The predictors of mental health literacy among adolescents students.

AIM: This study aimed to examine levels of mental health literacy (MHL) and associated factors among adolescents. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional, analytical study was conducted with a total of 650 students aged 11-18 years in three middle and three high schools. Data were collected using the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Literacy Scale and evaluated using descriptive statistics and regression analysis to determine whether age, gender, and grade are predictive factors of MHL. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants in the study was 16.8 ± 1.35 years, 55 % of the students were girls, and the mean MHL score was 3.96 ± 1.2, indicating moderate MHL. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the variables of age, gender, and grade explained 5.5 % of the variance in MHL score. When these variables were examined individually, gender and grade had no significant effect (p > 0.05), while older age was associated with higher MHL score (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that MHL improved with age. MHL promotion is important in mental health resilience. Collaboration between school nurses, school counselors, and psychiatric nurses to provide mental health educational interventions may help reduce stigma and increase help-seeking behaviors.

Evaluation of the Cancer Awareness Measure in Adolescents in Turkiye: A Methodological Study.

Purpose: Cancer awareness can help reduce the associated morbidity and mortality. There is no scale for the assessment of general cancer awareness in Turkiye. This study aimed to evaluate the cultural relevance and psychometric properties of the cancer awareness measure (CAM) for use in adolescents in the Turkish population. Methods: This methodological study included 400 students attending seven high schools in western Turkiye, recruited by convenience sampling. The CAM was translated into Turkish and assessed for content validity by expert panel opinion and content validity index (CVI). The Turkish CAM was administered online, and its reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficients, item-total and item-subscale correlation coefficients, and test-retest analysis. Results: The Turkish CAM had excellent content validity (scale CVI = 0.99). Cronbach's alpha for the entire scale was 0.72, and item-subscale correlation coefficients were 0.33-.75 (p < 0.001). Test-retest reliability was good, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.83 for the entire scale (p < 0.001). The students' mean score on the Turkish CAM was 45.60 ± 7.23 (on a scale of 11-77), indicating moderate cancer awareness. Conclusion: The Turkish CAM is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess cancer awareness in adolescents in Turkiye. Interventional studies should be performed to measure and increase cancer awareness and promote cancer prevention among young people.

Investigation in to psychometric properties of self stigma scale by seeking psychological help in adolescent students.

BACKGROUND: Stigmatization and help seeking are the one of the most important concepts of preventive interventions and mental health promotion in adolescent. METHODS: This study is in descriptive, correlational and methodological design. The sample of the study consisted of 250 volunteer students studying in a total of six schools. The Self Stigma Scale in Seeking Psychological Help was used as a data collection tool. Data were evaluated with content validity index based on expert opinion, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. FINDINGS: Factor loadings explained 52% of the total variance in the two sub-dimensions. The KMO value was determined as 0.76 and the sample was found to be sufficient. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the entire scale was determined as.74. The alpha values of the sub-dimensions were determined as 0.76 and 0.74, respectively. In both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, all factor loads are >0.30. In confirmatory factor analysis, all fit indices were found to be >0.80 and the RMSEA value was determined as 0.067. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study revealed that it is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to evaluate the level of self-stigma in seeking psychological help in adolescents. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: It is recommended that scale will be a guide in protective and preventive studies for researchers and school nurses working with students.

Validity and Reliability Study of Turkish Version of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Literacy Scale.

