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Abstract
Encouraging young people to seek help when feeling depressed is commonly agreed to be an important strategy in reducing the risk of suicide behaviour. Many programmes have attempted to increase young people's knowledge of depression and other mental illnesses, on the assumption that increased knowledge will lead to increased help-seeking behaviour. The information presented to young people has phrased depression as an illness analogous to a physical illness. This pilot study examined whether framing depression on the basis of evolutionary explanations for mental illness would influence help-seeking behaviour relative to a standard illness explanation. Participants were 54 young adults, average age 19 years, 5 months (s.d. = 1.59) and 32 school-aged participants with an average age of 15 years, 2 months (s.d. = 2.79). After viewing information sheets, the participants rated which one they preferred according to how likely it would be to encourage them or others to seek help if feeling depressed. The majority of young adults preferred the evolutionary explanation, with even support for the two approaches from the school-aged participants. This study was limited in its sample size and recruitment strategies, but does offer opportunities for further research into discourse on depression for young people.