Areas of Expertise
Behavior Change Communication in Developing Countries
AIR implements behavior change communication programs that build the capacity of a developing country’s staff to conduct research and to design and implement information campaigns. These campaigns result in changed community behaviors based on the unique and culturally appropriate aspects of each community. For example, improvements in community health often depend on changing behaviors among community residents. Reducing diarrheal disease often requires community involvement to change how the community accesses and stores water, as well as how it practices hygiene. Reducing illness and death due to malaria in a community may have more to do with community mobilization to change attitudes about the use of bed-nets than to a reduction of mosquitoes. In order to change these behaviors, research identifies the reasons behind the current behavior. Information is also disseminated that aims to change the way perceptions about risk, danger, and incentives inform behavior.
Recent Projects
Behavior in the Educational Setting
AIR conducts research and evaluation, synthesizes information, and provides technical assistance regarding positive behavioral and relational approaches to student behavior and school discipline. AIR staff use research to identify effective and ineffective approaches, and to study and support the scale–up and alignment of evidence- and theory-based approaches. AIR’s foci include individual, classroom-based, school-wide, and community-supported approaches to improving student behavior and school discipline.
Recent Reports
- NIDA Notes: Behavior Game Reduces Later Drug-Related Problems
- Student Victimization in U.S. Public Schools: Results from the 2005 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey
- Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007
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Recent Projects
- Anchorage Social and Emotional Learning and School Climate Analysis
- Center for Integrating Education and Prevention Research (EdPrev)
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Recent Products
Behavior Modeling
AIR’s applied behavioral modeling work provides scientific support to programs investigating asymmetric conflicts, behavioral threat detection, and emergency response. We support these initiatives by:
- applying statistical and measurement techniques,
- broadening the scope of the scientific basis for addressing these problems,
- evaluating research programs against best practices,
- implementing high quality database development procedures, and
- creating unique experimental designs to answer key behavioral research questions.
Recent Reports
- NIDA Notes: Behavior Game Reduces Later Drug-Related Problems
- Building Capacity: An Evaluation of Florida Literacy and Reading Excellence (FLaRE) Professional Development to High Schools
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Recent Projects
Recent Products
Bullying
Any child can be bullied, and up to half of all children are bullied at some point during their school years. Technology makes it easier for tech-savvy kids to intimidate others through cyberbullying and other forms of electronic harassment – even at school. AIR’s experts have helped establish measures for collecting student- and school-level data on bullying behavior at school in expertise areas like traditional bullying and cyberbullying. AIR conducts extensive statistical and descriptive analyses on the prevalence and correlates of bullying in schools. AIR staff have served as content area experts to national surveys and regional organizations conducting research on bullying in their locales.
Recent Reports
- Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007
- Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools, Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety
- Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2006
- View All Reports
Recent Projects
