Recognize the uncertainty of adolescence
“Adolescents are at crossroads of identity, trying to figure out who they are, their goals and values,” said Kelly A. Curran, MD, of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, in an interview. “Adolescence is also a critical time when teens have more control and choice over behaviors that impact their health, such as diet, exercise, substance use, and sexual activity. In this critical time period, clinicians can intervene on health-related behaviors and shape the trajectory of a teen’s life. However, to promote teen health, pediatricians need to have their patients’ trust, which can be hard to gain,” she emphasized.
“In my practice, I’ve found that teens often just want to be seen and heard,” said Dr. Curran. “Teens often have many adults in their life who focus on the ‘don’ts’ – don’t use drugs, don’t have sex, for example – and few that praise healthy behaviors or strengths, or seek to understand what is important to them. By listening to teens and understanding what’s important to them, we can then use motivational interviewing techniques to help create meaningful change in health-related behaviors. However, this takes time and investment, which is often in conflict with time pressures in the modern medical system.
“This study is useful because it examined the acceptability of a positive psychology questionnaire to be used at well visits when reviewed by youth, that could be used to streamline this important process,” said Dr. Curran.
“From my practice, I know that understanding a teen’s goals, values, and strengths is important – we do this daily in our practice when working with patients – but it was exciting to see that youth found it acceptable to do this via a previsit survey, which can potentially streamline well visits,” she noted.
The questionnaire is being developed as a pilot program, but more research is needed to determine the direct clinical impact, said Dr. Curran. “It will be important in the future to see if implementation of this questionnaire can be helpful in integrating this information into motivational interviewing and rapport building to help improve teens’ health outcomes.”
The study was supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health. Two coauthors have a financial interest in the CHADIS online reporting program used in the study. Dr. Curran had no financial conflicts to disclose.