Shanze Hayee

Adolescent depression is a growing issue with consistent increases in rates of adolescent depression, suicidality and self-harm in the past few decades. Additionally, established treatments for adolescent depression only work for a limited number of those suffering. Thus, further work on developing effective treatments is needed. Although these treatments are still in the initial phases of investigation, there is some emerging evidence that arts-based treatments like the Creativity Camp, a two week long camp designed to increase self-exploration through creative engagement, may enhance well-being and diminish depression in adolescents. Additionally, because previous research has shown that linguistic patterns, empirically established in Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count (LIWC) development, may be a signal for treatment progress and outcomes, it is useful to capitalize on this methodology in treatment development. This study explores how linguistic patterns in parent interviews after the Creativity Camp relate to adolescent participant depression scores before and after the intervention. The LIWC was used to analyze 68 parent interviews completed by parents of adolescent participants directly after the camp was completed. Participants included adolescents (ages 12-18), primarily assigned female at birth with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and/or social anxiety disorder. Future research directions are also discussed.