Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Child Outcomes from an Evaluation in Preschool Classrooms Underserved Neighborhood

• In Event: 2-099 - Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Child Outcomes, Classroom Outcomes and Order of Effects

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) is an intervention that aims to promote young children’s mental health and social-emotional learning by enhancing the quality of early care and education environments and building internal capacities of the adults in the child’s life (Brennan et al., 2008; Conners-Burrow et al., 2012; Perry et al., 2010). A consultant with mental health expertise partners with administrators, teachers, and families to build their capacity and skills to support young children’s social, emotional, and behavioral development. Thus, mental health resources are distributed across more individuals in need. This is especially important for underserved locations with limited access to mental health services. Furthermore, the ECMHC approach of integrating mental health support into academic instruction (e.g., building teachers’ capacity) is especially effective in addressing mental health needs in comparison to school-based pull-out services or a delivery of a separate mental health curriculum among school-age children (Sanchez et al., 2018). However, more research is needed to understand if ECMHC is effective for young children in high-risk populations. The current study extends prior research by investigating the effects of ECMHC for children’s social and behavioral functioning in preschools serving high-risk children.

Method: A quasi-experimental evaluation of the Georgetown ECMHC model (Hunter et al., 2016) was conducted in public charter preschools in a large mid-Atlantic city. Data from the first year of ECMHC implementation are included in the present study. Consultation was primarily child-focused, participation in consultation was based on administrator referral, and the length of consultation varied depending on the level of need. Three schools (2 intervention, 1 control), 20 classrooms, and 390 children participated in the evaluation across one school year (age: 32 – 68 months, M = 47.04; 99% African American; 100% free lunch; 51.8% Male). At the beginning and end of the school year, teachers and observers rated children’s social and behavioral functioning. Multilevel models were fit in Mplus Version 7.2 to examine the effects of participation in ECMHC on child functioning and to account for the nesting of children within schools.

Results: Results indicate differences in children’s functioning between intervention and control conditions as rated by both observers and teachers. Teachers reported greater behavioral regulation and social awareness at the end of the year for children in schools that participated in the ECMHC intervention compared to children in control schools, when controlling for child age, gender, and beginning-of-year functioning (see Table 1). Similarly, children were rated by observers to have fewer attention problems and self-regulation deficits at the end of the year than children in control schools (see Table 2).

Conclusion: Our findings add to the growing literature demonstrating positive outcomes of ECMHC in promoting quality early learning environments as well as children’s social, emotional, and behavioral well-being. This study indicates that ECMHC is an effective school-based mental health support for young children evidencing early social, emotional, or behavioral concerns in high-risk, underserved neighborhoods. Our findings have policy and practice implications for increasing children’s access to mental health supports and high quality early learning environments.

Authors

• Erin Mathis, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Karyn Hartz, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Abby Carlson, AppleTree Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chavaughn Brown, AppleTree Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew Biel, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Celene Domitrovich, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author