The prevalence of mental health and emotional well-being difficulties in children is increasing, and schools play a key role in addressing this. Whole-school approaches have been suggested as an effective way of supporting children's mental health and well-being; however, there appears to be no consistent approach to their evaluation, and…

Evaluation research focusing on educational initiatives that impact on the learning and lives of young people must be challenged to incorporate 'student voice'. In a context of conventional evaluation models of government-led initiatives, student voice is a compelling addition, and challenges the nature of traditional forms of evaluation. It…

Findings from an evaluation of a model system for delivering mental health services to youth were reassessed to determine the robustness of key findings to the use of methodologies unavailable to the original analysts. These analyses address a key concern about earlier findings--that the quasi-experimental design involved the comparison of two…

Key stakeholders who implement Supported Education may find themselves asking two questions: (1) Has Supported Education been implemented as planned?; and (2) Has Supported Education resulted in the expected outcomes? Asking these two questions and using the answers to help improve Supported Education are critical for ensuring the success of one's…

The self-selection problem in program evaluation is explored, and two ways of addressing it, covariate control approaches and two-stage sample selection models, are described. A longitudinal study of the effects of participation in Alcoholics Anonymous illustrates both approaches and shows the advantages of the two-step procedure. (SLD)

A methodology for developing clinical/research assessment tools, training interviewers, and continuously assessing interrater reliability is discussed. Data from a multisite national evaluation of long-term health care programs (i.e., the Social/Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) for elderly clients) are used. Focus is on providing research…

A strategy to encourage evaluation used by the Centers for Disease Control in the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) is described. DASH personnel tried to make evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus education programs more attractive by providing materials and models for evaluation. (SLD)

This article examines the relationship between an adolescent with behavior disorders, his family, and the system of care, through a single case analysis. The methodology used to collect the case record and interview data and to analyze and graphically illustrate the data are presented to demonstrate use of qualitative data in program evaluation.…

A method is described for increasing residual degrees of freedom in a community experiment without substantially increasing cost or difficulty by dividing experimental subunits into batches. Theoretical advantages of batch sampling are described and illustrated with data from the Pawtucket Heart Health Program. (SLD)

This report describes the first year (Phase I) of the 3-year evaluation of the Child and Family Mental Health (CFMH) Project. Phase I was designed to provide a descriptive analysis of the CFMH Project in terms of the number and characteristics of recipients of the services, the nature and extent of the specific primary prevention approaches used,…

This special issue focuses on several methodological issues in the evaluation of the largest mental health and substance abuse project for children and adolescents conducted at a single site, the U.S. Army's Fort Bragg Child and Adolescent Mental Health Demonstration program. The introduction and seven articles describe this program and the…

Evaluation research in work-site health promotion offers an opportunity to test the effectiveness of work-site health promotion and disease prevention programs. Based on an evaluation of the research, an interdisciplinary approach to data collection and analysis is suggested, and policy implications are outlined. (TJH)

A methodology is presented for collection of cost data in evaluation of community-level health interventions that coincides with the intervention implementation. The seven discrete steps of the analysis are described, and the Minimal Contact Education for Cholesterol Change study is used as an example of how the strategy is used. (SLD)

Social-historical lineages of adolescent alcohol and other drug use prevention programs are examined, tracing risk factor research from assumptions of deviance regarding the mentally ill and considering patterns that have inhibited advances in prevention. To achieve program success, protective factor and harm reduction approaches must be explored.…

This presentation will report on the findings of the evaluation of Project SOBEIT a multi-school initiative focused on building partnerships between schools, law enforcement, and community mental health agencies. Guided by a process, context, outcomes, and sustainability framework and grounded in the understanding of the impact of change theory on…