Teachers' Views of the Treatability of Children's School Adjustment Problems'

Abstract

One-hundred thirty-four primary grade teachers rated each of nine hypothetical referrals, depicting three predominant types of school adjustment problems (acting-out, shy-anxious, learning), on four dimensions: (a) appropriateness of referring the child to the school's mental health services, (b) ease or difficulty for a mental health person to work with such a child, (c) how much a mental health person would enjoy working with the child, and (d) a treatment-prognosis estimate. Shy-anxious children generally received the most positive ratings. Teacher judgments were compared to prior, similar judgments made by mental health personnel. The latter gave significantly higher appropriateness ratings, indicated that the children would be significantly less difficult and more enjoyable to work with, and judged prognosis to be more favorable. An important deviation from this pattern of findings is considered.