Raymond P. Lorion

Effects of a school mental health project: A one-year follow-up.

Abstract Matched samples of children who had (Terminators) or had not (Nonterminators) successfully participated in a school-based project for the early detection and treatment of school maladaption were compared on teacher ratings of adjustment with a control sample having no prior program contact. Terminators were found to have significantly more positive school adjustment ratings than Nonterminators and Controls, both five and 12 months after their final program contact. These data support the conclusion that the program has positive consequences for children in the primary grades which generalize to new classroom settings and remain stable over time. The absence of adjustment differences between Nonterminators and Controls suggests the importance of developing alternative approaches for those not benefiting from the program.

Comparison of two outcome groups in a school-based mental health project

Two samples of school-maladjusted children responding most and least favorably to a helping program with nonprofessional child-aides were compared on demographic, referral, and program experience variables. Outcome measures other than teacher ratings used to select the samples validated the inferred improvement differences. Subjects with poor outcomes were significantly more likely to reside in the city, older, from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and initially more maladjusted than those with good outcomes, but there were no group differences in age, repeat in grade, or program experience variables. Implications of these data for future program directions and modifications of aide-training procedures are discussed.

Geometric Expansion of Helping Services.

Abstract Thsi study reports three-year, service-utilization patterns of the Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP)—an innovative school mental health program that uses nonprofessional child-aides as help-agents with maladapting primary graders. PMHP brought intensive help to 11% of the primary graders in participating schools—a substantial proportion of those estimated to have school adaptation problems. Program effectiveness data were also cited. The PMHP model delivers, with relatively small cost increments, approximately 10 times more service than traditional delivery systems. Careful system description, as in this study, leads directly to studies evaluating the effectiveness of specific program practices.

Family background characteristics and school adjustment problems

Primary grade children identified by teachers as having selected family characteristics were compared on teacher ratings of school maladjustment. Children pressured to achieve academic success coped with school demands in a significantly more shy, anxious, and immature fashion than children from homes lacking educational stimulation. The latter group experienced greater difficulty in mastering basic academic skills. Children from rejecting parents had more serious acting out, aggressive problems than did children from overprotective parents. The latter group, however, experience anxiety and interpersonal discomfort. Treatment implications of these data focus primarily upon increased involvement of parents and families in school mental health programs.

Building Assets in Real-World Communities

For more than a decade, scientists at Search Institute have committed themselves to identifying, assessing, and documenting the developmental implications of human “assets” (Leffert et al., 1998). As Peter Benson explains in chapter 2, assets represent psychosocial resources that have been linked conceptually and empirically to optimal development in youth. The resources identified thus far include environmental qualities (i.e., the 20 external assets) and individual characteristics (i.e., the 20 internal assets; see Chapter 2, Table 1). These 40 assets have been identified through a systematically scientific investigatory sequence. A reasonably comprehensive analysis of relevant developmental, psychological, and social science literature (Scales & Leffert, 1998) informed the construction of a paper-and-pencil survey measure that, over the past decade, has been administered across a relatively wide range of ages and grade levels (grades 6–12) across economic and cultural subgroups. Aggregating survey responses across hundreds of settings with hundreds of thousands of children, Search Institute investigators have produced an encouraging and heuristically exciting body of evidence linking measured asset levels with selected developmental outcomes.

Referral to a school mental health project: A screening note

The screening efficiency of two measures of school-adjustment is considered by assessing the proportion of children referred to a school mental health program whose scores fall at or above the 85th centile on one or both measures. The studys findings demonstrate that 60-90% of referred children were identifiable by a screening cutoff score procedure. The implications for using a cutoff score approach in selecting children for the intervention are discussed.

Multiple views of a school mental health project: a needed focus in community programs.

A school-based community mental health program, emphasizing early detection and prevention of school maladaptation, was analyzed from the perspectives of participants with different roles and stakes. Program founders tended to value it more than those who carried out its “line” functions. Some differences are identified between what was valued theoretically about the program and how participants actually allocated their time. Differences in perspectives among program participants at various levels and differences between de jure and de facto aspects of program operation are viewed as sources of potential friction. Such difficulties tend to increase as initially simple program models are extended to diverse settings with different needs, problems, resources, and personnel.

The Evolution of Community-School Bully Prevention Programs: Enabling Participatory Action Research

Community scientists must resist the temptation to “solve” an identified problem. Rather, they must partner with members of the community and transfer to them the knowledge and skills to understand and resolve their needs. This case-study reports a community’s efforts to reduce school-based bullying. Within a participatory-action approach, teachers, students, administrators and parents organized to assess the ways in which members of the school-community mistreated each other. Students bullying each other was part of a larger systemic pattern in which teachers bullied each other and, with unexpectedly serious consequences, their students. Through their active participation, members of the school-community engaged together in understanding and resolving the problem.

Understanding Sarason's Concepts of School Cultures and Change: Joining a Community in School Improvement Efforts

This paper describes an evolving transformative partnership between a large comprehensive university, an urban school system and a predominantly African-American, low-income neighborhood. The partnership’s originating intent was to apply an array of university, civic and local resources to improve the academic performance of a neighborhood’s schools and the health, welfare and economic well-being of its residents. The extent to which that partnership would precipitate transactional (Sameroff and Fiese, Handbook of early childhood intervention, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 119–149 in 1990) synergies among the partners was unanticipated; the long-term implications for each of the partners of such unfamiliar interactional processes remain unclear but are being systematically monitored over time. Evident at this point, however, it that a process has been initiated that has impacted how the university community, the local public school system, city government and the target neighborhood relate to each other, collaborate with each other and are changing each other. The pace of that process has varied over the years and challenged each partners’ expectations and assumptions about the nature and consequences of their involvement. With time and perseverance, however, it appears that all are moving toward a sense of mutual learning and trust and toward extending to each other the benefit of the doubt. This paper discusses the evolution of that process and its implications for university-school-community collaborations.

Ethical Considerations in Prevention

As David Stenmark prepared his Presidential address to what was then the Division of Community Psychology* of the American Psychological Association, he was approached by his daughter, Marci, and asked what he was writing and why. Carefully he explained his leadership role in the Division and that the talk provided an opportunity to review the discipline’s commitment to identifying and responding to oppression; to avoiding disorder rather than waiting for its appearance; and to empower the disadvantaged rather than merely come to their assistance. After a few moments reflection, Marci looked at her father and asked: “Did those people ask you to do that for them?” The question is insightful and, in our view, as yet unanswered.