ArticleBMC public health2022
A comparison of peer change agent selection methods: Evidence from a high-school based suicide preventive intervention.
Article in BMC public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Suicide Prevention Programmes Among Adolescents and Sociocultural Adaptation of Programmes: A Systematic Review.International journal of mental health nursing · 2025Pooled it
- Educational agents and institutions called into action in suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Optimizing peer-led health interventions: A social network analysis approach for identifying influential fishermen in Malawi.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Engagement as a mechanism of action in collaborative learning health systems.Learning health systems · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPeer-led interventions for adolescents are effective at accelerating behavioral change. The Sources of Strength suicide preventive program trains student peer change agents (peer leaders) in secondary schools to deliver prevention messaging and conduct activities that increase mental health coping mechanisms. The program currently has school staff select peer leaders. This study examined potential for more efficient program diffusion if peer leaders had been chosen under network-informed selection methods.
methodsBaseline assessments were collected from 5,746 students at 20 schools. Of these, 429 were selected by adults as peer leaders who delivered intervention content through the school year. We created theoretical alternate peer leader sets based on social network characteristics: opinion leadership, centrality metrics, and key players. Because these sets were theoretical, we examined the concordance of these sets with the actual adult-selected peer leaders sets and correlated this metric with diffusion of intervention modalities (i.e., presentation, media, communication, activity) after the first year.
resultsThe sets of adult-selected peer leaders were 13.3%-22.7% similar to theoretical sets chosen by other sociometric methods. The use of friendship network metrics produced peer leader sets that were more white and younger than the general student population; the Key Players method produced more representative peer leader sets. Peer opinion leaders were older and more white than the general population. Schools whose selected peer leaders had higher overlap with theoretical ones had greater diffusion of intervention media and peer communication.
conclusionsThe use of network information in school-based peer-led interventions can help create more systematized peer leader selection processes. To reach at-risk students, delivery of an indirect message, such as through a poster or video, may be required. A hybrid approach where a combination of visible, respected opinion leaders, along with strategically-placed key players within the network, may provide the greatest potential for intervention diffusion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.