Barriers to Accessing Telepsychology Services Questionnaire: Structure and Language-Based Performance in a Sample of Latinx Caregivers

• Published in: Psychological services 2024-02, Vol.21 (1), p.50-64
• Main Authors: Vázquez, Alejandro L., Domenech Rodríguez, Melanie M., Cadenas, Germán A., Barrett, Tyson S., Navarro Flores, Cynthia M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Barriers; Caregivers; Caregivers - psychology; Child; Clinical medicine; Clinical research; Community resources; Confirmatory factor analysis; Culture; Emotions; Female; Health disparities; Health problems; Hispanic or Latino; Human; Humans; Language; Latinos/Latinas; Male; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental Health Teletherapy; Network centrality; Psychometrics; Questionnaires; Surveys and Questionnaires; Telepsychology; Test Construction; Test Validity; Treatment Barriers; Youth
• ISSN: 1541-1559; 1939-148X
• DOI: 10.1037/ser0000804

A lack of validated measures to examine barriers to youth telepsychology services among Latinx families limits research that could identify targets for reducing mental health disparities. We developed and validated the Latinx Barriers to Accessing Telepsychology Services (Latinx BATS) questionnaire, a brief multidimensional measure for caregivers of youths. Participants included 511 Latinx caregivers of youths Ages 6-18 (English n = 275, Spanish n = 236) who completed the Latinx BATS and reported on telepsychology service utilization and youth mental health problems. Caregivers whose youths had clinically elevated mental health problems were more likely to report barriers to accessing youth telepsychology services compared to nonclinical youths. Commonly endorsed barriers included concerns that the child would be distracted and not get much benefit, and that providers would be unfamiliar with the family's culture or would not pick up on nuances and emotions. Loadings from an exploratory graph analysis returned four-factors: relational, acceptability, quality, and access concerns. Network centrality measures identified provider knowledge regarding community resources and Latinx culture as important targets for reducing barriers to youth telepsychology services. Confirmatory factor analyses were then conducted and found that the four-factor structure outperformed a single-factor solution. The four-factor structure was similar for the English and Spanish versions of the Latinx BATS, but the strength of item loadings varied across languages. Implications for the use of the Latinx BATS in research and clinical practice are discussed including specific strategies for reducing these obstacles to care among Latinx families. Impact Statement The rapid scaling of telepsychology services in response to the coronavirus pandemic has shown that this format creates its own unique barriers to accessing care. We developed a valid and reliable measure that quantifies telepsychology barriers experienced by Latinx caregivers. We used the resulting scale to identify targets and strategies for overcoming common barriers to accessing these now ubiquitous youth mental health services.