Depressive Symptoms, Emotion Regulation
Conditions
Keywords
hopelessness, catastrophizing, rumination, resilience
Brief summary
The goal of this pilot trial was to test SPARX with Inuit youth in Northern Canada. SPARX is an educational video game designed to teach cognitive behavioural therapy strategies and techniques. This serious game has previously shown promise in addressing symptoms of depression with Māori youth in New Zealand. Researchers in this study tested SPARX's suitability with Inuit youth in the territory of Nunavut using surveys that youth completed before and after gameplay. Hypothesis 1: Youth who completed SPARX were expected to experience a decrease in depressive symptoms and risk factors related to depression. Hypothesis 2: Youth who completed the SPARX program were expected to experience an increase in factors related to resilience. A team of Nunavut-based community mental health staff facilitated youth's participation in this remote pilot trial with 24 youth aged 13-18 across 11 communities in Nunavut. These youth had been identified by community facilitators as showing low mood, depression, and/or significant levels of stress.
Interventions
OTHERSPARX (Smart, Positive, Active, Realistic, X-Factor thoughts)
SPARX (Smart, Positive, Active, Realistic, X-Factor thoughts) is a psychoeducational serious game (an e-intervention that utilizes gaming for serious purposes) that teaches established cognitive behavioural therapy strategies and techniques across seven levels or modules. The game is designed to address depressive symptoms in youth by helping them cope with negative thoughts and feelings, represented in the game as GNATs-Gloomy Negative Automatic Thoughts. SPARX was originally designed and developed at the University of Auckland with the specific needs of certain underserved groups of youth in mind, including Māori rangatahi, the Indigenous young people of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Sponsors
Government of Nunavut
Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre
York University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
13 Years to 18 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* one or more of the following: * low mood * negative affect * depressive presentations * significant levels of stress and: * sufficient English language comprehension to use and understand SPARX
Exclusion criteria
None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Centre for Epidemiologic Depression Scale - Revised | Pre-gameplay (T=0) | 20-item, self-report scale that aims to measure current depressive symptomatology; total scores range 0-60 with higher score representing worse depression |
| Hopelessness Scale for Children | Pre-gameplay (T=0) | 17 true-false items, which describe negative future expectations and negative present attitudes; scores range from 0-17 with higher score representing greater hopelessness for the future |
| Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire - Short | Pre-gameplay (T=0) | 18-item measure used with adolescents composed of nine coping styles, which are each coded as separate subscales of emotion regulation; items are scored on a Likert scale (1-5) with higher values corresponding to greater use of that cognitive strategy. Some strategies are positive, others negative |
| Child and Youth Resilience Measure - Short | Pre-gameplay (T=0) | 12-item self-report measure that includes three dimensions (Individual, Relational, and Contextual) that reflect the major categories of resilience; total scores range from 12-36 (no; sometimes; yes for 12 items at 1, 2, 3, points respectively); higher scores indicate higher resilience |
Countries
Canada
Outcome results
None listed