The Utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in Predicting Mental Disorders in the Project to Learn About Youth-Mental Health.

We examined the predictive utility of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-2-BESS) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in identifying students with a mental disorder. Data were collected in a two-stage study over 34 months with kindergarten-12th grade (K-12) students (aged 5-19 years) in four U.S. school districts. In Stage 1, teachers completed the BASC-2-BESS and the SDQ. In Stage 2, parents of 1,054 children completed a structured diagnostic interview to determine presence of a mental disorder. Results suggest that teacher versions of the BASC-2-BESS and SDQ have modest utility in identifying children meeting criteria for a mental disorder based on parent report. Area Under the Curve (AUC) statistics representing prediction of any externalizing disorder (.73 for both measures) were higher than the AUCs predicting any internalizing disorder (.58 for both measures). Findings can inform the use of teacher report in mental health screening, specifically the selection of measures when implementing screening procedures.

Surveillance of ADHD Among Children in the United States: Validity and Reliability of Parent Report of Provider Diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the appropriateness of parent-reported diagnosis of ADHD as a surveillance tool. METHOD: We assessed agreement over time and concordance of parent-reported diagnosis against Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-based criteria. We compared concordance of diagnosis and DSM-based criteria by child characteristics, including treatment. RESULTS: Among parents who reported their child had ADHD, 95.7% reported it again 2 years later. Comparing diagnosis with DSM-based criteria, specificity and negative predictive value were high, sensitivity was moderate, and positive predictive value was low. Most children with an ADHD diagnosis who did not meet DSM-based criteria met sub-threshold criteria or took medication for ADHD. Concordance differed by child characteristics and treatment. CONCLUSION: Parent-reported diagnosed ADHD is reliable over time. Although differences in parent-reported diagnosis and DSM-based criteria were noted, these may reflect children with milder symptoms or treated ADHD. Parent-report of child ADHD ever diagnosis may be a good single-item indicator for prevalence.

Community-Based Prevalence of Externalizing and Internalizing Disorders among School-Aged Children and Adolescents in Four Geographically Dispersed School Districts in the United States.

The Project to Learn About Youth-Mental Health (PLAY-MH; 2014-2018) is a school-based, two-stage study designed to estimate the prevalence of selected mental disorders among K-12 students in four U.S.-based sites (Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and South Carolina). In Stage 1, teachers completed validated screeners to determine student risk status for externalizing or internalizing problems or tics; the percentage of students identified as being at high risk ranged from 17.8% to 34.4%. In Stage 2, parents completed a structured diagnostic interview to determine whether their child met criteria for fourteen externalizing or internalizing disorders; weighted prevalence estimates of meeting criteria for any disorder were similar in three sites (14.8%-17.8%) and higher in Ohio (33.3%). PLAY-MH produced point-in-time estimates of mental disorders in K-12 students, which may be used to supplement estimates from other modes of mental disorder surveillance and inform mental health screening and healthcare and educational services.

Toddler socioemotional behavior in a northern plains Indian tribe: associations with maternal psychosocial well-being.

M.C. Sarche, C.D. Croy, C. Big Crow, C. Mitchell, and P. Spicer (2009) provided first-ever information relating the socioemotional development of American Indian toddlers to the immediate context of their mothers' lives. The current study sought to replicate and build on their earlier work by examining the impact of additional maternal risk factors, identified in previous research with non-American Indian populations, on the development of American Indian toddlers: maternal depression, negative social influences, and mother's feelings of isolation. At 27 months, American Indian mothers (N = 110) completed the Parent Demographic Questionnaire, which measured maternal psychosocial characteristics (e.g., depressed affect, social support, drug and alcohol use, isolation) and demographics. Mothers also completed the Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (A.S. Carter & M.J. Briggs-Gowan, 2006) and the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (R.R. Abidin, 1995, 1997). Some results replicated the original study, but others did not. Reports of a dysfunctional mother-child relationship related to externalizing and internalizing problems, replicating the earlier study. This study also found associations between a dysfunctional mother-child relationship and socioemotional competence as well as dysregulation. The previous finding of a relationship between American Indian identity and socioemotional competence was supported. Adding the effects of maternal depressed affect and isolation significantly increased prediction of toddler behavior problems.

Emotional Expression and Language: A Longitudinal Study of Typically Developing Earlier and Later Talkers from 15 to 30 Months.

Children's emotional expression and language both develop during infancy and early childhood, yet these two communication systems have been studied primarily in isolation. This study focuses instead on assessing the relation between them just as productive language emerges during toddlerhood. Seventy-seven typically developing, firstborn toddlers and their families were recruited at 13 months of age. Using an extreme groups design, earlier and later talkers were selected based on their MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory production scores. Laboratory visits occurred at 15, 21, and 30 months; home visits occurred at 3-month intervals from 15 to 30 months. Observational and parent report measures assessed child language, emotional expression, temperament, and overall developmental functioning. Parents also reported on parenting stress and family life events. Overall, results support a significant relation between emotional expression and productive language that varies according to the specific emotion, a finding that may resolve earlier contradictory results in this area. Earlier talkers expressed more joy/pleasure than did later talkers, but later talkers expressed more fear and anger than did earlier talkers. Potential contributions of various child/family factors were explored. Child temperament is proposed as influencing this relation through its effects on the child's transactions with the caregiving environment.

Influence of behavioral concerns and early childhood expulsions on the development of early childhood mental health consultation in Colorado.

This article examines how the Colorado study Children With Social, Emotional and Behavioral Concerns and the Providers Who Support Them (S.D. Hoover, 2006) was used to advance a statewide agenda for early childhood mental health consultation in Colorado. The study involved a survey of licensed childcare providers throughout the state asking about the behavior of children in their care and their responses to that behavior. Exclusion of children from early care and education settings due to challenging behavior was found to be a significant problem taking a toll on families, children, and early care and education providers. Importantly, results from the survey indicated that the rate of exclusion of children from care due to challenging behavior was lower for family childcare providers who had access to mental health consultation. Recommendations are offered regarding the infrastructure needed to sustain mental health consultation capacity in early care and education settings, and related policies and practices.

Applying the Emotional Availability Scales to children with disabilities.

In this article, we describe issues regarding emotional availability and its application to children with disabilities. We then apply this approach to the scoring of emotional availability for caregiver-child interactions of children with disabilities, with information based on children with genetic mental retardation syndromes, children with autism, and children with hearing impairments.