Citation

Green JG, McLaughlin KA, Alegria M, Bettini E, Gruber M, Hoagwood K, Le Tai L, Sampson N, Zaslavsky AM, Xuan Z, Kessler RC. J. Adolesc. Health 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.016

PMID

32317207

Abstract

PURPOSE: Schools provide access to mental health services for traditionally underserved youth. However, there is variability in the types of school-based services students receive (e.g., school counseling, services in separate classrooms, or schools serving students with psychiatric disorders). Prior research has typically not distinguished among these different types of school-based services. The present study examines sociodemographic characteristics and disorders associated with the types of services received in schools.

METHODS: Data were analyzed from a sample of adolescent-parent pairs in the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement who received school mental health services (N = 1,204). DSM-IV diagnoses were based on the Composite International Diagnostic Interview administered to adolescents and questionnaires self-administered to parents. Adolescents (aged 13-18 years) and parents also responded to questions about lifetime school-based mental health service receipt.

RESULTS: Among those receiving school-based mental health services, almost one-third (29.7%) received services in a separate classroom and almost one-fourth (22.3%) in a separate school. Increased likelihood of lifetime placement in a separate classroom or school was detected among older youth, males, blacks, Latinos, youth with learning disabilities, those whose parents had fewer years of education, and those who received community-based mental health services. Oppositional defiant disorder was associated with increased lifetime placement in a separate school.

CONCLUSIONS: The results advance the evidence base by indicating that racial/ethnic minority youth and those whose parents have fewer years of education were more likely to receive school-based mental health services in separate settings. These results provide more context to studies of school-based mental health service receipt.

Copyright © 2020 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescence; Disparities; Inequities; Mental health; Race/ethnicity; Schools; Services