Cross-culturally adapted psychological interventions for the treatment of depression and/or anxiety among young people: A scoping review

What types of objective measures have been used to assess core ADHD symptoms in children and young people in naturalistic settings? A scoping review

OBJECTIVES

We described the range and types of objective measures of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and young people (CYP) reported in research that can be applied in naturalistic settings.

DESIGN

Scoping review using best practice methods.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, Embase, (via OVID); British Education Index, Education Resources Information Centre, Education Abstracts, Education Research Complete, Child Development and Adolescent Papers, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection (via EBSCO) were searched between 1 December 2021 and 28 February 2022.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Papers reported an objective measure of ADHD traits in CYP in naturalistic settings written in English.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

2802 papers were identified; titles and abstracts were screened by two reviewers. 454 full-text papers were obtained and screened. 128 papers were eligible and included in the review. Data were extracted by the lead author, with 10% checked by a second team member. Descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis were used.

RESULTS

Of the 128 papers, 112 were primary studies and 16 were reviews. 87% were conducted in the USA, and only 0.8% originated from the Global South, with China as the sole representative. 83 objective measures were identified (64 observational and 19 acceleration-sensitive measures). Notably, the Behaviour Observation System for Schools (BOSS), a behavioural observation, emerged as one of the predominant measures. 59% of papers reported on aspects of the reliability of the measure (n=76). The highest inter-rater reliability was found in an unnamed measure (% agreement=1), Scope Classroom Observation Checklist (% agreement=0.989) and BOSS (% agreement=0.985). 11 papers reported on aspects of validity. 12.5% of papers reported on their method of data collection (eg, pen and paper, on an iPad). Of the 47 papers that reported observer training, 5 reported the length of time the training took ranging from 3 hours to 1 year. Despite recommendations to integrate objective measures alongside conventional assessments, use remains limited, potentially due to inconsistent psychometric properties across studies.

CONCLUSIONS

Many objective measures of ADHD have been developed and described, with the majority of these being direct behavioural observations. There is a lack of reporting of psychometric properties and guidance for researchers administering these measures in practice and in future studies. Methodological transparency is needed. Encouragingly, recent papers begin to address these issues.

"Knowing I Had Someone to Turn to Was a Great Feeling": Mentoring Rural-Appalachian STEM Students

Post-secondary students benefit from mentorships, which provide both emotional and academic support tailored to the unique challenges they face. STEM students, and, in particular, those with historically marginalized identities, have unique strengths and face distinct barriers that can be ameliorated by careful, knowledgeable, and well-situated mentoring relationships. With that in mind, we conducted a narrative case study with 10 rural-Appalachian STEM majors enrolled in an NSF-funded mentoring program, intending to collect stories of their impactful experiences with their mentors. We utilized the narrative reconstruction process, and, in so doing, identified five major themes related to the importance of mentor assignment and the impact of mentors' characteristics and skills related to empathy, consistency, active listening, and teaching. We situate our findings within the existing literature and provide implications for scholars and practitioners who work with mentoring programs dedicated to working with Appalachian communities.