What type of research design would this type of study below be and what statistical analyses would be used for data analysis?
Researchers are wanting to know how young adults are affected by telling a friend they are having mental health concerns. Specifically, researchers are interested in knowing how young adults' levels of sadness, substance use, and loneliness are affected by telling a friend about their mental health concerns. Participants are recruited from an online peer-support website for young adults. Participants are asked to think about before they told their friend about their mental health concerns and complete separate assessments for depression, substance use, and loneliness. They are then asked to think about after they told their friend about their concerns and complete the same assessments again. (These questions are included in one survey/completed by participants during the same setting -- no time lapse).
This type of study would likely be a pre-post design, also known as a within-subjects design. Participants are asked to complete assessments before and after disclosing their mental health concerns to a friend.
For data analysis, the statistical analyses that could be used include paired t-tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to compare the mean or median scores of depression, substance use, and loneliness before and after disclosure. These tests would determine if there are any significant changes in these variables after telling a friend about their mental health concerns.
Additionally, if there are other variables of interest (such as gender, age, or severity of mental health concerns), researchers could conduct additional statistical tests such as chi-square tests or regression analyses to explore potential moderators or predictors of the observed changes in levels of sadness, substance use, and loneliness.