Participation involvement and mental health among young people with physical disabilities: preliminary findings using the experience sampling method.

Abstract

To describe participation patterns and aspects of mental health of youth with physical disabilities and to examine the momentary associations between participation involvement and affect within and across participants. Experience Sampling Method was employed among seven participants (5females, 2males) aged 19 to 25 yrs (median = 21yrs). Using the m-Path app, youth reported real-time participation experiences and associated affect, twice daily, for 2 weeks, totaling 28 observations/youth. Individual-based graphs illustrating the association between involvement and affect were tested using Pearson correlation. To determine the overall effect across participants, linear mixed-effect models were used. Out of 151 observations, most activities were done at home (63%) and involved ≥1 people (69%). Positive associations between involvement and affect were observed in 6 out of 7 plots, with 5 showing statistically significant correlations (<i>r</i> = 0.38 to 0.7; <i>p</i> < 0.05). Linear mixed-effects models showed that affect increased by 0.27 points for each additional person involved (<i>p</i> < 0.001) and by 0.48 points for every unit increase in involvement (<i>p</i> < 0.001). This initial evaluation suggests positive associations between participation involvement and affect, measured using experience sampling approach, highlighting the importance of doing and being with others for transition-aged youth with physical disabilities.