Trial reportBMC public health2016
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.
Trial report in BMC public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of Mental Health Literacy Training Programs on the Mental Health Literacy of University Students: a Systematic Review.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2022Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Mental Health First Aid Training among Undergraduate Students in Switzerland: A Randomized Control Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- A pilot randomised controlled study of the mental health first aid eLearning course with UK medical students.BMC medical education · 2018Trial
- Supportive actions towards people with mental health problems in the community: A national survey of Australian adults.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Depression Literacy and Self-Reported Help-Giving Behaviour in Adolescents in Ireland.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Mental health and coping among graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a gender-based analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- A qualitative assessment of mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviors among male college students.Discover mental health · 2022Article
- Peer Support in Mental Health: Literature Review.JMIR mental health · 2020Review
- Applicant Fairness Perceptions of a Robot-Mediated Job Interview: A Video Vignette-Based Experimental Survey.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2020Article
- Quality of assistance provided by members of the Australian public to a person at risk of suicide: associations with training experiences and sociodemographic factors in a national survey.BMC psychiatry · 2019Article
- Guidelines for the public on how to provide mental health first aid: narrative review.BJPsych open · 2018Review
- Helping intentions of undergraduates towards their depressed peers: a cross-sectional study in Sri Lanka.BMC psychiatry · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUniversity students have high rates of depression, and friends are often the most commonly-used source of support for emotional distress in this population. This study aimed to explore students' ability to provide effective support for their peers with depressive symptoms and the factors influencing the quality of their mental health first aid (MHFA) skills, including students' gender, course of study, and gender of student experiencing depression.
methodsVia an online survey, students at two British universities (N = 483) were quasi-randomly allocated to view a video vignette of either a male or female student depicting symptoms of depression. An open-ended question probed MHFA actions they would take to help the vignette character, which were rated using a standardised scoring scheme based on MHFA guidelines.
resultsStudents reported low MHFA scores (mean 2.89, out of possible 12). The most commonly reported action was provision of support and information, but only eight (1.6%) students stated an intention to assess risk of harm. Those studying clinically non-relevant degrees with limited mental health content reported poorer MHFA (p = <0.001) and were less confident about their ability to support a friend with depression (p = 0.04). There was no main effect of vignette gender, but within the group of students on non-relevant courses the male vignette received significantly poorer MHFA than the female vignette (p = 0.02). A significant three-way interaction found that male participants studying non-relevant degrees who viewed a male vignette had poorer MHFA compared to females studying non-relevant degrees who viewed the female vignette (p = 0.005).
conclusionsMost students lack the necessary MHFA skills to support friends suffering from symptoms of depression, or to help them get appropriate support and prevent risk of harm. Students on courses which do not include mental health related content are particularly ill-equipped to support male students, with male students receiving the poorest quality MHFA from fellow male students on these courses. MHFA training has the potential to improve outcomes for students with depression, and could have a valuable role in reducing the excess risk of harm seen in male students.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.