A roadmap to equitable school mental health screening.

Youth in the United States are experiencing mental health concerns at alarming rates. Considering the nation's legacy of racism and growing recognition of the impact of social determinants of health on educational and mental health inequities, it is imperative to re-envision how we approach mental health screening in schools to center equity. A focus on mental health screening for the sole purpose of identifying individual at-risk students ignores key contextual considerations, is ineffective in addressing health and educational inequities, and has the potential to perpetuate oppressive practices in schools.

Associations of School Diversity with Students' Race-based Victimization and School Connectedness: A Combined Influence of Student and Teacher Racial/Ethnic Diversity and Socioeconomic Diversity.

School diversity has been shown to be associated with students' school experiences. However, most studies have focused solely on student racial/ethnic diversity, in spite of the multifaceted nature of diversity. This study assessed how the combined influence of student and teacher racial/ethnic diversity and socioeconomic diversity were related to race-based victimization, school connectedness, and racial/ethnic disparities of these outcomes.

Comparing Informants for Mental Health Screening at the Preschool Level.

Universal screening for mental health in preschools provides the opportunity for early identification and early intervention, but guidance regarding which informants to use is needed. Preschoolers' ( = 535) parent and teacher reports across two screening forms were analyzed to determine similarities and discrepancies for classification results and screener scores. The analyses also examined if an additional rater provided incrementally valid information to the prediction of longitudinal kindergarten outcomes.

Moving towards Implementation of Universal Mental Health Screening by Examining Attitudes toward School-based Practices.

Universal mental health screening is a proactive approach to identify students who may benefit from prevention or early intervention services. Despite known benefits, few schools are engaging in screening efforts and it is critical to examine factors that may impede or enhance implementation. Following implementation of a universal screening program across five preschools and elementary schools, this study investigated the attitudes of teachers ( = 40) and parents ( = 330) and found strong agreement among stakeholders about the acceptability and appropriateness of universal mental health screening.

Extending Validation of a Social Emotional Health Measure For Middle School Students.

Unlabelled: The Social Emotional Health Survey-Secondary-2020 (SEHS-S-2020) is a well-studied option for assessing social emotional health to support students within a multitiered system of school support. While a growing body of literature supports the SEHS-S-2020 measure for assessing student covitality, there is less validation evidence specifically for middle-school-aged students. The present study aimed to fill this gap in the literature by examining its use for younger adolescents.

Social support profiles associations with adolescents' psychological and academic functioning.

Social support is empirically linked to improved adolescent psychological and academic functioning. This study explored typologies characterized by family, peer, and school support among students in early (Grade 7; n = 27,399) and late (Grade 11; n = 27,984) adolescence. We assessed how each latent profile related to key aspects of psychological and academic functioning and the moderation of gender in these associations.

Heterogeneity Among Moderate Mental Health Students on the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF).

Measures of positive well-being are needed to support the shift away from a deficit-based approach to mental health. This study examined one measure, the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), as a measure of positive well-being used in school-based mental health monitoring efforts. This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to explore the mental health classifications of 10,880 California high school students' responses to MHC-SF emotional, psychological, and social well-being items.

Cyberbullying victimization and student engagement among adolescents: Does school climate matter?

Although the psychological impacts of cyberbullying victimization (CBV) have been documented, research is inconclusive about the role of contextual factors in the association between CBV and student engagement. Sampling 16,237 adolescents from 43 schools in Delaware, we used multilevel modeling to test how CBV was associated with emotional and cognitive-behavioral engagement at both the student and school levels, with the control for demographic factors and traditional bullying victimization (TBV). We also examined the moderating effects of school climate and grade level on the association between CBV and student engagement.

An Empirical Approach to Complete Mental Health Classification in Adolescents.

Using latent profile analysis (LPA), this study empirically identified dual-factor mental health subtypes, with a goal of examining structural stability of emerging latent classes over three high school years. Profiles' relations with distal indicators of well-being, psychosocial distress, and self-reported grades were examined to explore the validity of emerging classes. A sample of 332 high school students reported on their social-emotional strengths and psychological distress during the fall term of their ninth-, tenth-, and eleventh-grade years.

Languishing Students: Linking Complete Mental Health Screening in Schools to Tier II Intervention.

Despite innovations in the screening and early identification of students who may benefit from school mental health services, many schools struggle to link screening to intervention decisions, particularly at the Tier II level. Universal complete mental health screening, which measures strengths along with risk factors, is a strength-based approach that enables identification of students who do not report active mental health risk yet have limited psychosocial strengths. These languishing students are ideal candidates for Tier II interventions.

A latent transition analysis of the longitudinal stability of dual-factor mental health in adolescence.

