As students present to school with mental health needs, the role of schools has evolved to include the provision of school-based mental health services delivered across a continuum or multitiered system of supports. Within this framework of services, students can receive intensive mental health services at the Tier 3 level. School-based mental…

Mental health concerns are on the rise among youth, contributing to a growing need for school-based mental health services. However, challenges to service provision arise due, in part, to workforce shortages, service fragmentation, and inefficient allocation of staff time. The current study describes the professional competencies and time…

Youth mental health crises in the USA increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools are uniquely positioned to address the growing mental health needs of youth by connecting them with mental health services; however, they are often under-resourced to provide these services. This study used community resource mapping to identify the…

To help guide school mental health policy and practice, we evaluated patterns of mental health help-seeking across lifetime adversity among sixth-grade adolescents. An ethnically/socioeconomically diverse sample of sixth-graders (N = 751) self-completed assessments of help-seeking and indicators of lifetime adversities: violence victimization,…

Secondary school staff are often tasked with delivering mental health content to students, yet there has been little research on staff confidence to do so. Given the responsibility placed on staff to support student mental health, reliable and valid measures are needed to facilitate assessment of teacher confidence in the classroom and evaluation…

Many schools and communities conduct regular surveillance surveys to monitor student mental health risk. These surveys rarely ask about use of mental health services, despite the potential importance of this information to support service planning and resource allocation. The current study developed and tested the Adolescent Mental Health Support…

Increasing evidence has shown that the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted adolescents' mental health. Utilising a mixed-method design, the current study examined a total of 518 adolescent perspectives (60% female), in Scotland, on what "has" and "could" help their mental health in the context of COVID-19. A reflexive thematic…

School belonging, sometimes referred to as school belonging or school connectedness, involves dimensions like positive affect towards school, relationships with teachers, and feeling socially valued. Previous research points to immediate benefits for students' mental health and wellbeing; however, evidence on the potential long-term benefits of…

Although there is a wealth of research addressing the association between mental health and school absenteeism, there are calls for a better understanding of how mental health difficulties might predict SAPs (Egger et al., 2003; Finning et al., 2022; Ingul et al., 2019; Wood et al., 2012). The aim of this paper was to create a more nuanced…

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the well-being of K-12 students, positioning youth mental health as a public health priority. School closures and remote learning are identified as key factors worsening child and adolescent mental well-being. However, research is sparse about the pandemic's impact on the mental health of Black and…

School-based mental health practitioners can offer enhanced support to schools and students; yet their training, roles, and expertise vary. The roles of these professionals are often conflated, misunderstood, or marginalized in their utility throughout the school system. The purpose of this manuscript is to enhance the capacity of educational…

This study examined the associations between bullying victimization and mental health and academic performance outcomes. This study also examined the indirect effect of academic performance on the association between bullying victimization and mental health. Participants included 676 secondary school students from the Southeast region of the USA.…

Increasingly, students are grappling with threats to their mental wellbeing, yet teachers receive little formal education or professional development in mental health literacy and how to support students who experience mental health concerns or trauma. Given mental health disparities that exist for American Indian/Alaska Native students (AI/AN),…

Mental health problems in school-aged youth are a risk factor for poor outcomes in adulthood. Although these poor outcomes are well established, most youth with mental health problems continue to experience barriers to receiving appropriate services. Tier 2 interventions are sometimes provided to students who are at risk of developing a mental…

To date, minimal research has explored the perceptions of secondary school staff regarding their realized and potential contributions to the redress of mental health stigma and support of students with mental health concerns within school environments. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the practicable roles school staff perceive…