Formative evaluation: Developing measures for online family mental health recovery education.

Families facing mental health challenges have very limited access to ongoing support. A formative evaluation of Families Healing Together (FHT), a new online family mental health recovery program was conducted using five waves (N=108) of data. Exploratory factor analysis of the measures identified as important to the program theory found strong reliability evidence (α=.77-.86) for 6 constructs. A poor response rate (25%) did not allow for valid pre and postoutcome evaluation, however we did have enough information to assess the psychometric properties of the new measures. The new evaluation tool accounted for 34% of the variance in Capacity to Support Family Member, and nearly 50% of the variance in Hopefulness toward Recovery. New programs without existing measures require formative evaluation strategies that accurately describe program activities in order to develop outcome measures sensitive to novel aspects of program components. Most outcome measures are developed for individuals with mental health challenges not family members. These new measures may be beneficial to effectively evaluate programs that promote family recovery and wellness.

The OPTIONS model of sexual risk assessment for adolescents.

Typically, clinical evaluations of adolescents' sexual risk is based on inquiring about past sexual activity, which is limited by not including an adolescent's cognitive decision making regarding their past sexual decisions. This study describes the novel OPTIONS framework for assessing adolescent sexual risk including three general categories of risk (e.g., primary, secondary, and tertiary risk), which is designed to overcome the limitation of action-based assessment of risk and improve practitioners' ability to assess the levels of sexual risk. A convenience sample of 201 older adolescents (18-19 years of age) completed an online version of the Relationship Options Survey (ROS), designed to measure the OPTIONS sexual risk assessment. Bivariate correlation among the subscales functioned in the hypothesized manner, with all correlations being statistically significant. Using the OPTIONS model, 22.4% participants were classified as high risk primary, 7.0% participants were classified as high risk secondary, and 27.4% participants were classified as high risk tertiary. The study provided preliminary evidence for OPTIONS model of sexual assessment, which provides a more tailored evaluation by including cognitive decisions regarding an adolescent's sexual actions.