Introduction Depressive disorder is a major health issue among adolescents [ 1 ]. Methods Overview This study is part of a wider project that aims to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of MyTeen, an SMS text messaging intervention program that promotes parental competence and mental health literacy for parents of adolescents. Data Collection Each focus group lasted between 60 and 90 min and was conducted by 2 trained moderators experienced in conducting focus groups. Results Participants Of the 45 participants, 27 were mothers, 7 were fathers, 3 were grandparents, and 8 identified as others siblings and relatives.
Participants acknowledged that for a very long time, people did not talk openly about mental health issues and for a number of reasons such as concerns over being judged or treated differently, burden to the family, and denial: I think the biggest problem is that people are afraid to admit it. Parents noted that these issues all had an impact on adolescent well-being: Social media has a huge impact on their wellbeing.
Changes in Family Communication Pattern All participants agreed that family communication pattern has changed significantly.
Challenge With Recognizing and Talking About Mental Health A number of our participants noted that they did not know how to best respond to and assist their adolescents if they were experiencing problems. Participants also noted that their adolescents did not want to talk to them about mental health issues: Even once you notice that something is up with your child, the challenge then is to open that channel of communication with them.
Lack of Mental Health Support From Schools When asked about the level of support in schools and in their community, many of our participants were dissatisfied. Lower decile rating indicates higher proportion of students from low socioeconomic communities: My school are decile one and two so we get nothing. One parent spoke about her experience and disappointment with the school: She was going downhill in all of her mahi work and all of that.
Lack of Mental Health Services for Adolescents Apart from schools, parents were only able to name 1 or 2 services that they knew of for supporting youth. Only 2 of our participants knew about other supportive services eg, Te Kawa te Rangatahi ; these participants knew about this as they worked in social services: I had a problem with my teenagers and what I did was I went to organisation after organisation until I got help from them. Lack of Services for Parents Even less was known about services available to parents.
Recommendation for Youth and Parent Services Overall, participants expressed a need for more accessible services for both adolescent and parents: Get the information out there, just flood with information about feelings and emotions and the normality of them. Text Messaging Parenting Program Following discussion on accessing and increasing support, participants were reminded about the wider project to develop and evaluate the SMS text messaging program that promotes parental competence and mental health literacy for parents of adolescents.
A majority of participants mentioned that the text messages should be fun to read, including the use of emoji and images: Keep it simple with the words. This was consistent across focus groups: Where to find information, where to get help. Supportive little notes for parents. A small number of parents mentioned the importance of including spirituality and cultural relevance in the text messages: Reminding us the connection with the land, with our forest, or with our sea.
Table 1 Sample text messages from MyTeen. Domains Sample text message Establish and maintain a good relationship with your teenager Show your teen love and affection, talk with them and have fun with them! Be involved and support increasing autonomy Spend quality time together.
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Have a meal, take a walk, play a game, or make a list of things to do together. Minimize conflict in the home Minimise conflict in the home and remember you are the role model for your teen! Encourage good health habits Sleep is really important for your teen! Take a break, and get support for yourself too. Open in a separate window. Limitations There are limitations in our study. Conclusions Despite the limitations, our study reinstates the need for accessible and family-friendly parenting outreach and services.
Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the ongoing commitment of the project staff and participants taking part in the study. Abbreviations mHealth mobile health. Footnotes Contributed by Authors' Contributions: JTWC is the primary investigator of this study and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. References 1. Adolescent depression, adult mental health and psychosocial outcomes at 30 and 35 years.
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We excluded those mothers from the final analysis for the corresponding outcome. On average, mothers made safe decisions i. Adolescents made safe decisions on To this end, we conducted correlation analyses between the similarity value of the neural patterns and parental monitoring. Figure 3. Parental monitoring was mean-centered. Figure 4. To further investigate these relationships, we conducted mediation analyses using the mediation toolbox 5. Figure 5.