Dual-factor models of mental health are increasingly supported but little is known about longitudinal trends in dual-factor mental health. The current study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to empirically identify dual-factor mental health classes at each of Grades 9 through 12 and latent transition analysis (LTA) to examine stability of classes over four academic years. A sample of 875 adolescents from two cohorts reported on their social-emotional strengths and psychological distress.

Bullying victimization and student engagement in elementary, middle, and high schools: Moderating role of school climate.

Bullying is the most common form of school violence and is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including traumatic responses. This study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the multilevel moderating effects of school climate and school level (i.e.

Examining the BASC-3 BESS Parent Form-Preschool Using Rasch Methodology.

This study examined the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Third Edition Behavioral and Emotional Screening System, Parent Form-Preschool, which is used to identify children at risk for emotional/behavioral problems. Rasch rating scale methods were used to provide information about psychometric properties of items, parent raters, and the response scale. Using the norming sample of 459 children, we investigated the structure of the screener, performance of the scale, and coverage of the maladaptive behavior construct to identify children with emerging behavioral difficulties.

University student voices on healing and recovery following tragedy.

Objective: Guided by conservation of resources theory, this study provides empirical data on students' psychosocial adjustment following a mass murder tragedy, what changed or did not change from their pretragedy adjustment levels, and their view on what helped most in the immediate aftermath.

Method: Students (n = 593) who participated in a study of college adjustment the year prior to a mass murder that affected the university community were recontacted following the tragedy, providing prospective, longitudinal data (n = 141 pretragedy Time 1 and posttragedy; n = 73 pretragedy Times 1 and 2 and posttragedy).

Results: For both anxiety and depression, repeated-measures analysis of variance showed a significant Time × Resource Loss interaction.

Effects of mischievous responding on universal mental health screening: I love rum raisin ice cream, really I do!

Student surveys are often used for school-based mental health screening; hence, it is critical to evaluate the authenticity of information obtained via the self-report format. The objective of this study was to examine the possible effects of mischievous response patterns on school-based screening results. The present study included 1,857 high school students who completed a schoolwide screening for complete mental health.

Factor structure and differential item functioning of the BASC-2 BESS Spanish Language Parent Form.

Given the steady increase of students from diverse backgrounds in the U.S. educational system, in particular immigrant and Latino students, it is important to consider how to best support all students within our schools.

Surveillance of middle and high school mental health risk by student self-report screener.

Introduction: A 2009 National Academies of Sciences report on child mental health prevention and treatment concluded that screening for mental health risk is an essential component of service delivery. To date, however, there are few practical assessments available or practices in place that measure individual child risk, or risk aggregated at the school or community level. This study examined the utility of a 30-item paper and pencil student self-report screener of behavioral and emotional risk (BER) for surveying community risk among 7 schools.

A factor analytic investigation of the BASC-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Parent Form: psychometric properties, practical implications, and future directions.

The Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Parent Form (BESS Parent; Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007) is a recently developed instrument designed to identify behavioral and emotional risk in students. To describe the underlying factor structure for this instrument, exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted utilizing two subsets of a large, nationally-representative sample. The results of the EFA suggested that the BESS Parent contained a four-factor latent structure (i.

Factor structure of the BASC-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Student Form.

The BASC-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) Student Form (Kamphaus & Reynolds, 2007) is a recently developed youth self-report rating scale designed to identify students at risk for behavioral and emotional problems. The BESS Student Form was derived from the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition Self-Report of Personality (BASC-2 SRP; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004) using principal component analytic procedures and theoretical considerations. Using 3 samples, the authors conducted exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to understand the underlying factor structure of the BESS Student Form.

Protecting and promoting: an integrative conceptual model for healthy development of adolescents.

Resilience and positive youth development have substantial overlap and offer complementary perspectives on fostering healthy youth development. However, these two areas have not yet been fully integrated into a unified approach, one that has the potential to build on the interconnectedness of risk, protection, and assets within the ecological systems affecting adolescent development. This article draws on extant research to delineate linkages between the risk and resilience and positive youth development literatures.

School-Based Screening: A Population-Based Approach to Inform and Monitor Children's Mental Health Needs.

School-based mental health professionals often conduct assessments and provide interventions on an individual basis to students with significant needs. However, due to increasingly limited resources and continuing high levels of need, a shift in service delivery is warranted. Efforts to move school psychological services from reactive and individual, to preventive and universal are ongoing.

Screening for conduct disorder in an adolescent male sample from Colombia.

This study assessed the validity, reliability, and utility of a screening measure for detecting the signs or symptoms of Conduct Disorder in male adolescents from schools in Medellín, Colombia. A first study examined the differences between 70 male offender adolescents (aged 12-16 years) attending alternative education institutions, and 68 (sex, age, and socioeconomic status (SES)-matched) adolescent controls attending regular schools. A CD checklist (CD-CL) was constructed to be used by mothers (CD-CL-M) and for self-report by adolescents (CD-CL-SR).