Actionable companion · Assessment & reasoning
Learning with agency: Mental health, suicide attempt, and family function for adolescents’ primary health care during the COVID-19 pandemic
AI-assisted editorial implementation guide, separate from the original research. Proposed actions are not claims or recommendations attributed to the source authors. No independent peer review of this guide is asserted.
Evidence and context
Title and abstract screening; stage labels describe reported settings, not verified numerical ages. Design labels require full-text appraisal. Reported stage(s): Secondary school. Verify the participant population and task before transferring the findings.
Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the linked source license:
Background: The study’s purpose was to identify associations between mental health risk, suicide attempts, and family function. Methods: A correlational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was carried out in a group of adolescents in the last grade of secondary school to establish the association between mental health risk, suicide attempt, and family functionality. The instruments used were the self-report questionnaire, the suicide risk assessment scale, and the family APGAR. Data analysis was performed using the artificial intelligence algorithm (gower clustering). Results: 246 adolescents responded to the three instruments, which made it possible to select those with correlations of sensitive interest and, based on these, an intervention plan. Psychological distress was found in 28%, psychotic symptoms in 85%, and problematic alcohol use in 9%. Good family functioning was identified in 34% and some type of family dysfunction in 66%. In terms of suicide risk, there was a low suicide risk of 74%, 24% medium risk, and 2% high risk. It could be shown that there is a correlation in a group of 15% of the respondents. Conclusions: The risk of suffering mental health deterioration and the suicide risk, during this pandemic period, seems to be related to family functionality.
What kind of evidence is this?
Supporting AI learning science · Survey / observational study
Stage: Secondary school. Screening labels describe reported context and study-design language. They are not a risk-of-bias rating or proof of effectiveness for an age band.
Study methods · source passage
This study was approved by the Research Ethical Committee of the Simón Bolívar University of Barranquilla-Colombia. In compliance with the recommendations of the Committee, the endorsement of the Project from which the postulated article is the product corresponds to CIE-USB-CE-0267-00, legalized on May 24, 2019. The purpose of the study was explained to directors, teachers, parents, and students. Likewise, it was explained all of them about the objective of the research, the ethical, and scientific component for their authorization and participation. The student as participants were told that by accepting their involvement in the study, they would remain anonymous regarding the associated information from the surveys. Once this authorization is obtained, the links of the instruments are delivered to each teacher and selected groups. It is explained that the study constitutes academic information, oriented to the creation of strategies that promote Mental Health Promotion. Permission from the educational institution, informed consent from the parents, and assent from the adolescents were required for this study. Due to the physical limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, written informed consent was obtained digitally on the project’s webpage.
Limitations and uncertainty · source passage
The ability to determine whether the correlation between suicide risk, mental health risk, and family dysfunction has been influenced by current circumstances, derived from confinement due to the pandemic and the underlying climate. Although the corresponding methodological process and explanations were carried out in the completion of the information collection instruments, these were completed online, which may cause bias in the results obtained.
Design the system before the pilot
Use this study to inform a learning mechanism or implementation question. It is not direct evidence that autonomous agents improve learning. Keep the proposed agent behavior separate from what the source actually tested.
- Use common rubrics, blind scoring where feasible and a fresh unaided reasoning task. Document permissible assistance and avoid treating AI-detector scores as proof of misconduct.
A 90-day district pilot
- Days 1–15 · Appraise. Have the curriculum lead and a teacher read the methods and limitations. Record the study design, sample, comparator, outcomes and evidence gaps. Define a local question that the study can help inform.
- Days 16–30 · Design. Ask learners to attempt a problem unaided, compare an agent hint, explain a revision and verify the final reasoning against a trusted source. Make the permitted use explicit for each assignment. Name an accountable owner and set the baseline, success threshold and budget before implementation.
- Days 31–60 · Test. Start with a small voluntary cohort, preserve an accessible non-AI route and require teacher review. Use synthetic or de-identified examples; approve data handling and tool terms through district processes.
- Days 61–90 · Decide. Measure unaided transfer and delayed retention, calibration of confidence and the ability to identify an incorrect AI explanation. Record whether help-seeking becomes answer copying. Compare with baseline, document uncertainty and stop or revise if learning worsens, access is unequal or critical errors persist.
The board decision brief
Report the learning problem, evidence quality, participating population, total cost including review time, measured benefit, errors, access differences and remaining uncertainties. Make a dated recommendation to stop, revise or expand. A positive perception survey alone does not establish learning improvement.
Attribution and reuse
Indiana-Luz Rojas-Torres; Mostapha Ahmad; Juan Manuel Martín Álvarez; Antonio A Golpe; Richard de Jesús Gil Herrera. Mental health, suicide attempt, and family function for adolescents’ primary health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. F1000Research (2022-05-16). https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.109603.2
Companion prepared 2026-10-30. Original authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract is an attributed source extract; the implementation plan is new AI-assisted editorial material, offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license. This guide has not undergone independent peer review.