Introduction: The investigation of school belonging is crucial due to its established significant associations with mental health, academic achievement, and risky behaviours coupled with the limited research documenting the configurations of children's school belonging experiences. Objective: This study sought to better understand elementary…

Identifying patterns of victimization continuity and discontinuity over time can inform school-based efforts to prevent and intervene with peer victimization. We conducted a four-wave longitudinal study of students through their transition from middle to high school. Participants were 135 diverse students from Grade 8 to Grade 11 who completed…

Mental health screening in schools is a progressive practice to identify students for prevention and intervention services. Multiple gating procedures, in which students are provided more intensive assessments following initial identification of risk, are aligned with prevention science and poised to enhance multi-tiered systems of support. Yet,…

This study examined the potential utility of adding items that assessed youths' emotional and behavioral disorders to a commonly used surveillance survey. The goal was to evaluate whether the added items could enhance understanding of youths' involvement in high-risk behaviors. A sample of 3,331 adolescents in Grades 8, 10, and 12 from four…

The fear of experiencing discrimination often provokes symptoms of psychological distress. One coping resource is positive identification with one's social group--known as collective self-esteem. This preliminary study investigated whether collective self-esteem was related to fears regarding a transsexual identity and psychological distress among…

This study investigates rates and predictors of school-based services (SBSs) for 390 youth meeting criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and served in the San Diego public sectors. Only 60% of youth had received an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder diagnosis; these youth were younger, male, Caucasian (versus Latino), and…

Strong mental and behavioral health supports on campus can improve the academic performance of students and increase their resilience and ability to handle stress, with reduced suicide rates, substance abuse, and eating disorders, but this study reveals that students with mental health disabilities continue to face barriers to accessing counseling…

Academic success among East Asian students is well known and almost stereotypical. Yet the attention to emotional well-being continues to be minimal. The discrepancy between academic success and social/emotional difficulties appears to be a problem among East Asian adolescents. This qualitative grounded theory study examines how the cultural…

This paper describes an innovative intervention model for promoting mental health and positive social adjustment for youth with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) in San Diego. More specifically, it highlights a unique partnership between several program divisions within the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), namely, the Mental Health…

The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) among youths active in at least one of five public service systems: mental health (MH), educational services for youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED), child welfare (CW), juvenile justice (JJ), and alcohol and…

The comparability of risk factors, clinical outcomes, and services were examined for Hispanic and non-Hispanic white youths participating in a managed system of care for youths experiencing emotional or behavioral disturbances for at least 6 months. Intra- and inter-group differences were documented for two outcome groups: 34 improvers, whose…

During the implementation of a cross-agency, co-located service delivery system, the number of youths eligible for public mental health services in Santa Barbara County increased from 956 to 1,826 and the number of youths eligible for special education services for students with emotional/behavioral disorders increased from 101 to 204. (Contains…

Interviews were conducted with 60 human-services-agency staff of the Child and Adolescent Service System Program in California and 67 parents of children with serious emotional disturbance regarding changes over the previous four years in their local children's service systems. Results indicate increased interagency collaboration and family…

This paper describes a California-based interagency program that combines mental health, educational, and probation services in an effort to reduce juvenile recidivism. The program provides interagency services at three therapeutic high schools and one juvenile facility with the goal of keeping minors at home and thereby reducing recidivism by…