The role of human support and online depression prevention for adolescents

ABSTRACT

Depression is a mental health disorder that is impacting youth within the United States at high rates. It is estimated that 3.2 million youth in the United States have experienced at least one major depressive episode. The rate of depression in youth is increasing over time. Depression poses a high risk to youth for general poorer life outcomes such as worse academic performance, suicidal behavior, physical health problems, and comorbid mental health problems. Depression presents a significant burden to society with adverse financial implications and substantial costs to the public health sector. It is imperative to direct resources and research into depression prevention efforts. Some prevention efforts have included online programs. CATCH-IT (Competent Adulthood Transition with Cognitive Behavioral Humanistic and Interpersonal Training) is an internet-based depression prevention program for adolescents that has shown to reduce depression in subsyndromal youth (Van Voorhees, Ellis, et al., 2005;Van Voorhees, Paunesku, et al., 2008). Coupled with the Internet program, participants received human support measures (e.g., contacts, motivational interviews) to supplement the online depression prevention program. However, research on the effect of human support on engagement and depressive clinical outcomes in youth has produced mixed results when looking at the effects over time. This study is a secondary analysis that seeks to understand how human support impacts the relationship between the efficacy of CATCH-IT on overall level of engagement with the intervention and clinical depression scores. Given the emerging utilization of telemental health and digital tools to provide treatment in the context of COVID-19, behavioral intervention technologies (BITs) targeting adolescent depression may become a therapeutic forefront to the peri- and post-pandemic period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)