MHSUCF Project

Classrooms as Work Units

PI: Stacy Frazier, PhD

This study is part of a 5-year, NIMH-funded Developing Center grant (P20-MH078458, PI: Atkins, 6/1/08 – 5/30/13) entitled The Links Center: Leading Innovations for Neighborhoods, Kids, and Schools. The primary goal of the Center is to address the mental health needs of children living in urban poverty by advancing research and practice to support the inherent capacity of schools to promote children’s mental health.

The Center is guided by an understanding of schools as organizations and of classrooms as the setting in which critical interactions occur that promote learning and adjustment. This contextual focus aims to identify and leverage indigenous resources within schools and communities to change the social context of schooling for youth in urban poverty and increase the chances for positive mental health and academic outcomes for children. Classrooms as Work Units will adapt the Children’s Services Organizational Climate Survey for teachers and students and will examine how climate operates in classrooms in relation to teachers’ classroom practices and individual student outcomes.

Data from the study will inform specific adaptations of an organizational intervention specific for schools in urban poverty.