Network Influence on Af.Amer. Adolescents MH Service Use

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DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): This dissertation research will examine how African-American adolescent males with depression seek help. It will draw upon concepts from the Network-Episode Model (Pescosolido, 1991) to explore how their social networks might influence their response to this condition. African-American adolescent males, particularly those in urban settings, may be at higher risk for depression (Durant, Getts, Cadenhead, et al., 1995), yet many are not receiving care. We need to explore why. We do know that African-Americans in general are more likely to use informal supports and social agencies than mental health facilities, and we do know that African-American adolescent males are more often found in juvenile justice systems where their mental health needs may go unaddressed. Whatever the reasons, this is a population with serious unmet needs. To better help them, we need to understand their perceptions of their problems, the solutions available to them, their existing supports, and their attitudes and behaviors about formal and informal help seeking. This cross-sectional, exploratory/descriptive study will combine quantitative methods and qualitative interviews to examine the role that social networks play in facilitating use or non-use of formal and informal mental health care among sixty, low-income, depressed African-American males, 14-18 years old. These subjects will be recruited from four outpatient mental health settings ("in-treatment" sample) and a program that assists high-risk youth ("not-in-treatment" sample) in the Pittsburgh community. This study aims to determine: (1) how the social networks influence their help-seeking, what social network characteristics differentiate depressed, African-American adolescent males who are in formal mental health treatment from those not in treatment, and what demographic and other background characteristics differentiate these two groups; and (2) to identify the processes used by depressed African American adolescent males that constitute pathways to formal and/or informal care. This study is unique in its examination of how the social networks of these African-American youths impact their help-seeking behaviors and pathways into formal or informal care. This study represents a first step in the Investigator's long-term career goal of developing outreach and engagement strategies for depressed, African-American adolescent males.