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Klodnick VV, Sapiro B, Gold A, Pearlstein M, Crowe AN, Schneider A, Johnson RP, LaPelusa B, Holland H. Relational Complexity of the Near-Age Peer Support Provider Role in Youth and Young Adult Community Mental Health Settings. J Behav Health Serv Res 2024; 51:545-560. [PMID: 38413546 DOI: 10.1007/s11414-024-09877-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
Increasingly, US community mental health settings are integrating professional near-age youth peer support providers to improve youth service engagement and outcomes. Youth peer specialists (YPS) use their lived and living experiences with a mental health diagnosis to validate, empathize, and provide individualized support, while also improving their program's overall responsiveness to young people's needs. Although promising, these roles tend to lack clarity-responsibilities vary immensely, and turnover is high. Examining near-age youth peer on-the-job experiences is needed to design effective on-the-job supports. Using community-based participatory action research methods, young adults with lived experience worked in partnership with a PhD-level qualitative researcher to design, recruit, conduct, and analyze in-depth-interviews with current and former near-age youth peer providers. Ten young adult peer mentors in Massachusetts completed interviews that revealed near-age youth peer role relational complexity. Five relational aspects were identified requiring relational practice skills and self-awareness, including relationships with (1) self, (2) clients, (3) supervisors, (4) non-peer colleagues, and (5) other near-age peer providers. Near-age peers experience relationship-related struggles with non-peer identified colleagues who do not understand nor value the near-age peer role. Findings expand on current near-age peer practice and associated on-the-job challenges. Training, supervision, and professional development activities that target these five relational areas may improve YPS on-the-job wellbeing, decrease YPS turnover, and improve youth client outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vanessa V Klodnick
- Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
- Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Beth Sapiro
- Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA
| | - Alisa Gold
- Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Mei Pearlstein
- Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Autumn N Crowe
- Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Ava Schneider
- Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA
- School of Social Work, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Rebecca P Johnson
- Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA
- Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Brianne LaPelusa
- Research & Innovation, Youth & Young Adult Services, Thresholds, Chicago, IL, USA
- Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Heidi Holland
- Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston, MA, USA
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Griffith AN. Using interviewee-created graphs to explore the arc of closeness and trust in adolescents' supportive relationships with nonparental adults. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE 2024; 34:1078-1098. [PMID: 38750409 DOI: 10.1111/jora.12965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 08/28/2024]
Abstract
Adolescents' supportive relationships with nonparental adults are beneficial when they are close and have trust, but few studies explore how adolescents believe closeness and trust unfold over time. I propose a method for prompting adolescents to retrospectively describe the development of abstract components of such relationships by sharing a study that used interviewee-created graphing to prompt adolescents to move from concrete parts of the relationship to abstract concepts using a tool adolescents would be familiar with from math classes. Analyses using Venn diagrams and matrices suggested adolescents conceptualized closeness and trust differently, however, this was shaped by whether the adult was a part of their family. Reflections on how the proposed graphing method can effectively be used will be discussed.
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Fernandez Turienzo C, Kamara M, November L, Kamara P, Kingsford AM, Ridout A, Thomas S, Seed PT, Shennan AH, Sandall J, Williams PT. A community-based mentoring scheme for pregnant and parenting adolescents in Sierra Leone: Protocol for a hybrid pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0294538. [PMID: 38527029 PMCID: PMC10962822 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2023] [Accepted: 11/13/2023] [Indexed: 03/27/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sierra Leone has a very high maternal mortality rate, and this burden falls heavily on adolescents, a particularly vulnerable group; this is usually driven by poverty, lack of education and employment opportunities. In 2017, a local grassroots organisation, Lifeline Nehemiah Projects, developed a community-based mentoring intervention '2YoungLives' (2YLs) for adolescent girls in Eastern Freetown. We aim to formally assess the feasibility and implementation of the 2YL mentorship scheme in new communities in Sierra Leone. METHODS A hybrid type 2 pilot cluster randomised controlled trial of the 2YL mentoring scheme in urban and rural communities living around twelve peripheral health units (PHU) across five districts in Sierra Leone. Clusters will be matched into pairs and randomisation will be determined by computer-generated random numbers via a secure web-based system hosted by MedSciNet. All under-eighteen adolescents identified as pregnant in the community and/or the PHU are included. Feasibility (recruitment, retention, and attrition rates; data collection and completeness; sample calculation) and primary clinical outcome data (composite of maternal deaths, stillbirths, neonatal deaths) will be collected. A mixed-methods process evaluation will explore implementation outcomes, mechanisms of change, contextual factors, experiences of care, and health and wellbeing. A concurrent cost-consequence analysis will be undertaken. Main trial analysis will be pragmatic, by intention to treat, and a complementary per protocol analysis will also be included. DISCUSSION Improving health and wellbeing for adolescent girls (including sexual and reproductive health) remains a top priority in Sierra Leone indicated by several government policies targeted to this group, in which maternal and infant mortality are still persistently high. Supporting these girls and facilitating their wellbeing is imperative, along with sensitisation of communities, strengthening of youth friendly services and collaboration with stakeholders at all levels (government, regional, community, family). We believe 2YL supports the global holistic agenda to integrate and implement interventions across health, education, and social systems in order to protect, nurture, and support the health and development potential of every adolescent girl, and thus become a model of good practice for adolescent pregnancy, to be adopted more widely in Sierra Leone and elsewhere. TRIAL REGISTRATION ISRCTN registry ISRCTN32414369. Prospectively registered on 14/03/2022.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Fernandez Turienzo
- Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | | | - Lucy November
- Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | | | | | - Alexandra Ridout
- Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | | | - Paul T. Seed
- Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew H. Shennan
- Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jane Sandall
- Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
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Moffat R, Casale CE, Cross ES. Mobile fNIRS for exploring inter-brain synchrony across generations and time. FRONTIERS IN NEUROERGONOMICS 2024; 4:1260738. [PMID: 38234472 PMCID: PMC10790948 DOI: 10.3389/fnrgo.2023.1260738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
While still relatively rare, longitudinal hyperscanning studies are exceptionally valuable for documenting changes in inter-brain synchrony, which may in turn underpin how behaviors develop and evolve in social settings. The generalizability and ecological validity of this experimental approach hinges on the selected imaging technique being mobile-a requirement met by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS has most frequently been used to examine the development of inter-brain synchrony and behavior in child-parent dyads. In this position paper, we contend that dedicating attention to longitudinal and intergenerational hyperscanning stands to benefit the fields of social and cognitive neuroscience more broadly. We argue that this approach is particularly relevant for understanding the neural mechanisms underpinning intergenerational social dynamics, and potentially for benchmarking progress in psychological and social interventions, many of which are situated in intergenerational contexts. In line with our position, we highlight areas of intergenerational research that stand to be enhanced by longitudinal hyperscanning with mobile devices, describe challenges that may arise from measuring across generations in the real world, and offer potential solutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryssa Moffat
- Social Brain Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Courtney E. Casale
- School of Psychological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Li N, He M. Social Security Satisfaction and People's Subjective Wellbeing in China: The Serial Mediation Effect of Social Fairness and Social Trust. Front Psychol 2022; 13:855530. [PMID: 35444600 PMCID: PMC9014885 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.855530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2022] [Accepted: 03/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective To test the relationship between social security satisfaction, social fairness, social trust, and people’s subjective wellbeing (SWB) in China and the serial mediation effect in this study. Methods We utilized the data (N = 7,978) from Chinese Social Survey (CSS) in 2017 and 2019, involving 31 provinces across the country. There were 5,398 samples in 2017CSS and 2,580 samples in 2019CSS selected by the research objectives. There were 4,269 women and 3,709 men with the average age of participants being 43 (SD = 14.41). Results The results showed that the actual status of social security satisfaction, social fairness and trust, and SWB were greater than the theoretical status overall. Social security satisfaction [β = 0.454, p < 0.001, 95% CI = (0.377, 0.423)], social fairness [β = 0.065, p < 0.001, 95% CI = (−0.039, 0.124)], and social trust [β = 0.108, p < 0.001, 95% CI = (0.237, 0.397)] positively influenced people’s SWB, respectively. Social fairness had a positive effect on social trust (β = 0.298, p < 0.001). Social fairness and social trust partly mediated the relationship between social security satisfaction and SWB, respectively. Social security satisfaction indirectly influenced SWB through the serial effect of social fairness and social trust. The total effect of SWB explained is 47% in the serial mediation model. Conclusion Satisfactory social security is likely to cause a high level of people’s SWB, social fairness, and social trust. It is beneficial to form a virtuous circle in society. Allowing people to obtain satisfactory social security is conducive to social equity, promoting social trust, and improving people’s SWB.
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Affiliation(s)
- Na Li
- School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
| | - Mang He
- School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China
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Damm AP, von Essen E, Jensen AJ, Kerrn-Jespersen F, van Mastrigt S. Duration of Mentoring Relationship Predicts Child Well-Being: Evidence from a Danish Community-Based Mentoring Program. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:ijerph19052906. [PMID: 35270599 PMCID: PMC8910230 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19052906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Revised: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
While a substantial body of literature suggests that lasting community mentoring relationships can have a range of positive effects on youths, little is known about these effects in the Nordic welfare context, where community mentees may have lower risk profiles compared to many previous samples. This study explores how the duration (length) of child mentoring relationships predicts parental perceptions of child well-being among 197 children served by Denmark’s most extensive community-based youth mentoring program. We find that children who have had a mentor for at least one year are perceived to have significantly higher well-being. In contrast, we find no significant differences in well-being between children who had mentors for less than one year and children on a waiting list. Previous research, conducted in primarily North American contexts, finds that longer mentoring relationships substantially improve school behavior and reduce risk taking. Our results add to the literature by indicating that a minimum mentoring relationship duration of one year appears to be similarly important in promoting well-being for youths involved in community-based mentoring programs in a Nordic welfare context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Piil Damm
- TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark; (A.P.D.); (A.J.J.); (F.K.-J.); (S.v.M.)
| | - Emma von Essen
- TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark; (A.P.D.); (A.J.J.); (F.K.-J.); (S.v.M.)
- Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, 751 26 Uppsala, Sweden
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +46-708-837-442
| | - Astrid Jæger Jensen
- TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark; (A.P.D.); (A.J.J.); (F.K.-J.); (S.v.M.)
| | - Freja Kerrn-Jespersen
- TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark; (A.P.D.); (A.J.J.); (F.K.-J.); (S.v.M.)
| | - Sarah van Mastrigt
- TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, 8210 Aarhus, Denmark; (A.P.D.); (A.J.J.); (F.K.-J.); (S.v.M.)
- Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
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