Ein integriertes Modell zur Diagnostik der psychischen Gesundheit von Schülerinnen und Schülern in inklusiven Schulen

Mental health problems impact students’ social, emotional, and academical development, and as such these problems strongly predict learning difficulties and academic achievement generally. Students with disabilities and special needs are at greater risk for mental health problems. The assessment of mental health problems in students is therefore an important task for service providers in inclusive classrooms (especially special education teachers) in order to inform evidence-based school mental health services. In this paper, we propose an integrated conceptual model for assessing mental health in students in inclusive classrooms. The new model incorporates the consideration of teachers\u27 professional competence in assessment, early identification of mental health problems, the contextualization of multi-informant data (e.g., students, parents, teachers), and the use of evidence-based yet usable methods. The model is specified to inclusive school contexts, and incorporated into a Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework. (DIPF/Orig.)Probleme der psychischen Gesundheit beeinflussen die soziale, emotionale und akademische Entwicklung von Schülerinnen und Schülern. Dementsprechend können sie Lernschwierigkeiten und Schulleistungen der betroffenen Kinder und Jugendlichen bedingen. Schülerinnen und Schüler mit Behinderungen bzw. sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf haben ein erhöhtes Risiko für die Entwicklung von psychischen Problemen. Die Diagnostik der psychischen Gesundheit ist dementsprechend eine wichtige Aufgabe für professionelle Fachkräfte (insbesondere Lehrkräfte für sonderpädagogische Förderung) in inklusiven Klassen, um eine Datengrundlage für evidenzbasierte schulische Förderung der psychischen Gesundheit zu schaffen. In diesem Beitrag schlagen wir ein integriertes konzeptionelles Modell für die Diagnostik der psychischen Gesundheit von Schülerinnen und Schülern in inklusiven Klassen vor. Das neue Modell verbindet die professionelle diagnostische Kompetenz von Lehrkräften, die frühzeitige Erkennung psychischer Probleme, die Kontextualisierung diagnostischer Daten aus Schüler-, Lehrkraft und Elternsicht sowie die Nutzung von evidenzbasierten und gleichzeitig anwendbaren Diagnose- und Fördermethoden. Das Modell wird für inklusive Settings spezifiziert und in den Kontext mehrstufiger Diagnose- und Fördersysteme eingebettet. (DIPF/Orig.

When the evidence says, "Yes, no, and maybe so": Attending to and interpreting inconsistent findings among evidence-based interventions.

An international, multidisciplinary effort aims to identify evidence-based treatments (EBTs) or interventions. The goal of this effort is to identify specific techniques or programs that successfully target and change specific behaviors. In clinical psychology, EBTs are identified based on the outcomes of randomized controlled trials examining whether treatments outperform control or alternative treatment conditions. Treatment outcomes are measured in multiple ways. Consistently, different ways of gauging outcomes yield inconsistent conclusions. Historically, EBT research has not accounted for these inconsistencies. In this paper we highlight the implications of inconsistencies, describe a framework for redressing inconsistent findings, and illustrate how the framework can guide future research on how to administer and combine treatments to maximize treatment effects and how to study treatments via quantitative review.This work was supported, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grant MH67540 (Andres De Los Reyes) and by NIMH Grant MH59029 (Alan E. Kazdin)

Conceptualizing changes in behavior in intervention research: the range of possible changes model.

An international movement has focused on identifying evidence-based interventions that were developed to change psychological constructs and that are supported by controlled studies. However, inconsistent findings within individual intervention studies and among multiple studies raise critical problems in interpreting the evidence, and deciding when and whether an intervention is evidence-based. A theoretical and methodological framework (Range of Possible Changes [RPC] Model) is proposed to guide the study of change in intervention research. The authors recommend that future quantitative reviews of the research literature use the RPC Model to conceptualize, examine, and classify the available evidence for interventions. Future research should adopt the RPC Model to both develop theory-driven hypotheses and conduct examinations of the instances in which interventions may or may not change psychological constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)(from the journal abstract)This work was supported, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH67540 (awarded to Andres De Los Reyes). This work was also supported by William T. Grant Foundation Grant 98-1872-98 and National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH59029 (awarded to Alan E. Kazdin

Measuring informant discrepancies in clinical child research.

