Randomized controlled efficacy trial: transdiagnostic online prevention program promoting mental health in adolescents
Background EMPATIA-study
Mental ill health in adolescence is one of the greatest health challenges. For example, 50% of all lifetime mental disorders first occur before the age of 14, and 75% occur by the age of 24. Moreover, most mental disorders persist into adulthood or recur in a different form. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop, evaluate, and provide prevention approaches for various mental health problems in adolescence. These should enable adolescents to acquire strategies to cope with various challenges as early as possible and support the promotion of their mental health.
What is this project about?
At the University of Bern, we have developed the online prevention program EMPATIA to promote the mental health of adolescents. In this study, we would like to investigate the effectiveness and mechanisms of action of the online program. The Participants are adolescents of the Swiss general population between the ages of 12 and 18.
What does participation involve?
Participants are given access to the EMPATIA online prevention program. In addition, the adolescents complete a telephone interview and various online surveys over the course of 12 months. The adolescents are randomized into two groups. One group will receive access to EMPATIA at baseline, and the other will receive access only after 12 months. The adolescents are asked to engage with EMPATIA for eight weeks. In addition, during this time they are guided by a person from our team via chat function (e-guidance).
Relevance of the EMPATIA-study
Our online program EMPATIA aims to strengthen young people's mental health in a preventive and long-term way. By providing evidence-based strategies, the program helps young people learn, among other things, how to better cope with worry, stress, low self-confidence, conflicts with other people, or even unpleasant feelings such as anger, fear, or sadness. These are skills that are known to be helpful for the further development of all adolescents and make them more resilient to stress. A better understanding of the effectiveness of prevention programs will contribute to strengthening mental health and preventing the development of mental disorders in adolescents in the long term.
Forschungsförderung
The EMPATIA study is funded by an Eccellenza grant «Understanding emerging psychopathology in adolescence: Towards a transdiagnostic indicated prevention approach» from the Swiss National Science Foundation (PCEGP1_186913; PI: Prof. Dr. phil. Stefanie Schmidt).
