Available online 7 March 2024, 100733

Adolescents are at high risk of developing a mental illness, hence, prevention is needed.

Improving Mental Health Literacy could help strengthen mental health in adolescents.

This study will test whether the mHealth application “Mental Health Guide” is effective.

The article describes the content of the application and the simulation of the results.

From the age of 14, many adolescents enter a vulnerable developmental phase, with a sharp increase in mental illness at 16. The COVID19 pandemic has further exacerbated this issue. Hence, universal and easily accessible prevention in the young is needed. E-mental health interventions are on the rise due to numerous benefits such as potential low-costs, low-threshold and high scalability. However, effectiveness and acceptance of mobile health (mHealth) preventive interventions remain unresearched.

In a two-armed, randomised controlled study design adolescents and young adults from 14 years old will be recruited. Following an initial baseline assessment, they will be randomised to a) the intervention group (IG, n = 75), which will receive a mHealth intervention (the application ‘Mental Health Guide’, co-developed by lived experience experts) or b) the waiting list control group (CG, n = 75). Both groups will be followed up after 3 and 6 months following post assessment. We hypothesize an increase in mental health literacy in the IG compared to the CG for post and follow-up assessment (primary outcome: Mental Health Literacy Scale). In addition, we expect an improvement in mental health and psychological well-being, improved emotion regulation, reduced psychological distress, as well as good quality ratings in usability and acceptance in the use of the ‘Mental Health Guide’ We performed multiple simulations of possible outcome scenarios, incorporating an array of factors, to generate realistic datasets and obtain accurate estimates of statistical power.

As a first-of-its-kind in this field, this study investigates whether a mHealth intervention based on mental health literacy may improve the mental health literacy and further aspects of psychological functioning of young people in a vulnerable phase. Furthermore, the results promise to provide important knowledge of how universal prevention may be implemented with low costs for diverse populations.

This trial was registered in the DRKS register (DRKS-ID: DRKS00031810) on 23 June 2023.

Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – short form

ecological momentary assessment

Mobile App Rating Scale

Multidimensional Mood State Questionnaire

mental health literacy

Mental Health Literacy Scale

Perceived Stress Scale

Ruminative Response Scale

Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire

world health organization

mHealth

Mental health literacy

Adolescence

Prevention

© 2024 Published by Elsevier B.V.