Assessment of Stressors in Children With Depressive Symptoms for the Development of an App to Strengthen Emotional Competences Using Serious Games and Gamification

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are exploring digital approaches to support children aged 8 to 12 who have increased depressive symptoms or a diagnosis of depression. The focus is on developing a gamified app that helps improve emotion regulation through engaging, everyday scenarios. This project involves gathering insights directly from children and their parents to understand daily stressors, coping methods, and supportive needs before creating the app. The study includes two groups: children with increased depressive symptoms and their parents. Children participate in semi-structured interviews and complete questionnaires about their experiences with stress and emotion regulation. Parents join focus groups to discuss their observations of their child's emotional challenges and complete questionnaires about their parenting skills and their child's depressive symptoms. No treatment or intervention is provided during this study. Participants will be involved in interviews, focus groups, and questionnaire assessments to collect detailed information on emotional stress and coping strategies. Outcomes measured include qualitative data from interviews and focus groups, as well as child- and parent-reported questionnaires on daily hassles, perceived stress, emotion regulation, and parenting skills. The study aims to use these findings to design an app tailored to the real challenges faced by children with depressive symptoms. The total participation involves a single appointment where all evaluations occur.

Assessment of Daily Stressors in Children With Depressive Symptoms for the Development of a Gamified Emotion Regulation App