Adolescent Self-Screening for Mental Health Problems; Demonstration of an Internet-Based Approach

To examine the prevalence of positive screening scores, construct validity, and opportunities for follow-up in a large sample of adolescents who chose to fill out the Pediatric Symptom Checklist-Youth Form (PSC-Y) through the Mental Health America (MHA) Web site.

MHA sent researchers a deidentified data set of all PSC-Y data submitted to MHA from May 15, 2015 to May 14, 2016. The analytic data set contained 29,886 PSC-Y forms from youth aged 11 to 17 years who sought out the Web site and chose to fill out the PSC-Y anonymously and independently online. The prevalence of impairment on the PSC-Y was calculated overall and for various subgroups. Next steps reported by at-risk youth were also examined.

Of all respondents, 77.4% of youth screened positive on the PSC-Y. Significant associations between positive screening and self-ratings of a need for help, previous history of mental health treatment, and low family income provided construct validation for the online PSC-Y. Almost two-thirds of positively screened youth stated that they planned to get some kind of help in the future and 10% indicated that they planned to seek professional treatment.

The large number of respondents suggested that many adolescents use the Internet to learn about mental health and that a very high percentage of them might be at risk. The availability of brief, free Internet-based psychosocial screens might offer a viable way to identify at-risk youth and provide them with pathways to additional support and/or treatment.