Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool
Background: Mental health literacy programs are a common community-based approach used to address the prevention of mental health issues on college campuses. Current assessment strategies used to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs often lack strong theoretical rational and psychometric ri...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation |
| Online Access: | https://journals.sfu.ca/jmde/index.php/jmde_1/article/view/671 |
| _version_ | 1797812725103984640 |
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| author | Ty B. Aller Elizabeth B. Fauth Joshua R. Novak Sarah Schwartz |
| author_facet | Ty B. Aller Elizabeth B. Fauth Joshua R. Novak Sarah Schwartz |
| author_sort | Ty B. Aller |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Background: Mental health literacy programs are a common community-based approach used to address the prevention of mental health issues on college campuses. Current assessment strategies used to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs often lack strong theoretical rational and psychometric rigor.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold. First, based upon extant literature, theory, and standard clinical practice, we propose a process-based model of mental health literacy that includes three macro factors—identifying mental health issues, locating empirically based resources, and responding to mental health issues—and three micro processes of how they unfold—acquiring knowledge, building self-efficacy, and applying skills (behavior). The second aim was to test the psychometric properties of a new tool created to evaluate this process-based model—the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool (MHAA-AT).
Setting: Not applicable.
Intervention: Not applicable.
Research Design: A national sample of 296 college attending participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants responded to a demographic questionnaire and the newly developed MHAA-AT. Psychometric properties were examined through item response theory, exploratory factor analyses, and bivariate correlations.
Findings: Results suggest the MHAA-AT is a sound measure and demonstrates appropriate item, person, and trait characteristics on declarative knowledge items, and single factor structures on self-efficacy and behavior items with moderate to high reliability and validity. While additional testing is need among other samples, results suggest that the MHAA-AT is a quality assessment tool.
Keywords: College students; mental health literacy; item response theory; measurement
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T07:41:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-647403ae14e14385b3c6a105ded1c016 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1556-8180 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T07:41:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation |
| spelling | doaj.art-647403ae14e14385b3c6a105ded1c0162023-06-03T06:57:34ZengThe Evaluation Center at Western Michigan UniversityJournal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation1556-81802021-03-01173910.56645/jmde.v17i39.671Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment ToolTy B. Aller0Elizabeth B. FauthJoshua R. NovakSarah SchwartzUtah State University Background: Mental health literacy programs are a common community-based approach used to address the prevention of mental health issues on college campuses. Current assessment strategies used to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs often lack strong theoretical rational and psychometric rigor. Purpose: The purpose of this study was twofold. First, based upon extant literature, theory, and standard clinical practice, we propose a process-based model of mental health literacy that includes three macro factors—identifying mental health issues, locating empirically based resources, and responding to mental health issues—and three micro processes of how they unfold—acquiring knowledge, building self-efficacy, and applying skills (behavior). The second aim was to test the psychometric properties of a new tool created to evaluate this process-based model—the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool (MHAA-AT). Setting: Not applicable. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: A national sample of 296 college attending participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants responded to a demographic questionnaire and the newly developed MHAA-AT. Psychometric properties were examined through item response theory, exploratory factor analyses, and bivariate correlations. Findings: Results suggest the MHAA-AT is a sound measure and demonstrates appropriate item, person, and trait characteristics on declarative knowledge items, and single factor structures on self-efficacy and behavior items with moderate to high reliability and validity. While additional testing is need among other samples, results suggest that the MHAA-AT is a quality assessment tool. Keywords: College students; mental health literacy; item response theory; measurement https://journals.sfu.ca/jmde/index.php/jmde_1/article/view/671 |
| spellingShingle | Ty B. Aller Elizabeth B. Fauth Joshua R. Novak Sarah Schwartz Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation |
| title | Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool |
| title_full | Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool |
| title_fullStr | Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool |
| title_short | Measuring Mental Health Literacy: Development of the Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy Assessment Tool |
| title_sort | measuring mental health literacy development of the mental health awareness and advocacy assessment tool |
| url | https://journals.sfu.ca/jmde/index.php/jmde_1/article/view/671 |
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