Targeting Adolescent Depressive Symptoms Via Brief, Web-Based Interventions

Major depression (MD) in youth is a serious psychiatric illness with extensive morbidity and mortality. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released practice guidelines promoting primary care (PC)-based youth MD screening; however, even when diagnosed by PC providers, \<50% of youth with MD access treatment. Thus, a need exists for interventions that are feasible for youths and parents to access and complete-and that may strengthen parents' likelihood of pursuing longer-term services. Single-session interventions (SSIs) may help forward these goals. SSIs include elements of comprehensive treatments, but their brevity makes them easier to disseminate at scale. Meta-analytic evidence suggests SSIs can reduce youth psychopathology, including self-administered (e.g., online) SSIs. One computer-based SSI, teaching growth mindset (GM; viewing personal traits as malleable), has reduced adolescent depressive symptoms in multiple RCTs. A second computer-based SSI was recently developed to reduce youth depressive symptoms via targeting reductions in self-hate-a symptom identified as important for the maintenance of other depressive symptoms in teenagers. This study will test whether either the growth mindset SSI (GM-SSI), the self-kindness SSI (SK-SSI), or both SSIs reduce symptoms of depression in adolescents, relative to an active "supportive therapy" SSI, which teaches adolescents to share their emotions with trusted others. Youths participating in existing research through the Healthy Brain Network (N=501) will receive either the growth mindset SSI (GM-SSI), the self-kindness SSI (SK-SSI), or the supportive therapy SSI (ST-SSI). The investigators will examine whether the GM-SSI and/or the SK-SSI, versus the ST-SSI will reduce youth depressive symptoms across three months. Results may identify two novel, potent, and brief interventions for adolescent depressive symptoms.