This study aimed to determine the effect, feasibility and acceptability of an online-skill building intervention on the symptoms of depression and anxiety among adolescents and young adults in Ateneo de Zamboanga University. The study employed a quasi-experimental study design. Respondents are encouraged to logged into the website Adolescent and Young Adults Against Depression (AYADA) and participate by doing the specific task/activity for the day for 2 weeks and rate his/her feelings before and after. Of the 663 college students enrolled in the Ateneo de Zamboanga University for the summer of Academic Year 2018-2019, only 462 took part in the study but only 227 participants were able to complete the whole program study. The overall prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression were 76.21% and 42.73%, respectively. However, there was no significant difference between the pre-intervention scores and post-intervention scores on both anxiety and depression symptoms with p-value of 0.18 and 0.16, respectively. Using the System Usability Score (SUS), the total mean score with AYADA for the entire sample rated after 2-weeks intervention was 38.5 (SD: 1.87). With this result, it shows that AYADA was slightly acceptable. In evaluating the feasibility of this study, daily log-in into AYADA was used. Result showed that as the intervention day went by, there was a decreasing trend of daily log-in from the students with a total number of 62 or 27.3% at the end of the intervention. This quasi-experiemental study showed a high prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression among adolescent and young adult students. However, the results suggested that the AYADA online-skill building intervention was not effective and feasible, yet slightly acceptable.

Keyword: Online skill-building