Mental health literacy is a concept to improve the skills of individuals to take responsibility in the field of mental health, directing their behavior, facilitating access to and obtaining information, understanding, evaluating, using and maintaining information. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the mental health literacy scale for children and adolescents. DESIGN: Methodological, and a cross sectional study. METHODS: The study was conducted with a total of 543 students between 13-20 years of age from one high school and two secondary schools in the city of Izmir in western Türkiye between September and November 2019. The mean age of children was 16.8±1.35. Adaptation method that includes, forward translation, blind back translation, comparison, and pilot testing of the pre-final version was applied. The data were collected with questions about the socio-demographic characteristics of the students and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Literacy scale consisting of five items. In evaluating the data, internal consistency, item-total score correlation, test-retest correlation coefficients were examined for the reliability analysis. For validity analysis: the content validity index (CVI) based on expert opinion was evaluated with the correlation coefficient for criterion validity. RESULTS: The content validity index for expert opinions is 1.00. The Cronbach Alpha internal consistency reliability coefficient (α) of the scale is .60. Item-total score correlation coefficients of the scale were determined between 0.16 and 0.78. The test-retest correlation coefficient and its time invariance were examined, and it was found to be 1.00, highly significant (p <0.01). CONCLUSION: Study was shown that the Turkish version of the Child and Adolescent MHL scale was a valid and reliable tool in the sample of Turkish children. IMPACT: Nurses can use this scale assessment and evaluating applied strategies.

Comparison of effects of training programs for final year nursing students in Turkey: differences in self-efficacy with regard to information literacy.

BACKGROUND: Information literate person are aware of where and how they can obtain the information they need. Little is known about student nurses information literacy skills in different education programs. OBJECTIVES: To find out how final year nursing students rated their own abilities to acquire new information. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: This study used comparative and descriptive cross-sectional surveys. Participants were final year students in two different programs, in two different universities in Turkey. METHODS: The study sample consisted of final year nursing students who received training in Classic Learning (N: 61) and Problem-Based Learning (N: 96). As an evaluation instrument for the perceptions of the students their own information literacy, a scale consisting of 28 questions with 7 Likert ratings for each was used (min: 28, max: 196). RESULTS: The return rates of the surveys were 96.7% in the school with classic training and 81.2% in the school with PBL. It was found that the average scores of the students were high, with a mean of 137±29 in the school where the classic training program was carried out, and 163±21 in the school where the training was PBL. A statistically significant difference was found by comparing the average scores of the two independent groups (t : -6.0; p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Students in both of the training programs rated themselves as high. However, PBL training had a stronger influence on the development of their self-perceptions regarding information literacy. We conclude that training programs should be reviewed, and new methods should be developed based on these concepts.

Assessment of goals in problem-based learning.

Assessing the learning goals set by faculty is an important part of problem-based learning (PBL). Students also develop individual and group goals during module tutorials. They choose learning activities and create a framework for their self-directed study in order to achieve these goals. This investigation analyzes perceptions of the depth of understanding that students acquire. The effects of setting learning goals by faculty and by students themselves are examined, and we explore differences within groups and within the different years in the program. Nursing students responded to a questionnaire indicating how well they thought they had understood new material, according to both the goals preset by the faculty and those developed by the students themselves. A five-point Likert scale was used for this. The findings indicate no significant difference between tutors' and students' evaluations of student level of understanding within the different years of the program. Students and tutors in all three years indicated that they achieved adequate or good understanding of learning goals. (Students: First year: 91.6%, second year: 76.5%, third year: 90.1%; Tutors: First year: 76.8%, second year: 65.7%, third year: 89.1%) These findings are useful for evaluation of PBL outcomes for curriculum committees. Based on these research results, our faculty curriculum committee has decided to give the students a list of faculty generated learning goals at the end of every curriculum module. The students then compare these with their own self-directed goals in feedback sessions with faculty members. These feedback sessions have been very popular with students.

Comparison of basic computer training strategies and their effects on the level of computer anxiety in Turkish nursing students.

The ameliorating influence of different teaching strategies on Turkish nursing students' computer-related anxiety was evaluated in this study. Research data were gathered from a Computer Anxiety Scale before the teaching strategies were put into practice on 134 undergraduate nursing students, and again afterward. Two teaching methods, participative and traditional, were used. Before training, only 64.2% of the participative method group had an e-mail address, and 14.9% had a computer at home. The other group was similar. After training, the participative method group scored significantly lower than did the traditional method group (P > .05). We conclude that nursing trainers should prefer participative teaching strategies to effectively reduce computer anxiety. Participative methods also have a positive effect on human and computer interaction.