Partnering with Autistic Adolescents to Interrogate the Validity of Dominant Screeners and Reduce Health Disparities

• In Event: 40809 - Rewriting the Future: Youth-Driven Policies That Catalyze Change

Abstract

Compared to the general population, autistic adolescents (12-19 year-olds) experience higher rates of anxiety and depression. While several anxiety and depression screeners exist, few are designed with the autistic population in mind, suggesting existing screeners may not validly capture their experiences. Interrogating the validity of the GAD-7 and PHQ-9, which are widely used screeners in clinical settings, will improve autistic adolescents’ receipt of care.

This research assesses the validity of screening tools using focus groups with autistic adolescents and stakeholders. To date, we have conducted focus groups with one group of autistic adolescents and two groups of professionals. One youth participant told us “I think there should be clarification on the amount of days just because sometimes people's perception of the word ‘several’ can be different.” Here, the participant is commenting on feeling uncertain about the response options requesting the frequency of having experienced a symptom. Unlike other options, like “none,” “several days” is ambiguous and not easy to interpret literally. This highlights challenges in interpretation that autistic youth may face and which may decrease validity. From these preliminary responses, we can already begin to put together an idea of the elements of these tools that may yield invalid data within the autistic youth population.

By conducting focus groups with racially diverse autistic adolescents and stakeholders, this project takes steps toward filling a gap in knowledge regarding the validity of widely used mental health screeners for autistic adolescents. Findings could shed light on the need to re-evaluate the size of the disparities in anxiety and depression and the ways validity are assessed in future quantitative studies. This work will be a critical step toward achieving mental health equity for autistic adolescents.

Author

• Jessica Tara Freedman, Michigan State University