Adapting culturally appropriate mental health screening tools for use among conflict-affected and other vulnerable adolescents in Nigeria
Abstract
<jats:sec id="S2054425119000086_sec_a1"><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>The
Boko Haram insurgency has brought turmoil and instability to Nigeria, generating a
large number of internally displaced people and adding to the country's 17.5 million
orphans and vulnerable children. Recently, steps have been taken to improve the mental
healthcare infrastructure in Nigeria, including revamping national policies and initiating
training of primary care providers in mental healthcare. In order for these efforts
to succeed, they require means for community-based detection and linkage to care.
A major gap preventing such efforts is the shortage of culturally appropriate, valid
screening tools for identifying emotional and behavioral disorders among adolescents.
In particular, studies have not conducted simultaneous validation of screening tools
in multiple languages, to support screening and detection efforts in linguistically
diverse populations. We aim to culturally adapt screening tools for emotional and
behavioral disorders for use among adolescents in Nigeria, in order to facilitate
future validation studies.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S2054425119000086_sec_a2"
sec-type="methods"><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We used a rigorous mixed-method
process to culturally adapt the Depression Self Rating Scale, Child PTSD Symptom Scale,
and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale. We employed expert translations, focus
group discussions (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 24), and piloting with cognitive
interviewing (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 24) to achieve semantic, content, technical,
and criterion equivalence of screening tool items.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S2054425119000086_sec_a3"
sec-type="results"><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>We identified and adapted
items that were conceptually difficult for adolescents to understand, conceptually
non-equivalent across languages, considered unacceptable to discuss, or stigmatizing.
Findings regarding problematic items largely align with existing literature regarding
cross-cultural adaptation.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S2054425119000086_sec_a4"
sec-type="conclusion"><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Culturally adapting
screening tools represents a vital first step toward improving community case detection.</jats:p></jats:sec>
Type
Journal articleSubject
Science & TechnologyLife Sciences & Biomedicine
Psychiatry
Behavioral disorders
cultural adaptation
depression
PTSD
Nigeria
SELF-REPORTING QUESTIONNAIRE
PRIMARY-CARE SERVICE
PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY
RATING SCALE
DEPRESSION
CHILD
DISORDERS
VALIDATION
SYMPTOMS
VALIDITY
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19066Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1017/gmh.2019.8Publication Info
Kaiser, BN; Ticao, C; Anoje, C; Minto, J; Boglosa, J; & Kohrt, BA (2019). Adapting culturally appropriate mental health screening tools for use among conflict-affected
and other vulnerable adolescents in Nigeria. Global Mental Health, 6. 10.1017/gmh.2019.8. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19066.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Brandon A. Kohrt
Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Brandon Kohrt is a medical anthropologist and psychiatrist who completed his MD-PhD
at Emory University in 2009. He is currently Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Global
Health, and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. Dr. Kohrt has worked in Nepal
since 1996 researching and aiding victims of war including child soldiers. Since 2006
has worked with Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal. Dr. Kohrt has
been a consultant to The Carter Center Mental Health Program Liberia Init

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