Acceptability and Feasibility of Hybrid Research Methods for Adaptive Assessment of Youth in Community Settings
How to cite: Weiss, M. D.; Richards, E. C.; Bien-Aime, D.; Witkowski, T.; Williams, P.; Holmes, K. E.; Cortes, D. E.; Tepper, M. C.; Wang, P. S.; Aldis, R.; Carson, N.; Cook, B. L. Acceptability and Feasibility of Hybrid Research Methods for Adaptive Assessment of Youth in Community Settings. Preprints 2024, 2024100958. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0958.v1 Weiss, M. D.; Richards, E. C.; Bien-Aime, D.; Witkowski, T.; Williams, P.; Holmes, K. E.; Cortes, D. E.; Tepper, M. C.; Wang, P. S.; Aldis, R.; Carson, N.; Cook, B. L. Acceptability and Feasibility of Hybrid Research Methods for Adaptive Assessment of Youth in Community Settings. Preprints 2024, 2024100958. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0958.v1
Abstract
Objective: To explore the acceptability and feasibility of conducting comprehensive, community-based, hy-brid (in-person and virtual) mental health screening and feedback with diverse youth in the community. Methods: The Screening and Support for Youth intervention provides comprehensive assessment and thera-peutic feedback in community settings including symptoms, diagnoses, functional impairment, suicide, and clinical risk. Symptom severity, seven diagnoses and suicidality were assessed with the Kiddie Computer-ized Adaptive Test. Functional impairment was evaluated by youth self-report on the Weiss Functional Im-pairment Rating Scale. Measures were scored according to nationally developed norms and an algorithm was developed to aggregate symptoms and functioning to determine clinical risk. The results were discussed with participants in a motivational interview to promote insight and engagement in an online intervention. Results: Methodological innovations included using a QR code for recruitment, integrated in-person and virtual participation, and expansion from in-person recruitment within the schools to virtual engagement with youth throughout the community. The final sample included disproportionately more Black or African American and Hispanic youth as compared to school and community statistics, suggesting that hybrid re-search may facilitate recruitment of diverse populations. Qualitative interviews indicated that the screening and feedback raised youth awareness of their wellbeing and/or distress, its impact on their functioning, and engagement with options for improving wellbeing. Conclusion: Hybrid research, developed as a necessity during the pandemic, proved advantageous to the feasibility and acceptability of community-based recruit-ment of at risk, minoritized youth.
Keywords
Access to treatment; Health Equity; Pandemic; Youth Mental Health; Virtual research
Subject
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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