

 

“This project, our adaptation of her original model for use with secondary schools, has broad potential,” Shendell added.

 

The researchers recommended that future studies expand data collection to include participant demographics, pre- and post-assessments of knowledge and attitudes and longitudinal tracking of student outcomes.

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Journal

Occupational Health Journal

DOI

10.3390/occuphealth1010003 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Pilot Evaluation of a New Individual Worker Wellness Activity with New Jersey Teachers Supervising Work-Based Learning

Charter Schools and Achievement of Students with Disabilities - Updated

Why this matters:

• For K-12 students with disabilities, ensuring they receive appropriate support for learning is critical to their success, which can raise questions about the best type of school for them, such as a traditional public school, charter school or private school.
• A new study examined students with disabilities in Michigan charter schools, finding that when students with disabilities switched from traditional public to charter schools, they perform just as well, despite spending less time in intensive programs and more time in general education classrooms.
• Academic performance and attendance improved for both students with and without disabilities after entering charter schools. This research raises important considerations about resource usage and how to best balance inclusive practices with specific targeted support for students with disabilities.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Students with disabilities account for almost 15% of the K-12 student population in the United States. Yet they are often underrepresented in charter schools, which are publicly funded schools open to all students. While there are discussions about what type of school environment best supports these students, it is important to take a closer look at the difference in learning environments.

New research from Michigan State University found that after students with disabilities switched from a traditional public school to a charter school, their attendance and academic outcomes were comparable and, in some cases, even improved.

The study, published in the journal Education Finance and Policy, was led by Scott Imberman,  professor and chair of the Department of Economics at the College of Social Science, who is also a professor at the College of Education. The research was supported by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, or REACH.

“Educators and parents have worried that charter schools don’t provide students with disabilities the educational environment that they need to thrive,” Imberman said. “This work shows that in Michigan’s charters, while it does seem that charters tend to provide fewer special education services, the students with disabilities who enroll see similar improvements in achievement as other charter students.”

Background of special education programs

In 2020, around 7.5 million U.S. public education students were estimated to have a disability. Traditionally, these students were placed in separate special education classrooms. However, there has been a shift to more inclusion with almost two-thirds of students with disabilities, or SWD, spending 80% of their days in general education classrooms.

There have been concerns about the availability and quality of special education teachers in charter schools, as SWDs typically spend more time in the general classroom compared to tailored programs. While existing research has examined academic outcomes for SWDs in charters, there has been less information on how charters influence identification of these students and their learning environments.

Study method and pool

Imberman, along with Andrew Johnson of Boston University, who was a Michigan State doctoral student, examined data from Michigan students in kindergarten through eighth grade between 2013 and 2018. This sample included just over 1.7 million students who attended either a public school or charter school.

The researchers examined disability identification rates of students in both types of schools, and they also compared the time spent on specific special education learning programs and participation in two common types of support programs for SWDs:

• Resource programs involve resource rooms or separate special education classrooms where students spend a portion of their school day. While students spend most of their days in the general classrooms, they return to these rooms for tailored and specialized support.
• Cognitive programs are intended to address cognitive disabilities with more intensive programming and assistance. These students spend their entire days in these classrooms, which are more selective and costly.

Findings and further research

The researchers found that after students enrolled in charter schools, disability classifications increased.

Further, after making the switch into charter schools, students saw an increase in resource program participation of 2 percentage points and a decrease in cognitive programs by 0.4 percentage points — suggesting students’ special education services became less intensive while the share of all students spending time in special education environments increased. There was also an increase in time SWDs spent in general education classrooms.  

Another result was improvement in attendance, with absences decreasing by just over 3% and an improvement in academic outcomes, with math and reading scores improving for both SWD and general education students.

The findings were not an assessment of what resources best serve students, but rather how resources worked in the context of when students switched school type. Keeping students with disabilities more isolated from their peers could limit opportunities, but it is also important that they receive specialized care. This research calls for policy and examinations into how to achieve this balance.

“While parents of disabled students are often understandably wary of enrolling in a charter school, this research shows that some of these students can thrive in charter environments,” Imberman said. “It opens up an option to parents of students with disabilities that they may not have thought they could take advantage of.

Read on MSUToday.

By Jack Harrison

Rates of autism in girls and boys may be more equal than previously thought

 Autism has long been viewed as a condition that predominantly affects male individuals, but a study from Sweden published by The BMJ shows that autism may actually occur at comparable rates among male and female individuals.

 

The results show a clear female catch-up effect during adolescence, which the researchers say highlights the need to investigate why female individuals receive diagnoses later than male individuals.

 

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased over the past three decades, with a high male-to-female diagnosis ratio of around 4:1.

 

The increase in prevalence is thought to be linked to factors including wider diagnostic criteria and societal changes (eg, parental age), whilst the high male to female ratio has been attributed to better social and communication skills among girls, making autism more difficult to spot. However so far no large study has examined these trends over the life course.

