Abstract
PurposeWe sought to examine whether underage adolescents displaying symptoms for a mental illness (i.e., an eating disorder) would be willing to obtain parental consent to participate in a study to test the efficacy of an evidence-based mobile mental health intervention targeting teens with eating disorders. MethodsThe participants (n = 366) were 15 to 17 year-old English-speakers who post or follow social media accounts on Instagram that emphasize being thin as important or attractive. The participants were administered a survey through Qualtrics to assess eating disorder pathology, interest in trying an evidence-based mobile mental-health intervention, and comfort level with obtaining parental consent to partake in a research study about such an intervention. ResultsAbout 85% of participants met clinical or subclinical criteria for an eating disorder; however, only 12% had received a treatment within the past six months. While 83% of participants were interested in trying a mobile health interventions app, only 35% indicated willingness to obtain parental consent to participate in a research study. The primary reasons presented for unwillingness to obtain consent included importance of retaining privacy and feeling that parents lack awareness or understanding about mental health issues. ConclusionsWhile barriers exist to obtaining treatment for eating disorders, a mobile intervention app may close some of these gaps. Many underage participants indicated interest in obtaining such treatment, yet only a third were willing to obtain parental consent. Future studies should investigate how to reduce these barriers to obtaining parental consent to facilitate teen access to research and mobile mental health treatment.
Highlights
Digital interventions that are designed to achieve health objectives have been found to successfully involve adolescents in their own health care and expand health education in ways that advance health knowledge, behavior change, and improve medication adherence and disease management (Malbon and Romo, 2013; Militello et al, 2012; Seko et al, 2014)
Similar to depression and anxiety, eating disorders (EDs) are serious mental illnesses associated with high comorbidity and mortality, and poor quality of life (Klump et al, 2009)
Median Eating Disorders Quality of Life questionnaire (EDQOL) was approximately 1.4, which is similar to scores from participants in the study that validated the EDQOL (Engel et al, 2006)
Summary
Digital interventions that are designed to achieve health objectives (i.e., mHealth) have been found to successfully involve adolescents in their own health care and expand health education in ways that advance health knowledge, behavior change, and improve medication adherence and disease management (Malbon and Romo, 2013; Militello et al, 2012; Seko et al, 2014). Emerging research supports the use of digital interventions to address serious mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety, among both adults and adolescents (Ebert et al, 2015; Hollis et al, 2017; Kazdin, 2019; Rooksby et al, 2015). Digital interventions have demonstrated initial efficacy for helping adults with EDs (Fitzsimmons-Craft et al, 2019; Saekow et al, 2015) and Internetdelivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) has shown promise in increasing the availability of effective psychological treatments for adolescents with psychiatric and somatic conditions, including those experiencing overeating and ED symptoms (Vigerland et al, 2016). There is a need for further exploration of the value of these tools among underage adolescents with EDs, which are highly prevalent, with roughly 13% of adolescents experiencing clinical and subclinical EDs (Stice et al, 2013; Swanson et al, 2011) and a peak age of onset during the teenage years (Volpe et al, 2016)
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