Maya Boustani

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Loma Linda University

Despite the availability of multiple mental health prevention and promotion programs for children, challenges related to their dissemination limit their reach and impact. This review identifies the most common practice elements of effective childhood universal mental health programming for children ages 3–11, based on a structured interpretation an...

A growing number of evidence-based youth prevention programs are available, but challenges related to dissemination and implementation limit their reach and impact. The current review identifies common elements across evidence-based prevention programs focused on the promotion of health-related outcomes in adolescents. We reviewed and coded descrip...

Poor engagement in child and adolescent mental health services is a significant public health concern. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the engagement literature using a multidimensional measurement framework to identify practice elements that are associated with improved engagement. We examined 50 randomized controlled trials of interve...

Emergent life events (ELEs) are unexpected, acute client stressors reported in psychotherapy sessions that are associated with reduced evidence-based treatment (EBT) integrity and client progress. As a potential solution, this study examined the extent to which ELEs can be appropriately addressed using existing EBT strategies. Participants were 34...

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment for adolescent mental health concerns with potential as a preventative approach for at-risk youth. Automated text messaging, a low-cost and widely accessible technology, may enhance treatment engagement and further support youth mental health outcomes. However, the effectiveness of...

Objective: Despite decades of policy emphasizing the role of evidence in guiding services, few studies have sought to improve the degree to which evidence is used in supervision and treatment. This study reports supervisor and therapist outcomes from the Reaching Families multisite cluster-randomized controlled trial, which tested the effects of a...

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to provide an updated examination of the adolescent Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) literature and synthesize study findings across treatment settings (e.g. inpatient, outpatient, school), and treatment levels (e.g. clinical intervention, targeted, universal prevention). We...

Given the relationship between poor engagement and worse treatment outcomes, improving engagement has been the focus of attention in recent years. Engagement is a particular challenge among minoritized and otherwise challenged youth, such as those from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, including youth in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC...

Introduction In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the gap between need for mental health (MH) treatment and access to services is stark, particularly among children and adolescents. In service of addressing this treatment gap, the current study provides an in-depth illustration of later-stage collaborative design of a school-based, transdia...

User experiences are essential to the adoption of an intervention and can be integral to intervention design. We applied two concepts from the technology acceptance model (i.e., perceived ease of use, perceived utility) to understand how mental health professionals experienced a novel system of resources (i.e., engagement system) designed to improv...

Rationale, aims and objectives: A key consideration in designing scalable solutions for improving global mental health involves balancing the need for interventions to be uncomplicated for mental health workers (MHWs) and the need for the intervention to be widely applicable to many clients. Often these needs are in competition, since intervention...

Background Digital health agents — embodied conversational agents designed specifically for health interventions — provide a promising alternative or supplement to behavioral health services by reducing barriers to access to care. Objective Our goals were to (1) develop an expressive, speech-enabled digital health agent operating in a 3-dimensiona...

In human face-to-face conversations, non-verbal behaviors (NVB), such as gaze, facial expressions, gestures, and body postures, can improve communication effectiveness, by creating a smooth interaction between the interlocutors - called rapport. During human interactions with embodied conversational agents (ECAs) (a.k.a. virtual humans), a key issu...

Most mental health professionals encounter challenges to helping youth and families enroll and participate in mental health services. The empirical literature suggests that most engagement strategies are well-suited for certain types of engagement challenges. In this mixed-methods study, we examined whether mental health professionals reported usin...

Background Adolescents in low and middle-income countries experience pronounced mental health needs in contexts where infrastructure and resources are scarce. While evidence-based treatment are readily available, they may not fit the unique needs of certain contexts. Objective This manuscript illustrates the systematic process of applying ‘relevan...

BACKGROUND Digital health agents — embodied conversational agents designed specifically for health interventions — provide a promising alternative or supplement to behavioral health services by reducing barriers to access to care. OBJECTIVE Our goals were to (1) develop an expressive, speech-enabled digital health agent operating in a 3-dimensiona...

