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Background: In rural communities, understanding and improving school climate may benefit youth facing unique contextual challenges to well-being. As education research rarely focuses on rural schools, we aimed to examine school climate and student well-being with a particular focus on rural schools, compared to suburban schools. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 62,265 students in 22 rural and 78 suburban Maryland middle and high schools. Student self-report data were collected on school climate (safety, engagement, and environment) as well as internalizing problems, behavior problems, stress, substance abuse, and future orientation. Multiple-group, multilevel models were fit to compare between rural and suburban schools. Results: On average, rural students reported significantly lower perceptions of safety and engagement than suburban students. Safety and engagement were generally associated with higher youth well-being. A number of moderated effects were observed, which generally suggested stronger associations between school-level climate--particularly engagement--and more positive outcomes for rural compared to suburban students. Conclusions: Students' perceptions of safety and engagement were associated with student well-being, in some cases with stronger associations for rural students. These findings suggest that efforts to improve school climate may be particularly impactful for rural students.

Low mental health literacy (MHL) is a particular challenge in many low and middle-income countries (LMIC). School-based MHL programs hold promise to increase MHL but lack rigorous research assessing their effectiveness in LMIC. The present study evaluated a school-based MHL program, the "Mental Health & High School Curriculum Guide" ("The Guide"), implemented separately in two different contexts in Southeast Asia (Vietnam and Cambodia) following adaptations made by the research team. Participants were 80 teachers and 2539 students from 20 schools in Vietnam (Study 1), and 67 teachers and 275 students in one school in Cambodia (Study 2). In Vietnam, teachers/classrooms were randomized to either The Guide MHL program or a treatment-as-usual control condition, with teachers in the intervention condition receiving a 3-day training in The Guide and implementing the 6-module curriculum in their classrooms. In Cambodia, school staff were randomized to either receive "The Guide" training or to the control condition; four teachers who received the training implemented the curriculum in select classrooms. In both studies, teachers' and students' mental health knowledge and attitudes were assessed at baseline and following completion of the classroom curriculum. In Vietnam, 6 of 7 program effects for teachers were significant with some large effects (e.g., teacher Recognition of Mental Health Disorders, R[superscript 2] = 0.36); effects for both of the student outcomes were significant, but small. Results were similar in Cambodia, with 6 of 9 program effects significant favoring the treatment group; effect sizes in Cambodia were smaller than in Vietnam for teachers/staff but larger for students. Findings suggest that with limited adaptation, a teacher-delivered MHL intervention can produce measurable increases in MHL among teachers and students in two Southeast Asian countries. These results support the value of school-based MHL training provided via an inexpensive and teacher-friendly program, embedding MHL into classrooms. Some small effect sizes suggest the importance of additional development and research targeting these particular components.

School climate is an important construct for guiding violence prevention efforts in U.S. schools, but there has been less consideration of this concept in its neighboring country Mexico, which has a higher prevalence of violence. The U.S. Department of Education outlined a three-domain conceptualization of school climate (i.e., safe and supportive schools model) that includes engagement, safety, and the school environment. To examine the applicability of this school climate model in Mexico, the present study tested its measurement invariance across middle school students in the United States (n = 15,099) and Mexico (n = 2,211). Findings supported full invariance for engagement and modified-safety scales indicating that factor loadings and intercepts contributed almost equally to factor means, and scale scores were comparable across groups. Partial invariance was found for the environment scales. Results of a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) consisting of all 13 school climate scales indicated significantly positive associations among all scales in the U.S. sample and among most scales in the Mexico sample. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Research on adolescence from the Majority World possesses major hidden potential in contributing to global adolescent research and developmental science more broadly. In this commentary, the authors (1) describe the background and the process through which this special issue came into fruition, (2) introduce the emic approaches to study the influences of macro‐contextual variations on developmental science and provide several pertinent examples on the contributions of Majority World research, (3) elaborate on challenges and barriers that Majority World scholars often face in conducting and disseminating their research, and (4) a few actionable steps and recommendations in promoting the representation and inclusion of Majority World research into global developmental science. Only when our