High school students as mental health aides in the elementary school setting.

Offered more relevant experiences to 15 underachieving high school students by training them to work with 23 maladapted primary graders. Teachers' ratings of children's behavior indicated program children improved more than 27 matched controls, a finding supported by aides' ratings of improvement in program children. Aides felt the program helped their understanding of children, and they perceived it as better than other school activities. These findings, together with the positive reaction of school personnel to the program, testify to its effectiveness and feasibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)