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Few children with mental health problems access evidence-based interventions. Primary schools may be an ideal setting to improve access to treatment through screening and intervention programmes, but some families' circumstances and experiences may increase barriers to benefiting from this approach. Interviews were carried out with parents of children living in potentially challenging circumstances, including foster and military-connected families. We aimed to explore parent perceptions of a school-based screening/intervention programme and potential barriers to uptake. Parents described that due to their past experiences, that they might not trust or engage with a school-based screening/intervention. Nonetheless, parents considered that the delivery of a sensitive school screening/intervention programme might provide an opportunity for schools to strengthen their relationship with families. These findings highlight the need for future school-based screening/intervention programmes for child mental health to consider the needs of families of children from varied circumstances, and ensure steps are taken to promote trust.

Schools may be well-placed to identify signs of mental health (MH) problems in children; however, there has been little research into how school-based screening and intervention initiatives should be delivered. One-to-one in-depth interviews were carried out with 15 practitioners that support children's MH within primary school settings. Data were analysed with template analysis. We explored practitioners' perceptions of a school-based screening/intervention programme for childhood MH problems and views about potential barriers to uptake. Three themes were identified. First, practitioners described feeling overwhelmed by the volume of children requiring support and the limited capacity of their service. Second, practitioners identified potential barriers to engagement in a school screening/intervention programme, including familial concerns about stigma. Finally, practitioners were optimistic that a screening/intervention programme could have positive effects for children who might otherwise not be identified as potentially benefitting from support. This study highlights that a primary school-based screening/intervention programme designed in partnership with stakeholders would be well received by practitioners supporting MH within school settings.

This study investigated anxiety symptoms of Japanese adolescents in community high schools. Japanese high school students (N = 1500) from diverse types of schools including general, vocational, and part-time schools completed the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS). First, confirmatory factor analysis supported the 6-factor structure with strong goodness-of-fit indices comparable with the original studies as well as those with Japanese elementary and junior high school students. Girls showed more anxiety symptoms, and items related to worry, insects/spiders phobia, checking, and fear of negative evaluations were the most common symptoms, similar to younger youth. Finally, students who attended part-time high school reported higher anxiety symptoms than those in full-time schools. The utility of the SCAS for assessment of anxiety symptoms in high school students and the need for preventive interventions for students at risk for developing anxiety were discussed.

Adolescent depression is serious and common. As adolescents spend approximately 15,000 h in school, this setting is a logical place to seek etiological factors. Research suggests there are negative associations between school climate and adolescent depressive symptoms. However, such studies typically use "student" reports of both climate and depressive symptoms; this is problematic because common method variance results when the same individual provides information on all variables, contributing to overestimations of associations between depressive symptoms and school climate. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the association between "teacher"-reported school climate and adolescent-reported depressive symptoms. Thus, 2545 Australian high school students participated in this 5-year longitudinal study. Students completed a measure of depressive symptoms annually; their teachers (N = 882) completed a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of the school environment (i.e., safe/orderly and supportive relationships). Multi-group latent growth models revealed that more positive teacher-reported school climate was cross-sectionally associated with fewer student-reported depressive symptoms in both boys and girls, although this association was significantly stronger for girls. Longitudinally, positive school climate was associated with lower depressive symptoms but a higher rate of change of symptoms for both boys and girls. The overall findings are consistent with previous findings with "student"-reported school climate. However, the gender difference and the directionality of the longitudinal association between school climate and depressive symptoms over time demonstrate that additional studies of mechanisms by which school climate is connected to adolescents' depressive symptoms are needed.

Background: Anxiety‐related functional impairment, as reflected by life interference, is a lesser explored but highly relevant treatment outcome, and it is crucial that it be included and examined in the evaluation of treatment outcomes of internet‐delivered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (iCBT). Methods: This single group, pre‐post study examined changes in life interference and anxiety symptoms in a sample of children (n = 1198; mean age 9.66 years) and adolescents (n = 721; mean age 13.66 years) participating in the BRAVE Self‐Help program in Australia. Results: Results demonstrated that both children and adolescents showed improvements in anxiety symptoms, with effect sizes ranging from ηp2 =.194–.318. Reductions in life interference were evident for children (ηp2 =.008–.044), particularly later in the programme, but adolescents did not show such effects. Adolescents in the low completer group (completing 3–5 sessions) showed increases in at‐home interference (ηp2 =.038). Conclusions: Adolescents in particular may require more sessions before entrenched life interference, such as that resulting from avoidance behaviours, can be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]