Issue link: https://blog.providence.org/i/1009460
Hopelab & Well Being Trust 27 Open-ended Responses The survey included five open-ended questions in which we invited respondents to describe, in their own words, their experiences and how they felt about them. These open-ended questions yielded a substantial amount of qualitative data and many valuable insights. In total, we received more than 2,200 personal responses to these questions, ranging from approximately 400 to 600 responses per open-ended question. The responses were read and hand-coded to look for patterns and themes. All statistical findings presented in the report are from the full quantitative sample, but insights gained from the review of open-ended responses are included in the text, and are always specified as emerging from those qualitative responses. Throughout the report, a selection of verbatim quotes from those open-ended questions are included. These quotes have been lightly edited to correct misspellings, punctuation, capitalization, and typos. Scale for Assessing Depressive Symptoms The survey employed a previously validated scale for assessing depressive symptoms - The Patient Health Questionnaire Depression Scale (PHQ-8). The PHQ-9 (with an additional question about suicide that was omitted from this survey) has been validated for use among adolescents, and the PHQ-8 has been validated among the general population as a measure of current depression. 11 In accordance with the scale protocol, responses were coded numerically and summed, so that each respondent was given a total score between 0 and 24 points. (Three respondents who were missing data on scale items were excluded from these analyses.) The scale identifies cut-points of levels of depressive symptoms: none (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), moderately severe (15-19), and severe (20-24). The scale protocol indicates that a score of 10 or greater is considered a "yellow flag" (i.e., drawing attention to a possible clinically significant condition 11 Richardson, L. P., McCauley, E., Grossman, D.C., McCarty, C., Richards, J., Russo, J. E., Rockhill, C., & Katon, W. (2010). "Evaluation of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for detecting major depression among adolescents." Pediatrics, 126(6):1117-1123. doi:10.1542/peds.2010-0852; Allgaier, A., Pietsch, K., Fruhe, B., Sigl-Glockner, J., & Schulte-Korne, G. (2012). "Screening for depression in adolescents: Validity of the patient health questionnaire in pediatric care." Depression and Anxiety, 29, 906-913. DOI 10.1002/da.21971; Kroenke, op cit. Methodology