Supporting Peer Mental Health and Bystander Attitudes

• In Event: Stand Up: Factors Influencing Bystander Behaviors Among Youth

Abstract

Research Questions
By the age of adolescence, the majority of students report that they are more likely to seek help from a peer when they are in emotional distress than to seek help from an adult (Boldero & Fallon, 1995; Rickwood et al., 2005). A number of programs exist to train peers, who may observe mental health problems among their classmates, in supporting one another and making informed decisions in their role as bystanders (Ali et al., 2015; Wyman et al., 2010). In this presentation we examine adolescents’ attitudes about peer mental health problems and the association of those attitudes with perceptions that their peers need support.

Method
We surveyed 337 high school students in a Northeast school district and presented them with two fictional vignettes (adapted from Chavez et al., 2010; Lapatin et al., 2012). One vignette described a peer with externalizing (acting out) problems and the other vignette described a peer with internalizing (depression) problems. We asked students to indicate how worried they would be about each fictional classmate, the amount of time it would take for the classmate to feel better, and whether they thought that the classmate needed help.

Results
Consistent with the general literature on help-seeking, students indicated that when they had an emotional problem they most often spoke to a friend or friends (66.7%). Students less frequently indicated that they talked to a guidance counselor (19.4%) or teacher (12.6%). Students indicated significantly greater worry about the fictional student described as having internalizing problems compared to the student with externalizing problems (paired t-test; t=-8.37, p<.001). They indicated that the fictional student with internalizing problems would take significantly more time to feel better again (paired t-test; t=-7.63, p<.001). They also indicated that the student with internalizing problems was more likely to need help (χ2=100.83, p<.001). Females reported significantly more worry than males about the two case studies (F=87.66, p<.001). Females were also more likely to report that the fictional students with both internalizing and externalizing problems needed help (χ2=7.8-13.2, ps<.05). Students were more likely to indicate that the fictional students with either internalizing or externalizing problems needed help when they considered problems to be serious (OR=3.9 for externalizing, OR=6.0 for internalizing) and long-lasting (OR=2.9 for externalizing, OR=2.7 for internalizing). Additional analyses will be conducted to examine factors associated with student perceptions of the needs of peers with internalizing and externalizing problems.

Conclusions
Students are a key source of support to one another and can play a critical role in directing peers to resources when facing mental health problems. Understanding how students conceptualize mental health problems among their peers can be useful when talking with youth about peer support and designing peer-to-peer interventions. The current results suggest that students are more likely to identify internalizing problems as worrisome. Students who perceive problems to be serious and long-lasting are more likely to indicate that peers need help. We will discuss the advantages and limitations of using a vignette-based approach to this research.

Authors

• Jennifer Greif Green, Boston University

• Claire Brown, Boston University

• Shannon Gribben, Boston University

• Javier Guzman, Boston University

• Noah Segal, Boston University