Neighborhood sociodemographic predictors of Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) in schools: demonstrating a small area estimation method in the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS-A) Adolescent Supplement
Publication information:
Green, J. G., Alegría, M., Kessler, R. C., McLaughlin, K. A., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., & Zaslavsky, A. M. (2015). Neighborhood sociodemographic predictors of Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) in schools: demonstrating a small area estimation method in the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS-A) Adolescent Supplement. Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 42(1), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-014-0550-8 (Original work published 2015)
Abstract
We evaluate the precision of a model estimating school prevalence of SED using a small area estimation method based on readily-available predictors from area-level census block data and school principal questionnaires. Adolescents at 314 schools participated in the National Comorbidity Supplement, a national survey of DSM-IV disorders among adolescents. A multilevel model indicated that predictors accounted for under half of the variance in school-level SED and even less when considering block-group predictors or principal report alone. While Census measures and principal questionnaires are significant predictors of individual-level SED, associations are too weak to generate precise school-level predictions of SED prevalence.