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Knowledge, Attitudes, Social Desirability, and Organizational Characteristics in Youth Mental Health Services

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Abstract

This project investigated the extent to which knowledge of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and organizational characteristics predicted attitudes toward EBPs, while controlling for social desirability and organization membership. Participants were 167 public sector youth practitioners. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine which factors significantly predicted EBP attitudes. Findings suggested that social desirability, organization membership, and various organizational characteristics predicted EBP attitudes. Results are discussed as they relate to the importance of including social desirability in future research and identifying different factors that influence EBP attitudes across various organizations.

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Notes

  1. From this point forward, EBP-related constructs will refer to evidence-based treatment practices, rather than evidence-based assessment strategies.

  2. In Hawaii’s public sector system, therapists are not required to have a license if they are supervised by a licensed mental health professional. In addition, the difference between licensed and unlicensed therapists on EBP attitudes was not significant (F(1, 164) = 2.216, p = 0.139).

  3. A multilevel regression analysis was considered but decided against. While the participants were part of the same larger organizations that set the guidelines for which they work (e.g., CAMHD and DOE), they each came from various agencies or schools nested within those departments. The sample size of each agency or school was between 1 and 15, which is too small to conduct a multilevel model.

  4. The use of the word “predictor” was chosen due to the conventional use of this term in multiple regression analyses. It should be noted that the use of “predictor” refers to the independent variables of this cross-sectional study.

  5. A moderation analysis was conducted by creating interaction terms between the dummy coded variable of organization membership and the predictor variables. Each interaction was checked one by one and found to be non-significant in predicting the dependent variable. Thus, none of the interaction terms were retained in the main analyses.

  6. Supplemental analyses were conducted with the original MPAS instead of the Aggregated EBP Attitudes score. A majority of the findings were maintained (i.e., variables that significantly predicted positive EBP attitudes included organizational membership and stress and the variables that approached significance included social desirability and cohesion).

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  1. University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2530 Dole Street, Sakamaki Hall C400, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Sonia C. Izmirian MA & Brad J. Nakamura PhD

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Izmirian, S.C., Nakamura, B.J. Knowledge, Attitudes, Social Desirability, and Organizational Characteristics in Youth Mental Health Services. J Behav Health Serv Res 43, 630–647 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-015-9491-6

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