Children and adolescents attempting to participate in a worldwide online depression screener

Taylor N Stephens; Michelle M Tran; Eduardo L Bunge; Nancy H Liu; Suzanne Barakat; Monica Garza; Yan Leykin

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113250

Children and adolescents attempting to participate in a worldwide online depression screener

Psychiatry Res. 2020 Sep:291:113250. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113250. Epub 2020 Jun 25.

Authors

Taylor N Stephens¹, Michelle M Tran¹, Eduardo L Bunge¹, Nancy H Liu², Suzanne Barakat³, Monica Garza⁴, Yan Leykin⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
² Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
³ La Clinica de la Raza, Oakland, CA, USA; Sutter Health, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁴ Legacy Community Health, Houston, TX, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 32622170
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113250

Abstract

Depression rates are increasing among minors. Internet is central to the lives of many minors, and many of them look online for depression information. This report describes minors who attempted to screen themselves for depression in a worldwide online study. Google Ads were used to recruit individuals to a multilingual depression screening study that was meant to target and recruit adults. Of 158,170 individuals accessing the site, 30,396 (19.22%) were minors from 190 countries. Proportions of minors varied considerably between different cultures. Given youth's interest in depression information, online services to ethically and effectively address youth depression are needed.

Keywords: Depression; Online; Youth.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Child
Depression / diagnosis*
Depression / epidemiology*
Depression / psychology
Female
Global Health / trends*
Humans
Internet / trends*
Male
Mass Screening / methods
Mass Screening / trends*