Acceptability and Feasibility of a Mental Health Workshop for LGBTQ Youth and Young Adults

Christen Seyl Author

03/27/2021 Added

20 Plays

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This presentation reviews the methods, results, and implications of data derived from a mental health promotion workshop for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults.

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[00:00:00.920]Hello, my name is Christie Seyl,
[00:00:02.500]and today I will be presenting my study
[00:00:04.010]on the "Acceptability and Feasibility
[00:00:05.640]of a Mental Health Promotion Intervention
[00:00:07.350]for LGBTQ Youth and Young Adults."
[00:00:09.980]But first, here's some background.
[00:00:11.640]In general, there is a rise in mental health issues
[00:00:13.750]in people during adolescence and young adulthood.
[00:00:16.010]This risk increases when the individual identifies as LGBTQ,
[00:00:19.800]and that risk remains through their lifetime.
[00:00:21.910]Although there are many
[00:00:22.743]mental health prevention interventions that have been found
[00:00:24.970]to be effective in the general population,
[00:00:27.620]very few of these techniques
[00:00:28.760]have been studied in LGBTQ populations.
[00:00:31.220]My study further explored data from a parent study,
[00:00:34.970]a mental health intervention workshop
[00:00:36.360]aimed at LGBTQ youth and young adults.
[00:00:39.360]This study contributes to a gap in scholarship
[00:00:41.390]concerning LGBTQ-specific needs
[00:00:43.700]in mental health interventions.
[00:00:46.180]Given the field of psychology's history
[00:00:47.760]with this population,
[00:00:48.593]researchers working with it must be intentional
[00:00:50.590]about providing a positive experience for the participants.
[00:00:53.970]Due to society's continued stigmatization
[00:00:56.270]of both mental health and the LGBTQ identities,
[00:00:59.140]privacy and confidentiality are both critical
[00:01:01.220]while working with this population.
[00:01:03.440]My study sought to observe if the efficacy
[00:01:05.780]of a mental health prevention workshop
[00:01:07.160]was related to changes in various mental health measures.
[00:01:10.100]Additionally, it analyzed the participants likes and advice
[00:01:12.650]about the workshop to find any common themes.
[00:01:15.210]It was expected that those who rated the workshop higher
[00:01:17.370]on credibility and expectancy ratings
[00:01:19.060]would also experience a great or general reduction
[00:01:22.340]in reported mental health symptoms.
[00:01:24.900]For the qualitative responses,
[00:01:26.160]it was expected that participants
[00:01:27.690]would like the community the workshop provided
[00:01:29.370]and recommend more practice time.
[00:01:31.440]Participants were drawn
[00:01:32.510]from the local community of LGBTQ youth and young adults
[00:01:35.300]to participate in a mental health promotion intervention.
[00:01:38.150]The intervention workshop
[00:01:39.210]informed by focus groups with LGBTQ youth and young adults
[00:01:42.130]covered with techniques such as mindfulness
[00:01:43.760]and cognitive restructuring,
[00:01:44.860]as well as invited participants
[00:01:46.150]to share locations that they found affirming
[00:01:47.780]and activities that they found distracting.
[00:01:49.780]Before and after the workshop,
[00:01:51.020]participants filled out a survey
[00:01:52.280]that included various mental health measures.
[00:01:54.430]The ones included in this study
[00:01:55.720]were Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 measure
[00:01:58.600]which measured anxiety,
[00:01:59.940]the difficulties with emotion regulation scale
[00:02:02.600]which measured emotion regulation,
[00:02:04.440]the stress appraisal measure
[00:02:05.600]for adolescents threat appraisal subscale
[00:02:07.520]which measured participants' (indistinct) of stress.
[00:02:10.150]Finally, the internalized transphobia subscale
[00:02:12.120]from the gender minority stress and resilience measure
[00:02:14.440]was adapted to generalize to internalize stigma
[00:02:17.260]of participant's sexual and gender identity.
[00:02:19.790]After the workshop, participants rated the logic success
[00:02:22.370]and confidence in recommending the workshop
[00:02:24.140]on a self-report questionnaire,
[00:02:25.680]as well as answer these questions;
[00:02:28.180]What were helpful aspects of the workshop
[00:02:29.860]and what were aspects of the workshop
[00:02:31.350]that they would change?
[00:02:32.420]Their responses were thematically analyzed.
[00:02:35.110]The participants ranged in sexuality and gender identity,
[00:02:37.520]but all were aged between 17 and 26.
[00:02:40.000]All of the participants were part of a sexual minority,
[00:02:42.230]and 25% of the participants were part of a gender minority.
[00:02:47.250]The majority of the participants were white,
[00:02:49.240]with about 25 participants being a person of color.
[00:02:53.500]In general, the participants gave higher ratings
[00:02:56.110]of logic, success and confidence.
[00:02:57.710]However, the participants received the workshop in-person
[00:03:00.530]give slightly higher ratings of logic and success
[00:03:02.760]compared to those who received it virtually due to COVID-19.
[00:03:06.000]Partial correlations were run
[00:03:07.290]for change in each mental health measure
[00:03:09.070]across the three workshop ratings.
[00:03:10.910]For each measure of the pre-score was controlled for.
[00:03:13.560]None of these analyses yielded a significant correlation.
