San Mateo Area Teen Mental Health Study
Description:
Both nationally and locally, schools are grappling with the challenges of unaddressed mental health needs and the resulting demands on them to provide mental health services for students. To address these challenges, San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD), Peninsula Health Care District (PHCD), and Stanford's Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences' Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing have been collaborating to strengthen mental health supports for youth in both the high school and K-8 districts. To better understand which efforts have the greatest potential for impact, they invited the Gardner Center to conduct a study designed to answer three research questions:
How do students, parents, teachers, and providers perceive mental health needs and student supports throughout middle and high school?
What predictive factors appear to be related to positive transitions, high school readiness, or risk indicators of later mental health challenges?
What are the opportunities for intervention and support to improve teen mental health?
This research brief reports findings from that analysis and offers actionable opportunities for improving support for student mental health.
Suggested Citation:
Geiser, K., Fehrer, K., Pyne, J., Gerstein, A., Harrison, V., & Joshi, S. (2019). San Mateo Area Teen Mental Health Study. Stanford, CA: John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities.