The relationship between school mental health service use in high school and educational outcomes of adolescents with psychiatric disorders.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between school mental health service use in high school and educational outcomes of adolescents with psychiatric disorders. The sample included 2617 adolescents who were enrolled in eighth grade in a large urban school district in the United States, were enrolled in Medicaid during eighth grade, and had a mental health diagnosis. Psychiatric hospitalization, school enrollment, school absences, out-of-school suspensions, school dropouts, and school exits for negative reasons were examined as mental health and educational outcomes. Compared with adolescents who used school mental health services for 2 years following eighth grade, adolescents who did not use school mental health service during the high school years had a significantly lower annual number of days enrolled in school and higher rates of exiting school for negative reasons such as school dropout and long-term hospitalization. Our findings support the positive role of school mental health care delivery in high schools in preventing negative educational outcomes for adolescents with psychiatric disorder.

Reviewing the Literature on the Impact of Gun Violence on Early Childhood Development.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To examine the impacts of gun violence on early childhood development including early childhood mental health, cognitive development, and the assessment and treatment of survivors. RECENT FINDINGS: The literature reflects that gun violence exposure is often associated with significant mental health outcomes including anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and depression in older youth. Historically, studies have focused on adolescents and their exposures to gun violence through proximity to gun violence within their communities, neighborhoods, and schools. However, the impacts of gun violence on young children are less known. Gun violence has significant impacts on mental health outcomes of youth aged 0-18. Few studies focus specifically on how gun violence impacts early childhood development. In light of the increase in youth gun violence over the past three decades with a significant uptick since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued efforts are needed to better understand how gun violence impacts early childhood development.

The impact of the pandemic on mothers and children, with a focus on syndemic effects on black families: the "Prenatal to Preschool" study protocol.

Introduction: Racism, a known social determinant of health, affects the mental health and well-being of pregnant and postpartum women and their children. Convincing evidence highlights the urgent need to better identify the mechanisms and the ways in which young children's development and mental health are adversely impacted by their mothers' experiences of racism. With the additional stressor of the COVID-19 pandemic, the criticality of improving knowledge of these domains has never been starker. The proposed project will address these questions and move the field forward to create targeted, culturally informed preventative interventions, thus achieving mental health equity for all children and families. Methods: This prospective research is a cohort study that will longitudinally observe the outcomes of a cohort of mothers and their children recruited during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data will be parent/caregiver questionnaires assessing mental health, racism, support, and resilience at multiple time points with the first beginning at 24 months, clinical interviews with mothers, electronic medical records of mothers, and videotaped dyadic interactions at child age 24 and 48 months. A subset of Black participants will be asked to participate in qualitative interviews at child age 36 months. Results: Analyze will be performed within and across Black and Non-Latino/a/e/x white (NLW) groups, and comparing mothers and fathers/secondary caregivers. Descriptive and multivariate analyzes will be run to better characterize how young children's development and mental health may be adversely impacted by their caregiver's experiences of racism. Discussion: This prospective longitudinal mixed-methods study evaluates the simultaneous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and racism on mothers and their developing children to characterize cross-racial differences, providing insight into risk and resilience factors in early development and the peripartum period.

Using core values and social influence to increase mask-wearing in non-compliant college students.

Determining the best way to increase public health behaviors like mask-wearing in non-compliant individuals remains an important problem. In this two-part study, we examined the correlates of mask non-compliance in undergraduates at a selective East Coast university, and then developed an intervention designed to appeal to individuals with those traits. We found that being politically conservative and favoring the core values of respect for authority and in-group loyalty were associated with mask non-compliance. We then developed two novel public service announcement (PSA) videos. One featured peer campus leaders (e.g. the president of the College Republicans) to appeal to both social influence and the core values of authority and loyalty. The other featured national and local health care authorities. We found that (a) conservative students rated the two videos as equally authoritative, while liberal students rated the health authority PSA to be significantly more authoritative; (b) conservative participants significantly increased their self-reported mask-wearing rates compared to baseline, narrowing the gap in compliance substantially; and (c) the two PSAs were equally effective for conservative students at increasing mask-wearing. This study shows that public health interventions that target the values and beliefs associated with non-compliance may best influence behavior.