Destigmatizing perceptions about Black adolescent depression: randomized controlled trial of brief social contact-based video interventions

Leveraging Instagram to Engage Adolescents With Depression: The Use of Evidence-Based Brief Video Interventions

Recent research underscores the vital role social media can play in enhancing mental health awareness and encouraging help-seeking behaviors among youth. Nevertheless, the inherent risks of social media highlight the need for the careful creation of safe, effective content. This editorial outlines our strategy of using crowdsourcing platforms to develop and refine video interventions before launching a targeted Instagram campaign featuring these evidence-based videos. This process ensures the content is both beneficial and secure prior to public exposure. We emphasize the necessity of such meticulous preparation in leveraging social media to foster a supportive environment for adolescents seeking mental health help. Our approach and ongoing adjustments offer guidance for future initiatives aimed at promoting the well-being of young digital users.

Selfie Videos to Reduce Stigma and Increase Treatment Seeking Among Youths: Two Noninferiority Randomized Controlled Trials

OBJECTIVE

Confronting stigma early in life could enhance treatment seeking. In two randomized controlled trials (RCTs), one focused on psychosis and the other on adolescent depression, the efficacy and equivalence of brief social contact-based videos were evaluated and compared with a control condition. The outcomes of interest were changes in illness-related stigma and treatment-seeking intention. The hypotheses were that the intervention videos would show greater efficacy than control conditions and that traditional and selfie videos would demonstrate similar efficacy.

METHODS

Young adults (study 1, N=895) and adolescents (study 2, N=637) were randomly assigned to view intervention videos (in traditional or selfie styles) or to a control condition. In short videos (58-102 seconds), young presenters humanized their illness by emotionally describing their struggles and discussing themes of recovery and hope.

RESULTS

Repeated-measures analyses of variance and paired t tests showed significant differences in stigma and treatment seeking between the intervention and control groups and similar efficacy of the traditional and selfie videos. Cohen's d effect sizes ranged from 0.31 to 0.76 for changes in stigma from baseline to 30-day follow-up in study 1 and from 0.13 to 0.47 for changes from baseline to postintervention in study 2.

CONCLUSIONS

The RCTs demonstrated the efficacy of brief videos, both traditional and selfie, in reducing illness-related stigma among young adults and adolescents and in increasing treatment-seeking intention among adolescents. Future studies should explore the effects of brief videos presented by social media influencers on mental health stigma and treatment engagement.

Collaborating with transgender youth to educate healthcare trainees and professionals: randomized controlled trial of a didactic enhanced by brief videos

BACKGROUND

In collaboration with members of the transgender and gender diverse (TGD) community, we created a didactic resource about the unique needs of TGD youth.

METHODS

We developed teaching materials enhanced by video clips of two TGD adolescents openly sharing aspects of their lived experience. We compared the video and no video conditions in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which participants were assigned to one of four parallel conditions: 1) a transgender [TgV] or 2) a cisgender [CgV] woman presenting with videos embedded into the presentation, 3) the same cisgender woman presenting without the videos [CgN], or 4) a no intervention control [NiC]. Our primary outcome was change in the total score of the Transgender Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs Scale (T-KAB).

RESULTS

We recruited and proportionally randomized 467 individuals, 200 of whom completed ratings before and after the intervention: TgV (n = 46), CgV (N = 46), CgN (n = 44), and NiC (n = 64). Mean scores on all measures of TGD acceptance increased in the video group, compared to the no video group. Improvements persisted after 30 days (p < 0.01), except on perceptions about TGD family members. The three active intervention groups did not differ in efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide empirical evidence that a well-informed presenter, regardless of their gender, can achieve similar improvements in perceptions and knowledge about TGD youth when using a resource that can be disseminated free of cost.