Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Ψυχική Υγεία Παιδιών και ΕφήβωνLibrary of the School of Health Sciences
Author:
Konstantopoulou Sofia
Supervisors info:
Ευανθία Σακελλάρη, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Δημόσιας και Κοινοτικής Υγείας, Σχολή Δημόσιας Υγείας, Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Αττικής
Γεράσιμος Κολαΐτης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Στυλιανός Χριστογιώργος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Στάθμιση «Κλίμακας Αποτελεσματικότητας/ Ενδυνάμωσης των Νέων - Ψυχική υγεία»
Translated title:
Validation of the Youth Efficacy/Empowerment Scale – Mental Health
Summary:
Background: Empowerment, a multi-level concept, includes active involvement, choice and increased knowledge about health care. It allows patients to take control of their condition, to develop self-management skills, to shape their own treatment and to change service systems. Given the need for promoting empowerment and guiding policy makers and practitioners worldwide, the construction and the validation of appropriate questionnaires are viewed as an imperative goal. The “Youth Efficacy/ Empowerment Scale – Mental health” (YES-MH) is the only measure designed to evaluate empowerment from the perspective of young service users who themselves experience mental health difficulties.
Objective: The present study aimed at translating and examining the psychometric properties of the YES-MH among youth clinical population in Greece. Secondary, it focused on the investigation of the relationship between adolescents’ empowerment and some socio-demographic variables.
Method: Data collection was carried out in mental health settings of Athens, the period from November 2018 to April 2019. A sample of 150 participants (66 boys and 84 girls) aged 12 to 17 years completed the YES-MH, along with other self-report questionnaires. Its rendering to the Greek language was performed in accordance to international standards, following the process of forward and backward translation. Reliability was calculated using Cronbach’ alpha coefficient. Analysis was conducted by the method of Principal Components to assess the factor structure of the YES-MH. Validity was tested by comparing the YES-MH with the “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” (SDQ) and the “Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale” (WEMWBS), through the Pearson (r) coefficient.
Results: The scale had good internal consistency with an overall Cronbach’ alpha at 0.88. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution (self – services – system) that agrees with the original version of the instrument and explains the 51.9 % of the total variance. Good construct validation indexed the significant degree of positive correlation among the dimensions of the scale. Certifying the convergent validation, it was correlated significantly with the SDQ (r=-0.36), except for the subscale “Conduct Problems”. Moreover, statistical analyses showed a positive association between levels of empowerment and mental well-being (r=0.60). Regarding gender, significant differences were noticed at the factor “self” with girls scoring lower than boys. In addition, younger respondents reported higher empowerment than the older ones. Finally, empowerment was related to family economic status only at the self level, whereas not to the variable of parental educational attainment.
Conclusions: The results of the current study provided initial evidence to support a valid and reliable tool for measuring empowerment in Greek youth with mental health issues. Practical and clinical implications of these findings as well as limitations and ideas for future research were discussed. The utility of the YES-MH lies in the offer of a scale for benchmarking and improvement within mental health interventions and services.
Main subject category:
Health Sciences
Keywords:
Empowerment scale, Validation, Young people, Mental health, Greece
Number of references:
193
