1. ABOUT THE DATASET ------------ Title: Data supporting: 'Strategies to overcome mental health stigma: insights and recommendations from young people with major depressive disorder (MDD)' Creator(s): Katie Prizeman (katiediab@gmail.com), ORCiD https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3960-6467 Organisation(s): Department of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom Rights-holder(s): Katie Prizeman Publication Year: 2024 Description: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious and prevalent mood disorder in young people. Those with depression are met with stigma—others’ negative societal views, including stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory behaviours (DeLuca, 2020) — concerning their mental health that extends to global judgments of them as individuals (Prizeman et al., 2023). Stigma associated with depression may drive non-disclosure, loneliness, and social isolation, as well as exacerbate depression symptoms (Achterbergh et al., 2020). Disclosing depression to others might not only make social connections more difficult, but it may also reduce the opportunity for treatment. Yet choosing to disclose one’s mental health to supportive others could improve mental health (Mayer et al., 2022). As stigma may, in fact, be responsible for increased feelings of loneliness and a lack of disclosure, the aim of this research was to examine how young people with depression experience stigma and its impact on loneliness and social isolation, as well as their decisions to disclose their mental health and what recommendations they have for others. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with N=35 young people aged 18–25 years (M = 20.09). Participants met the criteria for clinical depression using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (score >27) or had recently obtained a medical diagnosis of depression. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. This study provides new data on strategies young people with depression have for others to disclose their mental health and overcome stigma. Our research indicates that social, self-, and societal affirmation are important topics for improved wellbeing and recovery for individuals struggling with disclosure decisions and depression stigmas. These strategies highlight the need for guided policies and programs that provide mental health support to young people, and public awareness campaigns that guide young people to appropriate resources (i.e., support and intervention) via the UK NHS or UK governmental public health bodies, to directly reduce depression stigma. Cite as: Prizeman, Katie (2024): Data supporting: 'Strategies to overcome mental health stigma: insights and recommendations from young people with major depressive disorder (MDD)'. University of Reading. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.001319 Related publication: • Title: Strategies to overcome mental health stigma: insights and recommendations from young people with major depressive disorder (MDD) • Corresponding author: Katie Prizeman • Co-authors: Ciara McCabe and Netta Weinstein • Journal: TBD • Current status: Manuscript to be submitted to journal • Expected date of publication: N/A Contact: Katie Prizeman katiediab@gmail.com Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all participants who took part in helping collect some of the data for this study. 2. TERMS OF USE ------------ Copyright 2024 Katie Prizeman. This dataset is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION ------------ Title: Recommendations of how to strategically and intentionally identify supportive others to disclose one´s mental health and overcome stigma in young people with major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnoses and/or depressive symptoms: a qualitative enquiry Dates: Jan 2024 - Apr 2024 This project received no other funding. This dataset was not created in the course of a funded project. 4. CONTENTS ------------ File listing 1. Data_File_Prizeman_2024 Includes 1 excel file made up of 3 excel sheets: • Sheet 1 titled: Socio-Demographic Data. Includes information about 35 participant socio-demographic characteristic information (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity, country, education level, and total MFQ score) • Sheet 2 titled: Raw MFQ Data. Includes 35 participants raw MFQ data (participant responses to MFQ questions and MFQ scoring) • Sheet 3 titled: Raw ISMI-9 Data. Includes 35 participants raw ISMI-9 data (participant responses to ISMI-9 questions and ISMI-9 scoring) • Sheet 4 titled: Verbatim Interview Quotations. Includes selected N=35 participant verbatim interview quotations from interview recordings 5. METHODS ----------- Following an interpretative approach (Green & Thorogood, 2004), semi-structured interviews were conducted with N=35 young people aged 18–25 years (M=20.09) to explore how young people with depression identify supportive others to talk about mental health and overcome stigma. In particular we were interested in knowing how young people find ‘ideal’ others to disclose too; how they decide who not to disclose too and the reasons behind these decisions. Finally, we were also interested in their recommendations for others struggling with depression, stigma and whether or not to disclose their mental health to others. Participants were recruited from the community utilizing advertisements and posters between December 1st, 2023, and January 31st, 2024. After completing socio-demographic and a depression questionnaire, the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ), semi-structured interviews were then scheduled and conducted with participants by KP between February 1st, 2024, and March 1st, 2024. The study strictly followed the standards of voluntary and informed consent and data protection for each participant who voluntarily fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who had high scores (>27) on the MFQ (Costello & Angold, 1988). N=18 (51.43%) of the N=35 participants had been diagnosed with clinical depression. N=14 (40%) of the N=35 participants were said to be currently taking psychiatric medication. Not all participants with a clinical diagnosis reported taking psychiatric medication. There were no other inclusion or exclusion criteria. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.