Search

Robust evidence links students' positive mental health with academic achievement and provides a compelling rationale for developing and refining strength-based assessments. The Social Emotional Health Survey--Secondary (SEHS-S) assesses adolescents' social and emotional skills and positive psychological dispositions. Previous studies provide reliability and validity evidence; nonetheless, there is a need for continued refinement and validation across diverse groups. The current study revised and standardized the updated SEHS-S-2020 to validate further its use in secondary schools (Grades 9-12) with a large, diverse adolescent sample. Study participants included 72,740 from 113 California schools (structural validation sample), 10,757 students from 15 randomly selected California schools (criterion validation sample), and 707 students from four additional California schools (test-retest sample). Data analyses examined structural validity, measurement invariance, criterion validity, internal consistency, and response stability. Results supported the SEHS-S-2020 validity across diverse groups of youth in various contexts. The discussion focuses on implications for assessing students' psychosocial assets and universal school-based screening. [This is the online first version of an article published in "Journal of Well-Being Assessment."]

Culturally responsive assessment practices include validated measures appropriate for use with diverse populations. Considering the increasing population of Latinx students in U.S. schools, measures need co-validated English and Spanish (SEHS) language forms. This study examined the Social Emotional Health Survey--Secondary with Latinx students who completed a form in either Spanish or English. With a matched sample of 1,404 Latinx students across 113 California schools, the analyses examined the factor structure, measurement invariance, and latent-trait factor means of students who completed the SEHS in either Spanish or English. The factor structure was invariant across groups with some latent mean differences observed. Educational practice implications are considered. [This paper was published in "Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment" v39 n2 p242-246 2021 (EJ1290904).]

Schools are an essential setting for mental health supports and services for students. To support student well-being, schools engage in universal mental health screening to identify students in need of support and to provide surveillance data for districtwide or statewide policy changes. Mental health data have been collected via anonymous and self-identified response formats depending on the purpose of the screening (i.e., surveillance and screening, respectively). However, most surveys do not provide psychometric evidence for use in both types of response formats. The current study examined whether responses to the Social Emotional Health Survey--Secondary (SEHS-S), a school mental health survey, are comparable when administered using anonymous vs. self-identified response formats. The study participants were from one high school and completed the SEHS-S using self-identified (n = 1,700) and anonymous (n = 1,667) formats. Full measurement invariance was found across the two response formats. Both substantial and minimal latent mean differences were detected. Implications for the use and interpretation of the SEHS-S for schoolwide mental health are discussed. [This paper will be published in the journal "Assessment for Effective Intervention.]

Using latent profile analysis (LPA), this study empirically identified dual-factor mental health subtypes, with a goal of examining structural stability of emerging latent classes over three high school years. Profiles' relations with distal indicators of well-being, psychosocial distress, and self-reported grades were examined to explore the validity of emerging classes. A sample of 332 high school students reported on their social-emotional strengths and psychological distress during the fall term of their ninth-, tenth-, and eleventh-grade years. In Grade 12, students reported on measures assessing their grades and social-emotional experiences. Independent LPAs for each grade year yielded four mental health subtypes -- complete mental health, moderately mentally healthy, symptomatic but content, and troubled -- and provided evidence for the structural stability of the dual-factor mental health construct. Across high school years, most students were in the complete or moderately mentally healthy classes, with the troubled class consistently representing the smallest proportion of the sample. Students in classes with higher levels of strengths and lower levels of distress reported higher grades, prosocial contribution to community, and higher life satisfaction, and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. Implications and future directions for research and school-based practice are discussed. [This is the in press version of an article published in "School Mental Health."]

Dual-factor models of mental health are increasingly supported but little is known about longitudinal trends in dual-factor mental health. The current study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to empirically identify dual-factor mental health classes at each of Grades 9 through 12 and latent transition analysis (LTA) to examine stability of classes over four academic years. A sample of 875 adolescents from two cohorts reported on their social-emotional strengths and psychological distress. Cross-sectional LPAs for each grade year resulted in four mental health classes: "complete mental health," "moderately mentally healthy," "symptomatic but content," and "troubled." An LTA model indicated that the "complete mental health" class exhibited the most stability, followed by "moderately mentally healthy" and "symptomatic but content" classes. The "troubled" class exhibited the least stability. Less than 24% of participants remained in the same mental health class across all years. Findings support regular monitoring of students' dual-factor mental health to accurately inform mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention efforts. [This paper was published in "Journal of School Psychology" 2019.]

This paper presents a framework for choosing between 4-and 6-point response options for use with online surveys. Using data that have both 4- and 6-point Likert-type items, we compare correlations, fit of factor analytic models, and several different reliability estimates as a way of identifying if there is empirical support for choosing a response option with more categories. Results indicate that the instrument had slightly better psychometric properties with a 4-point response option, although the estimates for both response options were acceptable. From a statistical perspective, there was no rationale to switch to a 6-point response option when a 4-point response option was already in place. [This paper was produced by Project CoVitality at the University of California Santa Barbara, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, International Center for School Based Youth Development.]

The "Psychological Sense of School Membership" (PSSM) scale has been used for more than 20 years to measure students' sense of school belonging, yet its psychometric properties have had limited examination with pre-adolescent children. This study investigated the utility and psychometrics of the PSSM in three primary school samples from the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. Exploratory factor analysis revealed good fit for a unidimensional factor structure in the U.S. sample, which was subsequently confirmed in all three samples. Partial invariance across all three samples and full invariance across pairwise samples (United States and United Kingdom; United Kingdom and China) was found. Path analyses revealed significant positive relations of the PSSM total belonging score with gratitude and prosocial behavior, and significant negative relations with symptoms of distress. Future directions and implications are discussed. [This paper will be published in "School Psychology International."]

Contemporary mental health assessment conceptualizations focus on both well-being and distress. This study presents initial validation information for the "Social Emotional Distress Survey--Secondary" (SEDS-S), which was designed for school-based complete mental health screening that employs brief self-report measures of well-being and distress. The SEDS-S structure was investigated using two independent samples of U.S. high school students (N = 3,780). Findings from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a one-factor model of distress with good model fit. Path analyses revealed significant positive relations of the SEDS-S distress factor with symptoms of anxiety and depression, and a significant negative relation with life satisfaction and strengths scores. Future research directions and use in school-based screening applications are discussed. [This paper represents the Online First version, to be published in "Assessment for Effective Intervention."]

This manual reports on the development and validation of the original Social Emotional Health Survey-Secondary (carried out between 2012 and 2017). We shared the first version of the SEHS-S because it had sufficient validation evidence based on research completed by 2015; hence, the form reported on in this manual is called the SEHS-S (2015) version. We want to convey to our colleagues that the original SEHS-S (2015) version has an impressive body of evidence supporting it core psychometric properties, structural validity, criterion, and predictive validity (see: www.covitalityucsb.info/research.html for a list of research studies). The SEHS-S (2015) has been used in scores of research projects and by schools in 13 U.S. states to support universal monitoring of students' complete mental wellness. Hence, the SEHS-S (2015) can be used with confidence for research and applied program continuity purposes.