Katherine L Dix

Implementation quality of whole‐school mental health promotion and students’ academic performance

Background This paper argues for giving explicit attention to the quality of implementation of school-wide mental health promotions and examines the impact of implementation quality on academic performance in a major Australian mental health initiative. Method Hierarchical linear modelling was used to investigate change in standardised academic performance across the 2-year implementation of a mental health initiative in 96 Australian primary (or elementary) schools that was focused on improving student social-emotional competencies. Results After controlling for differences in socioeconomic background, a significant positive relationship existed between quality of implementation and academic performance. The difference between students in high- and low-implementing schools was equivalent to a difference in academic performance of up to 6 months of schooling. Key Practitioner Message Given the known relationship between student academic achievement and mental health, many nations are mounting school-based mental health interventions: however, the quality of program implementation remains a concern The Australian KidsMatter primary school mental health intervention enabled the development of an Implementation Index allowing schools to be grouped into low- to high- implementing schools The quality of implementation of KidsMatter appears to be positively associated with the level of student academic achievement, equivalent to 6 months more schooling by Year 7, over and above any influence of socioeconomic background

Quality of implementation of a school mental health initiative and changes over time in students’ social and emotional competencies

This paper reports the theoretical conceptualisation, statistical development, and application of an Implementation Index to evaluate the quality of implementation of the KidsMatter Primary school mental health initiative in Australia. Questionnaires were received from the parents and teachers of almost 5000 students, and also from KidsMatter project officers. A conceptual framework of fidelity, dosage, and delivery guided the selection of questionnaire items to create the Implementation Index, which was refined using Latent Class Analysis. Schools’ scores on the Index were classified into high, average, and low implementation categories. Profiles of high- and low-implementing schools provided insights into the characteristics of successful and less successful implementation. Next, hierarchical linear modelling showed that childrens social and emotional competencies significantly improved over time in average- and high-implementing schools, but not in low-implementing schools. The Implementation Index can inform areas for attention in health promotion initiatives and can provide a framework for future evaluations.

New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS): an Australian multiagency, multigenerational, longitudinal record linkage study

Purpose The initial aim of this multiagency, multigenerational record linkage study is to identify childhood profiles of developmental vulnerability and resilience, and to identify the determinants of these profiles. The eventual aim is to identify risk and protective factors for later childhood-onset and adolescent-onset mental health problems, and other adverse social outcomes, using subsequent waves of record linkage. The research will assist in informing the development of public policy and intervention guidelines to help prevent or mitigate adverse long-term health and social outcomes. Participants The study comprises a population cohort of 87 026 children in the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW). The cohort was defined by entry into the first year of full-time schooling in NSW in 2009, at which time class teachers completed the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) on each child (with 99.7% coverage in NSW). The AEDC data have been linked to the childrens birth, health, school and child protection records for the period from birth to school entry, and to the health and criminal records of their parents, as well as mortality databases. Findings to date Descriptive data summarising sex, geographic and socioeconomic distributions, and linkage rates for the various administrative databases are presented. Child data are summarised, and the mental health and criminal records data of the childrens parents are provided. Future plans In 2015, at age 11 years, a self-report mental health survey was administered to the cohort in collaboration with government, independent and Catholic primary school sectors. A second record linkage, spanning birth to age 11 years, will be undertaken to link this survey data with the aforementioned administrative databases. This will enable a further identification of putative risk and protective factors for adverse mental health and other outcomes in adolescence, which can then be tested in subsequent record linkages.

Early Challenges in Evaluating the KidsMatter National Mental Health Promotion Initiative in Australian Primary Schools

This article describes, analyses and reflects on the challenges of planning and conducting the evaluation of the KidsMatter Initiative (KMI) in Australian primary schools during the first year of the two-year initiative. The purpose of the evaluation is to inform the Australia-wide rollout of the KMI. The discussion is arranged under four headings: conceptual challenges, design challenges, practical implementation challenges and managing collaborative complexity. Emphasis is placed on how the challenges were theorised as a basis for responding to the requirements of the evaluation. Conclusions include recognising and enabling contributions from diverse stakeholders, using the domain expertise of the evaluation team, operating flexibly to meet the needs and exigencies of the KMI, the clients and the diverse participant groups, maintaining focus on the core conceptual frameworks underlying the KMI and the evaluation, and the implications of the evaluation for developing wider knowledge relating to schools and their effects, as well as about factors contributing to educational change.