Emotional support from classmates and teachers is a powerful protective factor in averting or reducing student mental health problems. Yet, longitudinal evidence indicates that there is decreased support from these groups as students advance to higher grade levels, a change that may be linked to diminishing mental health. This study followed 2,616 students from 23 high schools to test the hypothesis that perceptions of declining classmate and teacher support are associated with declining mental health. Growth curve analysis revealed significant decreases in support and self‐esteem and increases in symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Boys demonstrated steeper declines than girls in classmate support and self‐esteem and sharper increases in depression. As hypothesized, declining classmate and teacher support was associated with worsening self‐esteem and depression. Only declines in classmate support were associated with increases in social anxiety. Results were similar across gender categories. Implications for school‐based practices targeting social support are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Important differences were found among children in a number of areas as a function of overall physical health status. The findings emphasize the importance of measuring activity limitations distinctly from chronic conditions and impairments, and, perhaps, of measuring impairments distinctly from chronic conditions, and of comparing children with such health problems to children without health problems in order to obtain a more accurate picture of the impact of health on children's lives. The World Health Organization's distinct definitions of health condition and disability facilitate a dimensional approach for describing child health that can serve to clarify this field of study and improve comparability of data across countries.

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The purpose of the present study was to comprehensively examine the validity of an adapted version of the parent global report form of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) with respect to its factor structure, relationships with demographic and response style covariates, and differential item functioning (DIF). The APQ was adapted by omitting the Corporal Punishment and the other discipline items. The sample consisted of 674 Canadian and United States families having a 9–12 year old child and at least one parent-figure who had received treatment within the past five years for alcohol problems or met criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence. The primary parent in each family completed the APQ. The four factor CFA model of the four published scales used and the three factor CFA model of those scales from prior research were rejected. Exploratory structural equation modeling was then used. The final three factor model combined the author-defined Involvement and Positive Parenting scales and retained the original Poor Monitoring/Supervision and Inconsistent Discipline scales. However, there were substantial numbers of moderate magnitude cross-loadings and large magnitude residual covariances. Differential item functioning (DIF) was observed for a number of APQ items. Controlling for DIF, response style and demographic variables were related significantly to the factors.