Screening within a risk and resilience framework

Mental well-being concerns among K–12 students in the United States have increased over the past decade, prompting schools to expand efforts to support student well-being. Guided by a risk and resilience framework, this study examined whether assessing both risk and resilience identifies a more comprehensive group of students in need of support and more accurately predicts student well-being than assessing resilience alone. Participants were 270 students in Grades 6–8. Students completed self-report measures of social–emotional competence, internalizing and externalizing concerns, and well-being. Results indicated that risk and resilience measures identified unique groups of students with demonstrated needs and that the combined approach accurately classified well-being levels for approximately 70% of the sample. Findings support the use of integrated risk and resilience screening to inform preventive school-based practices.