Gather.Town Gaming for Pregnant Adolescents With Depression Literacy

Aim

The study seeks to:

1. To assess the effect of the Gather.town gaming intervention on promoting depression literacy among pregnant adolescents in Thailand. 2. To compare the depression literacy before and after receiving the Gather.town gaming intervention in the experimental group.

Methods This quasi-experimental study employed a two-group, pretest-posttest design to assess the effect of a Gather.town gaming intervention on promoting depression literacy among pregnant adolescents in Thailand. 64 first-time pregnant adolescents aged 15-19 years with gestational age under 21 weeks were recruited from three hospitals using stratified random sampling. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 32) or control group (n = 32).

The experimental group participated in eight sessions of REBT-based interactive gaming on the Gather.town platform over four weeks (two sessions per week), while the control group received routine antenatal care and a depression literacy booklet. Quantitative data were collected at four time points (baseline, immediate post-intervention, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups) using validated tools, including the Depression Literacy Questionnaire (D-Lit), depressive symptoms (EPDS), mental distress (BSRS-5), and platform usability (SUS). Qualitative data were gathered through focus group interviews after the intervention. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics summarized participant characteristics. Chi-square tests examined group differences. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) were used to compare depression literacy scores across time points while accounting for clustering by hospital and adjusting for covariates. The significance level was set at p \< 0.05.