Reducing Depression-related Stigma and Increasing-treatment Seeking Among Black Adolescents

Yale University1,291 enrolled

Overview

The purposes of this study are to: 1. test among adolescent the utility of brief video-based interventions to reduce stigma-related attitudes and increase help-seeking intentions toward depression; 2. examine the role of race (Black vs other) as an independent factor in the primary outcome.

Intervention videos will each be of \~120-second duration and feature an underage female professional (age 16) acting as a simulated patient. All three videos will focus on her as an empowered presenter with depression sharing her personal story regarding depression and describe how social supports from family, friends, and community, as well as professional help assisted her in overcoming symptoms of the illness. Assessments will occur at baseline and post-intervention, and will include: 1. Demographics (baseline only); 2. Primary outcome: Depression-related stigma(Depression Stigma Scale \[DSS\]) summary score. 3. Secondary outcomes: a. DSS individual items; b. Help-seeking (General Help-Seeking Questionnaire \[GHSQ\]) summary score and individual items; and bc Racial attitudes: feelings thermometers. The investigators intend to randomly assign \~1,000 individuals aged 14-18 as follows: Subjects oversampled for Black participants (50% Black; 50% other); Randomized, in equal proportions, and stratified by race, to view one of three \~120-second videos of a girl with: 1. No depression control (Black; BC); 2. Depression (Black, following same script as in our earlier study (Amsalem and Martin, 2021), DB); and 3. Depression adjusted (Black, with script adjusted based on input from focus group of Black girls and women; DBa).

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

1,291

Conditions

Depression Racism

Interventions

Short videosBEHAVIORAL

Intervention videos will each be of 90-second duration and feature two underage professionals (ages 16) acting as a simulated patient. All videos will focus on an empowered presenter with depression sharing her personal story regarding depression and describe how social supports from family, friends, and community, as well as professional help assisted her in overcoming symptoms of the illness. The actors will include a Black girl and a white girl.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 14 YearsMax age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * English-speaking * Living in the US * Ages 14 - 18 Exclusion Criteria: * None

Locations (1)

Yale Child Study Center

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in Depression-related stigma (Depression Stigma Scale [DSS]; Personal component only): TOTAL SCORE

The DSS (Christensen, Jorm, Evans, \& Groves, 2004) is a self-report instrument composed of two 9-item subscales. The first subscale measures the participants' own/ personal attitudes, and the second measures participants' beliefs about the attitudes of others ('Depression is sign of weakness' vs. 'Most people believe that depression is a sign of weakness'). We will use the Personal subscale (DSS-Personal) in this study. The DSS has a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The total score comprises the sum of its item scores, and a higher score indicates more stigma (worse outcome). The DSS-Personal subscale has shown adequate psychometric properties: 0.71 test-retest reliability, 0.76 internal consistency (Griffiths et al., 2004). In our earlier study (Amsalem and Martin, 2021), Cronbach's a was .83.