Improving Mental Health Services for Economically Disadvantaged Children: Training Teachers

June 23, 2005 updated by: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

John F. Kennedy Center for Mental Retardation: Parent Vs. Teacher-Training in Children's Mental Health Services

Children from low socioeconomic levels are more likely to have a mental disorder. However, they are less likely to receive appropriate treatment for that disorder than are children at higher socioeconomic levels. This study will evaluate a program designed to improve mental health services for these children through public school systems.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Approximately 12% of children under 18 years of age in the United States suffer from a mental disorder; estimates for socioeconomically disadvantaged children are 20% or higher. Unfortunately, these at-risk children often do not receive the needed mental health services either because of a lack of accessible services or because their families lack the motivation or resources to obtain services. In many instances, it is difficult or impossible to involve parents in their children's services. Increased access to services for socioeconomically disadvantaged children is critical. However, increased access alone is not sufficient to meet this population's mental health needs. Effective services must be provided. This study will increase the accessibility of mental health services by providing them in the children's schools and will determine whether teachers can be effective substitutes for parents as the therapeutic change agent. The study will accomplish these objectives through implementation and evaluation of the Reaching Educators, Children, and Parents (RECAP) program.

The RECAP program involves individual and small group sessions with children, classroom groups with the child's broader peer groups, and instruction for classroom teachers and parents. The specific techniques are selected to target the areas thought to be responsible for perpetuating the children's problems. The child component, for example, focuses on: 1) social skills (e.g., how to resolve conflicts non-aggressively; use of humor to deflect teasing); 2) communication skills; 3) improving self-monitoring and self-control; 4) reattribution training (for both hostile attributions and negative self-attributions); 5) setting short- and long-term goals and relating behavior to long-term goals; and 6) relaxation. The program also focuses on motivational issues and helping children understand what is in their best long-term self-interest.

Children in need of but not currently receiving mental health services will be selected from six schools serving high-risk neighborhoods in the Metro Nashville School System. Children will be chosen based on severity of psychopathology. Children will be randomly assigned to receive either: 1) mental health services containing a parent-training component; 2) mental health services containing a teacher-training component; or 3) a no-services control group. All children and their classroom peers will be assessed for behavioral, emotional, and social functioning.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

93

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Tennessee
      • Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 37240
        • Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

1 second and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria

  • Enrolled in the 4th grade in a participating public school
  • Elevated levels of internalizing or externalizing psychopathology

Exclusion Criteria

  • Psychosis in parent(s) or child
  • No legal guardian (e.g., state custody)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Travis Thompson, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
  • Study Director: Bahr Weiss, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 1995

Study Completion

September 1, 2000

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 29, 2003

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 29, 2003

First Posted (Estimate)

September 30, 2003

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

June 24, 2005

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 23, 2005

Last Verified

October 1, 2003

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2P30HD015052 (NIH)
  • 1R01MH054237 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • NICHD-0521

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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