Abstract:
The authors examined the long-term effects of two forms of preventive interventions designed to increase families' understanding of parental affective disorder and to prevent depression in children. Families who had a nondepressed child between age 8 and 15 were randomly assigned to either a clinician-facilitated intervention or a lecture discussion group. Children in the clinician-facilitated group reported greater understanding of parental affective disorder and had better adaptive functioning after intervention. Parents in the clinician-facilitated intervention reported significantly more change. The authors concluded that the findings from both interventions supported the value of future-oriented, resiliency-based approaches. The greater effects of the clinician-facilitated intervention support the need for linking cognitive information to families' life experience and involving children directly in order to achieve long-term effects.
Examination of children's responses to two preventive intervention strategies over time
