Setting
The study was conducted in 23 schools in one urban school district in northern California. 19 of the schools offered kindergarten through 5th grade, and the remaining four offered kindergarten through 8th grade (p. 763).
Study sample
Among the randomized sample, most students (76 percent) were non-Hispanic. Of these, 35 percent were white, 27 percent were Asian, 26 percent were multi-racial, and 12 percent were black. This study, like most, treats Hispanic as a race, so the race of these students is not observed. 71 percent of the sample were boys. Approximately 30 percent of the sample lived in single-parent homes. and 60 percent had parents who graduated from college (p. 763)
Intervention Group
Collaborative Life Skills [CLS] is a 12-week school–home intervention for students with ADHD symptoms. The program consists of school, parent, and student intervention components delivered by school-based mental health providers (SMHP). The classroom component included two group meetings between SMHP staff and classroom teachers and two to three meetings with each student and their parents and teachers. The classroom intervention included daily report cards, which assessed the student on two to three target behaviors and a points system which provided rewards for meeting targeted behaviors goals. The parent component included ten one-hour group sessions facilitated by the SMHP. The child skills component included nine 40-minute child group sessions focusing on social skills and independence and two celebratory parties with parents, teachers, and students. SMHPs covered 94% of parent session elements and 97% of child session elements. Children in the intervention condition also received medications, other educational interventions, school counseling, and/or psychotherapy in the community, as usual (pp. 762, 764-765).
Comparison Group
Comparison students received school and community services as usual. They were offered the CLS program after final assessments (which may have included assessments beyond what was explored in the study) of their teachers and parents. Students in the comparison condition also received medications and other educational interventions, including special education services and/or tutoring, as usual. The comparison students received significantly more school counseling and/or psychotherapy in the community than intervention students. (pp. 765, 767)
Support for implementation
Masters-level mental health professionals implemented the study intervention as part of their work
responsibilities. They attended a one-day training that focused primarily on implementing program curriculum with fidelity, role-play interactions, and problem troubleshooting. They also received weekly supervision from a doctoral-level clinician-trainer. (pp. 764-765)