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Many youth experience mental health problems. Schools are an ideal setting to identify, prevent, and intervene in these problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate patterns of student social, emotional, and behavioral risk over time among a community sample of 3rd through 12th grade students and the association of these risk patterns with fidelity to a school-based mental health model. Overall growth of social, emotional, and behavioral problems declined over a 3-year period. Four classes of students were identified using growth mixture modeling: (1) students with high levels of problems; (2) students with decreasing problems; (3) students with increasing problems; and (4) students with stable, low levels of problems. These growth trajectories were associated with fidelity to the model, in that trajectories where students with higher or increasing problems were more likely to be from schools with lower fidelity. Implications for practice and policy are provided. [This article was published in "School Psychology Review" (EJ1292056).]

Interventions for youth are often studied in school settings, yet there are barriers that hinder schools from actively participating in the research studies. To ensure interventions are studied in the context they are intended for, adopted in a timely manner, and regularly used in practice as designed, researchers can conduct studies in a manner that reflects the dynamic needs of schools. participatory action research, which engages participants in the research process, and coproduction of interventions, which involves end users in the development of interventions, are complementary frameworks that may increase the utility and flexibility of school-based interventions while also improving engagement and fidelity of intervention implementation. This study explored the implementation of a self-monitoring intervention, "Self-Management And Regulation Training Strategy" (SMARTS), developed using these approaches. Using multiple methods, findings indicate that school counselors (i.e., natural treatment agents) valued helping in the development of SMARTS and were able to implement it in school settings with fidelity. in fact, the quality with which they implemented components of the intervention was significantly related to students' engagement in intervention procedures. implications and limitations are discussed. [This article was published in "School Psychology Review" (EJ1292055).]

Healthy relationships between parents and teachers are essential to addressing children's emotional and behavioral concerns. The current meta-analysis examined the effects of family-school engagement interventions on parent-teacher relationships. Twenty-three group-design studies yielding 58 effects comprised the current sample. Random effect models were estimated to calculate pooled effect size estimates, and mixed effect models were conducted for moderation analyses. Overall, results revealed that family-school engagement interventions had a small, but significant effect on parent-teacher relationships ([delta] = 0.23, SE = 0.09, p < 0.05). This finding was consistent across mesosystemic characteristics of parent-teacher relationships including joining ([delta] = 0.25, SE = 0.09, p < 0.05) and parent-teacher communication ([delta] = 0.34, SE = 0.10, p < 0.01). However, no significant results were revealed for relational prerequisites ([delta] = 0.05, SE = 0.12, p = 0.67). Interventions were found to be significantly moderated by child behavior concerns (i.e., effects were higher for families of students with externalizing concerns) and community type (i.e., effects were more pronounced in rural areas). Results were not significantly moderated by child/family race or child age, indicating that interventions positively impacted parent-teacher relationships regardless of child/family race and child age. These findings demonstrate the benefits of family-school engagement interventions in promoting parent-teacher relationships and have key implications for school personnel.

Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) is a model of consultation wherein parents and teachers partner to address children's social-behavioral concerns. The teacher-parent relationship has proven critical to the success of CBC, yet little is known about the dynamics in CBC that may promote these relationships. This study explored interactions among teachers and parents during CBC. Using latent profile analysis, four interactional sense-making behaviors (i.e., engagement, perspective-taking, turn-taking, and coherence) were examined among 193 parents and teachers participating in CBC. Three classes of interactions emerged -- one class characterized by high interactional sense-making (18%), another characterized by moderate interactional sense-making (69%), and one class characterized by low interactional sense-making (13%). Follow-up analyses suggested differences in the quality of this relationship based on the interactions displayed by parents and teachers, with dyads that displayed high and moderate patterns of interactional sense-making reporting better quality relationships than those demonstrating low patterns of interactional sense-making.