[00:03:17.330]Now, for that discussion of the qualitative data.
[00:03:19.390]From the written responses about what was liked
[00:03:21.540]and what could be improved on in the workshop,
[00:03:23.120]three themes emerged.
[00:03:24.860]Each of the following slides
[00:03:25.860]will have some de-identified quotes from the participants
[00:03:28.200]for examples of each associated theme.
[00:03:31.670]The first was the acceptability
[00:03:33.010]of empirically-supported therapeutic techniques.
[00:03:35.770]Many participants considered cognitive restructuring,
[00:03:38.110]generating the list of local resources,
[00:03:40.060]and distracting activities and mindfulness
[00:03:42.300]as helpful aspects of the workshop.
[00:03:44.810]Additionally, participants suggested spending more time
[00:03:47.250]to practice cognitive restructuring
[00:03:48.700]and including more examples of it in the workshop.
[00:03:51.340]Participants often mentioned
[00:03:52.660]several of the techniques in conjunction,
[00:03:54.640]and think that many segments of the workshop
[00:03:56.650]were useful to participants.
[00:03:58.860]There was also much overlap
[00:03:59.940]between participants who listed the list of local resources
[00:04:02.340]and the list of distracting activities
[00:04:03.780]with the second theme of community.
[00:04:05.640]Although it was not
[00:04:06.473]the in-primary intention of the workshop,
[00:04:07.930]many participants found that community
[00:04:09.390]was established and valued during it.
[00:04:11.170]While many participants to LGBTQ youth and young adults
[00:04:14.330]allowed for implicit community among participants
[00:04:16.390]that improved to comfort and indicated to participants
[00:04:18.700]that they were not alone in their experiences,
[00:04:21.140]participants suggested facilitating
[00:04:22.600]more discussions throughout the workshop,
[00:04:23.880]as well as adding more participants
[00:04:25.310]in order to increase diversity
[00:04:26.760]of individuals and perspectives.
[00:04:29.070]The final theme identified was that
[00:04:30.490]the structure and rationale of the workshop
[00:04:32.280]were logical to participants.
[00:04:34.060]Although the references to structure and rationale
[00:04:35.900]were less prevalent, they were no less important.
[00:04:38.730]The workshop followed a simple structure
[00:04:40.210]which lends to the feasibility of the intervention.
[00:04:43.150]Similarly, the necessity and applicability of the workshop
[00:04:46.210]were apparently dispensed.
[00:04:48.447]As discussed previously,
[00:04:49.770]there were no significant partial correlations
[00:04:51.640]between mental health outcomes and workshop rating.
[00:04:55.410]Because their ratings for the workshop were so high,
[00:04:58.070]there is a little variation in workshop rating.
[00:04:59.980]It's possible that this caused ceiling effect in the data.
[00:05:03.220]The themes identified indicates that this population
[00:05:05.560]doesn't accept empirically-supported therapeutic techniques
[00:05:08.160]as well as derive more meaningful community
[00:05:09.840]from the workshop.
[00:05:10.910]However, there were some differences
[00:05:12.480]between groups of participants.
[00:05:13.950]Participants who attended the workshop in-person
[00:05:15.970]rated it more logical and more successful
[00:05:17.850]at statistically significant levels compared to participants
[00:05:20.760]who attended the workshop virtually due to COVID-19.
[00:05:23.650]This could relate to the theme of community,
[00:05:24.890]as an in-person setting may more easily facilitate rapport
[00:05:27.810]than a virtual setting.
[00:05:29.520]The acceptance of empirically-supported
[00:05:31.200]emotion regulation techniques,
[00:05:33.120]the structure and the rationale,
[00:05:34.550]indicates that the content of the workshop
[00:05:36.160]was meaningful and useful to participants.
[00:05:39.820]There were a few limitations on this workshop
[00:05:41.520]that must be considered when viewing these results.
[00:05:43.820]One is the recruitment of the participants
[00:05:45.520]came from a largely white, educated population
[00:05:47.650]which limits generalizability.
[00:05:49.350]Additionally, because half of the participants
[00:05:51.010]received the workshop virtually,
[00:05:52.750]the in-person workshop
[00:05:53.760]lacked a large number of participants.
[00:05:56.860]To continue this research, they were structurally modified
[00:05:59.090]to include the participants' suggestions,
[00:06:00.710]such as spending more time on cognitive restructuring
[00:06:02.890]and including more participants of different backgrounds
[00:06:04.900]in each session.
[00:06:06.100]Preferably, the workshop also be conducted
[00:06:08.100]in an in-person setting,
[00:06:09.330]as this provided better logic and success ratings
[00:06:11.420]from the participants.
[00:06:13.250]A virtual format of the workshop
[00:06:14.650]which would help with dissemination requires more study,
[00:06:17.160]but our experience was encouraging
[00:06:18.680]that such an approach could be helpful.
[00:06:20.960]Finally, here's my Works Cited page
[00:06:22.720]as well as my Acknowledgements.
[00:06:23.810]I'm especially grateful to Natalie Holt and Debra Hope.
[00:06:26.360]And to my audience, thank you for listening.

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Acceptability and Feasibility of a Mental Health Workshop for LGBTQ Youth and Young Adults

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