The purpose of the overall study is to determine the mental health needs of high school students in Iowa. Phase I of the study was conducted in a high school of 1400 students (""City high school,"" n. d.). The high school is located in a city of 67,862 people (""United states census,"" 2012) and the school district has one of the highest numbers of minority students in the state. There are 16% African- American students, 10% Hispanic students, 6.5% Asian students, and less than 1% Native American and Pacific Islander students for a total of about 32% minority students (Iowa Department of Education 2012). Consent to conduct the study was obtained from the University of Iowa Internal Review Board and the research director of the school district. Students were contacted during study hall hours and the procedures for the study were explained and consent forms were handed out. Within 14 days the researchers returned to pick up the consent forms and administer the SCL-90-R. Because the return rate was very low, students in 2 social studies classes were also invited to participate in the study. Only 38 consent forms were returned from a total of over 100 forms that were handed out.

Data were collected from a total of 38 students. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and standard error of measurement. The results indicate that the overall means for the 38 students for each of the 9 categories were within the average range. The only gender difference in scores was on the O-C scale as females had significantly higher scores than males. However, when the distribution of scores were compared to the normal distribution, it was clear that a larger number of the 38 students than would have been expected had scores at least one standard deviation above the mean. This occurred for 8 of the 9 scales and also on the three global indices. This indicates that there should be some concern about their current mental health status.

Additionally if one looked at the scores that were at least 2 standard deviation above the mean, the distribution of the 38 students was in line with the normal distribution expectations, except for the area of PSY. Three out of thirty-eight students endorsed having significant psychoticism symptoms indicating that these same students are of especial concern. Although Phase I only had 38 students in it, the results do indicate that mental health concerns need to be addressed in high school youth.