Objective Elevated rates of psychopathology are noted among severely obese youth presenting for weight loss surgery. The role of mental health providers in this population is not well defined, and the selection of candidates is often the result of clinical judgment alone. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively evaluate psychiatric symptoms among a large sample of adolescents receiving laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) by: (1) examining changes in depressive symptoms and quality of life in the year following surgery, (2) evaluating the interaction between patterns of change in depression, quality of life, and weight post-surgery, and (3) identifying pre-surgical psychological predictors of initial weight change. Method Participants were 101 severely obese adolescents aged 14 to 18. Measures of height, weight, depressive symptoms, and quality of life were obtained in the first year following surgery. Changes in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), and body mass index were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling. Results Significant changes in total BDI [βslope=−0.885 SE=0.279, p<0.01; βquadratic=0.054 SE=0.021, p<.001] and PedsQL [βslope=−0.885 SE=0.279, p<0.001] scores were observed following LAGB, and comparable post-operative changes between psychosocial variables and body mass index were also noted [BDI: COV=0.21, SE=0.06, p<0.001; PedsQL: COV=−0.41, SE=0.10, p<0.01]. Two variables (family conflict/loss of control eating) were found to be significant predictors of weight change over the year following surgery (p<0.05). Conclusion Adolescents experienced notable improvements in initial depressive symptoms and quality of life after LAGB, and measures of pre-operative binge eating and family conflict affected post-surgery body mass index among youth.

Although classic models of implementation emphasized the importance of innovation characteristics in their adoption and sustained use, contemporary implementation research and practice have deprioritized these variables. Human-centered design (HCD) is an approach that grounds product development in information collected about the people and settings that will ultimately use those products. HCD has strong roots in psychological theory, but its application is typically limited to the development of digital technologies. HCD is rarely applied to the design of psychosocial innovations -including both service-recipient-facing interventions and implementation strategies -within the applied psychological disciplines. The current paper reviews the psychological origins of HCD and details pathways through which HCD theories and methods can be leveraged to advance the "core tasks" of contemporary implementation research and practice in psychology. These include (1) identification of multilevel implementation determinants through specification of user needs and contexts; (2) tailoring of implementation strategies, such as contextually-driven intervention redesign; and (3) evaluating implementation mechanisms and outcomes, including disentangling how the core HCD focus on usability relates to closely associated implementation variables such as acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness. Collectively, these applications provide directions through which to leverage the mature field of HCD, maximize psychology's return on its early theoretical investment, and promote the large-scale impact of findings from across the applied fields of psychology.Public Health Significance: Most effective innovations from psychological science are used rarely in routine practice, greatly reducing their public health impact. Human-centered design provides methods and tools through which innovations -and the implementation processes that support them -can be developed or redesigned to ensure public health impact.

No abstract

Advancements in evidence-based psychosocial interventions, digital technologies, and implementation strategies (i.e., health services research products) for youth mental health services have yet to yield significant improvement in public health outcomes. Achieving such impact will require that these research products are easy to use, useful, and contextually appropriate. This paper describes how human-centered design (HCD), an approach that aligns product development with the needs of the people and settings that use those products, can be leveraged to improve youth mental health services. We articulate how HCD can advance accessibility, effectiveness, and equity, with specific consideration of unique aspects of youth mental health services.

This study compared the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS), as it is typically delivered, to CBITS-plus-family treatment component (CBITS + Family), developed through a community partnership. This study used a quasi-experimental design, capitalizing on ongoing CBITS implementation within a school system. In total, 32 parent/student dyads were recruited in CBITS groups and 32 parent/student dyads were recruited in CBITS + Family groups. Parents and students in both conditions completed pre- and posttreatment measures, in addition to a 6-month posttreatment follow-up assessing symptoms. Families were low-income and predominately Latino. Children were 59% female with an average age of 11.70. Participating parents were 84% female with an average age of 38.18. The majority of parents (80%) were immigrants and 70% reported not finishing high school. Parents who received CBITS + Family showed significant improvements in attitudes toward mental health, school involvement, and primary control coping, while demonstrating significant reductions in involuntary engagement and inconsistent discipline. CBITS + Family appears to be most beneficial for children with high symptom severity in terms of reducing posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and disengagement coping. Finally, greater improvements in parent variables predicted larger symptom reductions among children within the CBITS + Family group. This study suggests that CBITS + Family is beneficial for parents of children exposed to trauma and may be especially helpful for children with high initial symptom severity. Children in CBITS + Family appear to benefit most when their parents show larger improvements in school involvement and greater reductions in parental inconsistency and involuntary engagement.