Browsing by Author "Anderson, Lindsay"
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Item Impatiens repens - New Crop Summary & Recommendations(2008) Anderson, LindsayItem Relationships between Social-Emotional Skills, Family Connectedness, School Engagement and Mental Health Concerns among Middle School Students(2021-02) Anderson, LindsayNormative developmental tasks of early adolescents, occurring in the context of heightened academic demands, increased societal violence, and a current global pandemic, put youth at risk for mental health concerns. Family connectedness, school engagement, and social-emotional skills show promise as protective factors against such concerns. Guided by the Ecological Model for Health Promotion, the aim of the study was to describe associations between family connectedness, school engagement, social-emotional skills, and mental health concerns among middle school students. This study used de-identified data from a larger scale project that involved students from public middle schools in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. The study used both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses to evaluate relationships between social-emotional skills (empathy, problem-solving, self-awareness, social competency, mindfulness), family connectedness (caring relationships at home and high expectations at home), school engagement, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. The study found higher levels of social-emotional skills were generally associated with lower risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms in 8th grade. Self-awareness and mindfulness skills were shown as especially promising in reducing risk of these mental health concerns. Family connectedness, particularly caring relationships at home measured in 7th grade, was shown to significantly reduce risk of depressive and anxiety symptoms in 8th grade, with self-awareness found to partially mediate the relationship between family connectedness and mental health concerns. Affective engagement, a measure of school engagement in 7th grade, was not shown to be significantly associated with risk of anxiety or depressive symptoms in 8th grade. Study findings highlight the importance and impact of both intrapersonal and interpersonal factors in reducing risk for anxiety and depressive symptoms among early adolescents.Item Understanding Evaluation's Influence on Stakeholders' Attitudes and Actions at a Social Services Organization(2021-06) Anderson, LindsayResearch and discussions of evaluation use have a long history in the field of evaluation. Recently, discussions of evaluation use have expanded to include the concept of evaluation influence in an attempt to better understand the impact of evaluation through a variety of approaches. Much of the existing research on evaluation use focuses on how and under what conditions evaluations are used by stakeholders. However, to date, limited research on evaluation influence exists and less is known about the specific ways in which evaluation may influence stakeholders’ attitudes and actions. This study focused on building an understanding of how stakeholder attitudes and actions towards evaluation change as a result of being involved in an evaluation process. An exploratory qualitative approach and case study design was used. The case was a single social services agency. An evaluation of the social service agency’s employment program took place. Participants involved in the study were interviewed before and after the evaluation took place to better understand how they were using evaluation and their attitudes towards evaluation. This study found evaluation influenced stakeholders in multiple ways at the individual, interpersonal, and collective levels. The research demonstrated 1) people recognize the value of evaluation, but in different ways; 2) evaluation is more than just about the results, the process matters; 3) evaluation influences participants at multiple levels of an organization; 4) participating in an evaluation does influence stakeholders’ attitudes towards evaluation in positive ways; 5) evaluation is important in facilitating communication among key stakeholders; and 6) evaluation has the potential to influence future evaluation activities.