Abstract.
The CitationAmerican Psychological Association Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice for Children and Adolescents (2008) recommended a systems approach to enhancing care in order to improve outcomes for children and adolescents with mental health needs and redress persistent systemic problems with the structure of services. Recommendations for enhancing an ecological approach to the adoption and implementation of evidence-based practices are offered through increased attention to practice-based research frameworks for adoption and dissemination. Five criteria are discussed for providing acceptable evidence, including (a) systematic evidence searching and adoption of evidence-based prevention and intervention practices, (b) implementation and adherence to intervention integrity, (c) invoking standards for drawing inferences from interventions, (d) using quality assessments to measure outcomes, and (e) adopting formal data analysis procedures to assess intervention outcomes. Each criterion is illustrated with an example. Future research and policy agendas are outlined.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Thomas R. Kratochwill
Thomas R. Kratochwill, PhD, is Sears-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He is the director of the Educational and Psychological Training Center and the School Psychology Program.
Kimberly Eaton Hoagwood
Kimberly Eaton Hoagwood, PhD, is a professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry at Columbia University and director of a National Institute of Mental Health-funded Advanced Center on Implementation-Dissemination Science in States for Children and Families (The IDEAS Center).
Anne E. Kazak
Anne E. Kazak, PhD, ABPP, is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and chief of the Section of Behavioral Oncology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
John R. Weisz
John R. Weisz, PhD, ABPP, is a professor of psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School. He is also president and CEO of the Judge Baker Children's Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
Korey Hood
Korey K. Hood, PhD, is an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, and staff psychologist at the Madison Clinic for Pediatric Diabetes.
Luis A. Vargas
Luis A. Vargas, PhD, is an associate professor in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
Gerard A. Banez
Gerard A. Banez, PhD, is program director of the Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program at Cleveland Clinic.