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

Citation:

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.
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Date Published:

jan

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.

Last updated on 09/12/2018