field fully integrates findings from all regions of the world will we be able to develop a fundamental scientific representation and understanding of what it means to be an adolescent, how adolescents develop over time, and what tasks or phenomena in adolescent development are truly universal or specific to particular groups, regions, or areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents in Thailand's Deep South are growing up amid protracted instability, yet limited research has left a critical gap in understanding their strengths, stressors, and unmet support needs. This study aimed to gain understanding of daily lives and well-being of orphaned adolescents in the Deep South to inform future intervention efforts. In total, 10 orphaned adolescents and their primary caregivers were recruited for study participation. Adolescents participated in a visual ethnography study over the course of 2 days to " show us a day in your life with photos," with follow-up interviews to discuss their photos. Caregivers participated in a focus group discussion about the challenges of caring for orphaned adolescents and supports that would be helpful in alleviating these challenges. Qualitative transcripts were coded by five researchers from multiple disciplines to identify emergent themes using a grounded theory approach. Themes included tension related to technology use, limited caregiver-adolescent communication, social isolation, financial hardship, and future aspirations. Lacking in peer social interaction, exploration, and opportunities to take risks, the atmosphere of restricted mobility has important implications for adolescents' social development. Caregivers and their children have little family time for recreation and leisure that would provide opportunities to connect and navigate these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in children in the United States (US) is very low. Adequate FV consumption is required for proper development during childhood, and dietary habits are established during preschool-age and tend to persist into adulthood. As most U.S. preschool-aged children attend childcare or preschool, this may be an opportune time and setting to conduct interventions to improve FV intake. These interventions should be based in theory and use behavior change techniques (BCTs) to explain mechanisms for expected change. To date, no published reviews have examined the effectiveness of childcare- or preschool-based FV interventions in preschoolers and their use of theoretical frameworks and BCTs. Methods: This systematic review was completed adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2012 and 2022 of interventions to improve diet or FV intake in preschoolers (aged 2–5 years) in childcare or preschool-settings. A search of four databases was conducted between in September 2022 using search terms pertaining to the study's primary aim (FV consumption), age group (preschool-aged), settings (US childcare or preschool settings), and study design (RCT). Additional criteria were objective measures of FV consumption or skin carotenoids, as a proxy for FV intake. Included studies were narratively synthesized based on intervention type, measured effect, and use of theory and BCTs. Results: The search resulted in six studies that reported on nine interventions. Overall, six interventions increased FV intake, of which five used nutrition education and one manipulated the feeding environment. Among the three interventions with no measured effect, two manipulated the feeding environment and one used peer modeling. Effective studies used at least three BCTs, though no pattern was observed between use of theory or BCTs and intervention effect. Conclusions: While several studies have shown promising results, the limited number of studies identified in this review highlights key gaps in this field: there is a need for studies to test FV interventions in US childcare settings that use objective measures of FV intake, directly compare intervention components and BCTs, are theory-based, and assess long-term behavior change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is growing recognition of the psychosocial burden of caregiving on relative caregivers of the mentally ill in low-and middle-income countries. Yet there remains limited formal research examining the challenges and psychosocial support needs of these relative caregivers, particularly with sensitivity to understanding caregiver experiences across diverse cultures and contexts. The purpose of this study was to study caregiver burden to inform potential intervention approaches among relative caregivers of treatment-engaged mentally ill patients in Cambodia. Methods: Participants were all relative caregivers identified through their connection to a non-governmental organization providing psychiatric care. Five focus group discussions were held with 37 participants to explore challenges experienced by relative caregivers. A total of 115 caregivers then completed a mental health assessment consisting of the Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 item scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder – 7-item scale, and 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale. Internal consistencies ranged from α =.81 to.87 across scales. Results: Five themes emerged from the focus group discussions: financial burden, erratic behavior of patients, social alienation, somatic and emotional symptoms, and barriers to help-seeking. Assessment data indicated the sample was highly symptomatic. Women and those with no employment appeared to be at higher risk of distress, as were those