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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Susan I. Stone, PhD, School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, 120 Haviland Hall #222, Berkeley, CA 94720, 510-643-6662, sistone@berkeley.edu

“School-effects” perspectives represent a common methodological approach in educational research. These studies investigate associations between student achievement-related outcomes and aggregate school characteristics. A robust set of research links school-level demographic (e.g., school poverty rates, racial-ethnic composition, mobility rates), performance (e.g. school achievement), and programmatic characteristics to student outcomes. While much less studied, school effects may influence student health and mental health outcomes as well as their access to and utilization of services (Rutter & Maughan, 2002; U.S. Surgeon General, 1999). Only a fraction of children with mental health difficulties access needed services and utilization patterns appear to be linked to race, ethnicity and class. This paper brings a community-level “school effects” perspective to understanding variation in child/ adolescent health and mental health indicators and service utilization. It addresses whether school/ district demographic, performance and health/mental health programming characteristics account for unique variation in child and adolescent health and mental health indicators. In addition, it assesses the contribution of racial and ethnic factors at two levels—at the child/ adolescent level and in terms of school racial/ethnic compositional effects. This study merges the California Health Interview Surveys of 2001 and 2003 with the California Department of Education's archive on school and district characteristics and the school health programs national database. In order to estimate the size of these school effects, this study employs county and regional-fixed effects regression models. The main implication is that school-effects perspectives contribute to the study of child and adolescent health and mental health.

Learning Objectives:

Session participants will be able to
• apply the logic of school-effects perspectives on child/ adoelscent mental health and identify their utility for examining racial/ethnic disparities, and
• identify alternative strategies for addressing such compositional effects.

Keywords: School-Based Programs, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation