DST in Reducing Depressive Symptoms, Enhancing Self-esteem, and Promoting Quality of Life Among CCSs

Conditions studied

Cancer

About this study

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of Digital storytelling (DST) in reducing depressive symptoms, enhancing self-esteem, and promoting quality of life among Chinese survivors of childhood cancer. Participants in the experimental group will be divided into groups of 6 to 8 childhood cancer survivors to receive the intervention, which comprises four workshops. Each workshop will last 2.5 hours and will be conducted by a qualified interventionist. Parents are not required to attend the workshop. The investigators will provide a waiting room for them. Parents will also be provided with a leaflet developed by Hong Kong Department of Health which contains self-help material for depression. No intervention will be carried out among participants in the control group. However, customary care including medical follow-up, medication prescription, and nursing interventions will be provided, as usual. Parents will also be provided with a leaflet containing self-help materials for depression.

Interventions

• Other: Digital storytelling — DST is an intervention that can potentially mitigate the psychological impact of traumatic experiences. People can usually find positive meaning in a traumatic experience by communicating their experience using narratives like storytelling. In particular, by externalising the traumatic experience in the form of a narrative, the individual can become an objective agent, distancing themselves from negative meanings attached to the experience. This lowers people's resistance to and defence against the experience, assisting them to explore alternative perspectives regarding the experience and to identify its positive aspects, which boost self-esteem. Likewise, storytelling engages different areas of the brain, including those responsible for visual, language, and hearing functions, to reorganise the disorganised traumatic experience into a coherent story, facilitating integration of the experience into existing memories.

Primary outcomes

• Depressive symptoms: Chinese version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) (The CES-DC will be conducted immediately after the completion of the intervention, and at 1-, 3- and 6-month follow-up via telephone interview.)