Practical Approaches to Evaluating Progress and Outcomes in Community-Wide Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives.

This paper presents an overview of the key evaluation components for a set of community-wide teen pregnancy prevention initiatives. We first describe the performance measures selected to assess progress toward meeting short-term objectives on the reach and quality of implementation of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention interventions and adolescent reproductive health services. Next, we describe an evaluation that will compare teen birth rates in intervention communities relative to synthetic control communities.

Gender differences in patterns of child risk across programmatic phases of the CMHI: a multiple group latent class analysis (LCA).

Data from 18,437 children enrolled in the national evaluation of the Children's Mental Health Initiative between 1994 and 2005 were used to examine the evolution of patterns of risk among boys and girls across funding phases using multigroup latent class analysis. Consistent with previous research, this study identified four subgroups of children with similar patterns of child risk. Membership to these risk subgroups varied as a function of age and was associated with differences in impairment levels.

Patterns of functional impairment and their change among youth served in systems of care: an application of latent transition analysis.

This study describes patterns of youth functioning at intake and 6 months into services in systems of care and change in functioning profiles. Participants included 2,826 males and 1,335 females aged 5 to 18 at intake. Functional impairment was assessed at intake and 6 months.

Trends in characteristics of children served by the Children's Mental Health Initiative: 1994-2007.

Data from 14 years of the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program were used to understand the trends of the emotional and behavioral problems and demographic characteristics of children entering services. The data for this study were derived from information collected at intake into service in 90 sites who received their initial federal funding between 1993 and 2004. The findings from this study suggest children entering services later in a site's funding cycle had lower levels of behavioral problems and children served in sites funded later in the 14 year period had higher levels of behavioral problems.

The potential to reduce mental health disparities through the comprehensive community mental health services for children and their families program.

Few service systems are currently in place with the explicit purpose to reduce youth mental health disparities across socioeconomic status and race-ethnicity, despite substantial interest by the federal government and other institutions to redress health disparities. This study examines the potential for the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program to address health disparities, even though this program was not explicitly designed for disparity reduction. Specifically, this study examines whether program sites disproportionately provide services within their catchment areas for youth who come from poor families, who are Black, and who are Hispanic.

Evidence-based treatments in the field: a brief report on provider knowledge, implementation, and practice.

This study examined familiarity, perceived effectiveness, and implementation of evidence-based treatments for children in community settings. A sample of service providers in agencies affiliated with federal programs to improve children's mental health services was identified using a snowball sampling procedure. Forty-four percent of the sample (n = 616) responded to a Web-based survey designed to collect data on evidence-based treatments.

The prevalence and correlates of abuse among children with autism served in comprehensive community-based mental health settings.

Objective: To determine the demographic and psychosocial correlates of physical and sexual abuse among children with autism.

Methods: Data collected from 1997 to 2000 through the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program on 156 children with autism were used. Data included a baseline assessment of child and family psychosocial experiences and presenting problems associated with referral into system-of-care service, demographic information, and a clinical record review to obtain psychiatric diagnosis.

Characteristics of children with autistic spectrum disorders served in comprehensive community-based mental health settings.

This study describes the characteristics of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) receiving treatment in community mental health settings. Data from a national community mental health initiative was used to identify children who had received a primary diagnosis of ASD. These children were compared with children with other diagnoses on socio-demographic and psychosocial characteristics, presenting problems and service histories.

Gender differences in patterns of risk factors among children receiving mental health services: latent class analyses.

Latent class analyses were used to analyze data from a sample of children participating in the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Communities Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (N = 6786). Lifetime risk experiences of the child were analyzed to identify 4 classes of boys and girls with similar risk patterns. While low-risk, status-offense, abuse, and high-risk classes were identified for both boys and girls, there were nearly half the number of girls in the low-risk class, almost as many in the status-offense class, twice as many in the abuse class, and more than 3 three times as many in the high-risk class as there were boys.

Gender, occupational, and socioeconomic correlates of alcohol and drug abuse among U.S. rural, metropolitan, and urban residents.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and correlates of alcohol and drug abuse and dependence among rural, urban, and metropolitan U.S. residents.

School-based mental health services in Baltimore: association with school climate and special education referrals.

This study investigated the association between school-based mental health services and two proposed but untested outcomes of these services: (a) school climate and (b) patterns of referrals to special education. Results from a climate survey found that teachers and staff in eight elementary schools with expanded school mental health (ESMH) services gave higher ratings on the survey's mental health climate subscale than respondents from schools in a matched comparison group. No differences were found for the General Climate subscale of the survey.