Objectives {7}
anxiety disorder, anxiety, RNT-focused, depressive, depressive symptoms, depression
SECONDARY, DISORDERS
The primary aim of this trial is to compare an app-based self-help RNT-focused preventive intervention to a waiting list control condition in a sample of adolescents and young adults who are at risk for developing a depressive or anxiety disorder due to high levels of RNT. To explore active ingredients of the treatment, two versions of the app-based intervention will be tested against the control condition, namely the more extensive full RNT-focused intervention and concreteness training as a stand-alone intervention. The secondary goal of the trial is to compare the effects of the two interventions and thereby inform future studies seeking to dismantle effective components of RNT-focused interventions.As RNT is a risk factor predicting future psychopathology (e.g., depression) and we will test individuals with high levels of RNT at the beginning of the trial, we expect psychopathological symptoms to increase or remain constant in the waiting list control group. In contrast, we assume that both interventions will have beneficial effects in that they decrease sub-threshold psychopathological symptoms. Specifically, we will test the following hypotheses. First, we predict that both app-based interventions will reduce depressive symptoms (primary outcome) relative to the waiting list control condition. Second, we hypothesize that both preventive interventions will reduce scores on our secondary outcome measures for the risk factor RNT as well as generalized anxiety symptoms and social anxiety symptoms. Since decreases in sub-threshold symptoms and RNT are precursors to prevention but no direct test of preventive effects, we will explore whether the interventions decrease the probability of meeting criteria for depression and anxiety disorders as indexed by cut-offs on self-report measures. Finally, the two interventions will be compared regarding their effect on the primary and secondary outcomes. As concreteness training and the full RNT-focused intervention have not been tested in the same trial prior to this study, we do not have any predictions regarding whether one of the apps will be more efficacious.