The following projects have been approved by the 2014 SMHS team and are currently underway:
Core papers:
| Between School and Classroom Differences in Ratings of Social Processes and Student Mental Health Related Outcomes | |
| Objectives | · To examine the extent to which student outcomes and social processes vary across schools and classrooms, before and after accounting for student compositional effects
· To examine the extent to which elementary and secondary schools differ in the degree of school and classroom variation. |
| Status | · Data Analysis has been completed and a manuscript has been drafted.
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| Measurement Structure of School Climate and its Association with Student Mental Health Outcomes | |
| Objectives | Paper 1: To examine the multilevel factor structure of school climate (student and school level)) and to examine measurement equivalence in the factor structure for elementary versus secondary school.
Paper 2: To examine associations between school climate and student mental health, using the latent factors established in paper 1 |
| Status | · Data Analysis has been completed and manuscripts have been drafted for both papers. |
Projects in progress:
| Peer Victimization in the School Context: A Study of School Climate and Social Identity Processes | |
| Authors | Wendy Craig and Samuel Kim |
| Objectives | Using the factor structure of School Climate identified in Core Paper 2, to examine:
· How adolescents’ feelings of school belonging mediates the relationship between peer victimization and adolescent outcomes (mental health & school-related outcomes) · How contextual measures of school climate and safety moderated this indirect relationship, specifically between peer victimization and school belonging. |
| Emerging Findings | · Controlling for student gender and grade, feelings of school belonging mediated the relationship between peer victimization and both adolescent mental health (wellbeing, internalizing problems, aggression) and school-related outcomes (achievement, misconduct)
· School climate and safety moderated this indirect relationship for specific grade-levels. While these school contextual factors were protective for victimized boys, they exacerbated the risks of peer victimization among girls |
| Status | · Submitted as part of MSc thesis work, August, 2018
· Presented at the Data Blitz Presentation at the 2018 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Minnesota. 2018 · Plan for 2 independent research papers in addition to the thesis. |
| School Factors and Substance Use: A Multilevel Approach in a Large Sample of Adolescents | |
| Authors | Jillian Halladay, James MacKillop, Michael Boyle, and Kathy Georgiades |
| Objectives | · To explain where the variability in student substance use between schools occurs by identifying how school-level contextual factors are related to student substance use behaviours
· To identify modifiable school factors where schools should be investing their resources to reduce risky substance use. |
| Emerging Findings | · Positive school climate was consistently associated with a reduced odds of student substance use
· Bullying was consistently associated with an increased odds of student substance use · Belongingness at the school level was positively related to substance use (increased odds) · Belongingness at the individual level was associated with an increased odds of binge drinking but decreased odds of cannabis and tobacco use. |
| Status | · Manuscript has been drafted.
· Presented at CSAM 2017, the CMCR Cannabis Conference & Psych Research Day 2018 · Determining final steps to analysis and interpretation. |
| Teacher-Student Relationships and Mental Health Help Seeking Behaviours Among Elementary and Secondary Students in Ontario Canada | |
| Authors | Jillian Halladay, Kathyrn Bennett, Ian Manion, Matthew Campo, Mark Weist, Michael Boyle, Kathy Georgiades |
| Objectives | · Examine associations between teacher-student relationship quality and teacher responsiveness to emotional concerns
· Examine students’ intention to seek help at school for emotional and behavioural concerns · Examine mental health service use within and outside of school |
| Emerging Findings | · Teacher-student relationship quality in a school, and classroom teachers’ responsiveness to students’ emotional concerns, were each uniquely associated with increased odds of intentions to seek help at school for emotional or behavioural concerns.
· Classroom teachers’ responsiveness to students’ emotional concerns was uniquely associated with an increased likelihood of mental health service use. · These associations were found both at the individual student perception level as well as the classroom and school contextual levels. |
| Status | · Manuscript has been drafted.
· Presented at Psych Research Day 2017 and the Ontario Education Symposium 2018 · Determining final steps to analysis and interpretation with plans to submit. |
| Does the school setting matter? Examining associations between school and classroom settings and health behaviours among students in Ontario | |
| Authors | Vanessa Linton |
| Objectives | · To determine the extent to which students’ cannabis use and physical activity vary across schools and classrooms
· To identify characteristics of schools and classrooms that are associated with cannabis use and physical activity among students in grades 6-12 in schools in Ontario. |
| Emerging Findings | · About 5% of the variability in student physical activity and 14% of the variability in student cannabis use was attributable to between school and classroom differences
· Students’ perception of school climate was positively associated with physical activity, and negatively associated with cannabis use |
| Status | · Master’s Thesis completed.
