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.

Exploring Intervention Sustainment and Intervention Spread Following a Randomized Clinical Trial of the MOSAIC Program.

The randomized trial of the Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) program included intensive coaching from research staff to support teachers' implementation of MOSAIC strategies and resulted in positive student outcomes (Mikami et al., J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 51(6):1039-1052, 2022). However, these intensive procedures are costly (in time, money, and resources) and serve as barriers to intervention adoption under typical school conditions. In this study, we explored the extent to which MOSAIC-trained teachers could sustain practices under typical practice conditions (sustainment), the extent to which teachers who did not participate in the trial could adopt the practices under typical practice conditions (spread), and the extent to which strategy use in the follow-up year was associated with participation in MOSAIC-focused professional learning communities (PLCs). Participants were 30 elementary school teachers, including (a) 13 teachers who received intensive coaching on MOSAIC practices during the previous year (MOSAIC group), and (b) seven teachers who participated in the trial in the control condition, plus 10 new teachers interested in MOSAIC (new-to-MOSAIC group). We assessed MOSAIC strategy use over the school year via monthly observations and biweekly teacher self-report surveys. Observation data revealed high sustainment in the MOSAIC group, with teachers showing less than 20% decline in the use of most strategies between the two years of participation. New-to-MOSAIC teachers implemented some core MOSAIC strategies, although not to the extent as those in the MOSAIC group. Higher strategy use was modestly associated with PLC attendance. We discuss implications for encouraging sustainment and intervention spread after initial, intensive supports are withdrawn. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12310-022-09555-w.