Group-Centered Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students

School psychologists, counselors, and educators in the K-12 setting face the daunting responsibility of finding balance between mandated testing, students’ mental-health concerns, and additional academic help for at-risk students. One solution to this dilemma is to implement a school-based mental health approach that combines learning and counseling needs into a single program. Several types of successful programs are available, though week-long intensive programs have recently increased in popularity.

Group-Centered Prevention Programs for At-Risk Students focuses on the development of such a week-long prevention program, and provides professionals with step-by-step directions to create their own program. It also focuses on the use of group-centered interventions as an opportunity to prevent at-risk behaviors as a means of correcting or changing dysfunctional behavior.

This highly readable volume addresses such challenging issues as:

• Using self-reflection to teach writing skills.
• Increasing interpersonal interaction while honing etiquette.
• Enhancing group acceptance and reading comprehension.
• Rebuilding self-efficacy by increasing word recognition and decoding skills.

With its solid research foundation combined with clear, practical program descriptions, this volume is an essential addition to the libraries of researchers and practitioners alike in the disciplines of school psychology, education, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, and clinical child psychology.

Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph.D., is a motivational psychologist specializing in group-centered motivational program design. She has 38 years experience designing and conducting motivational programs for children and youth. Dr. Clanton Harpine earned her doctorate in Educational Psychology, Counseling from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Clanton Harpine has published 10 nonfiction books, including Group Interventions in Schools: Promoting Mental Health for At-Risk Children and Youth (2008). And No Experience Necessary! which received an Award of Excellence in 1995 and was selected as one of the top five children’s books in its class. Other published children’s writings include a two volume series entitled, Come Follow Me, in 2001, a three-volume family series completed in 2003, a youth book in 1989 along with numerous articles for teenagers on peer pressure, coping with failure, alcohol abuse, parents, suicide, and more recently, articles on using group-centered interventions in the schools. Other published writings include a series on Erasing Failure in the Classroom, a series of ready-to-use group-centered program packets: Vol. 1, the Camp Sharigan program (2nd ed., 2010) and Vol. 2, Vowel Clustering (2010). The program packet for the Reading Orienteering Club (Vol 3.) is scheduled for release in 2011.

Dr. Clanton Harpine has been interviewed on local early morning TV and radio concerning her workshop ＂Communication for Married Couples＂ and has been interviewed on local university radio concerning her work with inner-city children.

Her research for the past nine years has focused on using group-centered interventions with at-risk readers. Dr. Clanton Harpine designed the motivational reading program called, Camp Sharigan, which she has used extensively in her work and research. She also designed the Reading Orienteering Club after-school program and 4-Step Method for teaching at-risk children to read. Her research with these programs has been published in psychological journals and reported through presentations at the American Psychological Association’s annual conventions.

In recent years, Dr. Clanton Harpine has been teaching Group Therapy and Counseling, Lifespan Development, and Human Growth and Development at the University of South Carolina Aiken and is continuing her research with group-centered interventions. She is the editor for the ＂Prevention Corner＂ column which appears quarterly in The Group Psychologist. She was selected for inclusion in Who’s Who of American Women, 2006-2010, for her work with children in inner-city neighborhoods.