LATENCY OF FIRST OFFICE DISCIPLINE REFERRALS AMONG YOUTH RECEIVING INDIVIDUAL THERAPY IN SCHOOLS

Abstract

Youth who experience mental illness can exhibit disruptive behavior in the school setting which is frequently not recognized as a result of internal struggle. For the estimated 20% of school-aged youth who experience mental illness, school-based mental health (SBMH) programs can increase access to therapeutic services which could ameliorate their symptoms and aid them in learning healthy ways to cope. Exclusionary punishments such as office discipline referrals (ODRs) can undermine the effort of school-based therapists because they can result in frequent removal from the classroom/school setting for the youth who receive them. Survival analysis methods were used to analyze the latency of the first, subsequent ODR after the onset of individual therapy. Results indicated that students who received individual therapy services experienced the highest probability of receiving and ODR early in treatment (i.e., during the time between the first three sessions). Additionally, the degree to which group differences (e.g., sex, race, and classification of symptoms) impacts the latency of first ODR were analyzed and only the sex variable resulted in significant results.