ArticleBMC psychology2023
Adolescent peer support for mental health problems: evaluation of the validity and reliability of the Mental Health Support Scale for Adolescents.
Article in BMC psychology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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
5 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental health literacy and stigma among culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents in Australia: a comparative study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- The Role of Optimism-Pessimism in the Relationship Between Perceived Social Support and Developmental Problem Areas Among Adolescents in Türkiye.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- The influence of physical activity on the mental health of high school students: the chain mediating effects of social support and self-esteem.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Adolescent mental health utilization, virtual care, and community support: evidence from 2019 to 2022.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Mental health literacy among older adults in Shanghai: a descriptive qualitative study.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe Mental Health Support Scale for Adolescents (MHSSA) is a criterion-referenced measure of adolescents' supportive intentions towards peers with mental health problems, which was developed for use in evaluations of adolescent mental health interventions, such as the teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) program. The present study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the MHSSA.
methodsA sample of 3092 school students (Mean ± SD: 15.9 ± 0.4 years old) and 65 tMHFA Instructors (the adult group with known expertise in tMHFA) completed the 12 items of the MHSSA. A sub-sample of 1201 students repeated the scale after a 3-4-week interval. Item concordance rates with the tMHFA Action Plan across helpful and harmful intentions scales were calculated. Scale reliabilities were assessed using agreement coefficients from a single test administration and test-retest reliability measured by intraclass correlation coefficients. The mean differences of MHSSA scores of students and Instructors were compared using independent samples t-tests, while convergent validity was tested via correlations of the scale with validated measures of confidence in providing help, social distance and personal stigma.
resultsThe average score of Instructors was significantly higher than that of students. The scale was positively associated with confidence in providing help, whilst negatively associated with social distance and dimensions of personal stigma. All scales of MHSSA had high agreement coefficients (all > 0.80) and fair to good test-retest reliability over 3-4 weeks.
conclusionsThe MHSSA shows evidence of validity and reliability for use among adolescents for evaluating the quality of intentions to help peers with mental health problems.
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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.