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Socio-contextual Determinants of Research Evidence Use in Public-Youth Systems of Care

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Abstract

Recent efforts have been devoted to understanding the conditions by which research evidence use (REU) is facilitated from the perspective of system leaders in the context of implementing evidence-based child mental health interventions. However, we have limited understanding of the extent to which outer contextual factors influence REU. Outer contextual factors for 37 counties in California were gathered from public records in 2008; and child welfare, juvenile justice, and mental health system leaders’ perceptions of their REU were measured via a web-based survey from 2010 to 2012. Results showed that leaders with higher educational attainment and in counties with lower expenditures on inpatient mental health services were significantly associated with higher REU. Positive relationships between gathering research evidence and racial minority concentration and poverty at the county level were also detected. Results underscore the need to identify the organizational and socio-political factors by which mental health services and resources meet client demands that influence REU, and to recruit and retain providers with a graduate degree to negotiate work demands and interpret research evidence.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided by the William T. Grant Foundation [Grant ID# 182256]. The sponsors did not have a role or influence in the study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6214, USA

    Antonio R. Garcia & Minseop Kim

  2. School of Social Work, University of Southern California, 669 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-0411, USA

    Lawrence A. Palinkas

  3. School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley, 235 University Hall, 1090 Warfield Avenue, Oakland, CA, 94610, USA

    Lonnie Snowden

  4. Child & Adolescent Services Research Center, 3665 Kearny Villa Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA, 92123, USA

    John Landsverk

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  1. Antonio R. Garcia
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Correspondence to Antonio R. Garcia.

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Garcia, A.R., Kim, M., Palinkas, L.A. et al. Socio-contextual Determinants of Research Evidence Use in Public-Youth Systems of Care. Adm Policy Ment Health 43, 569–578 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-015-0640-2

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