Javier Guzmán

Evidence for the Effectiveness of a National School-Based Mental Health Program in Chile

OBJECTIVE Skills for Life (SFL) is the largest school-based mental health program in the world, screening and providing services to more than 1,000,000 students in Chile over the past decade. This is the first external evaluation of the program. METHOD Of the 8,372 primary schools in Chile in 2010 that received public funding, one-fifth (1,637) elected to participate in SFL. Each year, all first- and third-grade students in these schools are screened with validated teacher- and parent-completed measures of psychosocial functioning (the Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation-Re-Revised [TOCA-RR] and the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-Chile [PSC-CL]). Students identified as being at risk on the TOCA-RR in first grade are referred to a standardized 10-session preventive intervention in second grade. This article explores the relationships between workshop participation and changes in TOCA-RR and PSC-CL scores, attendance, and promotion from third to fourth grades. RESULTS In all, 16.4% of students were identified as being at-risk on the TOCA-RR. Statistically significant relationships were found between the number of workshop sessions attended and improvements in behavioral and academic outcomes after controlling for nonrandom selection into exposure and loss to follow-up. Effect sizes for the difference between attending most (7-10) versus fewer (0-6) sessions ranged from 0.08 to 0.16 standard deviations. CONCLUSION This study provides empirical evidence that a large-scale mental health intervention early in schooling is significantly associated with improved behavioral and academic outcomes. Future research is needed to implement more rigorous experimental evaluation of the program, to examine longer-term effects, and to investigate possible predictors of heterogeneity of treatment response.

Teacher Perspectives on Indicators of Adolescent Social and Emotional Problems

ABSTRACT Teachers are a primary source of referral to mental health services for children and adolescents. However, studies find that students identified by teachers differ from those identified by standardized screening scales. This suggests possible discrepancies in conceptualizations of student emotional and behavioral challenges. The current article describes results of a study that explores how teachers conceptualize the emotional and behavioral challenges of adolescents. Middle and high school teachers across the United States were identified using a stratified random sampling process and recruited for participation. Twenty-nine teachers (26% of those recruited) were interviewed and asked to describe markers that indicated to them that a student was experiencing emotional and behavioral challenges. Themes in teacher responses were identified and coded. Teachers identified multiple, diverse markers that they perceived were indicators of emotional and behavioral challenges among their students. Markers described by teachers were compared to those typically measured by standardized screening scales. Discrepancies between markers identified by teachers and screening scales are highlighted as potential areas for professional development and enhanced school-based intervention efforts. These findings underscore the importance of integrating teacher perspectives in understanding the referral process for students.

Sense of Community Mediates the Relationship Between Social and Community Variables on Adolescent Life Satisfaction

The study of subjective well-being in adolescence has had a recent and dynamic development. Despite this, the meso-systemic contextual factors and their relationship with well-being have had relatively little attention compared to the micro-social dimensions. Regarding this context, this chapter aims to examine the association between life satisfaction with social-communitarian dimensions, and specifically the role that the sense of community plays in Chilean adolescents. Here, we provide a systematic review of the literature on the relationship between subjective well-being in childhood and adolescence with a focus on Sense of Community, Social Well-Being, and Community Support variables. Next, we analyze the relationship between subjective well-being scales together with analyzing the role of the sense of community in mediating overall life satisfaction and its relationship with community support and social well-being. The analysis uses the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) (Huebner 1991), Sense of Community Scale (Sanchez 2001), the Social Well-being Scale (Keyes 1998), and Perceived Community Support Questionnaire (PCSQ; Herrero and Gracia 2007). The target population studied in this chapter is based on a convenience sample of 438 adolescents of both sexes, aged between 14 and 18, belonging to public schools, subsidized private schools, and private schools distributed among seven urban neighborhoods in three regions of Chile. The results indicate that the sense of community mediates the relationship between community support and overall life satisfaction in Chilean adolescents. In addition, the sense of community has a partial contribution to the relationship between social well-being and overall life satisfaction. The discussion includes an analysis of the implications of these findings for future studies on adolescent subjective well-being.

Sociodemographic Profile of Children’s Well-Being in Chile

Subjective wellbeing research in South America and Chile is growing every day. Building childhood indicators is necessary in order to develop local prevention efforts to support this population at the local level. This growing effort requires more accurate socio demographic information from the Chilean childhood population and their relationship with subjective well-being to inform prevention initiatives. A total of 1520 pupils participated in this study (45.2% female; mean age: 11.51). The aim of this research is to examine the association of demographic variables such as age, sex, type of school, and SES on four measures of well-being. Results indicate different types and levels of association between sociodemographic variables and well-being. Implications are provided considering the Chilean context.

Teacher Identification of Student Emotional and Behavioral Problems and Provision of Early Supports: A Vignette-Based Study:

Although teachers are in a key position to identify and support students with emotional and behavioral challenges, their provision of these supports is often inconsistent. The current study investigated patterns in teacher identification of student emotional and behavioral challenges, as well as their provision of supports. Participants were 172 elementary, middle, and high school teachers from a Northeastern school district who responded to two vignettes—one describing a female student with internalizing and one describing a male student with externalizing symptoms. Vignettes were randomized to be moderate or severe. Teachers rated concern for students and their likelihood of providing a series of responses and supports. Results indicated that teachers were more concerned about severe than moderate vignettes, and were more concerned about females with internalizing than males with externalizing symptoms. Middle school teachers rated vignettes as more concerning than elementary teachers, particularly the male externalizing vignette. Elementary teachers indicated that they would provide more classroom-based emotional/behavioral supports and specialty supports than middle and high school teachers; however, high school teachers more often indicated that they would reduce expectations and provide a referral for students. Implications and future research directions for work with teachers on identifying and supporting students are discussed.