Commentary: Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice.

Ringeisen, Henderson, and Hoagwood (2003) present a compelling case that: (a) there is a gap between mental health research and the delivery of mental health services in school settings; (b) in order to bridge this gap, mental health professionals must consider contextual factors at the individual, organization, and state/federal policy levels; and (c) research must include key school stakeholders (teachers, administrators) in the development and integration of mental health interventions into school practice. Ringeisen et al. address perhaps the most critical challenge to the delivery of empirically supported mental health services in the schools--namely, the large gap between what researchers have investigated and what practitioners implement. This is a problem that has plagued school psychology and related fields for many years. As such, this is a very timely position paper that should enhance the dialog among the various stakeholders interested in this topic. One of the key points made by Ringeisen et al. (2003) is that school-specific contextual factors at various levels are critically important in designing and implementing interventions that are empirically supported on the one hand and also are feasible and acceptable to consumers on the other hand. Stated differently, our field must use contextual factors as the fabric underlying the building and maintenance of the bridge between research and practice. In this commentary, I elaborate upon and extend this premise by providing examples at each level of school context of how contextual factors can be used to bridge the gap. Individual Child Factors in Designing Interventions As school psychologists, we are most comfortable with consideration of within-child factors (e.g., behavior and academic difficulties) in designing interventions. Yet, child behavior clearly is not exhibited within a vacuum and one must consider the family, school, classroom, and peer context surrounding the behavior of individual children. Functional assessment (FA) is a methodology gaining acceptance within school psychology and special education that promotes an understanding of how context variables influence child behavior. Specifically, FA involves measurement of antecedent, consequent, and sequential contextual events that might trigger or reinforce challenging behavior (Gresham, Watson, & Skinner, 2001). Through interviews and direct observations, the function (e.g., teacher attention, peer attention, escape from tasks) of a problematic behavior within a school or family context can be determined and an intervention can be designed to address the purported function. It is assumed that the intervention would increase the chances that a child would engage in an appropriate behavior to achieve the same function as the target behavior of concern. For example, if a child appears to exhibit disruptive behavior to get peer attention, then an intervention (e.g., peer tutoring) would be designed wherein the child would receive peer attention for engaging in a desired behavior (e.g., being engaged in an academic task). Although the research literature supporting the use of FA for designing school interventions is still evolving (for review, see Ervin et al., 2001), the assumption is that assessment-based interventions will be more effective than those strategies designed in a trial-and-error (i.e., contextually insensitive) fashion. Because it is focused on individual factors and is designed to link assessment data to intervention design, FA has the potential to bridge the gap between research on effective behavioral interventions and the practice of implementing these strategies in "real world" settings. The potential of FA for this purpose will be enhanced by current efforts to make these strategies more practical and feasible for implementation in schools (Gresham et al., 2001). Individual Provider Factors in Designing Interventions The characteristics and skills of the individuals (e. …