Implementing depression care in under-resourced communities: a school-based family resilience skill-building pilot randomized controlled trial in the United States.

Introduction: Youth in under-resourced communities are more likely to have greater social risk factors for mental health needs yet have less access to needed care. School-based mental health services are effective in treating common disorders such as adolescent depression; however, few have a family-centered approach, which may especially benefit specific populations.

Methods: Utilizing a community-partnered approach, we adapted an established, trauma-informed, resilience skill-building family intervention for adolescents with depression.

Creating a Statistical Analysis Plan to Continually Evaluate Intervention Adaptations that Arise in Real-World Implementation.

Evidence-based health interventions are frequently translated into real-world settings where practical needs drive changes to intervention protocols. Due to logistical and resource constraints, these naturally arising adaptations are rarely assessed for comparative effectiveness using a randomized trial. Nevertheless, when observational data are available, it is still possible to identify beneficial adaptations using statistical methods that adjust for differences among intervention groups.

Adolescent Feelings on COVID-19 Distance Learning Support: Associations With Mental Health, Social-Emotional Health, Substance Use, and Delinquency.

Purpose: School social support is associated with improved adolescent wellbeing. However, positive school relationships were potentially disrupted when schools transitioned to distance learning in 2020 to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This study investigated associations among perceived distance learning school support, mental health, social-emotional wellbeing, substance use, and delinquency among low-income, public high school students.

Outcome of the AVID College Preparatory Program on Adolescent Health: A Randomized Trial.

Background And Objectives: Academic tracking is a widespread practice, separating students by prior academic performance. Clustering lower performing students together may unintentionally reinforce risky peer social networks, school disengagement, and risky behaviors. If so, mixing lower performing with high performing youth ("untracking") may be protective, leading to better adolescent health.

Comparing the prevalence of sexual behaviors and victimization among adolescents based on child welfare system involvement.

Objective: Sexual behavior presents risks, particularly among vulnerable groups such as adolescents with child welfare system involvement. This study compares the prevalence of sexual behaviors and victimization among adolescents in Los Angeles County with and without child welfare system involvement. It examines associations between online and offline sexual behaviors and victimization.

The role of resilience and gender: Understanding the relationship between risk for traumatic stress, resilience, and academic outcomes among minoritized youth.

Objective: Minoritized students experience high trauma rates which can impact academic outcomes, and experiences may differ between males and females. We investigated the relationship between traumatic stress and academic outcomes by gender among predominantly minoritized students, and whether resilience-building assets can mediate the relationship between traumatic stress and academic outcomes.

Method: School administrative data were linked to survey data from 9th graders in 2016-2018 across 37 West Coast schools.

Beyond Co-Location: Development of a School Health Integration Measure.

Background: School-based health centers (SBHCs) can integrate health and educational services to achieve common goals of student wellness and success. As no method exists to quantify the degree of integration for clinics and partner schools, this study aimed to design such a measure.

Methods: Measure items were drafted from the literature.

Implementing a School-Based, Trauma-Informed Resilience Curriculum for Parents.

"Families OverComing Under Stress" (FOCUS) Resilience Curriculum for Parents (FRC-P) is a trauma-informed group parenting program adapted for school social workers to deliver to parents of racial/ethnic minority urban public schoolchildren, an under-researched group of parents in the literature. The objective was to describe implementation of the pilot FRC-P in terms of possible effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability. Social workers delivered FRC-P to parents at 16 schools.

Teachers and School Health Leaders' Perspectives on Distance Learning Physical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers have transitioned to online learning. The transition required changes in teaching practices to accommodate for an online learning environment. However, there are no studies characterizing physical educators' and school health experts' perspectives on physical education via distance learning or identifying best practices and their implications for student health.

Reducing Missed Opportunities for Human Papillomavirus Vaccination in School-Based Health Centers: Impact of an Intervention.

Objective: Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization rates among US adolescents are low. Missed opportunities (MOs) for HPV vaccination are common. School-based health centers (SBHCs) have potential to boost HPV vaccination, but their role in addressing MOs has not been examined.

Receipt of Corrective Lenses and Academic Performance of Low-Income Students.

Objective: Untreated vision problems are associated with poor school performance. Whether providing glasses alone improves performance, however, remains unknown. We sought to test whether receiving glasses was associated with improved school performance for low-income minority students in Los Angeles.

Mentoring beginning immigrant teachers: How culture may impact the message.

Beginning immigrant teachers may experience cross-cultural conflicts because their home cultures may differ in important ways from U.S. school culture.

Applying a Trauma Informed School Systems Approach: Examples from School Community-Academic Partnerships.

Objectives: Schools can play an important role in addressing the effects of traumatic stress on students by providing prevention, early intervention, and intensive treatment for children exposed to trauma. This article aims to describe key domains for implementing trauma-informed practices in schools.

Design: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) has identified trauma-informed domains and principles for use across systems of care.

Adapting and Implementing a School-Based Resilience-Building Curriculum Among Low-Income Racial and Ethnic Minority Students.

