Schools may be well-placed to identify signs of mental health (MH) problems in children; however, there has been little research into how school-based screening and intervention initiatives should be delivered. One-to-one in-depth interviews were carried out with 15 practitioners that support children's MH within primary school settings. Data were…

In this commentary on Neil Humphrey's "Are the Kids Alright? Examining the Intersection between Education and Mental Health" (EJ1247696), Tamsin Ford agrees with Humphrey's argument that moral panic or not, a significant proportion of children experience difficulties that interfere with their education and outlines the significant…

Teaching staff report poorer mental health and wellbeing than the general working population. Intervention to address this issue is imperative, as poor wellbeing is associated with burnout, presenteeism, and adverse student mental health outcomes. The Wellbeing in Secondary Education (WISE) intervention is a secondary school-based programme aimed…

Few children with mental health problems access evidence-based interventions. Primary schools may be an ideal setting to improve access to treatment through screening and intervention programmes, but some families' circumstances and experiences may increase barriers to benefiting from this approach. Interviews were carried out with parents of…

Background: Teaching is a stressful occupation with poor retention. The Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme is a training programme that research has demonstrated may be an effective intervention for improving children's mental health, but little research has explored any impacts there may be on the teachers' own…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of a classroom management course as a public health intervention. Improved socio-emotional skills may boost children's developmental and academic trajectory, while the costs of behaviour problems are enormous for schools with considerable impact on others' well-being.…

This evidence review synthesises the best available international evidence regarding approaches to behaviour in schools to: (1) Produce an overarching model or framework explaining why school pupils may misbehave (Review 1); (2) Review the effectiveness of classroom-based approaches to behaviour trialled in robust research studies (Review 2); and…

Background: Callous and unemotional (CU) traits might usefully subtype DSM-IV conduct disorder (CD). We investigate this hypothesis in a large, nationally representative sample of 5-16-year-olds. We also examine the characteristics of children with high CU traits but without CD. Methods: Data come from the 2004 British Child and Adolescent Mental…

Objective: Callous-unemotional (CU) traits in children and adolescents are increasingly recognized as a distinctive dimension of prognostic importance in clinical samples. Nevertheless, comparatively little is known about the longitudinal effects of these personality traits on the mental health of young people from the general population. Using a…

Background: The clinical diagnosis of ADHD is time-consuming and error-prone. Secondary care referral results in long waiting times, but primary care staff may not provide reliable diagnoses. The Development And Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) is a standardised assessment for common child mental health problems, including attention…

Background: Assessments of child psychopathology commonly rely on multiple informants, e.g., parents, teachers and children. Informants often disagree about the presence or absence of symptoms, reflecting reporter bias, situation-specific behaviour, or random variation in measurement. However, few studies have systematically tested how far…

This review focuses on ways in which epidemiological research can inform mental health service development and clinical practice. Data from epidemiological studies can provide cross-sectional and secular estimates of the prevalence of psychopathology to support rational service development. Epidemiological surveys have difficulties in finding…

Emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) are common in children, and forecasting their prevalence in schools is of interest to both academic researchers and local authorities. Percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is one measure often used for this purpose. The article presents the first independent validation of a simple…

Background: Many studies have described associations between adult psychiatric disorder among adults and their biographic, socio-demographic and social capital characteristics. Fewer studies have focused on children, and most of these have looked at structural indicators of the neighbourhood. Our objective was to examine one aspect of social…

Background: In most countries, the majority of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are undiagnosed. In the United Kingdom, a major barrier to accessing specialist services is the limited recognition of disorders by general practitioners. However, it is unclear whether there are also barriers at other stages of the…