E Bethan Davies|John Wardlaw|Richard Morriss|Cris Glazebrook
An experimental study exploring the impact of vignette gender on the quality of university students’ mental health first aid for peers with symptoms of depression
Institute of Mental Health|University of Nottingham|University of Nottingham|Queen's Medical Centre|Institute of Mental Health|University of Nottingham|NIHR MindTech MedTech Co-operative|University of Nottingham|Institute of Mental Health
university students high rates depression friends often commonlyused source support emotional distress population study aimed explore students ability provide effective support peers depressive symptoms factors influencing quality mental health first aid mhfa skills including students gender course study gender student experiencing depression via online survey students two british universities n 483 quasirandomly allocated view video vignette either male female student depicting symptoms depression openended question probed mhfa actions would take help vignette character rated using standardised scoring scheme based mhfa guidelines students reported low mhfa scores mean 289 possible 12 commonly reported action provision support information eight 16 students stated intention assess risk harm studying clinically nonrelevant degrees limited mental health content reported poorer mhfa p 0001 less confident ability support friend depression p 004 main effect vignette gender within group students nonrelevant courses male vignette received significantly poorer mhfa female vignette p 002 significant threeway interaction found male participants studying nonrelevant degrees viewed male vignette poorer mhfa compared females studying nonrelevant degrees viewed female vignette p 0005 students lack necessary mhfa skills support friends suffering symptoms depression help get appropriate support prevent risk harm students courses include mental health related content particularly illequipped support male students male students receiving poorest quality mhfa fellow male students courses mhfa training potential improve outcomes students depression could valuable role reducing excess risk harm seen male students