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. 2021 Jun;52(3):500-514.
doi: 10.1007/s10578-020-01027-z.

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

Melissa L Danielson  1 , Rebecca H Bitsko  2 , Joseph R Holbrook  2 , Sana N Charania  2   3 , Angelika H Claussen  2 , Robert E McKeown  4 , Steven P Cuffe  5 , Julie Sarno Owens  6 , Steven W Evans  6 , Lorraine Kubicek  7 , Kate Flory  8
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Community-Based Prevalence of Externalizing and Internalizing Disorders among School-Aged Children and Adolescents in Four Geographically Dispersed School Districts in the United States

Melissa L Danielson et al. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Adolescents; Children; Mental disorders; Population-based; Screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Dr. Cuffe has received funding from Alkermes, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Ostuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. Dr. Owens has received funding from the Institute of Education Sciences. Dr. Evans has received funding from Institute of Education Sciences, National Institute of Mental Health, and Patient Center Outcomes Research Initiative. Dr. Kubicek has received funding from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. All other authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

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