Abstract Background Adolescents with depression often exhibit insufficient self-management abilities, including difficulties in emotional regulation, weakened control over daily behaviors, and poor treatment adherence. These problems substantially affect recovery and increase the risk of relapse. Traditional nursing interventions typically emphasize one-way instruction, which shows limited effectiveness in stimulating adolescents’ engagement and enhancing their autonomy. The interactive educational nursing system promotes two-way communication, situational participation, and goal-oriented guidance, emphasizing active patient involvement and the enhancement of self-efficacy. This approach may be more suitable for the psychological characteristics of adolescents with depression. Therefore, this study analyzed the application effect of an interactive educational nursing system to provide new theoretical support for improving self-management in adolescents with depression. Methods A quasi-randomized controlled design was adopted. A total of 148 adolescents diagnosed with depression by psychiatric specialists were selected and assigned by ward to an interactive educational nursing group (n = 74) and a routine nursing group (n = 74). The intervention lasted six weeks and was delivered by trained nursing staff. It included three core modules. The first module was interactive psychoeducation, involving face-to-face situational teaching, group discussion, and cognitive processing training. The second module was participatory behavior management, in which patients were involved in daily goal setting, progress feedback, and reinforcement activities. The third module focused on self-monitoring and peer support, guiding patients to use simplified emotion and behavior recording tools. Self-management ability was assessed using the Adolescent Self-Management Questionnaire, treatment adherence scores, and a self-efficacy scale. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Behavioral indicators were recorded through nursing observations. Assessment time points included baseline, week 3, and week 6. Statistical analyses were conducted using repeated-measures ANOVA and multiple regression models. Results After six weeks of intervention, the self-management ability of the interactive education group improved significantly, with total self-management scores increasing from 51.36 ± 7.42 to 68.27 ± 6.85, significantly outperforming the routine care group (p.01). Treatment adherence scores increased by 2.38 ± 0.91 points in the intervention group, compared with an increase of 0.87 ± 0.64 points in the routine care group (p.05). Self-efficacy also improved markedly, with an increase of 9.41 ± 2.63 points, which was superior to the control group. The reduction in PHQ-9 scores in the interactive education group was significantly greater than in the control group (p.001). Behavioral observations indicated a 46.25% reduction in emotional outburst events, and a substantial increase in spontaneous participation in training activities among adolescents receiving the interactive educational intervention. Multiple regression results showed that self-monitoring execution (β = 0.39, p.01) and interactive psychoeducation participation (β = 0.33, p.05) were the key factors determining the extent of improvement in self-management. Discussion The findings demonstrate that the interactive educational nursing system significantly enhances self-management ability in adolescents with depression. Its advantages include promoting active engagement, improving emotional awareness and regulation, enhancing treatment adherence, and strengthening self-efficacy. Future studies should involve multi-center trials and extended follow-up periods to further verify the long-term maintenance of these effects.
Qian Jiang (Sun,) studied this question.