 

To address this, researchers used national registers to analyse diagnosis rates of autism for 2.7 million individuals born in Sweden between 1985 and 2022 who were tracked from birth to a maximum of 37 years of age.

 

During this follow-up period of more than 35 years, autism was diagnosed in 78,522 (2.8%) of individuals at an average age of 14.3 years.

 

Diagnosis rates increased with each five year age interval throughout childhood, peaking at 645.5 per 100,000 person years for male individuals at age 10-14 years and 602.6 for female individuals at age 15-19 years.

 

However, while male individuals were more likely to have a diagnosis of autism in childhood, female individuals caught up during adolescence, giving a male to female ratio approaching 1:1 by age 20 years.

 

This is an observational study and the authors acknowledge that they did not consider other conditions associated with autism, such as ADHD and intellectual disability. Nor were they able to control for shared genetic and environmental conditions like parental mental health.

 

However, they say the study size and duration enabled them to link data for a whole population and disentangle the effects of three different time scales: age, calendar period and birth cohort.

 

As such, they write: “These findings indicate that the male to female ratio for autism has decreased over time and with increasing age at diagnosis. This male to female ratio may therefore be substantially lower than previously thought, to the extent that, in Sweden, it may no longer be distinguishable by adulthood.”

 

“These observations highlight the need to investigate why female individuals receive diagnoses later than male individuals,” they conclude.

 

These findings align with recent research and seem to support the argument that current practices may be failing to recognise autism in many women until later in life, if at all, says Anne Cary, patient and patient advocate, in a linked editorial.

 

She notes that studies like this are essential to changing the assumption that autism is more prevalent in male individuals than in female individuals, but points out that as autistic female individuals await proper diagnosis, “they are likely to be (mis)diagnosed with psychiatric conditions, especially mood and personality disorders, and they are forced to self-advocate to be seen and treated appropriately: as autistic patients, just as autistic as their male counterparts.”

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Journal

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2025-084164 

Dietary patterns may play a role in adolescent mental health

  A study led by researchers at Swansea University suggests that dietary patterns may play a role in adolescent mental health and sets out a detailed research roadmap to better understand this relationship.

The review, published in the journal Nutrients, examined evidence from 19 studies exploring links between diet and mental health outcomes in adolescents. Across the studies, healthier overall dietary patterns were often associated with fewer depressive symptoms, while poorer diet quality was linked to greater psychological distress.

The researchers analysed six randomised controlled trials and 13 prospective cohort studies. They found that evidence supporting individual nutrient supplementation was mixed, with emerging but inconsistent findings that vitamin D supplementation may reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents. In contrast, whole-diet patterns and diet quality indices showed more consistent associations with favourable mental health outcomes.

The authors note that adolescence represents a critical period for brain development and mental health, offering opportunities for prevention and early intervention. Diet, they highlight, is a modifiable and scalable factor embedded in daily life. However, they caution that the current evidence base remains inconsistent and is influenced by demographic factors such as socioeconomic status and sex.

The review aimed to strengthen the real-world relevance of existing research by focusing beyond clinic-defined groups, with the goal of informing both clinical practice and public health policy.

The study also identifies significant gaps in the current literature. Most research to date has focused on depression, leaving outcomes such as anxiety, stress, externalising behaviours, self-esteem and aggression comparatively underexplored.

Read the paper A Recipe for Resilience: A Systematic Review of Diet and Adolescent Mental Health.

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Journal

Nutrients

DOI

10.3390/nu17233677 

Parents seek online peer advice about substance use among their children

A new study has found many parents turn to online peer advice when facing concerns about substance use among their children.

While parents often value guidance from others with similar experiences, the study found that much of the advice can be confusing, contradictory, and lacking an evidence-based foundation.

“We were motivated by the recognition that parents play a critical role in shaping children’s substance-related attitudes and behaviors, yet many report feeling uncertain or underprepared when these issues arise,” said Dr. Litt, professor of social work and co-director of UTA’s Studying Alcohol and Related Risks (STARR) Lab. “Because social media platforms such as Reddit offer anonymity and peer support, they provide a unique window into parents’ real-world concerns and informational needs that may not surface in clinical or research settings.”

The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, noted that peer exchanges should “complement rather than replace evidence-based guidance.”

Researchers analyzed posts from a popular Reddit parenting forum spanning June 2009 to September 2024. Using targeted keywords, they identified roughly 3,500 posts related to parental concerns about substance use, then selected 156 that reflected a “range of complex and emotionally difficult situations.”

The study found parents often seek advice reactively rather than proactively and that many posts contained misconceptions.

For example, parents suggested that allowing adolescents to use substances under adult supervision could promote safer habits—an idea that runs counter to evidence-based research showing early initiation and parental permissiveness are linked to poorer outcomes.

Similarly, public attitudes toward cannabis have grown more favorable, yet adolescent use remains associated with significant developmental, cognitive, and mental health risks.

