Community-Based Prevalence of Externalizing and Internalizing Disorders among School-Aged Children and Adolescents in Four Geographically Dispersed School Districts in the United States

• Published in: Child psychiatry and human development Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 500 - 514
• Main Authors: Danielson, Melissa L., Bitsko, Rebecca H., Holbrook, Joseph R., Charania, Sana N., Claussen, Angelika H., McKeown, Robert E., Cuffe, Steven P., Owens, Julie Sarno, Evans, Steven W., Kubicek, Lorraine, Flory, Kate
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescents; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Child and School Psychology; Children; Community mental health services; Estimates; Health care; High risk; Internalization; Internalizing disorders; Medical screening; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental health services; Movement disorders; Original Article; Psychiatry; Psychological assessment; Psychology; School districts; Students; Surveillance; Teachers; Teenagers; Tests; Tics; United States > US; Ohio; Screening; Population-based; Children; Mental disorders; Adolescents
• ISSN: 0009-398X; 1573-3327
• DOI: 10.1007/s10578-020-01027-z

The Project to Learn About Youth-Mental Health (PLAY–MH; 2014–2018) is a school-based, two-stage study designed to estimate the prevalence of selected mental disorders among K-12 students in four U.S.-based sites (Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and South Carolina). In Stage 1, teachers completed validated screeners to determine student risk status for externalizing or internalizing problems or tics; the percentage of students identified as being at high risk ranged from 17.8% to 34.4%. In Stage 2, parents completed a structured diagnostic interview to determine whether their child met criteria for fourteen externalizing or internalizing disorders; weighted prevalence estimates of meeting criteria for any disorder were similar in three sites (14.8%–17.8%) and higher in Ohio (33.3%). PLAY–MH produced point-in-time estimates of mental disorders in K-12 students, which may be used to supplement estimates from other modes of mental disorder surveillance and inform mental health screening and healthcare and educational services.