Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug;42(4):468-482.
Epub 2018 Feb 21.

Youth Cognitive-Behavioral Depression Prevention: Testing Theory in a Randomized Controlled Trial

Steven M Brunwasser  1 , Derek R Freres  2 , Jane E Gillham  2   3
Affiliations

Youth Cognitive-Behavioral Depression Prevention: Testing Theory in a Randomized Controlled Trial

Steven M Brunwasser et al. Cognit Ther Res. 2018 Aug.

Abstract

This study tested the plausibility of a theoretical model of change for the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP), a cognitive-behavioral (CB) depression prevention program for adolescents. Middle school students (N = 697) were randomized to PRP, an assessment-only control condition (CON), or a placebo-control condition (PLA). Explanatory style and depressive symptoms were evaluated over 24 months of follow-up. Relative to both CON and PLA, there were significant indirect effects of PRP on 12-month levels of depressive symptoms through improvements in explanatory style in two of three participating schools. Within a third school, where PRP was not effective in targeting depressive symptoms (Gillham et al., 2007), there was no evidence of group differences in growth in explanatory style or indirect effects. When effective, PRP's CB training provides incremental value over non-specific components and there are indirect effects on depressive symptoms through improvements in explanatory style.

Keywords: depression; explanatory style; mediators; placebo-control; prevention.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Steven M. Brunwasser, Jane E. Gillham, and Derek R. Freres declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Two-Stage Piecewise Parallel Process Model. This model tested the primary hypotheses that, in schools A and B, there would be indirect effects of PRP vs. CON (IND1) and PRP vs. PLA (IND2) on 12-month levels of depressive symptoms (“Intercept CDI”) through improvements in the rate of change in explanatory style from baseline through 12 months (“Initial Slope CPCN”). This model also tested competing hypotheses that, in schools A & B, there would be indirect effects of PRP vs. CON (IND3) and PRP vs. PLA (IND4) on 12-month levels of explanatory style (“Intercept CPCN”) through reductions in depressive symptoms (“Initial Slope CDI”). For simplicity, only parameter estimates that were part of the indirect effects are depicted here.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abramson LY, Seligman MEP, Teasdale JD. Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 1978;87(1):49–74. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.87.1.49. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barnett A, van der Pols J, Dobson A. Regression to the mean: What it is and how to deal with it. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2005;34(1):215–220. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyh299. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baron RM, Kenny DA. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1986;51(6):1173–1182. - PubMed
    1. Bauer DJ, Sterba SK, Hallfors DD. Evaluating group-based interventions when control participants are ungrouped. Multivariate Behavioral Research. 2008;43(2):210–236. doi: 10.1080/00273170802034810. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. BDI-II, Beck depression inventory: manual: Psychological Corp. San Antonio, TX: 1996.

LinkOut - more resources