“In order to address these misconceptions, we have to meet parents where they are by translating evidence-based guidance into clear, empathetic, and easily shareable messages that resonate with parents’ real concerns,” Litt said. “Many evidence-based resources can feel abstract, overly clinical, and difficult to navigate and can be expensive to access. Online communities, on the other hand, offer validation and practical advice from other parents facing similar challenges.”

Litt encouraged parents to consider the source when obtaining information on social media platforms.

“When in doubt, parents should view social media advice as a starting point for reflection and conversation—not a substitute for consulting trusted professionals,” she said.

An important next step for future research, Litt added, is translating these findings into practical, parent-facing interventions.

“The goal of our current research,” Litt said, “is to create freely accessible resources that retain what parents value about social media, such as immediacy, relatability, and grounding in lived experience while ensuring accurate, developmentally appropriate, and evidence-based content.”

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Journal

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

DOI

10.15288/jsad.25-00310 

Physical aggression by young people toward their parents occurs quite frequently

 

Physical aggression by young people toward their parents occurs quite frequently – yet the subject remains taboo. Victims often struggle with shame and avoid seeking help, hoping to shield their children from repercussions. Now, in a first-of-its-kind longitudinal study, researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) have tracked the development of this behavior from early adolescence to young adulthood, identifying which factors increase or reduce the risk.

 

The research draws on the Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso), directed by Manuel Eisner, Denis Ribeaud and Lilly Shanahan at UZH’s Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development. The study tracked more than 1,500 participants from early adolescence into young adulthood.

 

32.5% have at least one episode of physical aggression

Nearly one-third of participants (32.5 percent) acknowledge at least one episode of physical aggression toward their parents between the ages of 11 and 24, for instance involving hitting, kicking or throwing objects. This behavior peaks at age 13, when roughly 15% of respondents reported aggressive incidents. From there, the frequency of these episodes declined and plateaued at around 5% by early adulthood.

 

“At first glance, it may seem surprising that one-third of adolescents become physically aggressive toward their parents at some point,” says Lilly Shanahan. “But these are mostly isolated incidents, likely in the midst of heated parent-child conflicts that occur during puberty.  We’re not talking about systematic violence here, and it’s also not about individual failure.” Even so, Shanahan finds it troubling that two of the five in this subset acknowledged having these episodes on multiple occasions.

 

Parental conflict and ADD among risk factors

What drives young people to lash out at their parents? Educational attainment and socioeconomic status appear not to play a significant role. “This problem spans all social classes,” says lead author and postdoctoral researcher Laura Bechtiger. “It’s not limited to any particular social background or gender."

 

That said, researchers did identify multiple risk factors unrelated to whether the child generally has aggressive tendencies. Physical punishment and verbal aggression by parents increase the likelihood of creating a familial cycle of violence in which aggressive behavioral patterns are modeled to their children. Additionally, when parents frequently clash with one another, their children adopt similar patterns of conflict. Young people with attention-deficit and hyperactivity symptoms are also at greater risk, both because they often struggle with impulse control and may provoke impatience from their parents.

 

Conflict resolution and positive environments are protective factors

Fortunately, the research also offers hope: Certain factors can dramatically lower the risk of child-on-parent aggression. Children who have learned how to constructively deal with negative emotions and conflicts are far less prone to physical aggression. A supportive upbringing, where parents are actively involved in their children’s lives, show interest and offer emotional support, also reduces the risk considerably. Furthermore, the researchers believe that early prevention measures can lower the likelihood of aggression later on.

 

“Conflicts between parents and adolescents are normal and even important for development,” explains Denis Ribeaud, co-director of z-proso. “Isolated outbursts during puberty should trigger reflection but are not necessarily cause for alarm. If a pattern emerges, however, this is a red flag. Repeated physical aggression with increasing intensity is a warning sign, as are a lack of remorse and aggressive behavior extending outside of the family.”

 

Early prevention is key

At five percent, the share of 24-year-olds displaying physical aggression is comparatively small, but nonetheless significant. If physical attacks are still being carried out in early adulthood, there is an increased risk of this becoming a lasting pattern, with the attendant psychosocial consequences.

 

Sociologist Manuel Eisner emphasizes the importance of early intervention: “Prevention needs to be aimed at both parents and children. Parents should learn to rely less on corporal punishment and to create a supportive, constructive environment within the family. Children should also receive help to learn emotional regulation and constructive conflict resolution, even before they start school.”

Box
Methodology

The z-proso longitudinal study in Zurich has tracked the social development of children and young people since 2005. Researchers gathered information on physical aggression against parents from 1,522 participants at six intervals: ages 11, 13, 15, 17, 20 and 24. Risk factors and protective factors were recorded from ages 7 to 11. The data was analyzed using logistic regression.

 

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Journal

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

DOI

What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) new study reviews

WWC has completed 271 new study reviews since October. These include reviews of literacy programs, interventions for students with disabilities, science instructional tools, and many other interventions that seek to improve outcomes for students or teachers. The WWC will continue to release new study reviews to the website. View the WWC’s reviews of studies of educational interventions by searching the reviews of individual studies.