Prevention and School Transitions

For the first time in one volume, the top researchers and theorists in the field of school transitions describe their most recent theoretical and practical work. This broad overview of theory and interventions for children and adolescents undergoing school transitions is an invaluable guide for scientists and practitioners looking for ways to help children cope with both routine and unexpected changes. Prevention and School Transitions helps professionals design prevention programs that ease transitions for children and adolescents transferring from middle school to high school, moving to schools in new towns, switching to schools with better academic programs, or transferring to alternative schools.Students who go through transitions face an increased risk for academic difficulties and emotional and social problems caused by changes in curriculum and new standards of acceptance by peer groups and teachers. Prevention and School Transitions provides parents, school personnel, mental health professionals, and educational and psychological researchers with new ways of thinking about preventive interventions for children confronted with the challenges of succeeding in new school settings. Some of the innovative programs and theories presented include:


a prevention program that restructured a high school and resulted in reduced dropout rates, improved school performance, and better attendance

a dropout prevention program that extended homeroom teachers'involvement beyond academics, reorganized the school environment to minimize class changes, and established a communication system between parents and teachers

a study of the effects of transition to an alternative school on grade point averages, attendance rates, and matriculation

a mentoring program that assists post partum mothers in transition back to high school

a study of the risk factors and resources used during transition to life after high schoolThese insightful chapters help psychologists, school counselors, concerned parents, and mental health workers better understand the complicated sets of relationships between different components of school systems and appreciate how schools create and use new resources. Readers will also see how school and family environments shape students'adaptation and assess the changing demands for children's adaptive capacities over time.