The Relationship Between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness

Join us on October 14 (2pm EST), when our guest, Dr. Damon Jones, discusses the findings of a recently published study in the American Journal of Public Health. This study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation suggests that kindergarten students who are more inclined to exhibit “social competence” traits—such sharing, cooperating, or helping other kids—may be more likely to attain higher education and well-paying jobs. Damon Jones, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at Penn State’s Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, serving as a program evaluator and methodologist for several family and youth behavioral interventions and prevention programs.  A focus of his research has been toward understanding the public costs associated with behavior disorders, which has included authoring several publications on the potential economic value of effective efforts to improve developmental outcomes in children and youth.   He has several years of experience with cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit assessments as well as overseeing several project resource evaluations.  His work has also included investigations of health and mental health service needs for at risk populations, involving design of data collection streams for collecting detailed health services use information.  He received his Ph.D. in Quantitative Methods from Vanderbilt University in 2002.This promises to be an amazing discussion.  Listen in and participate!  October 14 - 2:00pm EST.