Ma QianHui, Gallo Joseph J, Parisi Jeanine M, Joo Jin Hui
Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway Street, 8Th Floor, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Int J Ment Health Syst. 2022 Sep 2;16(1):45. doi: 10.1186/s13033-022-00555-6.
A nation-wide mental health peer support initiative was established in college and vocational schools in Singapore. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to develop and validate a 20-item self-report instrument, the Mental Health Peer Support Questionnaire (MHPSQ), to assess young adults' perceived knowledge and skills in mental health peer support.
We administered the questionnaire to 102 students who were trained as peer supporters, and 306 students who were not trained as peer supporters (denoted as non-peer supporters), in five college and vocational schools. Exploratory factor analysis and descriptive statistics were conducted. Cronbach's α was used to assess reliability, and independent sample t-tests to assess criterion validity.
Exploratory factor analysis indicated a three-factor structure with adequate internal reliability (discerning stigma [α = .76], personal mastery [α = .77], skills in handling challenging interpersonal situations [α = .74]; overall scale [α = .74]). Consistent with establishing criterion validity, peer supporters rated themselves as significantly more knowledgeable and skilled than non-peer supporters on all items except two: (1) letting peer support recipients make their own mental health decisions, and (2) young adults' self-awareness of feeling overwhelmed. Peer supporters who had served the role for a longer period of time had significantly higher perceived awareness of stigma affecting mental health help-seeking. Peer supporters who had reached out to more peer support recipients reported significantly higher perceived skills in handling challenging interpersonal situations, particularly in encouraging professional help-seeking and identifying warning signs of suicide.
The MHPSQ may be a useful tool for obtaining a baseline assessment of young adults' perceived knowledge and skills in mental health peer support, prior to them being trained as peer supporters. This could facilitate tailoring of training programs based on young adults' initial understanding of mental health peer support. Subsequent to young adults' training and application of skills, the MHPSQ could also be applied to evaluate the effectiveness of peer programs and mental health training.
新加坡在大专院校和职业学校中开展了一项全国性的心理健康同伴支持倡议。这项横断面研究的目的是开发并验证一份包含20个条目的自陈式量表——心理健康同伴支持问卷（MHPSQ），以评估年轻人在心理健康同伴支持方面的感知知识和技能。
我们在五所大专院校和职业学校向102名接受过同伴支持者培训的学生以及306名未接受过同伴支持者培训的学生（称为非同伴支持者）发放了问卷。进行了探索性因素分析和描述性统计。使用Cronbach's α评估信度，使用独立样本t检验评估效标效度。
探索性因素分析表明该量表具有三因素结构，内部信度良好（辨别污名[α = 0.76]、个人掌握[α = 0.77]、处理具有挑战性的人际情境的技能[α = 0.74]；总量表[α = 0.74]）。与效标效度的建立一致，除了两项外，同伴支持者在所有项目上对自己的知识和技能评价均显著高于非同伴支持者：（1）让同伴支持接受者做出自己的心理健康决定，以及（2）年轻人对感到不堪重负的自我意识。担任同伴支持角色时间更长的同伴支持者对影响寻求心理健康帮助的污名的感知意识显著更高。接触过更多同伴支持接受者的同伴支持者在处理具有挑战性的人际情境方面的感知技能显著更高，尤其是在鼓励寻求专业帮助和识别自杀预警信号方面。
MHPSQ可能是一个有用的工具，可用于在年轻人接受同伴支持者培训之前，对他们在心理健康同伴支持方面的感知知识和技能进行基线评估。这有助于根据年轻人对心理健康同伴支持的初步理解来定制培训计划。在年轻人接受培训并应用技能之后，MHPSQ也可用于评估同伴项目和心理健康培训的效果。
