Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Feb 2, 2024
Date Accepted: Jun 15, 2024
A characterization of psychopathology in Latin American adolescents: Findings from a cross-sectional study using a web-based screening tool
ABSTRACT
Background:
Mental health problems and suicide ideation (SI) are common in adolescents. The use of web-based screening (WBS) tools could improve strategies to early detect these phenomena.
Objective:
(1) To examine the capability of a WBS to identify adolescents with psychiatric symptoms and suicidality, and (2) To characterize the mental health profiles of a large sample of adolescents using a web-based screening.
Methods:
Latin American Spanish-speaking adolescents (N= 1599, Mage= 15.56 SD= 1.34, women= 47.3%, 98.5% Chilean, 1,5% Venezuelan) responded to a mental health WBS. A randomized subsample of participants also responded to the MINI-KID Interview. McNemar χ2 and ROC curves tested the detection accuracy of WBS contrasted with the MINI-KID. A latent profile analysis (LPA) determined symptomatic profiles of participants.
Results:
Both measures showed an adequate level of agreement, however, WBS yielded higher prevalence than MINI for all psychiatric symptoms, except SI and depression. LPA yielded 4 profiles, one of them presented elevated psychopathological symptoms, constituting 11% of the sample.
Conclusions:
WBS is acceptable for the timely detection of adolescents at risk of mental health conditions. Findings from the symptomatic profiles highlight the need for comprehensive assessments encompassing a wide spectrum of symptoms and transdiagnostic domains to detect overall psychological risk.
Citation
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Copyright
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