Mental health screening in child care: impact of a statewide training session

Child care settings may provide an optimal setting for identification of early childhood mental health problems. However, little is known about child care providers' attitudes or knowledge about screening for children's mental health problems. Both attitudes and perceived knowledge could affect the successful implementation of mental health screening in child care settings. This report discusses two related pilot studies. In the first, the authors adapted an existing measure to assess child care providers' attitudes and knowledge about mental health screening, and they examined the factors of the new measure in 275 child care professionals. In the second study, the authors examined 203 child care providers' attitudes toward and perceived knowledge about mental health screening before and after a single 3-hour training session. Study 1 factor analysis revealed two factors: attitude about screening and perceived knowledge about screening. Both factors were associated with experience with a mental health consultant and with comfort with children with special needs. Participants in Study 2 demonstrated significant increases in positive attitude and perceived knowledge about mental health screening in child care following the 3-hour training session. Results indicate that child care providers were positively inclined toward participating in mental health screening. Attitudes toward and perceived knowledge of mental health screening increased after a single training session. Findings of this research provide a first step toward understanding child care providers' attitudes about and perceived knowledge of mental health screening in very young children and indicate that both positive attitudes and perceived knowledge can be increased through training. (Contains 3 tables.)