Developing an innovative standardised image-based measure of adolescent mental health

我们了解人们心理健康状况的主要方式是通过书面调查问卷。这意味着我们听不到某些群体的声音，比如那些有读写能力或教育需求的人，神经分化的人，以及那些把英语作为额外语言的人。这些问卷通常是针对白人人群开发的，这意味着它们可能不太适合黑人和少数民族群体。基于图像的测量方法可以解决其中的一些问题。这些措施在提问时使用图像来传达信息，让人们使用图像来回答，或者使用图像来传达信息和回答。一个例子是使用滑动刻度在不同天气的动态图像之间进行选择，以表示不同的情绪状态。目前还没有广泛使用的基于图像的青少年心理健康问卷。我们的目标是增加心理健康问卷的包容性。我们将为8至18岁的年轻人开发一份基于数字图像的问卷。我们的项目分为三个阶段。我们将查看现有的基于图像的心理健康问卷，以便我们有例子来启动下一阶段的对话。我们将与8至10名有精神健康困难生活经历的年轻人组成的不同群体合作。他们将是共同研究人员，这意味着他们将领导并参与这项研究。在测试和完善原型之前，我们将在6个研讨会上共同开发基于图像的问卷的内容和设计。我们将为共同研究人员提供培训和持续支持。从一开始，我们就会讨论他们参与的目标，他们希望如何参与，以及任何支持需求。在这一阶段的开始，我们将与年轻人、研究人员和从业人员进行交谈，以了解他们希望从基于图像的问卷中得到什么。在共同开发期间，我们将再次与他们交谈，听取他们对问卷的反馈。问卷完成后，我们将与12至15名年轻人交谈，听取他们对问卷的反馈。我们还会要求他们完成问卷，一边做一边大声思考，这样我们就能详细了解他们是如何解释问卷的，以及是什么驱动了他们的回答。主要产出将是问卷的一个版本，可以用于一个更大的研究，称为青少年健康研究，以便它可以得到充分的测试。调查问卷和我们的研究材料将免费提供，以便其他人可以使用它并重复研究，为其他主题开发类似的调查问卷。我们的目标是让年轻人有能力领导研究。共同研究人员的参与将为那些在研究事业上遇到额外障碍的群体的年轻人提供一个获得研究经验的机会。我们的项目是基于我们在患者和公众参与方面的丰富经验来设计的，以确保年轻人主导研究的决策和实施。我们还将与一名年轻的同行研究员合作，他将接受培训并得到支持，参与项目的所有阶段和决策。这个项目将意味着在未来，我们将能够更好地了解所有年轻人的心理健康，包括那些在研究中很少听到声音的群体。

The main way we find out about people's mental health is through written questionnaires. This means we do not hear the voices of certain groups, such as those with literacy or educational needs, neurodivergent people, and those with English as an additional language. These questionnaires have often been developed with White populations, meaning they may be less appropriate for people from Black and minoritized ethnic groups.Image-based measures may address some of these problems. These measures use images to convey information when asking questions, let people respond using images, or use images both to convey information and for responses. One example could be using a sliding scale to select between dynamic images of different weathers to represent different emotional states. There is no widely used image-based questionnaire for adolescent mental health.Our aim is to increase the inclusivity of mental health questionnaires. We will develop a digital image-based questionnaire for young people 8 to 18 years. There are 3 stages to our project.1. We will look at existing image-based mental health questionnaires, so that we have examples to start conversations in the next stage.2. We will work with a diverse group of 8 to 10 young people with lived experience of mental health difficulties. They will be co-researchers, meaning they will lead the research and take part in it. Over 6 workshops, we will co-develop the content and design of the image-based questionnaire, before testing and refining a prototype. We will provide training and ongoing support for the co-researchers. From the outset, we will discuss their goals of being involved, how they would like to be involved, and any support needs.At the start of this stage, we will speak to groups of young people, researchers, and practitioners to understand what they would like from an image-based questionnaire. We will speak to them again during co-development for their feedback on the questionnaire.3. We will speak to 12 to 15 young people to hear their feedback on the questionnaire when it is nearly finished. We will also ask them to complete it, thinking aloud as they do so we can understand in detail how they interpret the questionnaire and what drives their responses.The main output will be a version of the questionnaire that can be used in a larger study, called the Adolescent Health Study, so that it can be fully tested. The questionnaire and our research materials will be freely available so other people can use it and repeat the study to develop similar questionnaires for other topics.We aim to empower young people to be able to lead the research. The involvement of co-researchers will provide an opportunity to gain research experience for young people from groups that experience additional barriers to research careers. Our project has been designed based on our rich experience of patient and public involvement to ensure young people lead the decisions and conduct of the research. We will also work with a young person peer researcher who will be trained and supported to be involved in all stages and decisions of the project. This project will mean that in the future, we will be better able to understand the mental health of all young people, including those from groups who voice is seldom heard in research.