Posted
October, 2007
Trajectories
of YSR Scores, Their Predictors, and Their Correlates
Among American Indian Youths
American
Indian Youths are often reported to have high rates of mental
health problems. However, not all Indian youths have significant
problems, and problem levels may manifest important developmental
variations and correlates. Variations in trajectories of problems
and the predictors and correlates of different trajectories
were identified by researchers using data from the American
Indian Multisector Help Inquiry (Stiffman, Alexander-Eitzman,
Silmere, Osborne, & Browne, 2007). Samples of 12- to 19-year-old
Indian youths living on a reservation or in an urban area
were asked to complete the YSR four times at 1-year intervals.
Those who completed the YSR at Time 1 and at least one subsequent
time were included in trajectory analyses that identified
the following groups on the basis of their Total Problems
scores: (a) Very High Chronic (N = 5),
whose scores were very high at Time 1 and remained very high;
(b) High Improving (N = 30), whose
scores were high at Time 1 but declined so much that they
approximated the mean scores of the lowest group by the 3rd
and 4th assessments; (c) High Chronic (N
= 33), whose scores were high at Time 1 and remained high;
(d) Low Stable (N = 142), whose
scores were low at Time 1 and remained at about the same level
thereafter; and (e) Low Improving (N = 175),
whose low initial scores became still lower thereafter.Because
the Very High Chronic group included only 5 youths, the authors
focused on differences between the High Chronic group and
the High Improving group that might illuminate the improvements
in the latter group. The High Improving group actually had
significantly higher Total Problem scores (mean = 81.8) at
Time 1 than the High Chronic group (mean = 72.2). At Time
1, the biggest difference was that 77% of the High Improving
group lived on the reservation vs. 40% of the High Chronic
group. The High Improving group also reported significantly
more family satisfaction and significantly fewer school problems
than the high Chronic group at Time 1. Over the assessment
period, the High Improving group reported significantly less
substance use and fewer alcohol symptoms, drug abuse symptoms,
and suicidal thoughts than the High Chronic group. By the
final assessment, the High Improving group reported significantly
fewer family problems, parent mental health problems, substance-using
peers, neighborhood problems, and recent stressors.The differences
in trajectories of YSR Total Problem scores were thus significantly
associated with important initial differences between the
groups (reservation vs. urban residence; family satisfaction,
school problems) and with subsequent improvements in several
areas (substance use, suicidal thoughts, family problems,
parent mental health, peer and neighborhood problems, stressors).
Although controlled tests of the effects of reservation vs.
urban living may not be feasible, the authors suggest that
multiple improvements that occurred in reservation living
conditions during the assessment period could have helped
the High Improving group, 91% of whom lived on the reservation
by the final assessment, compared to 41% of the High Chronic
group.
Reference:
Stiffman, A.R., Alexander-Eitzman, B., Silmere, H., Osborne,
V., & Brown, E. (2007). From early to late adolescence:
American Indian youths' behavioral trajectories and their
major influences. Journal of the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46, 849-858.
