NSG 7220 Week 3 Discussion SU • Online Nursing Essays

The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week based on the course competencies covered.

For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates’ initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.

Psychological Evidence and Application

In this assignment, we will discuss psychosocial evidence as it pertains to your topic. Everything we do in nursing should be supported by evidence. Whether we are looking to understand someone’s growth and social interactions or understand social patterns in society or a patient population, there is evidence (or sometimes theory) to support why people behave the way they do. Visit the South University Online Library and retrieve two peer-reviewed articles pertaining to psychosocial research and your topic of interest. Critique each article, highlighting the strengths and the weaknesses of each article. Interpret the statistical analysis and significance of results. Finally, analyze the feasibility of applying this evidence to your topic of interest in your current practicum setting. Both articles should support nursing standards and patient safety within your chosen topic.

The articles I retrieved from the University library search take two different approaches to the psychosocial aspect of adolescent mental health.  One resource explores the psychosocial causes and/or risk factors for developing mental health issues in adolescence and the other explores the effects of psychosocial treatments for adolescents who suffer from mental health disorders.  My proposed topic is to identify if making a change in the screening process will result in earlier diagnosis and treatment.  Incorporating psychosocial aspects does apply to my topic of interest.  The dynamic of family, family support, the social stigma of mental health as well as the influence of social media can all contribute to the acceptance of diagnosis and participating in treatment.

Article 1 – Understanding depression in adolescents: A dynamic psychosocial web of risk and protective factors.

Wassilis et al. (2017) focus their research on exploring the individual, familial, and social contexts of depression.  Their final conclusion is that a combination of factors, both individual and social can be used to screen for risk factors and protective mechanisms that can denote a risk for depression (Wassilis et al., 2017). Over 5,000 adolescents with a mean age of 14.4 were given an 18-page questionnaire to screen for depression risks that included the following measures of risk: exposure to family violence, parenting style, relationship with teachers, and aggression against peers and the following measures of protection: individual, parental support, school-school based.  Some of the statistical outcomes showed that certain psychosocial factors indicate a higher-than-normal risk for depression.  A moderate prediction strength was found for the following risk factors: physical abuse by parents, witnessing verbal spousal abuse, and authoritarian parenting and a high prediction strength was found in inconsistent parenting, emotional self-control, self-acceptance, and optimistic future review (Wassilis et al., 2017). The coefficient of determination of these items is R2=.42 to .49 which indicates a direct connection between these items and the risk of depression (Statistics How To, 2023).

Strengths of this study include a large sample size and a literature review.  The review explores important interrelated concepts of the study and my topic of interest.  The review includes studies on individual, parental and family, and school predictive factors.  The review of previous literature in these areas is a strength because the authors identify previous works and that substantiate psychosocial influences on the potential for depression (Wassilis et al., 2017).

Weaknesses for this study include only one information source, which was a questionnaire. According to Kishore et al. (2021) if questionnaires are not carefully constructed the may result in invalid and unreliable data  An additional weakness is that the participants in the study and the variables in personality of each could influence perceptions and truthfulness of self-reporting (Wassilis et al., 2017).  Exclusion criterion for participants was not identified.  This study did not indicate if those with a current diagnosis or under medical treatment, whether it be pharmacological or therapeutic was considered.

Article 2 – Evidence base update of psychosocial treatments for child and adolescent depression 

Weersing et al. (2017) reviewed current literature based on random control trials to shed light on the effectiveness of treatment methods for adolescents diagnosed with depression. Literature was divided by treatment quality as follows; established/level 1, probably efficacious/level 2, possibly efficacious/level 3, experimental/level 4, questionable treatment/level 5.  Treatments were categorized as Cognitive Based Therapy (CBT), behavior, or IPT, and family-based and again categorized by modality, which included group, individual, technology and bibliotherapy.  Results most trials utilized CBT with just a few, two each, in IPT and family therapy.

Strengths of this study include specific inclusion criterion for articles selected to be part of the review as well as elimination criterion for those interventions, such as medication studies, that may skew results specific to psychosocial interventions.  Additionally, the analysis aimed to review research not previously included in prior literature reviews.

Weaknesses include the review did not limit the articles to adolescents but did include a review of trials in children.  For this study children were identified as 13 and younger, while adolescents are 13-18 (Wassilis et al., 2017).

References

Kishore, K., Jaswal, V., Kulkarni, V., & De, D. (2021). Practical guidelines to develop and evaluate a questionnaire. Indian Dermatology Online Journal, 12(2), 266-275. https://doi.org/10.4103/idoj.IDOJ_674_20

Statistics How To. (2023). Coefficient of determination (R Squared): definition, calculation. https://www.statisticshowto.com/probability-and-statistics/coefficient-of-determination-r-squared/

Wassilis, K., Artz, S., & White, J. (2017). Understanding depression in adolescents: A dynamic psychosocial web of risk and protective factors. Child Youth Care Forum, 46, 721-743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-017-9404-3

Weersing, V. R., Jeffreys, M., Do, M. T., Schwartz, K. T., & Bolano, C. (2017). Evidence base update of psychosocial treatments for child and adolescent depression. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 46(1), 11-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1220310