A Pilot and Evaluation of an Online Depression Screening Tool for Adolescents

Abstract

Depression in adolescence is a common and serious problem and many depressed young people do not access mental health care. The internet offers new and exciting opportunities to promote mental health in this population. In this study the acceptability and perceived helpfulness of an online depression screening tool, the 'mood quiz', was piloted and evaluated with a sample of high school students. Young people's awareness of depression symptoms and the impact of the 'mood quiz' on emotional wellbeing and help-seeking was also investigated. The 'mood quiz' is an online version of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire modified for Adolescents (PHQ-A). Data was collected via an online questionnaire (n=343) immediately after the completion of the 'mood quiz' and a follow-up questionnaire two weeks later (n=157). Twenty young people and 10 School Guidance Counsellors were interviewed by phone or face-to-face. The 'mood quiz' was found to be acceptable to young people, and most found it easy to use. However, the majority of participants did not think or were not sure (24.2% and 42.6% respectively) that the 'mood quiz' feedback was helpful. Depression symptoms awareness varied among participants. While most received a 'mood quiz' score that matched their expectation (71.1%) many did not think all the questions were related to depression. The online 'mood quiz' did not appear to cause any harm to young people. Many participants (67.3%) reported feeling the same after completing the 'mood quiz' compared to how they felt before, and only a very small group (2%) reported feeling "much worse". While 40.8% screened positive for symptoms of depression only 19% reported seeking help as a result of the 'mood quiz'. The main sources of help included friends and family, but School Guidance Counsellors were also utilised. Interviews with Counsellors revealed that they liked the 'mood quiz' and considered it to be a youth friendly resource that had the potential to facilitate help seeking among young people. They were supportive of online mental health resources for young people generally. However, further work is needed to improve the format of the 'mood quiz' feedback to maximise its potential to promote help-seeking.