The Longitudinal Relationship Between Peer Relations and Empathy and their Joint Contribution to Reducing Bullying in Middle School: Findings from a Randomized Trial of Cooperative Learning

Technology-supported cooperative learning as a universal mental health intervention in middle and high school

BACKGROUND

Adolescent mental health issues are a major public health concern, highlighted by the US Surgeon General as a crisis. Traditional school-based interventions show inconsistent success, creating a demand for effective solutions.

AIMS

This study evaluates the impact of technology-supported cooperative learning (CL) on adolescent mental health, focusing on positive peer relations and peer victimization.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants included 813 adolescents (50.2% female; 70.7% White) from 12 middle and high schools in the Pacific Northwest. The study used hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) to assess the effectiveness of CL facilitated via PeerLearning.net.

RESULTS

Implementing CL led to significant improvements in peer relations and reductions in victimization and mental health problems, with moderate-to-large effect sizes observed across different demographics. Positive peer relations significantly predicted lower victimization and improved mental health.

DISCUSSION

The findings highlight the potential of technology-supported CL in addressing adolescent mental health by enhancing protective factors and reducing risks. Such interventions offer a scalable and sustainable approach for schools to address mental health challenges.

CONCLUSION

Technology-supported cooperative learning offers a promising strategy for improving adolescent mental health, demonstrating significant benefits in peer relations and reducing victimization. This approach provides schools with an accessible and effective tool to tackle the mental health crisis among students.

Universal School-Based Substance Use Prevention Using Technology-Supported Cooperative Learning

Substance use in adolescence is a significant public health issue, particularly in early-to-mid adolescence, which represents a window of risk in the etiology of substance abuse and dependence. Substance use during this development period often results from affiliation with deviant peers, who model, facilitate, and reinforce use. Existing school-based substance use prevention programs have historically aimed to build adolescent knowledge regarding the dangers of substance use and/or enhance peer refusal skills. Research finds that these programs have had some success in reducing substance use, but meta-analyses report that average effect sizes are small. In a small one-year cluster randomized trial (12 middle and high schools; N = 813 students; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04478240), cooperative learning (CL) was implemented with the support of specialized technology and evaluated for its ability to reduce deviant peer affiliation and, in turn, reduce substance use. CL is a structured approach to small-group learning that provides at-risk youth with the opportunity to build friendships with more prosocial youth, interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering. Multi-level modeling revealed intervention effects for deviant peer affiliation and alcohol use across the sample, while tobacco use was significantly reduced among non-White students; intervention effects for marijuana use were only marginally significant. Effects for dosage were found for all outcomes, suggesting that every lesson taught had a significant impact. We conclude that CL, delivered with the aid of specialized technology, represents a viable option for universal substance use prevention. Future research should attempt to combine this approach with evidence-based prevention curricula.

Evaluating an inclusive program for promoting equal-status participation in classrooms with high sociolinguistic diversity: diversity valuation and multilingual cooperative activities

Introduction

The inclusion of students with diverse heritage languages is an emerging issue in all OECD countries due to the global rise in international migration. With regard to their large cultural and linguistic heterogeneity, primary school classes in the French-speaking region of Switzerland are extraordinary grounds to develop inclusive teaching in context of high diversity. This research-action aims to enhance students' status among their peers and promote equal-status participation in academic activities in such classes. The research perspective focuses on valuing diversity within classes and emphasizing students' linguistic competence through cooperative activities.

Methods

The tested inclusive program places value on linguistic diversity and proposes multilingual cooperative activities that involve students' family languages and require the contributions of all students. The research was conducted over the course of a school year, involving 3rd-4th grade students. It compared the evolution students' status among peers (being chosen as a groupmate for play and work) from the beginning to the end of the school year in four classes with the inclusive program (N = 77) and four control classes without the inclusive program (N = 62).

Results

The results indicated expected changes in status: status increased in classes with the inclusive program, while it decreased in classes without the program. Moreover, the intervention specifically supported the status of vulnerable pupils. In classes with the inclusive program, students with initially low status experienced the greatest improvement, whereas in control classes, there was no correlation between initial status and changes in status. At the beginning of the school year, across all classes, students with low status participated passively, experiencing higher levels of exclusion and displaying more discrete behavior, highlighting potential initial status-problems issues. This pattern persisted in control classes without the inclusive program, where low-status students were more likely to remain passive, while initially high- status students were more likely to become leaders. In contrast, with the inclusive program, the relationship between status and participation diminished by the end of the year.

Discussion

These findings suggest that the inclusive program contributed to reducing status-related problems and promoting more equal-status participation.