While school environments and staff members are key for identifying mental health issues in youths, there was a need for cultural sensitivity and better methods for doing so in non-white students, as many assessments were developed with primarily white participants.

This study by Dr. Staskal and her team aimed to fill these gaps by examining how students with OCD were identified and treated by school psychologists overall, and whether Asian, Latinx, and white students were treated equally for OCD in school settings. The study also aimed to assess whether the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS; one of the main assessments used to diagnose OCD) is the best tool for Asian and Latinx students who may have OCD.