Discrepancies among informants' ratings of child psychopathology have important implications for diagnosis, assessment, and treatment. Typically, parents and children complete measures (e.g., self-report checklists, diagnostic instruments) to assess child dysfunction. Ratings gathered from these sources reveal relatively little agreement on the nature and extent of the child's social, emotional, and behavioral problems. This article reviews and illustrates the most frequently used methods of measuring informant discrepancies in the clinical child literature (i.e., raw difference, standardized difference, and residual difference scores) and outlines key considerations to influence their selection. The authors conclude that frequently used methods of measuring informant discrepancies are not interchangeable and recommend that future investigations examining informant discrepancies in clinical child research use the standardized difference score as their measure of informant discrepancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)(from the journal abstract)This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH67540) awarded to Andres De Los Reyes and by grants from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation (98-1872-98), and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH59029) awarded to Alan E. Kazdin

Informant Discrepancies in the Assessment of Childhood Psychopathology: A Critical Review, Theoretical Framework, and Recommendations for Further Study.

Discrepancies often exist among different informants' (e.g., parents, children, teachers) ratings of child psychopathology. Informant discrepancies have an impact on the assessment, classification, and treatment of childhood psychopathology. Empirical work has identified informant characteristics that may influence informant discrepancies. Limitations of previous work include inconsistent measurement of informant discrepancies and, perhaps most importantly, the absence of a theoretical framework to guide research. In this article, the authors present a theoretical framework (the Attribution Bias Context Model) to guide research and theory examining informant discrepancies in the clinic setting. Needed directions for future research and theory include theoretically driven attention to conceptualizing informant discrepancies across informant pairs (e.g., parent-teacher, mother-father, parent-child, teacher-child) as well as developing experimental approaches to decrease informant discrepancies in the clinic setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)(from the journal abstract)This work was supported, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH67540 (awarded to Andres De Los Reyes). This work was also supported by William T. Grant Foundation Grant 98-1872-98, National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH59029, and grants from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation (awarded to Alan E. Kazdin)

Applying Depression-Distortion Hypotheses to the Assessment of Peer Victimization in Adolescents.

This study examined whether adolescents' depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior were associated with discrepancies between self- and peer-reports of peer victimization experiences. A sample of 203 10th-grade adolescents completed self-report measures of victimization and depressive symptoms as well as peer nominations of victimization and aggression. Residual scores were computed as a measure of discordance between peer- and self-reported peer victimization. Adolescents' aggressive behavior was associated with underestimations of peer victimization on self-reported measures, as compared to peer-reports, whereas depressive symptoms were associated with overestimations of peer victimization on self-report, as compared to peer-reports. Different patterns of findings were revealed for different forms of victimization (overt, relational, reputational) and by gender. Findings have implications for studies of adolescent peer victimization using multiple reporters and suggest that adolescents with high levels of depressive symptoms may be vulnerable to misperceptions of their social experiences among peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)(from the journal abstract)This work was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to Andres De Los Reyes (F31–MH67540) and Mitchell J. Prinstein (R01–MH59766)

The influence of context on categorization decisions for mental health disorders

Mental health clinicians engage in an important form of real world categorization as they diagnose their patients with mental disorder diagnoses. How are clinicians affected by the context within which diagnostic criteria of a patient present when making diagnostic evaluations? The classification system clinicians are instructed to use is structured around a statistical approach to assessing diagnosis and does allow for the interpretation of criterial features through influences like context. The following experiment tests whether clinicians are affected by the context within which non-diagnostic information about a patient is presented. We tested clinician’s diagnostic judgments for symptoms of Conduct Disorder that were presented either in a context that should be perceived as being associated with Conduct Disorder or in a context that should not be perceived as being associated with Conduct Disorder. We found that clinicians were influenced by context, but in surprising ways. Clinicians lowered their diagnostic judgments for symptoms presented in a low associative context but did not change their estimates for high associative contexts as compared to baseline. The effect of context was also found to vary over the criterial symptoms that were presented, and this variation was associated with clinicians’ idiosyncratic ratings of the criterial symptoms. These results have interesting implications for how clinicians view their patients and for how context affects categorization more generally

Identifying evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents using the range of possible changes model: A meta-analytic illustration