Given that consultation has consistently yielded benefits for clients and consultees, it is likely an effective method of promoting family-school engagement. Thus, this meta-analysis examined the effects of consultation-based family-school engagement on child and parent outcomes, and complementary intervention methods used in conjunction with consultation. This study also sought to advance consultation research via a contemporary meta-analytic technique, robust variance estimation (RVE). Analyses yielded significant effects of consultation-based family-school engagement on children's social-behavioral competence ([delta] = 0.34), mental health ([delta] = 0.37), and academic achievement ([delta]= 0.27). Significant effects for parent practices ([delta] = 0.53), parent attitudes ([delta] = 0.49), and relational outcomes ([delta] = 0.37) were also found. Complementary intervention methods revealed significant effects across various child, parent, and relational outcomes. Results indicate benefits of consultation-based family-school engagement for key outcomes and have implications for utilizing complementary methods to augment the net effects of consultation for valuable stakeholders.

The present study examined parent-teacher congruent communication within conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC). Specifically, the study purpose was to determine the extent to which congruence in parent-teacher communication (i.e., the degree to which parents and teachers view their communication in a similar fashion) moderated CBC's effects on children's social skills. Drawn from a large randomized trial investigating the efficacy of CBC, the participants were 166 children and their parents and 74 teachers. The findings suggested that CBC's effects on teacher-reported children's social skills depend on congruent parent-teacher communication. Specifically, for students whose parents and teachers have these communication conditions, social skills are expected to increase only in the context of the CBC intervention. Implications for CBC research and school-based consultation are discussed.

Interventions for youth are often studied in school settings, yet there are barriers that hinder schools from actively participating in the research studies. To ensure interventions are studied in the context they are intended for, adopted in a timely manner, and regularly used in practice as designed, researchers can conduct studies in a manner that reflects the dynamic needs of schools. Participatory action research, which engages participants in the research process, and coproduction of interventions, which involves end users in the development of interventions, are complementary frameworks that may increase the utility and flexibility of school-based interventions while also improving engagement and fidelity of intervention implementation. This study explored the implementation of a self-monitoring intervention, "Self-Management And Regulation Training Strategy" (SMARTS), developed using these approaches. Using multiple methods, findings indicate that school counselors (i.e., natural treatment agents) valued helping in the development of SMARTS and were able to implement it in school settings with fidelity. In fact, the quality with which they implemented components of the intervention was significantly related to students' engagement in intervention procedures. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Many youth experience mental health problems. Schools are an ideal setting to identify, prevent, and intervene in these problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate patterns of student social, emotional, and behavioral risk over time among a community sample of 3rd through 12th grade students and the association of these risk patterns with fidelity to a school-based mental health model. Overall growth of social, emotional, and behavioral problems declined over a 3-year period. Four classes of students were identified using growth mixture modeling: (1) students with high levels of problems, (2) students with decreasing problems, (3) students with increasing problems, and (4) students with stable, low levels of problems. These growth trajectories were associated with fidelity to the model, in that trajectories where students with higher or increasing problems were more likely to be from schools with lower fidelity. Implications for practice and policy are provided.

This paper describes a school-based mental health model for identifying, intervening, and referring students who are at risk for, or are exhibiting, mental health problems. This paper describes the County Schools Mental Health Coalition as a model for improving mental health outcomes for youth. The County Schools Mental Health Coalition, referred to here as the Coalition, is a multidisciplinary collaborative among six independent school districts and private schools residing in one county, and school psychology and social work faculty researchers from the local university. The Coalition was formed to overcome several barriers to children and youth receiving mental health supports. The barriers include lack of systems to adequately identify students early before mental health issues become severe, and lack of provision or access to evidence-based practices and interventions (EBPs) to ameliorate concerns or promote positive youth development. The manuscript describes how the Coalition has sought to overcome the barriers to support youth in county schools grades K to 12 through the creation of a tiered comprehensive system of early identification, prevention, and implementation of EBPs. The process and procedures utilized within this comprehensive data-based model are detailed, including how universal screening data are used at the county, school district, school, grade level, and individual student levels. In addition, case examples of universal, selective, and indicated interventions within this model are provided. Implications for research, practice, and policy will be discussed.