This exploratory qualitative study asks: How do youth and their parents in high-poverty urban environments conceptualize, recognize and respond to teen mental health problems? Mental health problems not only take an emotional toll on families, but also can interfere with normal adolescent development, impeding academic success and the establishment of healthy relationships. Yet as many as two-thirds of adolescents experiencing mental health problems, including those with psychiatric disorders, are underserved by the mental health service system. This is especially the case for economically disadvantaged youth, many of whom reside in our nation's inner cities. Building on over a decade of research conducted with New York City schools serving low-income families, this study will use a theoretically and empirically informed qualitative approach to create a rich database of youths' and parents' """"""""emic"""""""" concepts of teen mental health problems and treatment. Core data collection will consist of semi-structured open-ended interviews with 100 parent-youth dyads. Narratives obtained through open-ended inquiry will further understanding of how families think about and make sense of adolescent mental health problems in their community. Examining parents' and youths' narratives will also help identify where there are barriers, including negative perceptions of and experiences with mental health services, that derail pathways to appropriate treatment. In addition, interviews will use hypothetical vignettes as a common stimulus to elicit norms, attitudes, and beliefs about teen mental health, psychiatric symptoms and illness, and treatment. An initial set of focus groups will conducted to obtain community input on the interview protocol and a final set of focus groups will be conducted to review key findings and their interpretation.
The specific aims are to: 1. Elicit youth and parent emic conceptualizations of adolescent mental health problems, warning signs of problems, and beliefs and attitudes about mental illness and its treatment; 2. Identify normative beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors related to self-help practices and help-seeking strategies used by adolescents and parents to address teen mental health problems; 3. Synthesize findings to (a) refine a conceptual model of help seeking for teen problems that can guide future research and (b) contribute to the development of emic-informed strategies for improving teen mental health and mental health education, outreach, and services in high-poverty settings. The long-term goal is to inform culturally-relevant education, outreach and services that support families and improve the functioning and life chances of adolescents who may be experiencing mental health problems. Findings have the potential to provide a fuller understanding of why adolescents in challenging economically disadvantaged settings are underserved and what steps can be taken to remedy ongoing disparities. ? ? ?
