Beth Russell

Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences

Primary Research Theme

Healthy Cities

Secondary Research Themes

People and the City, Social-Ecological Systems

Recent Cities-related Projects

  • Policy and practice implications from the decriminalization of truancy: In recent years, over a third of Hartford students (n = 7, 470) qualified as truant under state statute; moreover, 22.1% were chronically absent, compared to 9.9% statewide. Truancy is linked with juvenile justice system involvement in CT. In 2016, Hartford had 466 truancy referrals to juvenile court, accounting for nearly 19% of the 2, 525 statewide. Public Act 16-147 (Connecticut General Assembly, 2016), passed in Connecticut in 2017, created new requirements “to reduce juvenile justice involvement…in schools with high rates of school-based arrests, disproportionate minority contact, and a high number of juvenile justice referrals.” We face an opportune space to evaluate, understand, and establish the practices that align with de-emphasis of the criminalization of early warning behaviors (e.g., non-serious occurrences in K-8 schools). This changing policy landscape in CT creates an early intervention space with implications for interrupting early patterns of risk that contribute to the school to prison pipeline – a phenomenon well-established as disproportionally burdening disadvantaged communities. In partnership with The Village for Families and Children, I am currently providing a multi-modal evaluation of truancy prevention services to inform new directions in the development of post-decriminalization policy and practice.
  • Evaluation of Early Head Start/Head Start services: In partnership with community partner EastConn, I lead the annual evaluation of Early Head Start/Head Start services for one of CT’s state regions. Each year EastConn provides supports to ~350 families with young children aged birth through 5. Our evaluation aligns with national metrics and provides our partners with important scaffolding to build capacity to strengthen not only their local evaluation, but service provisions writ large.
  • Evaluation of trauma-focused interventions for high risk K-8 students: Traumatic events during childhood are a crucial consideration when addressing students’ social emotional competence (SEC) and are among a set of emerging contemporary issues relevant to the work of administrators, teachers, and support staff to support positive outcomes for the children and families they serve. Childhood trauma is associated with negative impacts on children’s development across domain, including marked effects on academic achievement. Further, research suggests teachers’ trauma-informed has impacts on children’s SEC development and positive classroom environments, thus leading to the creation of Trauma-Informed programming aimed at adaptively engaging children with traumatic experiences to support and overcome trauma-related deficits in social-emotional development without retraumatization (Overstreet & Chafouleas, 2016). Efforts to improve teacher awareness that problem behaviors may stem from underlying issues – including traumatic events experienced at school, at home, or in the community – result in more productive attempts to solve children’s problem behaviors, thus bolstering opportunities for children to learn new social-emotional skills. Importantly, addressing unmet social emotional needs including trauma symptoms can mediate students’ ability to enter the classroom learning environment ready to learn (for example, by proving coping skills to regulate the vigilance, anxiety, or fear that may otherwise interfere with academic engagement). I am the evaluator of one such program in Hartford, CT in partnership with The Village for Families and Children. The evaluation of the trauma-informed school-based intervention uses a treatment- versus comparison-site design to examine impacts on SEC and resilience in a disadvantaged community contending with a high trauma burden. The program sought to bolster children’s social-emotional skills and resilience while reducing trauma symptoms and improving academic performance (e.g., attendance, grades) through teachers’ professional development, supports for students’ positive peer and mentor relationships, and providing students with academic supports both during and after the school day.

Selected Urban-Related Publications

Gordon, M., Russell, B. S., & Finan, L.* (2019).  The influence of parental support and community belonging on socioeconomic status and adolescent substance use over time. Substance Use and Misuse, https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2019.1654513

Russell, B. S., & Guite, J. W. (2019, in press). Parenting impacts from a mindfulness-based intervention for families facing pediatric chronic pain. Journal of Child & Family Studies,Emotion Regulation Outcomes and Preliminary Feasibility Evidence From a Mindfulness Intervention for Adolescent Substance Use Beth S. Russell, Morica Hutchison & Alaina Fusco To cite this article: Beth S. Russell, Morica Hutchison & Alaina Fusco (2019): Emotion Regulation Outcomes and Preliminary Feasibility Evidence From a Mindfulness Intervention for Adolescent Substance Use, Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, DOI: 10.1080/1067828X.2018.1561577 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1067828X.2018.1561577

Guite, J. W., Russell, B. S., Homan, K., J., Tepe, R. M., & Williams, S. E. (2018). Parenting in the context of children’s chronic illness: Balancing care and burden. Children, 5, 161, doi:10.3390/children5120161

Guite, J. W., Russell, B. S., Pantaleao, A.*, Heller, A. T.*, Donohue, E.*, Galica, J., Zempsky, W., & Ohanessian, C. M. (2018). Parents as coping coaches for adolescents with chronic pain: Promoting caregiver self-regulation. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 6(3), 223-237. doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000244″

Lee, S.*, Park, C., & Russell, B. S. (2018). Does distress tolerance interact with trait anxiety to predict challenge or threat appraisals? Personality and Individual Differences, 132, 14-19″

Park, C., Russell. B. S., & Fendrich, M. (2018). Mind-body approaches to prevention and intervention for young adults’ alcohol and other drug use/abuse. Medicines, 5, 64-74. doi:10.3390/medicines5030064″

Russell, B. S., Lincoln, C. R.*, & Starkweather, A., (2018, in press). Distress tolerance as a theoretical mechanism of action for the self-management of chronic conditions. Journal of Holistic Nursing, DOI: 10.1177/0898010118777327.

Elsaesser, C., Russell, B. S., Ohannessian, C. M., & Patton, D. (2017). Parenting in a digital age: Implications for online youth interpersonal violence. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal, 35, 62-72 11/30/2019 Beth Russell | Human Development and Family Sciences https://hdfs.uconn.edu/person/beth-russell/ 2/2″

Russell, B. S. & Gordon, M. (2017). Parenting and adolescent substance use: Moderation effects of community engagement in a nationally representative sample. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 15(5), 1023- 1036. DOI 10.1007/s11469-017-9728-0

Russell, B. S., Simpson, E.*, Flannery, K.*, & Ohannessian, C. M. (2017). The impact of adolescent substance use on family functioning: A mediation of internalizing symptoms. Youth andSociety, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X16688708”

Russell, B. S., Thompson Heller, A.*, & Hutchison, M.* (2017). Differences in adolescent emotion regulation and impulsivity: A group comparison study of school-based recovery students. Substance Use and Misuse, 52(1), 1-12

Russell, B. S., Lee, J. O., Speiker, S., & Oxford, M. L. (2016). Parenting and preschool self-regulation as predictors of social emotional competence in 1st grade. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30(2), 153-169. DOI: 10.1080/02568543.2016.1143414

Russell, B. S., Maksut, J.*, Lincoln, C. R.*, & Leland, A. J.* (2016). Computer-mediated parenting education: Digital family service provision. Children and Youth Services Review, 62, 1-8. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.01.012

Russell, B. S., Leland, A. J.*, & Trudeau, J. J. (2015). Social influence on adolescent polysubstance use: The escalation to opioid use. Substance Use & Misuse, 50(10), 1325-1331, DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2015.1013128

Russell, B.S., & Lincoln, C. R.* (2015). Distress tolerance and emotion regulation: Promoting maternal mental health across the transition to parenthood. Parenting: Science & Practice, 16 (1), 22-35. DOI:10.1080/15295192.2016.1116893