Research
PALS

Investigators: Marc Atkins, Ph.D., Jaleel Abdul-Adil, Ph.D., , Maudette Jackson, Mary McKay, Ph.D., Lascelles Anderson, Robert Gibbons, Ph.D., Amanda Webster, Marie Feteau, Tracie Hawkins, M.S.W., Deborah Starks, Paulette Wiley, Darnetta Byndum, and Bridgette Leachman

Schools are one of the few existing resources for children and families consistently available within urban low income communities and therefore offer a unique opportunity to promote positive mental health for children and families. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a new program, PALS (Positive Attitudes for Learning in Schools), an NIMH-funded collaboration between Chicago Public Schools and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). PALS is a collaborative school-based program that uses an ecological model to identify ways to increase children’s learning in the classroom and to improve the involvement of children’s parents. The ecological perspective emphasizes the need for least-restrictive, group administered services, that are flexible and individualized across the multiple contexts for children’s behavior, and that integrate into ongoing school routines and resources. The PALS team consists of the classroom teacher, a parent hired by the project, and a mental health provider who work collaboratively guided by a manualized treatment that proceeds in four phases: engagement of key constituents in urban schools, development of collaborative partnerships among PALS team members, systematic assessment of ecological classroom contexts, and delivery of empirically-based services. Participants are children in kindergarten through fifth grades from 3 Near Westside Chicago public schools selected for participation if identified by their teacher and parent as exhibiting disruptive behavior at school and home, and their parent or guardian provides permission to participate in the project. Classrooms are randomly assigned to receive PALS or clinic-based mental health services at the Institute for Juvenile Research.

Publications

Atkins, M. , McKay, M. , Arvanitis, P., London, L., Madison, S., Costigan, C., Haney, P., Zevenbergen, A., Hess, L., Bennett, D., & Webster, D. (1998). An ecological model for school-based mental health services for urban low income aggressive children. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 5, 64-75.