· Presented at the following conferences: Crossroads Interdisciplinary Health Research Conference (poster), HEI Research Day (poster) Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences Research Day (poster), Faculty of Health Sciences Research Plenary (oral), Offord Centre for Child Studies Research Symposium (poster) · Plan to make some adjustments to the analysis and format for the purposes of 1-2 publications. |
| Factor structure of teacher questionnaire on positive behaviour support | |
| Authors | John McLennan, Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga. Katholiki Georgiades, Eric Duku |
| Objectives | · To determine the factor structure of a new self-report questionnaire measuring the extent of use of positive behavior support strategies by teachers |
| Emerging Findings | · Exploratory factors analysis identified a two-factor model capturing “clarity of expected behaviors” and “strategic use of rewards”. However, this model does not appear to demonstrate measurement invariance across primary and secondary grades. (Additional analysis is ongoing) |
| Status | · A manuscript has been drafted and currently undergoing editing and finalizing interpretation of findings. |
| Variation in Teachers’ Reported Use of Classroom Management and Behavioral Health Strategies by Grade Level | |
| Authors | John D. McLennan, Hugues Sampasa-Kanyinga, Katholiki Georgiades, Eric Duku |
| Objectives | · To determine the distribution of reported use of evidence-informed classroom management strategies in a large representative sample of teachers in the province of Ontario, Canada and the extent to which these approaches vary across grades (junior kindergarten to grade twelve). |
| Emerging Findings | · Among the PBSQ items, “Expected student behaviors and routines are taught directly” was the most frequently endorsed at the “always” level (60.5%), while “Rewards are varied to maintain student interest” was the least frequently endorsed at this same level (30.6%).
· Among the EIBHQ items, “Provided social rewards, such as praise, encouragement, and affection, to promote desired behaviors” was the most frequently endorsed at the “daily” level (71.1%), while “Taught the student to solve problems by outlining steps, such as identifying the problem, generating multiple solutions, and selecting the best alternative” was the least frequently endorsed (24.8%). · For all 16 items, frequency of endorsement significantly decreased with increasing grade level suggesting that students in higher grades may be less likely to be exposed to these evidence-informed strategies. |
| Status | · Accepted for a poster presentation at AACAP 2018.
· Manuscript submitted. |
| School climate, immigrant concentration, and bullying victimization: School and classroom effects | |
| Authors | Irene Vitoroulis, Sam Kim, Wendy Craig and Kathy Georgiades |
| Objectives | · Examining the moderating effects of immigrant concentration (schools, classrooms) on the link between students’ immigrant background and victimization and the extent to which school and classroom climate account for these effects. |
| Emerging Findings | · School immigrant concentration in elementary schools (but not classroom concentration) was negatively associated with victimization. |
| Status | · The team is currently in the process of re-conceptualizing the approach to this paper.
· Preliminary results were presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence, 17th Biennial meeting, Minnesota, USA. |
| School climate and its associations with academic achievement | |
| Authors | Scott Davies and Zahide Alaca |
| Objectives | · To examine the extent to which school climate is associated with academic achievement
· To examine the extent to which school climate mediates or moderates socioeconomic inequalities in achievements · To examine how various dimensions of school climate (i.e. aggregates vs. concordance or divergence between classrooms, informant groups, or students or teachers) can inform our understanding of these associations. |
| Clustering of school mental health programs across Ontario schools | |
| Authors | Lindsay Favotto, Eric Duku and Kathryn Bennett |
| Objectives | · To explore possible “homogeneous” clusters of schools based on the mental health promotion/prevention and/or intervention programs endorsed by the school principal.
· To categorize the identified clusters of schools. |
| Determinants of Psychological Well-Being among Indigenous Youth in Ontario: A Positive Psychology Perspective | |
| Authors | Melissa Kimber |
| Objectives | To determine, among Ontario students who self-identify with Indigenous ancestry:
· The distribution of indicators of psychological well-being · Whether the distribution of indicators of psychological well-being differs between: (a) male and female youth; (b) youth in Elementary or Secondary school settings; (c) youth who perceive high versus low parental support; and (d) youth who perceive high versus low classroom and school climate · The proportion of Indigenous youth who score within the highest 10th percentile in one or more of the indicators of psychological well-being · The impact of the aforementioned individual, familial and school-level factors on youths odds for scoring in the highest 10th percentile. |
| Are classroom management strategies reported by teachers related to disruptive student behaviour? | |
| Authors | John D. McLennan, Katholiki Georgiades, Eric Duku |
| Objectives | · To determine whether greater use of recommended classroom management strategies (as reported by teachers) are related to lower levels of disruptive student behaviour (as reported by teachers and/or students) (while controlling for possible confounders) |
| Clustering of school mental health programs across Ontario schools | |
| Authors | Ayesha Siddiqua, Eric Duku, Simon Webb, Caroline Reid-Westoby |
| Objectives | · To examine the representativeness of the composition of children in elementary schools in the SMHS study compared to all the elementary schools in the province.
· To examine the association between school level mental health reported by adolescents with school level mental health of children in Senior Kindergarten reported by teachers. · To use historic school level EDI data to examine changes in school level mental health. |