Abstract

Universal screening for mental health in preschools provides the opportunity for early identification and early intervention, but guidance regarding which informants to use is needed. Preschoolers’ (N = 535) parent and teacher reports across two screening forms were analyzed to determine similarities and discrepancies for classification results and screener scores. The analyses also examined whether an additional rater provided incrementally valid information to the prediction of longitudinal kindergarten outcomes. Parents’ and teachers’ screening scores were significantly correlated across forms by rater and across raters. However, categorical classification results indicated that teachers were more likely than parents to rate preschoolers in at-risk ranges across forms. Finally, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that teacher ratings were predictive of kindergarten social–emotional, cognitive, and academic outcomes and that the addition of parent ratings did not significantly improve prediction of outcomes. Implications are discussed in the context of multiple raters within multiple-gating screening procedures.

Impact Statement

Universal screening for behavioral and emotional risk is important at the preschool level because it provides a critical opportunity for early identification and early intervention. Parents and teachers who participated in universal screening demonstrated low levels of agreement in their ratings of preschool children’s emotional and behavioral risk, although both are valuable informants. If the goal of screening is to predict later kindergarten academic and social–emotional outcomes, practitioners may consider collecting screening information from teachers first.

摘要

学龄前心理健康的普遍筛查为早期识别和早期干预提供了机会，但需要关于使用哪些线人的指导。学龄前儿童 ( N = 535) 分析了两种筛选形式的家长和教师报告，以确定分类结果和筛选分数的异同。分析还检查了额外的评估者是否为纵向幼儿园结果的预测提供了递增的有效信息。家长和老师的筛选分数在不同形式的评分者之间和不同评分者之间显着相关。然而，分类分类结果表明，教师比家长更有可能对学龄前儿童进行各种形式的风险评估。最后，层次回归分析表明，教师评分可以预测幼儿园的社会情感、认知和学业成果，而增加家长评分并没有显着改善结果的预测。

影响声明

行为和情绪风险的普遍筛查在学龄前阶段很重要，因为它为早期识别和早期干预提供了重要机会。参与普遍筛查的家长和教师在他们对学龄前儿童的情绪和行为风险的评级方面表现出较低的一致性，尽管他们都是有价值的信息提供者。如果筛查的目的是预测以后幼儿园的学业和社会情感结果，从业者可以考虑先从老师那里收集筛查信息。