caregivers with a biological relationship to the patient (parents, children, and siblings; relative to spouses or other relationships). Discussion: Findings suggest a need for regular screening and greater psychosocial support for relative caregivers. It is notable that the needs identified within the current study remain prominent even as this is a treatment-engaged sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of changes to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic criteria from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV) to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5) within diverse communities is unclear. Young adult sexual minority women are at high risk for interpersonal violence and other forms of trauma exposure compared with heterosexual populations and sexual minority men. They are also at heightened risk of PTSD. As a result, young adult sexual minority women are a key population of interest when examining the impact of diagnostic criteria changes. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the impact of changes to PTSD diagnostic criteria in sexual minority women. Using an online survey, we administered both the original PTSD Symptom Checklist-S (based on DSM - IV criteria) and a version adapted to assess DSM-5 criteria to a national, nonclinical sample of young adult sexual minority women (N = 767). The DSM-5 symptom criteria fit the data well in confirmatory factor analysis. Current PTSD prevalence was higher under the DSM-5 diagnostic algorithm compared with DSM - IV (18.6% vs. 22.9%; d = 0.15). Compared with DSM - IV, associations between PTSD and depression were stronger using DSM-5 criteria, whereas associations between PTSD and high-risk drinking were reduced. Findings suggest that changes to PTSD diagnostic criteria do not have a major impact on prevalence of PTSD among sexual minority women but may have some impact on observed comorbidities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social–emotional factors associated with youth aggression have largely been studied in the context of social information‐processing models. The ability to accurately encode and appropriately interpret others' emotions has yet to be fully examined in the context of aggressive behavior, particularly during adolescence. Using cross‐sectional data from a sample of 282 at‐risk early adolescents, the present study examined associations between teacher‐reported aggression and youth performance on a task assessing two components of affective theory of mind: emotion recognition and situational attribution. Results indicated that emotion recognition, but not situational attribution accuracy, was significantly associated with teacher‐reported aggressive behavior. Over‐recognizing anger and under‐recognizing sadness were unique error patterns associated with aggression, and these associations remained significant after controlling for demographics and other key social information‐processing variables. Findings suggest that difficulties with emotion processing play an important role in the social information‐processing patterns observed in the context of youth aggression. Implications for preventive interventions for youth at risk of engaging in aggressive behavior are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying is one of the most common forms of aggression experienced by school-aged youth, yet research is sparse in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where cultural and contextual factors may influence victimization dynamics. We aimed to examine correlates of victimization and the prevalence of specific victimizing behaviors among youth in four LMIC. Data were included from 3,536 youth collected as part of the ongoing Young Lives Study cohorts in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru, and Vietnam who reported frequency of past-year exposure to nine bullying behaviors at age 15. We calculated both total victimization scores and subtype victimization scores (physical, verbal, relational, and property) by summing the frequencies of experiencing each behavior and used hurdle modeling to examine, separately by country, associations between three demographic correlates (sex, urban/rural setting, and school enrollment) and both total and subtype victimization scores, adjusting for clustered sampling. Mean past-year victimization scores were 11.1 in Ethiopia, 13.4 in India, 14.9 in Peru, and 12.0 in Vietnam, indicating that the average youth in Ethiopia reported two victimization experiences in the past year, up to nearly six in Peru. With the exception of Peru, direct victimization was higher among boys compared with girls, whereas relational victimization was not associated with sex. Physical bullying was less common than other forms of bullying in Ethiopia, Peru, and Vietnam but had a similar frequency as other forms in India. The different patterns in victimization experiences across the samples suggest that culture and/or context may influence victimization dynamics and highlights the need to better understand patterns and variation of bullying victimization in LMIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is growing evidence for the effectiveness of mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries and humanitarian contexts, this is lacking for psychosocial programming. We aimed to summarise the evidence for psychosocial programming in these contexts through a systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42017069066) of peer-reviewed and grey literature of programme evaluations. A total of n = 42,435 unique records were initially identified, with