Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 30, 2020
Date Accepted: Jul 17, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Mobile Insight in Risk, Resilience and Online Referral (MIRROR): Evaluating the usage and psychometric properties of an online self-help test after potentially traumatic events
ABSTRACT
Background:
Most people who experience a potentially traumatic event (PTE) recover on their own. A small group of individuals develops psychological complaints but is often not detected in time or guidance to care is suboptimal. To identify these individuals and encourage them to seek help, a web-based self-help test called MIRROR– Mobile Insight in Risk, Resilience and Online Referral – was developed. MIRROR takes an innovative approach since it integrates both negative and positive outcomes of PTEs and time since the event, and provides direct feedback to the user.
Objective:
To assess MIRROR’s usage, examine its psychometric properties (factor structure, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity) and evaluate how well it classifies respondents into different outcome categories compared to reference measures.
Methods:
MIRROR was embedded in the website of Victim Support Netherlands so visitors could use it. We compared MIRROR’s outcomes to reference measures of PTSD symptoms (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5), depression, anxiety, stress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale - 21), psychological resilience (Resilience Evaluation Scale) and positive mental health (Mental Health Continuum Short Form).
Results:
In six months, 1112 respondents completed MIRROR, of whom 663 also completed the reference measures. Results showed good internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded a two-factor model with good model fit, conceptual meaning and parsimony. MIRROR correctly classified respondents into different outcome categories, compared to the reference measures.
Conclusions:
MIRROR is a valid and reliable self-help test to identify negative (PTSD complaints) and positive outcomes (psychosocial functioning and resilience) of PTEs. MIRROR is an easily accessible online tool that can help victims of PTEs to timely identify psychological complaints and to find appropriate support, a tool that might be highly needed in times of the Coronavirus pandemic.
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