Overview
Depression is a leading cause of illness and disability in teenagers. Longer duration of untreated depression (DUD) is associated with greater severity, poorer outcome, and cognitive impairment. Stigma toward people with depression has been identified as a barrier to seeking help; therefore, reducing stigma toward young people at depressive risk could enhance their receptivity to seeking treatment. Social contact is a form of interpersonal contact with members of the stigmatized group and the most effective type of intervention for improvement in stigma-related knowledge and attitudes.
In a prior study, the investigators developed short video interventions to reduce stigma and increase treatment seeking among adolescents with depression. The videos feature adolescent protagonists varied by race/ethncitiy and gender (Black girl, Black boy, White girl, White boy, Hispanic girl, Hispanic boy, nonbinary or transgender adolescent) who will share their experiences with depression, challenges, and recovery process. The investigators would like to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of these tailored videos as compared to a video control condition (which provides information about depression and how to seek help but does not include a personal story) on reducing self-stigma and increasing help-seeking intentions and behavior at baseline, post, 2 week follow-up, and 4 week follow-up among adolescents ages 14-18 recruited via Cloudresearch. The videos will be shown again at 2 week follow-up.
Description
In a randomized control trial (RCT) with pre-, post-intervention, and 2 and 4 week follow-up assessments, the investigators aim to test the efficacy of brief social contact video interventions, varying protagonist race/ethnicity, as compared to video control in reducing depression related stigma and increasing treatment-seeking intentions and behavior among adolescents ages 14-18 recruited via Cloudresearch, a crowdsourcing platform. The control condition will include a video that will provide information about depression and how to seek help but does not include a personal story. The tailored video interventions will be assigned based on participant demographics and will include adolescent protagonists varied by race/ethnicity and gender (Black girl, Black boy, White girl, White boy, Hispanic girl, Hispanic boy, nonbinary or transgender adolescent). Videos will be shown at baseline and 2 week follow-up. The investigators hypothesize that 1) Brief social contact-based video interventions will reduce stigma towards depression and increase treatment-seeking intentions and behavior compared to video control which provides information about depression and help seeking but does not include a personal story.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Ages 14-18
- English speaking
- US Residents
Exclusion Criteria:
- Age less than 14 or greater than 18
- Non-English speaking
- Non-US Resident