Response process validity of the ASL-SDQ with deaf youth : a cognitive interview study

Deaf youth exhibit significantly higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems compared to their hearing peers. This population is extremely heterogeneous in terms of language and communication characteristics and many deaf youth are not provided access to a fully accessible language, American Sign Language (ASL). To screen, identify, and connect deaf youth to necessary mental health services, self-report measures of emotional and behavioral functioning must be accessible and comprehensible by all deaf youth signers, ranging from those who had full access to ASL from birth to those were/are deprived of full access to language. In addition, understanding how deaf youths' unique social and communication experiences shape their understanding of and responses to items on a mental health screener must be better understood to inform appropriate test score interpretation and treatment recommendations. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a well-validated and widely used mental health screener, has been translated into American Sign Language (ASL-SDQ). The validity or context applicability of the ASL-SDQ has not yet been evaluated by deaf youth. This study utilizes cognitive interviewing, an essential respondent-centered procedure that provides an avenue to evaluate the performance of a translated measure with the target population, identify comprehension difficulties or response errors, and understand how social location and cultural context may shape responses to items. This study conducted cognitive interviews with a community (n = 11) and clinical (n = 9) sample of deaf youth to evaluate the clarity and ease of responding to the ASL-SDQ, explore the experiences behind deaf youth's responses to the items, and identify additional questions deaf youth feel are important to include when assessing deaf youth's mental health. Results from the cognitive interviews suggest several modifications to be made to increase the clarity of the ASL- SDQ with deaf youth and inform assessment practices for language deprived deaf youth. Deaf youth also recommended assessing the impact of COVID-19, suicidal thoughts, and deaf-specific factors such as communication access at home, communication fatigue, and being treated differently by hearing peers. Finally, overall implications for measure translation for deaf youth are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

The University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Ryan, Claire Elizabeth

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cawthon, Stephanie W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Kushalnagar, Poorna
• Choi, Seung W
• Rodriguez, Erin

• Deaf
• Equity
• Accessibility
• Mental health
• Assessment

Language dc:language.iso

en

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/59751

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/132411