A Family Depression Prevention Program

Depression is a major public health problem affecting over 15 million U.S. adults annually and is especially prevalent in those of parenting age. Offspring of depressed parents are at increased risk of depression and therefore are a critical target for preventive interventions. The current study aims to reduce the rate of depression in parents and their children by adopting an innovative, family-based approach to simultaneously preventing depression in at-risk youth and in their affected parents. The rationale for this approach is based on (a) a conceptual model that integrates parenting processes, stress (particularly that which is associated with parental depression), and children's self-regulatory skills in the face of stress, (b) evidence that depression runs in families, (c) promising results from family- and child-focused depression prevention programs, (d) evidence that in adults, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) reduces both depressive episodes and their recurrence, and (e) growing consensus among scientists, clinicians, and policymakers on the need for family-based models of healthcare. This 5- year, two-site randomized controlled trial will test a Family Depression Prevention (FDP) program for children (ages 9-15) and their parents with depressive disorders (past or current). This "dual prevention" approach is a novel synthesis of existing evidence-based intervention techniques drawn from child prevention and adult treatment models. Participating families (N=300) will be randomized to either FDP (10 weekly + 3 monthly sessions) or a written information comparison (WI) condition. All parents and children will be evaluated at pre- and post-intervention, and at 6-, 12-months from baseline.