(PS4-1) Evaluating the Feasibility and Acceptability of the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) Intervention

Abstract Text: Schools are a primary setting for providing mental health services, offering a unique opportunity to address barriers to accessing care, especially those experienced by economically marginalized children (National Association of School Psychologists, 2021). Evidenced-based treatments (EBTs) have been developed for implementation in the school setting and have shown encouraging mental health outcomes (Sanchez et al., 2018).

Despite the promise of EBTs designed for implementation in a school setting, there are many contextual factors that affect the quality of implementation in schools. Domitrovich et al., (2008) outline a framework of macro-level, school-level, and individual-level factors that impact the implementation of EBTs in a school setting. Metrics used to evaluate implementation quality often include the amount of exposure to an intervention or dosage (e.g., number, duration, and density of sessions). This poster will evaluate the potential impact of school-level and individual-level factors on intervention dosage.

The Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) Intervention is an EBT designed for 6th-8th graders with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and challenges with organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) skills (Langberg et al., 2008). When implemented by research team members, the HOPS intervention was shown to improve parent-reported materials management, planning skills, and homework problems (Langberg et al., 2008). Mental health providers trained to work in schools, employed by a research team, were able to achieve favorable outcomes with limited training and support (Langberg et al., 2018). However, there is a lack of research evaluating the intervention’s usability and feasibility when implemented in the school setting by providers employed by the school.

Our team has been conducting a replication of the Langberg et al. (2018), but a key difference is that HOPS implementers are staff employed by partnering schools, similar to real-world practice. This poster will explore the feasibility of the real-world implementation of HOPS in school settings with varied free and reduced-price lunch levels by exploring school-level and individual-level factors that impact the duration of time it takes to complete the HOPS intervention.

Preliminary analyses indicate that, although HOPS is designed to be completed in 11 weeks, on average school staff took 14.2 weeks (SD = 2.1) to conduct all 16 HOPS sessions. Initial review of semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with six school providers identified time of the school year and scheduling challenges as barriers. The poster will explore the impact of time of the school year, scheduling challenges, and the role of the school provider (i.e., teacher or student support team member) on attendance, intervention duration, and frequency of rescheduled sessions. In addition, this study will explore links between dosage and provider/student satisfaction with HOPS. The poster will conclude with an analysis of qualitative feedback from school providers and implications for implementing HOPS and other EBTs in diverse schools.