School Counselors and Children's Mental Health

学校辅导员和儿童心理健康

• 批准号: 10573995
• 负责人: Christine Mulhern
• 金额: $ 9.8万
• 依托单位: RAND CORPORATION
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10573995
• 关键词: Academic achievement; Academy; Address; Adolescent; Adolescent Psychiatry; Adult; Adverse event; Advocate; Age; American; Anxiety; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Behavior; Black race; California; Certification; Child; Child Health; Child Mental Health; Child Psychiatry; Counseling; Country; Data; Diagnosis; Disease; Education; Emergency Situation; Emergency department visit; Ethnic Origin; Event; Family; Funding; Future; Gender; Geography; Goals; Grant; Health; Health Professional; Health Services Accessibility; Health behavior; Health behavior and outcomes; Heterogeneity; Hispanic; Hour; Human Resources; Incidence; Income; Intervention; Licensing; Life; Light; Low income; Measures; Medical; Mental Depression; Mental Health; Mental Health Services; Mental disorders; Modeling; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Observational Study; Outcome; Parents; Patient Self-Report; Pediatric Hospitals; Pediatrics; Performance; Personal Satisfaction; Persons; Policies; Policy Maker; Professional counselor; Provider; Race; Records; Research; Research Design; Schools; Services; Students; Study models; Suicide attempt; Surveys; Time; Urbanicity; Variant; Youth; access disparities; adolescent health; aged; coronavirus disease; demographics; design; experience; falls; health care availability; high risk; high school; improved; insight; instrument; junior high school; mental health counseling; pandemic disease; peer; poor health outcome; programs; suicidal risk; suicide rate

Project Summary A national child and adolescent mental health emergency was declared in fall 2021 amid rising mental health challenges. Approximately one in six children have a professionally diagnosed mental health disorder, which can lead to increased risk of suicide, worse health outcomes later in adulthood, and worse performance in school. However, approximately half of children with mental health disorders do not receive treatment, and Black, Hispanic, and low-income children, are less likely to receive mental health care than their peers. Schools are one of the main places children readily access health services, including mental health care, and school mental health services are often provided by licensed school counselors. Recently, there has been a push to increase mental health services in schools and access to school counselors in particular. The proposed study will examine one of the largest policies to increase funding for and access to school counselors in middle and high schools. Specifically, we will study how California’s 2006 Supplemental School Counseling Program (SSCP) impacted children’s access to school counselors, self-reported mental health outcomes, and related health and well-being outcomes. The SSCP provided middle and high schools with funds to hire more certified counselors, with funding levels that varied based on school sizes. We are not aware of any study that has examined the causal impacts of this large-scale policy on the mental health and related health outcomes of California students, or any related research examining the causal effects of a counseling policy of this scope on children’s health. We will leverage variation in funding levels over time and across schools in a simulated instruments and event study model to estimate the causal impacts of additional counselors hired through the SSCP on health outcomes. Using administrative education data on schools, students, and personnel from the California Department of Education, and self-reported measures of mental health, healthy behaviors, and health outcomes from the California Healthy Kids Survey, we will 1) document how expanded funding for school counselors impacted students’ access to counseling, including the number of counselors hired and their education, experience, and demographics, 2) estimate the causal impact of expanded access to school counselors on students’ health, including mental health, healthy behaviors, and well-being, and 3) examine how access to school counselors and their impacts on children’s health vary by urbanicity, family income, student race/ethnicity, and age. This research will provide evidence on how expanding access to school counselors may improve children’s mental health and how to effectively design related policies so that they impact the children most in need of these services. This is particularly important right now as places consider whether and how to use COVID relief funding to hire more counselors, and people seek ways to address the current national child and adolescent mental health emergency.

项目摘要 2021年秋季，随着心理健康水平的上升，全国宣布进入儿童和青少年心理健康紧急状态 挑战。大约六分之一的儿童有经专业诊断的精神健康障碍，这 会导致自杀风险增加，成年后健康状况更差，在 学校。然而，大约一半患有精神健康障碍的儿童没有接受治疗，而且 黑人、西班牙裔和低收入儿童比他们的同龄人接受心理健康护理的可能性更小。学校 是儿童容易获得卫生服务的主要场所之一，包括精神卫生保健和学校 心理健康服务通常由有执照的学校辅导员提供。最近，有一股推动 增加学校的心理健康服务，特别是获得学校顾问的机会。建议进行的研究 将研究一项最大的政策之一，以增加对中学和中学的学校辅导员的资助和接触 高中。具体地说，我们将研究加州2006年补充学校咨询计划是如何 (SSCP)影响儿童获得学校顾问的机会、自我报告的心理健康结果以及相关 健康和福祉成果。SSCP为初中和高中提供了资金，以雇佣更多的有资质的人 顾问，资金水平根据学校规模的不同而有所不同。我们不知道有任何研究表明 审查了这一大规模政策对心理健康和相关健康结果的因果影响 加州学生，或任何相关的研究，检验这种范围的咨询政策对 儿童健康。我们将利用资金水平随时间的变化和跨学校的模拟 工具和事件研究模型，以评估通过 关于健康结果的SSCP。使用有关学校、学生和人员的管理教育数据 加州教育部和自我报告的精神健康，健康行为，和 加州健康儿童调查的健康结果，我们将1)记录如何扩大资金用于 学校辅导员影响学生获得咨询的机会，包括聘请辅导员的数量和他们的 教育、经验和人口统计，2)估计扩大入学机会的因果影响 学生健康顾问，包括心理健康、健康行为和幸福感，以及3)检查 获得学校顾问的机会及其对儿童健康的影响如何因城市化、家庭收入、 学生种族/民族和年龄。这项研究将为扩大入学机会提供证据 辅导员可能会改善儿童的心理健康，以及如何有效地设计相关政策，以便他们 影响最需要这些服务的儿童。这一点现在尤其重要，因为一些地方正在考虑 是否以及如何使用COVID救济资金来聘请更多的顾问，人们正在想方设法解决 当前全国儿童青少年精神卫生突发事件。