| A typology emerged from a literature review, giving rise to a new survey, the School-Based/Linked Mental Health Services Survey, including an Attitudes Scale and a Current Personal Practices and School Practices (CPP-SP-14) scale; the CPP-SP-14 necessitated ratings via 6 subscales (i.e. Personal Stage of Change, PSOC-14; Personal Preparedness, PP-14; Personal Confidence, PC-14; School Stage of Change, SSOC-14; School Preparedness, SP-14; and, School Competence, SC-14). All survey scales showed good to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha: AS, .970; PSOC-14, .861; SSOC, .914; PCS-14, .893; PP-14, .892; SP-14, .914, SC, .943). Of 274 respondents who began an online version of the survey, 123 completed most components (44.9% response rate), and 96 completed the entire survey (35.88% completion rate). Respondents were mostly female (93, 75.6%), white (102, 82.9%), had an MA degree (69, 56.1%) or doctorate (21, 17.1%), licensed by a state agency (80, 78%), certified (62, 50.4%), while mostly social workers (53, 43.1%) and psychologists (31, 25.2%). Respondents rated their agreement with attitudes for best practices fairly highly (means ranged from 8.929.77, max. = 10), schools' competence fairly moderately (mean = 6.23, SD = 1.83, max. = 10), personal stage of change as rather advanced (mean = 4.53, SD = .63, max. = 5, closest to maintenance, but also action), school stage of change as less advanced (mean = 3.93, SD = 1.04, max. = 5, closest to preparation to action stage), personal preparedness as moderate (mean = 7.93, SD = 1.17, max. = 10), school preparedness as less than moderate (6.30, SD = 1.77, max. = 10) and personal confidence/self-efficacy as good (mean = 4.88, SD = .63, or closest to 80% confident category, max. = 6 for 100% confident). A qualitative needs assessment question (n=33) permitted identification of training needs. Best predictors of being in an advanced personal stage of change for implementing best practices were higher personal preparedness, more advanced school stage of change, lower school competence, and greater agreement with attitudes on best practices (59.7% of variance accounted for). Best predictors of an advanced school stage of change were a more advanced personal stage of change, lower personal confidence, and higher school competence (65.8% of variance accounted for). Future uses of the typology and new survey were discussed. |
