title: Toward scientific equity for the prevention of depression and depressive symptoms in vulnerable youth.
abstract: Certain subgroups of youth are at high risk for depression and elevated depressive symptoms, and experience limited access to quality mental health care. Examples are socioeconomically disadvantaged, racial/ethnic minority, and sexual minority youth. Research shows that there are efficacious interventions to prevent youth depression and depressive symptoms. These preventive interventions have the potential to play a key role in addressing these mental health disparities by reducing youth risk factors and enhancing protective factors. However, there are comparatively few preventive interventions directed specifically to these vulnerable subgroups, and sample sizes of diverse subgroups in general prevention trials are often too low to assess whether preventive interventions work equally well for vulnerable youth compared to other youth. In this paper, we describe the importance and need for "scientific equity," or equality and fairness in the amount of scientific knowledge produced to understand the potential solutions to such health disparities. We highlight possible strategies for promoting scientific equity, including the following: increasing the number of prevention research participants from vulnerable subgroups, conducting more data synthesis analyses and implementation science research, disseminating preventive interventions that are efficacious for vulnerable youth, and increasing the diversity of the prevention science research workforce. These strategies can increase the availability of research evidence to determine the degree to which preventive interventions can help address mental health disparities. Although this paper utilizes the prevention of youth depression as an illustrative case example, the concepts are applicable to other health outcomes for which there are disparities, such as substance use and obesity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, 1120 NW 14th Street, #1011 (R-669), Miami, FL, 33136, USA, tperrino@med.miami.edu.
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Perrino
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Beardslee
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bernal
authors.forename: Ahnalee
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brincks
authors.forename: Gracelyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cruden
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Howe
authors.forename: Velma
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Murry
authors.forename: Hilda
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pantin
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Prado
authors.forename: Irwin
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sandler
authors.forename: C Hendricks
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States; D035862:Vulnerable Populations / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*