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Focusing a realist evaluation of peer support for paediatric mental health

Dean M Thompson1, Mark Bernard2, Bob Maxfield2

  • 1Institute of Applied Health Research, Murray Learning Centre, University of Birmingham, Room 239, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. d.m.thompson@bham.ac.uk.

Discover Mental Health
|October 20, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Developing a program theory for children's mental health peer support is crucial. This research identifies key outcomes like hope and resilience, driven by mechanisms such as validation and empowerment, to improve youth mental health services.

Area of Science:

  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health
  • Psychosocial Interventions
  • Realist Research Methodology

Background:

  • Mental health issues are a significant and growing global burden for children.
  • Peer support interventions leverage lived experience but research predominantly focuses on adults.
  • A knowledge gap exists regarding the effectiveness of peer support for diverse children and contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To construct an initial program theory for children's peer support services.
  • To guide realist evaluations of how these services function in different settings.
  • To understand the nuanced mechanisms and outcomes of youth peer support.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized realist research principles for a complex intervention evaluation.
  • Conducted a survey and 10 semi-structured realist interviews with service providers.
  • Employed realist analysis to develop context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs).

Main Results:

  • An initial program theory for children's mental health peer support was developed.
  • Identified 12 context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs).
  • Key outcomes included hope, service engagement, wellbeing, resilience, and confidence, driven by mechanisms like validation, empowerment, and stigma reduction.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides a foundational program theory for youth mental health peer support.
  • Highlights the need for nuanced realist research to understand intervention complexities.
  • Informs the design of future evaluations to identify effective peer support components for specific youth populations and circumstances.
Abstract

Keywords:
InterviewsPaediatric mental healthPeer supportRealist evaluation

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