Mental Health Collaboration: A Survey of Practicing School Psychologists

Schools have become the primary setting for mental health service among youth. However, school-based providers are sometimes limited by lack of time, training, and other resources. Furthermore, problem-solving models emphasize the importance of developing partnerships with other professionals and agencies. Thus, it is critical to engage in collaborative practice with non–school-based, community mental health providers (CMHPs). The purpose of this study was to survey practicing school psychologists about their experiences in communicating and collaborating with CMHPs. Participants (n = 194) indicated their frequency of communication and collaboration with CMHPs; although communication (i.e., release and receipt of information) was typical, fewer school psychologists reported engaging in ongoing collaboration. Benefits and barriers to collaboration were identified, and implications for practice are discussed.     

Resilience in families in which a child is bullied

The aim of this study was to identify family resilience characteristics in families in which a child has been bullied, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Forty-eight mothers represented their families and completed a biographical questionnaire containing an open-ended question, and seven self-report questionnaires. Results from the qualitative data showed that most of the families coped with the bullying by talking to a teacher, principal or the governing body, or by giving advice to the child who had been bullied. The quantitative results highlighted the quality of family communication, the fortitude and durability of the family unit, and the family's emphasis on being together. These findings can be utilised in interventions to strengthen families finding themselves in a similar crisis.     

Daily Behavior Report Cards with and without Home-Based Consequences: Improving Classroom Behavior in Low Income,African American Children with ADHD

Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRC), which typically require teachers to evaluate students' daily behavior and parents to provide contingent consequences, are an effective and acceptable method for improving children's classroom behavior. The current study evaluated whether parent involvement is an essential treatment component or whether teacher feedback alone would be sufficient to produce children's behavior changes. The effectiveness of DBRC with teacher feedback to students and parent delivered consequences (PC) was compared to teacher feedback to students only (no parent delivered consequences, NPC) for increasing appropriate classroom behavior and academic productivity in African American, low income, elementary school children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Both treatments led to increased on-task behavior, although PC was superior to NPC. Academic productivity outcomes are less clear. Treatment implications and future directions for research on teacher feedback interventions are discussed.     

Comparative Effects and Social Validation of Support Strategies to Promote Mindfulness Practices Among High School Students

Abstract

We compared the effects of support strategies for promoting formal mindfulness practices of 9th grade high school students who participated in a 10-week school-based mindfulness education program. The students also completed social validity ratings of the support strategies they selected and the formal mindfulness practices they learned. All of the support strategies were associated with increased average minutes of formal mindfulness practices. Students who did not select an extra support strategy also had increased minutes of formal mindfulness practices but of less magnitude in contrast to the two most effective strategies. The social validity ratings of the support strategies ranged from equivocal to good approval, and the students gave positive ratings to the majority of formal mindfulness practices. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing mindfulness education programs, implementing practice-promoting support strategies, and conducting mindfulness research with school children and youth.     

Focus,Scope, and Practice of Behavioral Consultation to Public Schools

SUMMARY

Public school districts frequently seek professional consultation to improve educational services. This article is an overview of the focus, scope, and practice of behavioral consultation to public schools. A four-stage process of consultation is described, followed by a discussion on the expanding role of behavior support intervention. Next, the involvement of consultants in the design of individual-student, classroom-wide, and whole-school programs is considered. Contemporary approaches to consultation are presented such as positive behavior support, functional behavioral assessment, and efficacy evaluation that targets natural data sources. A concluding section sets forth recommendations for the successful practice of public school behavioral consultation.     

Psychological Factors Behind Truancy,School Phobia,and School Refusal: A Literature Study

Truancy is a problem that normally leads to treatment interventions within different organizations. Within these organizations different perspectives on the causes and consequences of the above problem can be found. The purpose of this literature study is to map out and describe the current state of research within the fields of school refusal, truancy, and school phobia. The investigation was carried out in the form of a systematic review of the relevant research literature. Research shows that approximately 90% of all young people who refuse to go to school have some form of psychiatric diagnosis.     

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Inpatient Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Adolescents With Anxious-Depressed School Absenteeism: A Within-Subject Comparison of Changes

The effects of inpatient treatment, including manual-guided cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT), were examined for 36 adolescents (12–18 years) with chronic school absenteeism and mental health problems. Using a within-subject control group design, no changes were noted during the untreated waiting period, whereas there was a strong, statistically significant reduction in school absence rates and mental health problems from the start to the end of inpatient treatment. At discharge, 88.9% of adolescents attended school regularly or were employed (86.1 and 63.9% at 2- and 9-months follow-up, respectively). Self- and parent-reported mental health problems were significantly reduced during treatment and remained stable during follow-up.     

Race/Ethnicity and Multicultural Competence Among School Counselors: Multicultural Training,Racial/Ethnic Identity,and Color‐Blind Racial Attitudes

This study tested a model that links race/ethnicity, multicultural training, racial/ethnic identity (REI), color‐blind racial attitudes (CoBRA), and multicultural counseling competence (MCC) among school counselors. The author examined whether multicultural training significantly moderated the association between race/ethnicity and MCC. School counselors’ REI was found to mediate this moderated association. A 3‐way interaction among race/ethnicity, training, and CoBRA revealed that White and racial/ethnic minority school counselors had the lowest MCC scores when they had limited training and higher CoBRA.     

高二学生情绪调节方式与父母反应方式的关系

以自我决定理论为理论依据,对500名高二学生进行问卷调查,采用结构方程模型的统计方法分析了在悲伤、害怕、生气三种情绪条件下,父亲、母亲的反应方式与高二男生、女生情绪调节方式之间的两种关系模型。模型比较结果显示,父、母反应方式对高二年级青少年情绪调节方式的预测作用小于高二年级青少年情绪调节方式对其父、母反应方式的预测作用,这一点在女生身上更为突出;高二年级青少年的情绪调节方式与其父母反应方式之间的关系表现出了性别差异;在不同情绪条件下,高二年级青少年的情绪调节方式对父母反应方式的预测关系表现出了一致性;父亲、母亲对高二学生消极情绪调节方式的反应也表现出了一致性。     

A virtual training institute in Eastern Europe

This is a short outline of the development of psychoanalysis and of analytic training in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The Han Groen Prakken Psychoanalytic Institute for Eastern Europe was founded by the IPA and the EPF in 2002 to organize and coordinate this. The activity of such an unusual training institute, virtual and time-limited up to the birth of new IPA study groups, is described with the problems it has had to face, from shuttle analysis to research of this unusual training, from initial outreach activity to formation of new analytic groups, from unavoidable plurality of analytic approaches of an international staff to the need for systematic teaching, from criteria for selection of candidates in such a large area with many languages, cultures and histories, to the integration of new analysts and groups in the international analytic community. These problems are part of the challenge implicit in the globalization, with its unavoidable push to enlarge to the whole humanity the psychoanalytic theory and praxis. Such an experience is now used in Latin America, but may also soon have its application in other continents. Freedom of mind is a basic need of all humans and psychoanalysis still has much to say about this.