Effectiveness of a School-Based Educational Intervention on Depression Literacy and Depression Stigma among Adolescents: a Pre–Post Study in Gujarat, India

Resumen

Background: Depression during adolescence is an important public-health concern, while limited mental-health literacy and stigma may delay recognition, disclosure and help-seeking. School-based education offers a potentially scalable approach to improve adolescents’ understanding of depression and reduce stigmatizing beliefs.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a structured educational intervention on depression literacy and depression stigma among adolescent students.

Methods: A quantitative, pre-experimental one-group pretest–posttest study was conducted among 400 adolescent students aged 16–18 years in selected schools at Rajpipla, Gujarat. Participants completed measures of depression literacy and depression stigma before and after a structured educational intervention. The intervention incorporated lecture-based education, interactive discussion focused on myths and misconceptions, brochures and school posters. Pre–post changes were examined using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Results: Depression literacy improved markedly after the intervention, with the mean score increasing from 8.995 at pretest to 16.9325 at posttest. Personal stigma decreased from a mean of 18.85 to 9.3425, while perceived stigma decreased from 21.62 to 10.18.Wilcoxon signed-rank analyses demonstrated statistically significant pre–post changes for depression literacy, personal stigma and perceived stigma (all p < 0.001). Post-intervention depression literacy was positively correlated with personal stigma scores (r = 0.120, p = 0.016).

Conclusion: The findings indicate that a structured school-based educational intervention was associated with substantial improvement in depression literacy and reduction in depression stigma among adolescents. Integrating age-appropriate depression education into school health and nursing-led mental-health promotion programmes may strengthen early recognition and encourage appropriate help-seeking.