n = 211 records meeting full inclusion criteria. We identified 51 randomised controlled trials of47 different interventions. The remaining studies used different evaluation methodology. Only three interventions had more than one experimental/quasi-experimental evaluation: Brief Intervention and Contact, Problem Management Plus and Child Friendly Spaces. While there are many studies of interventions, it was challenging to identify the same intervention across studies, leaving almost no interventions with more than one rigorous study supporting their use and many interventions that are poorly described. This makes it difficult to choose between them or even to implement them. Future research should focus on replication of well-described interventions in multiple different sites, to place future intervention selection on a more scientific basis. There is also a need to better understand the impact of psychosocial programmes in sectors other than health and protection, such as nutrition. These sectors may provide critical delivery mechanisms for psychosocial programming to broaden the reach of such interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Peer victimization is a common form of aggression among school-aged youth, but research is sparse regarding victimization dynamics in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Person-centered approaches have demonstrated utility in understanding patterns of victimization in the USA.Objective: We aimed to empirically identify classes of youth with unique victimization patterns in four LMIC settings using latent class analysis (LCA).Methods: We used data on past-year exposure to nine forms of victimization reported by 3536 youth (aged 15 years) from the Young Lives (YL) study in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states), Peru, and Vietnam. Sex and rural/urban context were examined as predictors of class membership.Results: LCA supported a 2-class model in Peru, a 3-class model in Ethiopia and Vietnam, and a 4-class model in India. Classes were predominantly ordered by severity, suggesting that youth who experienced one form of victimization were likely to experience other forms as well. In India, two unordered classes were also observed, characterized by direct and indirect victimization. Boys were more likely than girls to be in the highly victimized (HV) class in Ethiopia and India. Urban contexts, compared with rural, conferred higher risk of victimization in Ethiopia and Peru, and lower risk in India and Vietnam.Conclusion: The identified patterns of multiple forms of victimization highlight a limitation of common researcher-driven classifications and suggest avenues for future person-centered research to improve intervention development in LMIC settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. There is a need for accurate and efficient assessment tools that cover a range of mental health and psychosocial problems. Existing, lengthy self-report assessments may reduce accuracy due to respondent fatigue. Using data from a sample of adults enrolled in a psychotherapy randomized trial in Thailand and a cross-sectional sample of adolescents in Zambia, we leveraged Item Response Theory (IRT) methods to create brief, psychometrically sound, mental health measures. Methods. We used graded-response models to refine scales by identifying and removing poor performing items that were not well correlated with the underlying trait, and by identifying well-performing items at varying levels of a latent trait to assist in screening or monitoring purposes. Results. In Thailand, the original 17-item depression scale was shortened to seven items and the 30-item Posttraumatic Stress Scale (PTS) was shortened to 10. In Zambia, the Child Posttraumatic Stress Scale (CPSS) was shortened from 17 items to six. Shortened scales in both settings retained the strength of their psychometric properties. When examining longitudinal intervention effects in Thailand, effect sizes were comparable in magnitude for the shortened and standard versions. Conclusions. Using Item Response Theory (IRT) we created shortened valid measures that can be used to help guide clinical decisions and function as longitudinal research tools. The results of this analysis demonstrate the reliability and validity of shortened scales in each of the two settings and an approach that can be generalized more broadly to help improve screening, monitoring, and evaluation of mental health and psychosocial programs globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To address the disproportionate burden of poor mental health among women, we present a community based participatory research (CBPR) model used to develop a women's mental health promotion program for Iranian women. Methods: This is a multi-phase interventional study using a CBPR approach among married women age 18-65 living in Tehran. First, participants described the process of women's mental health. Subsequent steps involved participatory needs assessment, priority setting, intervention design, and evaluation. Finally, a conceptual model of women's mental health promotion was developed. Results: "Seeking comfort" emerged as the core process in women's mental health. To promote mental health, women prioritized training on coping mechanisms to deal with stress. Women receiving this training used more problem-based coping methods and reported a higher quality of life than the comparison group. Conclusions: The resulting conceptual model illustrates the utility of using a CBPR approach to develop women's mental health promotion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]