This paper documents the collaborative design of a mental health intervention for adolescents in India with anxiety, depression, or anger-related concerns. The process was characterized by three phases of formative activities: (1) an intensive review of the service context, (2) selection of an overall design strategy (e.g., whether to choose existi...

The past decade has seen a proliferation of modular interventions. Modular interventions differ from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) manuals by formalizing clinical decision-making via a system of rules and algorithms that clinicians can use to identify their clients’ needs and best strategies to address those needs. Depending on the...

This study explored mental health professionals’ perceptions about barriers and facilitators to engaging underserved populations. Responses were coded using an iterative thematic analysis based on grounded theory. Results revealed that many professionals endorsed barriers to engaging ethnic minorities and families receiving social services. Client-...

Use of evidence to inform clinical decisions has been shown to improve the quality and effectiveness of services. This study piloted an observational coding system for understanding providers and supervisors’ use of evidence in their clinical decision-making. The Action Cycle and Use of Evidence Behavioral Observation Coding System (ACE-BOCS) is ba...

Treatment engagement is a significant challenge in school mental health services. Despite a growing evidence base on effective interventions for treatment engagement, attempts to address these challenges rarely leverage the available relevant research. To close this gap, this pilot study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and initial implemen...

Background: Given the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and stress among university students, it is important to assess the effectiveness of prevention programs for these problems. Beyond examining effect sizes, applying a common elements approach can enhance our understanding of which practice elements are most frequently included in symptom-redu...

Background: The PRIDE programme aims to establish a suite of transdiagnostic psychological interventions organised around a stepped care system in Indian secondary schools. This paper describes the development of a low-intensity, first-line component of the PRIDE model. Method: Contextual and global evidence informed an intervention 'blueprint'...

This is an encyclopedia entry about Howard Liddle, the developer of Multidimensional Family Therapy.

Among girls in foster care, 48% become pregnant at least once by age 19 (Dworsky & Courtney, 2010). Youth in or at-risk for foster care (YFC) report limited knowledge about, access to, and use of condoms; ambivalent attitudes towards teen parenting; and participation in other risky behaviors. For the current study, we adapted and supplemented an ev...

and Keywords Adolescent drug and alcohol abuse remains a serious health problem. Family­based treatments are recognized as among the most effective interventions for youth with drug and alcohol problems. This chapter presents the state of the science of the family­based adolescent substance abuse treatment field, summarizing the advances, methodolo...

This article describes the development of a framework for the Spanish language adaptation of an evidence-based intervention. A systematic literature search of language adaptation of interventions highlighted most published research focuses on the translation of assessment tools rather than interventions. In response, we developed the Participatory...

This Handbook explores the origins, development, and course of substance use as it emerges and unfolds in adolescence. Given the large causal network involved in adolescent substance use and abuse as well as its powerful impact, both at the time of use and in terms of the long term outcomes and complications of use, the domains covered by this volu...

Adolescent drug and alcohol abuse remain a serious health problem. Family-based treatments are recognized as among the most effective interventions for youth with drug and alcohol problems. This chapter presents the state of the science of the family-based adolescent substance abuse treatment field, summarizing the advances, methodological features...

Unlabelled: The objective of this article is to examine the effectiveness of 2 theoretically different treatments delivered in juvenile drug court--family therapy represented by multidimensional family therapy (MDFT) and group-based treatment represented by adolescent group therapy (AGT)--on offending and substance use. Intent-to-treat sample incl...

Abstract Purpose: To examine youth care workers’ perceptions of the specific and unique sexual health needs of youth at risk for foster care. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with youth care workers (N = 10) at a shelter for youth in or at-risk for foster care. Results: Youth care workers perceive that youth have unique experience...

Leaders @ Play is a park after-school program for urban middle school youth designed to leverage recreational activities for social emotional learning. Mental health and park staff co-facilitated sports and games to teach and practice problem solving, emotion regulation, and effective communication. Additional practice occurred during multi-family...

Abstract A growing number of evidence-based youth prevention programs are available, but challenges related to dissemination and implementation limit their reach and impact. The current review identifies common elements across evidence-based prevention programs focused on the promotion of health-related outcomes in adolescents. We reviewed and cod...