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Empowering Preschool Teachers to Identify Mental Health Problems: A Task‐Sharing Intervention in Ethiopia
Author(s) -
Desta Menelik,
Deyessa Negussie,
Fish Irving,
Maxwell Benjamin,
Zerihun Tigist,
Levine Saul,
Fox Claire,
Giedd Jay,
Zelleke Tesfaye G.,
Alem Atalay,
F. Garland Ann
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
mind, brain, and education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1751-228X
pISSN - 1751-2271
DOI - 10.1111/mbe.12135
Subject(s) - mental health , intervention (counseling) , identification (biology) , psychology , economic shortage , strengths and difficulties questionnaire , baseline (sea) , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , linguistics , philosophy , botany , oceanography , government (linguistics) , biology , geology
In Ethiopia there is a severe shortage of child mental health professionals. Identification and intervention for young children's mental health problems is crucial to improve developmental trajectories and reduce the severity of emotional and behavioral disorders. Teachers can play an important role in early problem detection. This role is particularly impactful in developing countries with limited mental health care resources. However, teachers' knowledge about mental health varies dramatically. This study tested the influence of a training intervention to improve teachers' ability to accurately identify preschool children's emotional and behavioral problems in 24 schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sensitivity and specificity of teacher identification, and overall agreement with an established measurement criterion (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) were examined 2 years following training compared to preintervention baseline, and a nonintervention control group of 12 schools. Results indicate that the teacher training was significantly associated with more accurate identification of children's problems.