Development of Online Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Thai-Depressed Adolescents

Project: "Development of Online Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Thai-Depressed Adolescents" For this project we adopted Kabat-Zinn's definition of mindfulness as the intentional and non-judgmental awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations that specifically occur in the present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). We hope to help depressed Thai adolescents begin to develop mindfulness as part of their habitual attention and hone present-moment awareness through mindfulness practicing. For their practice, they will be taught to maintain an awareness of their thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, and relate these to the negative thoughts that typically contribute to the onset of their depression. We believe this will help Thai adolescents better understand the relationship between their thoughts and their depressive symptoms. Once they understand these relationships, their practice will help them become more flexible, reasonable, and positive. This project will consist of two phases. Phase I: Using the established literature and qualitative interviews and focus groups, we will design, and pilot test an online MBI. In Phase II, we will evaluate the effectiveness of the online MBI by randomizing depressed Thai adolescent volunteers into one of two groups: an online MBI (intervention group) and a usual care waitlist control group (N=182). Depression, grade, well-being, and mindfulness will be measure at four-time points; baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 3- and 6-months post-intervention