Comparing Informants for Mental Health Screening at the Preschool Level.
Stephanie A Moore1, Erin Dowdy2, Isabelle Fleury2
1Graduate School of Education, University of California Riverside.
School Psychology Review
|November 10, 2022
Summary
Teacher reports are more effective than parent reports for preschool mental health screening. Universal screening using teacher data predicts kindergarten success, highlighting the importance of teacher input for early intervention.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Universal mental health screening in preschools enables early identification and intervention.
- Guidance is needed on optimal informant selection for preschool mental health screening.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare parent and teacher reports in preschool mental health screening.
- To determine if adding parent reports improves prediction of kindergarten outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Analyzed parent and teacher reports from two screening forms for 535 preschoolers.
- Examined classification agreement, score correlations, and predictive validity for kindergarten outcomes.
Main Results:
- Teacher and parent scores correlated, but teachers more frequently identified at-risk preschoolers.
- Teacher ratings significantly predicted social-emotional, cognitive, and academic kindergarten outcomes.
- Parent ratings did not significantly enhance the predictive accuracy of teacher ratings.
Conclusions:
- Teacher reports are valuable for identifying at-risk preschoolers.
- Teacher data alone sufficiently predicts kindergarten outcomes, simplifying screening procedures.
- Findings inform multi-rater screening procedures in early childhood settings.
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