Although youth are at risk for exposure to adversity and trauma, many youth, especially ethnic and racial minorities, do not have access to mental health care. Resilience-building curriculums can teach important internal resilience skills and provide support to students who may not receive prevention or treatment services. We adapted a resilience curriculum initially used for military-connected youth facing adversities related to parental wartime deployments, to meet the needs of low-income, predominantly racial and ethnic minority students in a large urban school district.

Evaluation of the dissemination of SNaX, a middle school-based obesity prevention intervention, within a large US school district.

Few evidence-based school obesity-prevention programs are disseminated. We used community-based participatory research principles to disseminate an evidence-based middle-school obesity-prevention program, Students for Nutrition and eXercise (SNaX), to a large, primarily Latino, school district. In the 2014-2015 school year, we trained a district "champion" to provide training and technical assistance to schools and supplied print- and web-based materials (www.

Associations Between Sexting Behaviors and Sexual Behaviors Among Mobile Phone-Owning Teens in Los Angeles.

The implications of teen sexting for healthy development continue to concern parents, academics, and the general public. Using a probability sample of high school students (N = 1,208) aged 12-18, the prevalence of sexting, associations with sexting, and associations between sexing and sexual activity were assessed. Seventeen percent both sent and received sexts, and 24% only received sexts.

A school-based public health model to reduce oral health disparities.

Objectives: Although dental decay is preventable, it remains the most common pediatric chronic disease. We describe a public health approach to implementing a scalable and sustainable school-based oral health program for low-income urban children.

Methods: The Los Angeles Trust for Children's Health, a nonprofit affiliated with the Los Angeles Unified School District, applied a public health model and developed a broad-based community-coalition to a) establish a District Oral Health Nurse position to coordinate oral health services, and b) implement a universal school-based oral health screening and fluoride varnishing program, with referral to a dental home.

Home Sweet Home: Parent and Home Environmental Factors in Adolescent Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages.

Objective: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are key contributors to obesity among youth. We investigated associations among parental and home-related factors (parental attitudes and consumption; home availability) regarding 3 types of SSBs-soda, sports drinks, and fruit-flavored drinks-with consumption of each type of SSB in a general school-based sample of adolescents.

Methods: Data were collected across 3 school semesters, from 2009 to 2011.

Effects of pediatric asthma care coordination in underserved communities on parent perceptions of care and asthma-management confidence.

Objective: Disparities by race and socioeconomic status persist in pediatric asthma morbidity, mortality, and treatment. Improving parent/provider communication and parents' asthma-management confidence may result in better asthma control in vulnerable populations. The Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc.

Pediatric Asthma Care Coordination in Underserved Communities: A Quasiexperimental Study.

Objectives: To assess the effect of care coordination on asthma outcomes among children in underserved urban communities.

Methods: We enrolled children, most of whom had very poorly or not well-controlled asthma, in medical-social care coordination programs in Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2011 to 2014. Participants (n = 805; mean age = 7 years) were 60% male, 50% African American, and 42% Latino.

The "Retrofitting" Approach to Adapting Evidence-Based Interventions: A Case Study of Pediatric Asthma Care Coordination, United States, 2010-2014.

Adaptation of evidence-based interventions upon implementation into new practice settings is universal, yet poorly understood. During a cross-site evaluation of the implementation of a proven intervention for pediatric asthma care coordination into 4 resource-challenged settings, we conducted in-depth interviews with site representatives, who reported how and why they modified intervention components. Interview notes were coded for themes.

Two-Year BMI Outcomes From a School-Based Intervention for Nutrition and Exercise: A Randomized Trial.

Objectives: This study examined the long-term effects on BMI of a randomized controlled trial of Students for Nutrition and Exercise, a 5-week, middle school-based obesity prevention intervention combining school-wide environmental changes, encouragement to eat healthy school cafeteria foods, and peer-led education and marketing.

Methods: We randomly selected schools from the Los Angeles Unified School District and assigned 5 to the intervention group and 5 to a wait-list control group. Of the 4022 seventh-graders across schools, a total of 1368 students had their height and weight assessed at baseline and 2 years' postintervention.

Preschool Deployment of Evidence-Based Social Communication Intervention: JASPER in the Classroom.

Few research-developed early intervention models have been deployed to and tested in real world preschool programs. In this study, teaching staff implemented a social communication modularized intervention, JASPER, in their daily program. Sixty-six preschool children with autism in twelve classrooms (12 teachers) were randomized to receive immediate JASPER training (IT) or were waitlisted (WL) for 3 months with a 1-month follow up.

Using Research to Improve College Readiness: A Research Partnership Between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) serves a large majority of socioeconomically disadvantaged students who are struggling academically and are underprepared for high school graduation and college. This article describes the partnership between LAUSD and the Los Angeles Education Research Institute, and how this collaboration endeavors to produce accessible and high-quality research to inform pressing problems of practice. The article also presents findings from an ongoing partnership research project analyzing a district policy focused on improving college readiness by aligning high school graduation and college-eligibility requirements.