Thank you for linking to that appendix describing the recruitment process. Could the initial high scores be driven by demand effects from SM recruiters describing depression symptoms and then administering the PHQ-9 questionnaire? This process of SM recruiters describing symptoms to participants before administering the tests seems reminiscent of old social psychology experiments (e.g. power posing being driven in part by demand effects).
No worries! Yeah, I think that’s definitely plausible, as is something like this (“People in targeted communities often incorrectly believe that StrongMinds will provide them with cash or material goods and may therefore provide misleading responses when being diagnosed”). See this comment for another perspective.
I think the main point I was making is just that it’s unclear to me that high PHQ-9 scores in this context necessarily indicate a history of severe trauma etc.
Thank you for linking to that appendix describing the recruitment process. Could the initial high scores be driven by demand effects from SM recruiters describing depression symptoms and then administering the PHQ-9 questionnaire? This process of SM recruiters describing symptoms to participants before administering the tests seems reminiscent of old social psychology experiments (e.g. power posing being driven in part by demand effects).
No worries! Yeah, I think that’s definitely plausible, as is something like this (“People in targeted communities often incorrectly believe that StrongMinds will provide them with cash or material goods and may therefore provide misleading responses when being diagnosed”). See this comment for another perspective.
I think the main point I was making is just that it’s unclear to me that high PHQ-9 scores in this context necessarily indicate a history of severe trauma etc.