We are very grateful to Kelly D. Brownell, Julia Kim-Cohen, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, and Peter Salovey for extremely insightful discussions and commentaries on previous versions of this manuscript. We also thank Jennifer Thomas, Jessica Cronce, and Amelia Aldao for their careful and diligent participation as coders for this study. Please address correspondence to Andres De Los Reyes, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland at College Park, Biology/Psychology Building, Room 3123H, College Park, MD 20742; office: 301-405-7049; e-mail: [email protected] article discusses a study involving a framework (range of possible changes [RPC] Model) developed and applied to identify patterns in consistent and inconsistent intervention outcomes effects by informant, measurement method, and method of statistical analysis to the meta-analytic study of trials testing two evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents (youth-focused cognitive-behavioral treatment for child anxiety problems; parent-focused behavioral parent training for childhood conduct problems). This article illustrates how findings gleaned from applying the RPC Model allow for unique opportunities for hypothesis generation based on the patterns of consistent outcomes effects. Based on the RPC Model, studies can be closely examined to identify the specific instances in which interventions yield robust effects, and the authors illustrate how examining effects in this way can lead to new understandings of interventions and the outcomes they produce. Findings suggest that researchers can employ previously underutilized patterns of consistencies and inconsistencies in outcomes effects as new resources for identifying evidence-based interventions.This work was supported, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH67540 (Andres De Los Reyes). This work was also supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH59029 (Alan E. Kazdin)

Domesticated dogs’ (Canis familiaris) use of the solidity principle

Shannon M. A. Kundey, Chelsea Taglang, Ayelet Baruch, and Rebecca German, Department of Psychology, Hood College; Andres De Los Reyes, Comprehensive Assessment and Intervention Program, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland at College Park. We would like to thank Jessica Arbuthnot, Rebecca Allen, Ariel Coshun, Erica Royer, Sherry McClurkin, Sabrina Molina, and Robin Reutten for their assistance in data collection and participant recruitment for this study.Organisms must often make predictions about the trajectories of moving objects. However, often these objects become hidden. To later locate such objects, the organism must maintain a representation of the object in memory and generate an expectation about where it will later appear. We explored adult dogs’ knowledge and use of the solidity principle (that one solid object cannot pass through another solid object) by evaluating search behavior. Subjects watched as a treat rolled down an inclined tube into a box. The box either did or did not contain a solid wall dividing it in half. To find the treat, subjects had to modify their search behavior based on the presence or absence of the wall, which either did or did not block the treat’s trajectory. Dogs correctly searched the near location when the barrier was present and the far location when the barrier was absent. They displayed this behavior from the first trial, as well as performed correctly when trial types were intermingled. These results suggest that dogs direct their searches in accordance with the solidity principle

The Relations among Measurements of Informant Discrepancies within a Multisite Trial of Treatments for Childhood Social Phobia

The authors acknowledge the efforts of Patricia Rao, Ph.D., Project Coordinator, Richard Gross, M.D., and Stephen Kwass, M.D., psychiatrists.Discrepancies between informants’ reports of children’s behavior are robustly observed in clinical child research and have important implications for interpreting the outcomes of controlled treatment trials. However, little is known about the basic psychometric properties of these discrepancies. This study examined the relation between parent-child reporting discrepancies on measures of child social phobia symptoms, administered before and after treatment for social phobia. Participants included a clinic sample of 81 children (7–16 years old [M=11.75, SD=2.57]; 39 girls, 42 boys) and their parents receiving treatment as part of a multisite controlled trial. Pretreatment parent-child reporting discrepancies predicted parent-child discrepancies at posttreatment, and these relations were not better accounted for by the severity of the child’s pretreatment primary diagnosis. Further, treatment responder status moderated this relation: Significant relations were identified for treatment non-responders and not for treatment responders. Overall, findings suggest that informant discrepancies can be reliably employed to measure individual differences over the course of controlled treatment trials. These data provide additional empirical support for recent work suggesting that informant discrepancies can meaningfully inform understanding of treatment response as well as variability in treatment outcomes.This research was supported in part by NIMH grant R01MH53703 to the third author. Lilly Corporation supplied the fluoxetine and matching placebo capsules. Clinical trial registration information- URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT00043537